Catheter removed today!

[AstroFish]

Hi, this is my first post. My husband had his catheter removed today at 9am following his robotic prostatectomy (Retzius sparing) on April 9th.

He hasn’t leaked or dribbled at all, but is peeing every hour (with full control). The frequency is alarming though - should he be trying to hold on longer or go with the flow ? (excuse the pun).

Today has worked out way better than we hoped or expected - but he hasn’t yet got through the night. Any tips please comment. Thanks for reading.

[9020B]

Continence on day one- quite uncommon. Your husband is very fortunate. This is great news.He should relieve himself as needed in these early days. If he tries to hold it for very long the muscles will quickly tire.

He should start/stop several times while urinating to exercise the pelvic muscles. His ability to hold more and for longer will likely improve steadily.

It might be a while (many weeks?) before he can go all night without getting up. But wow, what a great start.

[Justfor_]

Same case here. My monitoring was to measure the volume of the evacuated liquid each day. Started with 50-70 cc, 100 and 200 cc took months to achieve and finally stopped measuring, almost 6 months later, when I could fill up 300 cc.

[Miguenax]

I did Kegel exercises. It help !

youtu.be/ldCPTP1hVtY?si=S8X...(Not working as expected?)

[Shipsin]

great news for you!!!! I leaked like a sieve and almost wanted my catheter back the first day!! My drs advice was to set a timer for hourly urination. The bladder is still under a lot of stress. Great job and good luck on your recovery!!

[Murk]

I would add that for a few days maybe a week that he shouldn't try to hold it, go whenever he feels the need. The whole reason to have and leave the Catheter in for a week is to allow the surgical re-attachment of things to heal.

[tarhoosier]

His surgeon performed well if he can have this level of control on day one. More healing is necessary so take things slowly. I noticed that after surgery I went to the toilet as soon as I felt an urge so as to be safe. After a few months I had "trained" myself to go more often than was really necessary. It took a bit longer to re-learn that I could wait a while and return to sleep before going again.

[j-o-h-n]

To pee or not to pee, that is the affliction.

In the army the command/instruction was: The smoking lamp is lit, smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Urologists says: The pissing lamp is lit, piss if you got to.....

Note RPD. Time heals all wounds (even when you argue with your wife).

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n

[AstroFish]

update.

The night went well. Yes he woke a few times and had to pee but 1) at least he woke up and 2) the pad was bone dry. Today has gone well (it’s his birthday too) and the gaps between pees have started to lessen a little. I can’t quite believe this as he’s only day 11 after surgery. One thing he did was regular Kegels for the six weeks leading up to surgery so as well as a skilled surgeon maybe this has also helped him.

[Goingtobeback]

Congratulations! Big deal. Where did he have it done, and by whom?

[AstroFish in reply to Goingtobeback]

He had it done in Portsmouth QA hospital (UK). I don’t know but I’m guessing the Retzius sparing method the surgeon used has helped but he also did regular pelvic floor exercises leading up to surgery. I feel he has been exceptionally fortunate on both counts.

[bcnulater]

Regaining continence is a journey. The bladder sphincter needs to be retrained and strengthen along with the pelvic floor muscles since the prostate is no longer there.

Your Dr. should have given you some Kegel exercises, these are very important. My personal journey after about 3 weeks, had regained some control but was frustrated with the progress. Did some research, found that it is not unusual for someone after RP to find a physical therapist that specializes in pelvic floor rehabilitation. Scheduled a couple of sessions, was given about 15 different pelvic floor exercises and Kegels. With in 2 weeks, was much improved to around ±97% continence. FYI - many pelvic floor physical therapist only take women as clients, you will probably need to call around to find one that will take men.

Good luck on your journey, much of the recovery is small incremental steps, one must look back where you were and compare to where you are today.

[AstroFish in reply to bcnulater]

Fortunately my husband has regained 100% continence immediately the catheter was removed. This is likely due to the fact that he had a retzius sparing RARP as I mentioned in the original post. It seems to offer better continence outcomes.