For the Incontinent

Today I am 4 weeks out from my da Vinci and it was a good day.  Following surgery I have experienced the unrelenting flow into my guards pads and felt the sogginess of the wet noodle often as I tried to stay dry throughout each day.  There has been some success as I have been able to squeeze sufficiently to make it to the bathroom and I still do that all the time that I am wearing pads...but I have never felt the complete dryness that occurred today since before my operation.  The dryness today was caused by using a collection device called the AFEX system.  It consists of tight boxer briefs, a cup receptacle and a 500 cc urine collection bag suspended at the bottom of the cup receptacle.  The cup fits into a little pocket at the front of the briefs.  I got up this morning, did my usual cleanup and donned the device and departed my home for my first venture outside the house since my operation.  I was able to visit 4 doctors' offices and get prescriptions and drop off path reports, have breakfast in a nice restraurant, go to the military hospital pharmacy to fill a script and generally to enjoy the freedom of a dry underpinning over a several hour period...believe me it was wonderful.  I was out most of the day.  I did go to the restroom and drain the bag on two occasions and when I opened the drain at the bottom of the bag and dispensed with the urine in the toilet bowl I felt almost normal again.  It is not my intention to endorse the afex system or any other system for folks in our situation except to say "it works for me." It is not for sleeping time as pads are a requirement then though I did get one of their overnight pads to try out.  If anyone in similar situation wants to check further their URL is http://www.arcusmedical.com/afex_overview.htm

 

Incidentally I tried Alpha Dry system and found it to be totally uncomfortable and couldn't wear their device more than about a half hour at a time and would have to take it off for relief.  Let me know if I can provide any more info to any interested party.

I'm glad you found something you are comfortable with. Are you also doing Kegels also to try and control your urges and leakage? My doctor advised against things like that because he said they keep you from working on the root of the problem -- it's just easier going like that, so you don't recover continence as quickly. He told me this after asked about using a slip-on device somewhat like that to catch any drips.

BTW, I had my first post-op physical therapy with bio-feedback on recognizing and controlling the pelvic muscles and the hour was a gold mine of information for me. I used some of the things I learned from it at work today and definitely saw an improvement in my leakage.