pkretz said...
I really appreciate the insight and support from the HW team.
I completed Da Vinci procedure on 9/8. Recovery has gone pretty well over past two weeks, I think as well as we can expect. Monday was two weeks - catheter finally out (yea!) ...............
Big initial concern was how well the plumbing was put back together .. i.e. what about incontinence and control? It has only been two days, but I also initially seem to be one of the really lucky ones, with 90+% control after catheter came out. I've been back at work for two days, with dry pads at end of the day.
I had a great surgeon, who seems to have had a really good day. I'll still wear dark pants for foreseeable future, and I still have my supply of pads (Tena Guards seem to work well for me) ... so we'll see how this plays out over next couple of weeks.
Wow, I am always amazed to read how good some guys do with the incontinence thing. Dry pads at 2 weeks or even before? WOW! Some do that well though, just like the experts claim.
I think you are a lucky man. Congrats on the G7s and all contained also. Agree that the PNI is probably not much of a concern if all is contained. Probably could have become a problem later on.
Unless I hallucinated it under the influence of Versed, about
the last thing I remember my doc saying before I went to the OR was " you are not going to have any trouble with incontinence" or something much like that. Hard for me to believe he would have actually said that, even if his incont. rate was only 3% like he told me pre-op. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed to be soaking pads whenever I was up, even months after surgery, even though I always knew that was a possibility. Turns out that, in addition to a "bad" cancer that required cutting wide, I had a gigantic prostate which increases time to continence. Thankfully, at 7 months I am MUCH better, but not continent. By putting a paper towel in my pad and changing a couple of times a day, my 1 pad a day is dry at bedtime. ( I have always been dry at night) And usually those paper towels are only slightly damp, unless a stress/sudden move catches me off guard before I can Kegel.
Still, I am so much better sometimes I can hardly believe it. But dry pads in < than 2 weeks? You Da Man! Hopefully the results of your (presumed) nerve sparing goes just as well and you recover in all areas as well as you have recovered incontinence. Some small # also recover quickly in those other ways also.