I have found, in talking to people and reading forums, that improvements to continence seem to happen almost overnight, but often taking months to occur.  My experience as described below leads me to believe that it is the ability to attain a measure of control over the proper involuntary muscles is what makes this happen and that the below technique can start this process in a matter of days.

I had my second Foley catheter removed 15 days after my Oct. 17, 2007 laparoscopic radical prostatectomy operation. (That’s another story). With the catheter removed, I was leaking 90 to 100 percent when standing or walking, about 50 to 80 percent when sitting but almost not at all when lying down.  First thing in the morning, the only time I had anything in my bladder, I could start and stop the stream without problem with my Kegel muscles.  During the day I couldn’t go much more than an hour on one large pad.  The dripping frequency was about every 2 to 10 seconds.  I also did Kegel exercises at least 5 times a day.  After two weeks I hadn’t noticed any significant improvement.

After the first week, in my search for a solution on the internet, I found a reference to a biofeedback technique involving walking around a room holding a Styrofoam cup (with pants off) watching for and catching the drips and concentrating on stopping them.  I thought that this had possibilities and I tried it about every other day for about a half hour each time.  When it worked, I felt a heightened alert feeling similar to anticipating a tennis serve and I wasn’t holding my muscles nearly as tight as if I was doing Kegels.  On a Wednesday, two weeks after having the catheter removed, I had it working pretty well but I would drip as soon as my mind wandered and its effect didn’t carry over when I stopped doing it. This time, to maintain my concentration, I began continuously repeating a mantra such as “don’t drip any more”, “don’t drip any more”.  After another 10-15 minutes of this with the addition of the “mantra”, I had to get dressed and go do some errands.  I continued repeating the words to myself as I drove my car, filled my gas tank and then got something to eat before picking up my son at work.  In that half hour I only dripped a half dozen times, usually when I lost concentration for a split second.

The next two days, I used only one medium size pad for each workday, repeating the mantra when I had to walk around (Admittedly this wasn’t too often because I have a sit-down job).  That evening I washed dishes and did other busy work.  I leaked more than I had during the day but if I gave the mantra more of an emphasis when I had to reach or bend down I could usually maintain control.  By the weekend, I had maintained the lower rate of dripping even when I got lazy about repeating the mantra.  I was physically busy doing yard work and hiking on a hilly trail. The pad became only about a quarter to a half full after several hours of this activity.

Today, Tuesday. Nov. 20^th I feel that I am getting better every day.  On Monday I used one pad all day, it stayed dry with my body heat soon evaporating any occasional leaks. I feel that I have conscious control of the proper muscles now but the mantra is still useful when making a sudden physical movement.

I found the original reference at the prostate cancer forum link below, the “mantra” part was my improvement to the method;

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=239259&p=3

mama bluebird - Lee & Buddy… from North Carolina

v          We invite you to visit our personal thread:  Click Here:  “Our Journey” ~ Sharing is Caring 

April 3, 2006  53 on surgery day

RRP / Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy

PSA 4.6   Gleason  3+3=6    T2a   Confined to Prostate

3rd PSA 08-07-2007 Less than 0.1 Non-Detectable :)

This is a two week update on my original post about using biofeedback to control my severe incontinence.

Since using the cup method with an added ‘mantra’ to maintain my concentration I have made continued progress. I have had encouraging good days followed by discouraging bad days and it makes a difference on days that my physical activities are increased. Sometimes I have to consciously try to hold it in, recently I don’t have to be making as much of an effort.

The bottom line is that something clicked during the short period that I used the cup method followed by repeating a mantra phrase.  During the work day previous to this evening experiment, I was leaking at least 50% while sitting and 90% while standing/walking.  The next day and since then these numbers on a typical work day are 0% sitting, 0 to 3% walking.  Doing intense physical activity such as raking leaves or jogging, this leakage percentage can go up to maybe 10-20%.

My only conclusion is that the biofeedback gave me a minimum level of conscious control of the sphincter muscles.  I hope all that remains now is for the muscles to strengthen and soon they will begin to work subconsciously all of the time. 

I am curious about the change others have experienced in achieving full continence. Even though I am dry most of the time it still seems like it could be many months before that happens for me.  Does it just happen one day without effort or is it a matter of working at it more or less consciously as I am?