Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Yesterday we went back to the doc for the 4 week post-surgical visit after Randy had his AUS removed. They injected contrast into his urethra and scanned to see if there were any remaining leaks from the erosion. The scan looked good, so the foley catheter is now gone. Yesterday, Randy peed on his own for the first time since December 1. The supra-pubic catheter remains. The doc wanted to leave it where it is out of an abundance of caution. If there are no new problems, the remaining catheter will be removed in 10 days to 2 weeks.

It's been 3 months since the initial surgery that started this nightmare. Right now, Randy's incontinence is the worst it's ever been. The surgeon says that it will improve and may go back to the same or similar level as prior to surgery. Her reasoning is that since Randy hasn't used the sphincter at all for the past 10+ weeks, it will take some time for it to get as strong as it was before. It seems odd that now we look forward to the same level of incontinence that cause him to turn surgery just 3 months ago.

Donna

Good to hear he's doing better.
Andrew

Sorry you had to go through this horrible experience, let’s hope that this is indeed, light at the end of the tunnel.

Let's all hope everything goes well over the next few weeks and you can say goodbye to the SPC. Personally I never had any luck with penile clamps, but for the first year post-RP my incontinence was so uncontrollable that I relied upon external catheters and a leg bag. Pads and absorbent briefs just couldn't hold enough, and as annoying as the constant feeling of dampness was, the greatest offense was people around my "sniffing", if you get my drift.

With all that Randy has been through over the past few months, his bladder has likely lost much of its elasticity and his sphincter its ability to hold closed. There is a wide variety of external caths available and the choice is a very personal one. If he would be interested in trying it out, I'd be happy to impart what I had learned during the period between RP and AUS activation. Just let me know.

Urologists general frown upon the use of the so called "Texas cath" as it essentially means the patient has "thrown in the towel" on retention exercises and such. But at some point, after months of Kegels, one has to make the hard choice and move on with life. Good luck to you both!