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Seeking tips for regaining urinary continence
Hello; I’m new to this forum and not entirely “legit” in that I had prostate cancer, not bladder cancer.
I’m fairly young, as prostate cancer patients go: 53 yrs old. My surgery was 10 days ago, in which my entire prostate was removed, along with all muscles used for urine retention, except the sphincter muscle in my penis. 3 days ago my catheter was removed and since then I’ve been very much like a leaky faucet.
I realize it will take time to regain control, but I hope to get advice on actions I can take to help restore it. I had thought that I would have the same sensations of bladder pressure that I had before, and that the difficulty would be in muscle control.
However, I have no sensation whatsoever of urine in my bladder. I was given Kegels exercises to practice — and I am keeping that up — but unless my life consists of one long-held Kegel, I will leak. It’s like I’ve trained as a goalie, but am expected to play blindfolded — not knowing when to block and am expected to do so.
Will I naturally begin to feel a full bladder sensation in time and can then work to combat urinating, or how is this done?
Thank you, Tim
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2 Replies
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TMax
No one is illegal here. This is the place for questions about anything form the bladder down.As for leaking. I feel your pain. I have had the same issue for 6 years. When I started out after the catheter came out….. I had NO control at all. I wore Depends all day and nite.
As time wore on, I learned to control it during the day. Unless I strained and THEN …. leakage. This is a slow process and you need to give it time and you need to have a sense of humor about it.
I still have leakage at nite. Usually when I am overtired or have had a lot of fluid at nite. If I sleep really deep, I awake to find that control is lost.It will get better. But slowly.
And Hey! Thanks for being here. We welcome you and you are part of our support group.
Sincerely
George
Light a man a fire and he is warm for an evening.
Light a man ON fire and he’s warm forever.08/08/08…RC neo bladder
09/09/09…New Hip
=
New Man! [/size]
Well, illegal or not, you are welcome here!! I cannot speak from personal experience, but I do know that it often takes quite a while (weeks) for everything to get back to normal after surgery and catheters. Your body is screaming at you …”YOU DID WHAT TO ME?” and showing its displeasure. If nothing major was damaged during the surgery, things should slowly come back to normal.
Be sure to keep your surgeon informed about what is going on and how you are feeling about it.
Good luck to you
Sara Anne
Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
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