The thrill of regaining control
Retired StarPhoenix staffer Murray Hill — the kind of guy who deals with adversity through humour — has agreed to sacrifice a certain amount of his privacy to write a noholds-barred weekly blog about his firsthand experience with prostate cancer. New instalments are posted on The StarPhoenix website every week leading up to Movember. The following is an excerpt from part 12, “Turning the corner.”
At ten weeks, I suddenly noticed I was beginning to turn a corner. I could stand up without peeing, if I really concentrated. I could hold it and walk to the bathroom and have a pee like a normal guy again, and it was thrilling. Finally, I had a break from the constant dribbling. What brought on this change were three visits with physiotherapists who specialize in dealing with incontinence issues.
Although I had been kegeling like a madman for weeks, it turns out that I was doing it incorrectly. The physiotherapist performed an internal exam and had me kegel while she determined the strength of my pelvic floor muscles.
This was disconcerting. I was lying there, with a woman using her finger up my butt to test the muscle strength and talking me through how to do the exercises correctly. Her head was right beside my knee, and we carried on a conversation like nothing else was going on.
It was surreal, but it’s the reason I got to where I’m at in terms of control today.