Incontinence recovery time scale experiences

I am somewhere in between. Incontinence was a struggle for several months - though to be fair I tried to do everything I would have done anyway - but started to improve between 4 to 6 months. By about 8 months I ended up where I am now, I need to put a pad in my knickers every day but some days it stays pretty dry, others it gets fairly full. There is no way of telling in advance!

I am 4 months post surgery and yesterday was my first day with virtually dry pads. Today, I lasted 7 hours on one Tena level 2 and only changed it because I felt I ought to. . I do not believe it is a coincidence that the improvement follows two visits to a pelvic health physio.

The first thing she did was measure the strength and endurance of my PF, both of which she said were strong. That was the proof I needed that not only was I working the right muscle, but that I had been working it effectively. Then she explained how the PF is used in all our movements and how easy it is to tire it out by over exercising. I was given some Pilates type exercises to do daily and advised to rest my PF by laying flat on my back for 10 to 20 minutes in the afternoon.

Before seeing the physio I was distressed and thinking I may be one of the unlucky ones who don't achieve continence. Now, I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you can, I really recommend seeing a pelvic health physio.

Peter

Hello Hatters,

I concur,  despondency, draining, and limiting in one's life as a result of leaking. even to the point that when I go out I carry a small rucksack of essentials / spare clothes in the event of excessive leakage. I even got to the point of calling the PCUK nurses, number above, just for reassurance and advice.  

3 weeks, is early days - rest, gentle exercise, sip water thru the day, consider cutting out caffeine and alcohol. 

May today be a better day, I always hope it will be for me.

P.

Thanks Chris - I can slow, if not always fully shut off mid flow. An incontinence nurse said if I could do that then I must be doing pelvic floor exercises correctly. 

Hi Hatter, Yes it is definitely a useful website you get a lot of diverse experiences and views. Three weeks is very early in the recovery so things have every chance of getting better.

If you have many questions and experience s to report, then start a new thread (it can be a bit awkward on this website, I write my posts in Word and copy and paste to website as some times it crashes). The advantage of having your own thread is it groups everything together, so it is a bit like keeping a diary you can refer back to.

Good luck.

It has certainly been non linear in my case. I'm now 3 months post RALP and the line would be flat for the first two and a half months at least after initial slight improvement. The line would go down as well sometimes after having some good days with minimal leakage suddenly back down again to frequent leakage. I finally succumbed to Covid a few weeks ago and found it got much worse during that which I suppose is a general weakness of the body and all muscles. I'm still not quite ready to discard the pads which are the vivactive ones allowing me to do all normal activities again. If the UI incontinence didn't improve from now which I'm sure it will I'm still ahead as I had my first post op PSA test this week which was 0.01 so well worth going through the whole process.

Anthony, You will probably find continence improves fairly quickly in the sitting and lying positions. Standing and being active on your feet takes a little longer to sort out. My progress was frustratingly slow at first but now just over three months post op, I've had a rapid improvement which is still progressing. I did end up seeing a pelvic floor physio which for me proved to be a big help. He ultrasound scanned my squeezes. It indicated the squeezes were strong but not concentrated in the optimum area. I was focussing effort in the middle of the pelvic muscle whereas the focus needs to be on the front where the urethra passes through the pelvic muscle. If you focus on "nuts to guts" you can't go far wrong. Good luck with the recovery. Chris

Always worth getting any infection concerns checked out.

Make sure you are drinking plenty but avoid caffeine and alcohol they irritate and reduce control. I found it helpful to measure my output, also has the benefit you can check it's clear and as white as possible so you know you are drinking enough.

Leaking on exertion and during orgasm took a long time to clear up, still have the occasional mishap after 7 years but nothing that requires anything more than regular pants!

Hi Ameno. Sounds like you are progressing well. I am just over a week post catheter and going for a short walk causes a full pad. I know I’m leaking but can’t stop it. It’s odd because I can stop my urine flow when going to the toilet, maybe because it’s a stream vs a dribble.

I sometimes has a burning at the tip of the penis but it’s not consistent. I also occasionally get a pain mid penis which is usually followed by passing a blot clot and bloody wee. I was assured by the nurse that this is normal and just scans and other detritus exiting the body.

Hope you and all of us continue to progress 

I am a couple of weeks ahead of you so understand the frustration is real.  Couple of suggestions....

I found going back to the pelvic floor physio was useful to give me reassurance that I was on the right track and doing the kegels properly.  I have a bi-weekly appointment for the moment.

I find it mentally useful to compare progress week over week.  I am still leaking (a lot) during the day but way better than last week which is reassuring.  Very hard to assess progress day by day.

Edited by member 05 Jun 2022 at 18:56  | Reason: Not specified