I was fortunate in that I regained continence pretty quickly and, except
for those little stress squirts that occasionally caused grief during
the first nine months or so post-op (actually pretty rare but...) I was
dry throughout the day by three months.  Went to trimmed Maxi-pads
before I went through the first box of Depends.

I do recall, however, some of the extensive reading I did in preparation
for a worst case scenario that it was recommended to refrain from using
physical means (Texas Catheters, clamps, etc) if at all possible.
Unless something was radically wrong with your surgeons skills, your
problems are likely related to a lack of muscle tone and "training" your
remaining urethral sphincter to do the work of two.  Then too, if there
is nerve damage involved that is delaying recovery of continence, the
rate of regrowth/recovery for nerves is painstakingly slow.  Glaciers
have been known to move faster<g>

Good luck on your recovery and congratulations on that PSA reading!

For the first week to ten days I had no control at all, but then it got
better.  I used the Depends Guards and for the first month or so was going
through six per day.  For some reason I never leaked while lying down so
sleeping was no problem (I am not a stomach sleeper though).  For months the
norm was 4-5 pads per day.  My uro prescribed Ditropan, Oxy something
patches (same medication as Ditropan I think) and finally Detrol LA.  None
helped the leakage at all.  With Ditropan I had severe dry mouth and a
couple times almost choked trying to swallow food.  Hated that stuff.  Then,
unrelated to the RRP (I think) my primary care doc prescribed Prozac.  It
took over a month, but gradually the leakage got better and I ended up with
one pad a day.  Everyone laughed at me at first, but then the uro told me
that they do in fact prescribe medications "in the family of drugs as
Prozac" for incontinence.  He put me on a different medication, but that one
made me feel like I had a buzz on, so I went back to the Prozac. Twice now I
have gone off the Prozac, and after a month or so the leakage gets worse.
And, of course, it got better after going back on the drug, although it
takes 4-6 weeks to see the effect.  Very slow for sure, but that is all I
need to believe that it is what is helping me keep to 1-2 pads per day, 3 on
weekends when I am out in the garden lifing bags of mulch and so forth.  I
am an office worker by the way, so I spend my day in front of a pc.  I offer
this just as a suggestion.  As far as I am concerned the Prozac does nothing
for me in terms of mood or making the world look wonderful (what sucked
before still sucks), but it certainly did help me in the incontinence
department.

On the clamp, everything I have ever read says that once you rely on
artificial devices you will start to lose whatever natural control you do
have, so that is a last resort.  Some guys here have reported using them
while playing golf and the like, they do not wear them all the time.  You
might try that, but be careful about using one all day.   There are several
types out there.  Some much smaller and some easier to use than others.  Do
a Google search to see what you can find.

Good luck to you.  My RRP was in August of 2003 by the way and I will be 58
this September.

Thank you.
David S.

Hopefully you notice a big difference soon...
On Saturday, it will be 5 months since my RRP, and I only wear a pad a
couple of days a week, and even then they are only damp at the end of
the day...

I felt, like you do, that it will never end, but keep the faith, and
one day your pants will be dry, and you wonder how it happened!!

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