Not long ago, I was comparing notes with a fellow radical prostatectomy patient, and the discussion led to sleeping through the night.
This particular gentleman said that, while he had nearly 100% control over incontinence, the one thing that plagued him was the need to run to the bathroom multiple times through the night. Obviously, that makes for a very fitful sleep pattern.
My own experience has been much better. In the first few months after my surgery, I was running to the bathroom 2-4 times through the night. I suspect, though, that was me being overly cautious, not wanting to have an accident in the bed. I would also curtail my fluid intake after dinner with the thought that, if there's nothing in me, there's nothing that will have to come out.
Today, I can pretty much sleep through the entire night without a problem, even with late night fluid intake (I gave up on the nothing-to-drink-after-dinner notion long ago). Still, there's probably one night every six weeks or so where I find myself making two or three trips for whatever reason. But it's happened the last few nights, but I suspect that may be something related to recovering from my first overseas trip since the surgery.
I just came back from a trip to Germany and Austria to check out the Christmas markets and to visit family and a friend. I think my body clock is still somewhere between Vienna and here, and that's why I've had to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Pure speculation.
The flights over and back went just fine. No problems with being cooped up for 9 hours or so, at least as far as bladder control was concerned. I did pack a couple of pads for insurance, but all they did was take up a little suitcase space. They weren't needed at all.
