Hi everyone,
My father has advanced prostate cancer, diagnosed 5 months ago, he underwent a TURP and is now on hormone therapy (injections and apalutamide). He lives outside the UK so the treatment protocols may be a tad different. Anyway, since his TURP, he has been wearing incontinence pads/adult diapers. He wears the sort that need to be "wrapped" around and needs help putting them on/taking them off. So he needs pretty much round-the-clock care, with one change during the night. As you can imagine, this is affecting his quality of life BADLY and he can't think of travelling anywhere while this is the case.
His urologist is puzzled that he is incontinent as he says he went nowhere near the sphincter muscles during the surgery. He thinks that my dad was just using his inflamed prostate to somehow control urine flow for years, and so his sphincter muscles have gone to sleep.
He did not suggest anything apart from doing some muscle "tensing" exercises twice a day to try and regain control. My dad says he doesn't leak, but instead the urine gushes out uncontrollably once it reaches a certain limit. The urologist gave him a measuring cup to pee into, but he has no idea how to fill it, especially when he is wearing diapers all the time. I know - the medical care could be a LOT better (and he's having to pay for all of it) but it is what it is.... and he has to make do with what he's got.
I know there are simple Kegle exercises one can do, but does anyone have any advice for how he can get over this? It has been 5 months and he says there has been no improvement. He is 81 and feeling very pessimistic about his future. I feel utterly helpless as he is very depressed. :-(
Would appreciate any thoughts, pointers to resources etc.
Thank you all!
Worried daughter