For years, I’ve been able to get away without pads because I was routinely “dry.” A sneeze or a cough might cause a few drops to come out, but that was it.

But in the last month or so, things have changed considerably for the worse. I’m back to wearing Depend Shields for Men on a daily basis, but I’m discovering that those may not be enough protection.

A week or so ago, I was watching TV on the sofa in the family room and had to get up to go to the bathroom. It wasn’t anything urgent—just a normal call from nature. As I stood up, my bladder just emptied itself right there on the spot. Of course, the shield wasn’t equipped to handle that and my trousers were soaked.

Today at work near the end of the day (thankfully!), I had a tickle in my throat and started a mild coughing fit to get rid of it. With each cough, I could feel a squirt going into the pad and, before long, the pad was at capacity and I could feel my trousers begin to get wet. (I wear only black trousers for this reason—to help hide any “accidents.”) What shocked me, though, was there was an area of wetness that extended to my shirt about 10 cm/4 inches above my belt line! “How the f*ck did that happen?!?” I have no idea.

Needless to say, to have this much change in such a short period of time is more than disconcerting. In fact, you could say that I’m pissed off at getting pissed on. ???? (Yes, that’s dark prostate cancer humor.)

I did check online for the lab results for the UTI tests that we did last week, but I only see the bloodwork results and not the urinalysis results. I emailed the doctor to find out what’s going on and reported the last few incidents, too.

Edit after posting:

I’ve tried to determine what’s causing this, but have been coming up empty. I haven’t changed the volume of liquids that I drink on any given day. It doesn’t seem to be restricted to a certain time of day. My weight, although more than I would like it to be, has been pretty stable throughout the last year or two. It’s mystifying and makes me wonder if it’s related to my increasing PSA somehow.

There’s no update to share on the scheduling of the 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET scan. I figure I’d let the administrative wheels churn through the end of this week before asking the doctor on his progress with the referral.

Be well!

This post originally appeared on Dan’s Journey through Prostate Cancer on August 11, 2021. It is republished with permission.