Progress with incontinence

User

Posted 11 Jul 2025 at 15:22

I am 66 years of age and had RARP surgery 25th Jan 2025, as we all know one of the common side effects is incontinence.

Having read a lot on this forum about incontinence and looked at the data on the subject I think I am pretty average in terms of my recovery.Post catheter removal I was on 4 to 5 pads per day ,Whilst I was aware of the fact that I was “peeing” I had no ability to stop the flow .Walking ,playing golf and anything energetic increased the flow .

At 6 weeks my surgeon suggested I was slightly behind in my recovery and advised that I increased my Pelvic floor exercises to 5 times per day (10 long 10 short).Throughout my recovery I wore a pad at night but was more or less “dry”.
At 12 weeks I had made a slight improvement to 3 pads per day .

In fairness my incontinence had never got me down too much ,although I was nervous when getting a lift home from Golf with a friend ,just in case my pad overflowed and I left behind a little reminder 😂.

I used the Squeezy app to nag me into doing my Pelvic floor exercises as this seems to be the only tool at our disposal .

At about 20 weeks I ventured abroad on holiday and managed swimming in the pool without any leakage .

One evening I overdid it with my fluid intake during a meal and ended up with an overflowing pad ,Thankfully I was wearing dark trousers 😂.

I am now 24 weeks post operation and am at worst 1 pad per day ,but more often than not I don’t wear a pad.

My next milestone is to have a night out wearing my old white John Travolta trousers 😂

Whilst I know that there may be future setbacks ,I feel confident overall ,the moral of the story is to keep up with the Pelvic floor exercises ,and in time , for most of us they will make a big difference to our outcome.👍

User

Posted 11 Jul 2025 at 16:22

A very helpful post, mate. I was told that most men regain bladder control about 6/7 months post op. I did and you seem to be about the same.

Good luck with a continued speedy recovery. 👍

User

Posted 10 Aug 2025 at 11:51

Thanks for your helpful post Swannie! I’m currently 6 days post-catheter after salvage RARP at Guy’s and I came here to see what I might expect in the coming weeks.

On day 1 my experience was just like yours with no control, but there has been a noticeable improvement since, mainly in being able to retain much of my pee if I stand up, cough, getting out of a car, etc. Night times have been pretty dry since the start and mornings are getting dryer too. I still don’t yet have any sense of bladder filling or needing to pee during the day, although maybe that’s because now I can control things enough to mostly get to the toilet and release what’s in my bladder and I’m doing that to avoid greater leakage. At night I’ve woken a couple of times feeling a need to pee and managed to reach the toilet pretty dry.

Have you (or any other reader) regained enough daytime control to feel your bladder filling and needing to pee?

I’m still on 3-4 pads a day but that includes a couple of smaller ones now and all are less full when I remove them than they were in the early days. I’m generally pleased with the rate of improvement and hoping that will continue.

I too find the Squeezy app a good reminder, especially if you max out the reminder settings. I started with 5 sessions a day of 10x 12-second long squeezes and 10x short ones, at 3-hour intervals which I hit about 70% of the time.

I’m interested to know if anyone has personal experience of the correlation between their personal MUL (Membraneous Urethra Length) and their return to continence? Studies (easily searchable) have shown a high correlation between the two, with 12-14mm suggesting better outcomes. With a 16mm MUL I’m hoping that’s a good indicator for me!

Edited by member 10 Aug 2025 at 12:00 | Reason: Not specified

User

Posted 10 Aug 2025 at 19:16

Good attitude Swannie. My favourite quote on the subject is 'first you're dry in the morning, then you're dry in the morning and afternoon. Then you're dry all the time.'

User

Posted 10 Aug 2025 at 19:43

Hi Patrickzero

Yes, I now have regained the sense of “needing to pee” which gives me the confidence to not wear a pad.

It is one of those things where you think it’s never going to happen and you will never have the confidence to go without a pad, All of a sudden something happens and you start to regain control.The thing is we are all different and how long it takes will vary ,I think I am pretty average in terms of recovery time ,some people I know recover much quicker and others sadly never regain full control.

Take each day as it comes ,you will perhaps have the odd setback as I have but stay positive ,do the exercises and you should get there 👍

Notification

Join the online community now.