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Fortunately, everything went well, the operation was quieter than expected (N.B. courage was never my strong point!) And my hospital stay was short. After removing the annoying catheter, my only concern was to return to normal as soon as possible and, for example, not having to give up on mountain trips with my wife for months.
The good news was finding out that I shouldn’t have given up on my beloved habits. In fact, the urologist recommended a light physical activity, made of swimming and walking: guess what I loved doing in the mountains? Just long walks in the middle of nature. Of course, he also suggested that I stop them when they caused me to leak urine, but I was careful not to overdo the efforts, especially at the beginning.
In addition, the urologist recommended me to do some exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles (they are very simple, just contract the muscles as if you were to hold the urine for 5 seconds, relax them for another 10 and repeat the movement about ten times). I did them every day, three times a day, sitting or lying in bed.
The use of specific sanitary towels also made an important contribution: at the beginning I did not feel comfortable, partly out of habit and partly because I was afraid that someone would notice, but I must admit that they are so discreet and subtle that no one has ever noticed them. Wearing them makes me feel at ease and, above all, protected and free to carry on with my life, without any limitation.