Nick2017 said...
I have been to the pelvic floor therapist who uses biofeedback and she said I did great kegel exercises, yet I am still dripping when naked. I am getting very fed up wearing diapers. Wearing them is no big deal it's the being wet and smelly all the time that has me down. I have seen no improvement, yet my surgeon, who is world reknown, said the surgery "went great".
Anybody else out there have no improvement at 3 months? The only positive is when I am sleeping I get the urge to go to the toilet 4-6 times a night, I don't pee in bed although there is still a little dripping when asleep. I have a system where I fold two paper towels in half and place them in the Depends.
I am getting afraid I might need some corrective surgery. Any advice? I'm seeing the doctor for the first time post op next week.
Thanks,
Nick
You know, I'd have to go back and find my own posts to know as I don't seem to be remembering precisely. (Who'd of thunk I would ever forget the details of that misery?). But it took me a heck of a long time, during most of which I was convinced I would need surgey, AUS or sling.
I remember suffering a lot on a trip to Europe 3 months out, I would soak a large pad every day on the bus and/or walking. It would feel heavy by the time we got back to the room. And I think I had already had bio feedback/electro stim training by then. My surgeon kept reassuring me that I would
probably be fine, that the odds were in my favor, but sometimes it just takes a while, even months. For some of us, many months.
It certainly took me a good 6 months of very slow but steady improvements to get obviously better, but still no cigar. I kept making slight improvements way past 1 year. But I think sometime before that 1 year was up, I was only wearing 1 mini-pad a day on some days and none on many days. That continues to this day(almost 4 years). I wear a pad only when I need some additional back up in case I might have an accident and a few drops get past my emergency kegel and it might be more likely to show through. Like church or having to speak publicly, something like that. But even though 1 problem has never completely gone away and I don't consider myself 100% continent, truth is I can't think of even one time where that mini pad- on the rare occasions I leave one on all day- actually feels wet. It feels dry.
Now about
that problem that has never completely cleared up: I think it is/was bladder spasms. And I think this was my real problem during that 1st 6 months or even 1st year, not a sphincter that was not up to the job. To this day, 2 or 4 times a day, I will suddenly, for no apparent reason- even sometimes 5 minute after emptying my bladder- I will feel a contraction down there. And it has the effect same as if I tried real hard to push some urine out. When that happens I have to Kegel real quick with maximum effort to avert getting wet, sometimes 1 big drop will get out before I can get it clamped off- it is all very fast. And sometimes that is it, I don't even have to find a bathroom. Other times it will keep hitting every 5 minutes or so forcing me to find a bathroom, even though my bladder may be close to empty. It has always been most prone to happen about
30 seconds after I get up real quick from a chair. There is a pill I took(samples from URO, Vesicare 5 mg?) that stops it, but it gives me dry mouth so I rarely bother with that. I don't even have any of those pills right now and have not for months. But it did help with this minor irritant.
But here is the thing: when I look back on those first few months, I realize a much more severe version of that problem was causing most of my misery. It was a more or less constant bladder spasm, trying to force any amount of urine out. I could have a really full bladder, having gone 3 or 4 hours without going, walk around, hold it in, shut it off mid flow at will, no problems, but these continuous contractions(just felt like I really had to go anytime I was up, no problem sitting or sleeping) were a real problem for at least 6 months. And though vastly improved, this problem has never totally gone away even after years. But it is not a big enough problem for me to have surgically corrected or even to take pills for. I don't know if you have any of this going on or not, but if so it will get better. You might want to ask your doc if this would apply to you and if so would the pills help you as you continue healing?
Also, I always felt like really long, brisk walks and other exercise somehow helped. Hang in there, Bro, not all is yet lost!
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 10/21/2017 9:57:23 PM (GMT-6)