I’m at home following surgery to remove my prostate, the only option open to me at this stage of the game. The surgery went like clockwork. Except for a slight bout of aspiration pneumonia I picked up (probably from the anasthesia, they said) which kept me in the hospital a few more days, I’m doing fine and having no pain.
The one thing that’s getting me down, though…the dripping from you-know-where. I’m told this will stop in a couple of weeks when my bladder gets up to full speed, but right now it’s really distressng. (I should buy stock in the Depends company with all the business I’ve given them.)
So, Dopers who have gone through this before me, I ask you: Does it ever stop?
I have been dealing with mild incontinence since my surgery in September 2015. If I sneeze, cough or make a sudden movement,
I leak a little bit.
I was told that I would have incontinence and impotence issues for a period of time ranging from 3 to 6 months. It has been over three years
and neither issue has improved. I do my Kegel exercises all day long, but it does not seem to help.
I have learned to live with it.
Feel free to contact me via private message if you so desire.
Have not gone through this myself (having not been born with that particular body part), but my brother-in-law did last December, and he had much the same concern as you do. He gained control back in stages, IIRC. He went through a period where he was OK during the day but still dribbled at night. Then that eventually went away as well as his recovery progressed. I don’t think it was much more than a month, all told, before he had regained complete control.
I had my prostate removed in 2012 when I was 59. I had leakage whenever I laughed or made quick movements to the left or right. The doctor said it would improve within a year. He was right. I wore pads for 10 months. I could have stopped wearing the pads at 9 months but I wanted to be sure. I hope it gets better for you.
Thank you all for your insight. It really sounds like the level of recovery is individual. From the beginning I’ve tried to be cautiously optimistic and take things as they come. Having reached the age of 66 without ever having an illness of this magnitude, or even close, that’s about all I can do. They only removed the catheter on Wednesday, so perhaps I’m letting this get me down too soon. Again, many thanks for taking the time to answer my concerns.
I had a prostatectomy in June 2012. You are quite right about recovery being individual. All the docs can do is give you an educated guess based on averages (and as I’ve found from this and other surgeries, they tend to be overly-optimistic. They don’t want to talk you out of the surgery).
I leaked like crazy after the catheter came out (to be expected) and ended up wearing pads for about 3 months. Then he said to stop wearing them, which I did. When I got home I laid on the couch, padless and paranoid of leaking. But I didn’t leak, although it was pretty dicey for a few months without pads. Your mind gets used to them and they become a mental crutch.
All was well (as well as can be, we are never really normal again) for 2-3 years. Leakage was not really a problem no matter what I was doing. Then, gradually, it started to become a problem. Sometimes a big problem, but never when I was away from home. I was going back to the uro annually, mostly for a PSA check.
In August 2017 the uro’s assistant had me try some pill, don’t remember what it was but it began with the letter “I.” It worked very well, but unfortunately it not only tightened up my bladder but tightened up my intestines also, to the point where I couldn’t take it.
In August 2018 I go back, ramble off everything that’s been going on, and she concluded I have an overactive bladder – which she said probably didn’t have anything to do with not having a prostate. It sounded pretty dubious to me (she was just guessing). So she gives me five weeks of free samples of Myrbetriq, a fairly new drug, well-tolerated, which takes 3-4 weeks to take effect. They were no help at all.
So after that was up, she gave me 5 free weeks of a higher dose, which didn’t help at all either.
So here I am, no farther ahead than I was 2-3 years ago.