In my case it means that I am 100% continent.
I had surgery exactly one year ago and had a few minor "incidents"
during following weeks - not months.Maybe I was simply lucky.Maybe
Kegel exercices which I was doing over and over BEFORE surgery helped.
I dont know. But  now I have no problems whatsever in this department.
Tee

--
Verba volant, scripta manent.

Hello IP:
  My RRP was 8-1-2003 and I am one of the unlucky ones that still has
to wear pads, 1-2 per day depending upon activity level.  For seven
months I was going through 4-5 pads per day, and I was filling them
up.  From what I know it is the luck of the draw whether you are one
of the lucky ones that return to full control, whether, for some,
immediately after the catheter is removed, or within three months or
so.  When the catheter was removed I had almost no control at all, and
for a couple weeks I was going through 6 pads per day.  For some
reason I have never leaked while laying down though.  Guess we can
thank gravity for that.
  At my last, and final, follow up visit with the uro he told me that
at this point I will not get any better.  No guess as to why.  He did,
however, tell me to try and get into the habit of consciously clamping
down before getting up, stooping, etc., in order to reduce the amount
of leakage.  Over time that will become habit I suppose, and it will
help.  I did not take what he said to be along the lines of exercising
the muscle, but rather shutting off the line before doing something
that usually results in a leak.  
  Not that I am happy about the incontinence, minor as it is, or the
impotence, but try not to get too bummed out about leaking.  Through
my experience I have learned that lots of women over 50 have the same
problem and manage to live with it and still be happy.   BTW, after
returning to work I got out of the habit of doing the Kegel exercises,
and as I said above, I managed to get better anyway.  But, to err on
the side of safety, I would do them if I were you.
  Final note, the doc gave me prescriptions for Ditropan, Oxy
something patch, etc.  None of that helped the incontinence.
  Good luck.
  Thank you.
David S.

   I had my RRP on 5/1/02 at age 64.  I could control urine to some extent
from the time I got home.  When I stood up or moved, I consciously used the
"Kegel muscles" to hold it.  Within 48 hours I was basically continent and
stopped thinking about "holding" the urine flow.  My lower sphincter seemed
to take over automatically.  I had 2 accidents in the first year.  One when
I had a second martini and the second at night when I was dreaming of
urinating (and acted out my dream).  Since then, no accidents.
   I do find I have to think about bathrooms just as much as before when I
suffered from BPH for a number of years, and I seem to pee just as often.  I
usually get up at least twice during the night.  When I have to go, I have
to go.  I don't mess around.  The pressure to release is at a lower spot in
my plumbing, and I have the sense it's trying to get out, and if I wait too
long I will wet my pants.  In other words, I don't seem to have the control
*with a full bladder* that I used to have.
   Now, why have I had such a good result?  Skill of the surgeon?
Certainly.  But also, I have been thin in my latter years and have walked
for an hour a day for most of those years.  I think that keeps the lower
musculature toned (unscientific, I know, but that's my opinion), which
affects the sphincter (or whatever it is that holds the urine).  In
addition, since I have had BPH for so many years, I have had great practice
in holding urine when I had to go---this might have been me doing the Kegels
without even knowing it.  And, of course, it may be a lot of luck.  Who
knows?  Anyway, that's my continence story, and I'm grateful.

I did mine whenever I thought of them, which was not as often as the doc
wanted.  It took me months, probably due to that fact.

Staying dry means doing so without consciously flexing the muscle.
I've had some diffulty getting dry and still wear a pad for stress
drips 16 months post-op but most of the time I'm dry without thinking
or squeezing or doing anything consciously.  My progress came slowly
and it was not linear.  I would have a couple of months of no
progress, perhaps a month of regression followed by an awareness that
I only filled one pad in a day to be followed by a three pad day.
Overall though I'm in pretty good shape now and I could go padless if
I were to just loll around the house doing nothing that would cause a
squirt.  The pad now is used for catching the cough/sneeze/stoop drips
that would otherwise leave a small but socially unacceptable pants
stain.  I do have days where the pad has more perspiration in it than
urine.  Hope to be pad-free eventually but statistics say where I am
at 18 months (this coming January) is where I'll be forever.  We'll
see.
Dave Perry  

You don't HAVE your "original" sphincter, it was taken out along with your
prostate.  It is essentially part of the prostate and has to be "killed" or
removed.  

SIGNATURE File: Ranking the 20th Century Presidents: 1.Reagan 2.Eisenhower
3.Kennedy 4.Nixon  5.Bush 6.Hoover 7.Truman  8.T.Roosevelt 9.Coolidge 10.Ford
11.Carter 12.McKinley 13.Taft 14.Harding 15.Harrison 16.Clinton 17.Wilson
18.F.Roosevelt 19.Johnson

I too am just post RRP.  Surgery was on 11/10.  I'm 47 and hope this is
normal recovery as well.  It's almost 3 weeks and I am very dependent on
pads at this time.  I just purchased 3 packs of depends underwear for
nightime use.  I'm having trouble doing kegels.  Find them difficult to do.
I find that walking seems to help.  I do manage to go urinate in the
bathroom several times per day.  My steam was very "spray like"  but now
it's more like a stream.  Just hope that each day gets better .

Continence to me means I don't wet myself any longer.   Do I constantly have
to be aware of it??  No, I don't.  I had my RRP in June, 2004 at age 47.  I
never really soaked the pads.  Early on, in hindsight, I found that a lot of
my leakage was the result of the healing I had to go through - most likely
the result of the catheter.  Now, I don't not consiously have to control
myself.  However, I do find that if I force a fart (sorry, no other way to
expalin it) then I may leak - albeit a miniscule amount.  There are times
when I've thought I've leaked and when I checked my underwear, I was dry.
fortunately, I do not leak when I sneeze or cough - especially good since
I'm just getting over bronchitis!!  I did do kegels  - about 40 a day -
aftert he cath came out.  I rarely do them now and the only time I hold it
in, is when I pass gas.  I do try to "hit the head" before leaving the
house, office,etc. So that may help to keep me dry.  I also found that I was
peeing quite frequently - every 2.5 - 3 hours.  However, when I went for my
PSA a few weeks back, I mentioned it to my Uro and he prescribed Sanctura.
So far, I'm finding I can go 5-6 hours without feeling the need to pee.  My
guess is that time will help you.

Sandy K.

I.P.

Just to add my $.02 to the many good responses you've received so far. I
believe luck certainly has something to do with the incontinence issue, as
well as the skill of the surgeon, and, perhaps, the roll of the dice in
exactly how close the tumor is to the sphincter that will remain after the
prostate is removed. It seems I was told, or read, that sometimes part of
that one last sphincter may be damaged in the removal of the prostate if the
tumor is close to that margin.

As I've posted here before, I am one of the lucky ones in this regard. My
RRP was May 18th...used about 3-5 pads a day for the first six weeks, or
so...down to 2-3 for the next couple of weeks...and by the middle to end of
August I found myself changing a dry pad once a day. Then I just quit using
the pads altogether. I've been dry since then, if dry includes the
possibility of a drop or two leak once in awhile if I pass gas or sneeze
hard without remembering to clench up first. Otherwise, I don't even think
about it. Whatever sphincter I have left seems to do the job pretty much
involuntarily. I don't think I go to the bathroom any more now than before
the surgery, but I'm a lot more conscious of where the nearest one is and
how much trouble I can avoid by making use of it whenever I can and not
waiting until the pressure is on. When I do need to go, it is more urgent
than it used to be, or as least I imagine it to be so. Also, I didn't pay a
lot of attention to doing the kegel exercises...mostly just starting and
stopping the stream during urination while standing.

At any rate, good luck to you, and I hope your experience will be like mine,
or better.