Male sling surgery and still some leaking
Hi, I am 69 yes old had my Prostate removed 3/2020 right as Covid was starting. Gleason score of 3+4=7, I get my PSA tested every 6 months now and has always been <.01 so that all turned out good.
After surgery I had major incontinence problems but as time went on I got down to 1 or 2 big pads a day. It was mostly stress incontinence but even that was pretty annoying. After a few appointments I decided on the Advance sling surgery which I had beginning of this past December. It all seemed to be a success for the first couple weeks but then it seemed like I had to go very often and I better go quick or there's going to be some leakage. So now I went back to wearing a big pad again of which will last 24hrs. most of the time. Then I also developed a good cold with lots of coughing which caused some extra leakage but not as bad as coughing before the surgery. Now I also started getting up probably 3 times a night to pee.
I went to a follow-up appointment a month after surgery and was told my leakage now is probably due to urge incontinence. They put me on 5mg daily of Solifenacin (Vesicare) and said it should help but it's going to take at least a couple weeks before it starts to help.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem, because needless to say I am a bit disappointed right now considering right after surgery things were looking pretty dry!!!
Hi
. Your frustration with the leakage following the sling procedure is certainly understandable. Only a couple of community members have written stories about the sling, here: https://prostatecancer.net/stories/my-journey-through-side-effects and https://prostatecancer.net/stories/no-continence-after-7-years. In the first case the writer felt it was successful, but did still have issues when coughing. The second, however, did have issues continued incontinence and an new inability to stop the stream following the procedure. Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences. I also hope the new drug helps. Please feel free to keep us posted on how you are doing. Best, Richard (Team Member) Hi FEDrew. Have you had any improvement? Sometimes it takes awhile for the body to heal/adjust following surgery. I was fortunate enough to have a good result from the sling surgery. I do have some minor leaking from time to time, and will wear a light pad if I'm going out for awhile, will be traveling, etc. If i get a chest cold and have lots of coughing, it's back to wearing the "Depends" type underwear, as the cough pushes urine through whatever the sling is able to do. But once the cough ends, it's back to normal. It greatly helped my quality of life, so I'm glad I had it done. Hope things are improving for you!
Well here's an update, was kinda waiting till I really knew how things really are. Things seem to be a bit better compared to before the surgery but are far from perfect as far as the leaking is concerned. Seems as though I still got to pee a lot so airplane rides are a challenge. They have me on the medication Solifenacin which has side effects of which I have constipation which of course makes the leaking worse if not controlled. Dr. gave me a few options, stool softners and diet change, change meds, or no meds, so I am trying to get thru that with diet and stool softeners which seems to help. The mornings seem to be worse and if I am going to take a long walk or do something strenuous I back off the fluids till I am done. Alot of avoiding leaking has a lot to do with the timing of my fluid intake. Some days are definitely much worse then others and I am still trying to figure out why!! Most days I can get by with 1 big pad, same as b4 surgery and my PSA is still <.01 so I guess I should consider myself very fortunate after reading some guy's troubles in some of these forums!!
Hi
. Thanks for sharing the update. I have seen some discussion of more leakage issues in the mornings and it was mostly attributed to bladder stretching overnight due to increased fluid retention and extra stress on the sling and the pelvic floor. That said, that information doesn't help a lot with control (I'm guessing you have already heard about limiting fluid before bed). I don't know which type of sling you have, but some can be tightened - has anyone ever mentioned this to you? Wishing you the best. Richard (Team Member)
