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.👍
Good luck👍