Obviously the muscles on the bladder were not working that well at that time but they were reasonable as I tended to drip. So I was given different male pads to take home with me. But you were only given enough pads for a short period of time, then you’ve got to buy the pads yourself, the male pads are very hard to get as many chemists do not stock them. And I’d advise anybody to make sure that their local chemist or pharmaceutical outlet got them in for you as our local chemist only had one pack, so it is advisable. The pads are not uncomfortable to wear but it is a little bit annoying that you feel a drip now and again.

I haven’t worn pads now for the last 4 or 5, about the last 4 months. I get a drip now and again but it’s mostly if I’ve got my legs, if I put my legs wide apart you can’t, it does make you drip slightly but basically if you just do the normal day to day things you’re alright. And I’m doing quite a physical job [as a builder].

The other problem that we have, not every man, but a lot of prostate cancer patients, particularly those are incontinent, if you go on a journey you’ve got to plan it via toilets, the comfort stops. This is something I brought up with the SAPCA (Scottish Association of Prostate Cancer Support Groups) recently. Were currently looking at the possibility of cards, that you can carry, like a donor card that if you really are caught out you can go into a shop, ask if you can use their toilet because it’s quite embarrassing, it’s embarrassing may be for other people. I don’t know, but there is a need for something like that. They’re small things but they’re things that do irritate prostate cancer patients, that theres no provision there to help them in these particular aspects.

The two principal side effects were firstly, incontinence I had to wear incontinence pads, I was wearing quite large pads, and getting through a couple a day, two or three a day to begin with, things improved over the course of the first six months I suppose, I was doing pelvic floor exercise, perhaps not as consistently as I might have done but they helped, but then it’s, it reached a plateau, I was, after that point I was going back to the hospital every six months, for a check up which consisted of a PSA test and a chat about my condition generally, and after the first two or three perhaps of those assessments I had… the guy I saw had been trained and was operating on male slings which reduce incontinence and he thought that I was an ideal candidate for that, so I had a test for that, which was basically to see the capacity of my bladder and the amount of leakage, and they decided that because I wasn’t too severely incontinent that I was a good candidate for that so I was put forward for that second operation, which took place just about two years after my prostatectomy. I had the operation under, I had the choice of local anaesthetic or a general anaesthetic, and I chose a local because I don’t like anaesthetics very much, the operation was quite straightforward, quite quick, I went home the following day. It was incredibly uncomfortable, the operation is basically you’re, you’re cut open, right underneath, right underneath the bit you sit on, which made it very difficult, when I got home, very difficult to get comfortable, difficult at night, difficult when you are sitting down, and difficult walking, the first couple of weeks were pretty uncomfortable, it was, I would say it was, that the operation was worth doing because the incontinence was reduced, but I had rather hoped that I’d be completely free and in control of, that aspect and free of having to wear pads, but it wasn’t, things were a lot better, I wear one smaller pad now, and I don’t have to worry so much about it, I don’t have to worry about making sure that I’m within reach of a loo so I can change my pad when I go out in the evening or anything like that, so from that point of view it’s been very beneficial, not as good as I would have hoped.

And have you been told that that will get better, or will that be the level of incontinence?

It [urinary incontinence] may still get better, because the, the way the male sling works it’s, I believe it’s attached to the pelvic bone at either side, and then it just flops underneath the bladder, but in the course of putting it, or in the course of fitting it, there is scar, operation surgery damage which creates scar tissue and the scar tissue actually [lights go out] strengthens the sling so that over the course of time the sling actually gets stronger.

The sling gets stronger?

The sling gets stronger, so there is hope, I’ve been told that over, perhaps the first year, there, there is certainly a possibility that things will get better, and I’m trying to help myself a bit more now and doing pelvic floor exercises which definitely do help and I notice that if I go a day or two without doing the exercises, then things get worse. So I really should be doing them several times a day, and I should be drinking less coffee than I do, but I like coffee andlike to have a pint sometimes in the evening, and one puts up with the consequences.