Hi again everyone.....
I'm Bill23, the guy who started the thread "Incontinence bad 3 weeks after surgery", back in April. As you may recall, I was one of those who suffered from TOTAL, non-stop leaking all day long, using upwards of 15 soaked pads per day. I stopped posting in June because I realized that my utter disgust and depression with the situation was being reflected in my posts to a degree that I felt it wasn't doing anyone any good to hear about it any more. Frankly, I was also fed up with reading posts from those lucky guys who were continent after only a few days or weeks. I just decided to continue the kegels as I had been, and let the chips fall where they may.
The reason I have resurfaced here in this new thread is to report on my progress, and to offer those of you who are currently suffering with major incontinence a ray of hope.
I can't explain why, but on July 3rd., (3 months after catheter removal), I got out of bed fully expecting a massive burst of urine to rear it's ugly head as usual. For some reason, it didn't happen, and I actually made it to the bathroom in a normal fashion. As the morning progressed, I was actually able to accumulate 2 to 4 ounces of urine in my bladder with very minimal leakage. I only used 2 pads that morning, where just the day before I used 5 to 6. The rest of the day proceeded with similar results.
The following day was even better, and I have progressed to using only 2 minimally wet pads per day as of today, August 6th.
So the bottom line is that I went from 3 months of total incontinence, to a very much improved situation in only a few days. I can even celebrate with a few drinks now, and although alcohol still causes a slight leakage, I can certainly live with that.
I hope some of the guys I had been corresponding with are doing well. I apologize for leaving the thread so abruptly.
Good luck to all, and although I know it is difficult, try to deal with it and hopefully you will have an experience like mine.
PS...... For what its worth, I did take a few biofeedback lessons in June, and the nurse instructed me to do 3 sets per day of the following..... hold the kegel for 5 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, repeat 30 times. What was unusual about this is that I had never seen anyone recommend a rest period that was TWICE the holding period. (10 seconds rest vs. 5 seconds hold). Maybe that had something to do with it.
Bill
Age 54, PSA always 1.5, jumped to 3.5 in 10/06.
Biopsy 11/06, Stage T1c, Gleason 6 (3+3), 25% in 1 of 12 cores.
Negative Cat Scan, Bone Scan, and DRE.
DaVinci RP 4/2/07, Catheter out 4/9/07.
Final Pathology Negative Margins, Negative Sem. Invasion.
5/15/07, 1st post op PSA negligible <0.1