Noel Minett, artificial urinary sphincter patient

Mr Noel Minett is a 77-year-old retired designer who lives in Kent. Following radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer, Mr Minett experienced severe bladder and incontinence problems. In March 2010, he was fitted with an artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) by Consultant Urologist Mr Jeremy Ockrim. Mr Minett describes his experience of the treatment.

“Looking back, I had started to get up to go to the toilet more frequently. But I just thought that was a part of getting older and didn’t have any noticeable symptoms of prostate cancer. It was during a cruise that I felt unwell and saw the ship’s doctor. Fortunately, he was very good, carried out a number of tests and found blood in my urine. He wrote a letter to my GP, so I quickly had a PSA test and prostate cancer was diagnosed. I’m very grateful to that doctor – if it had been left to me, I probably would have taken longer to get round to having more tests and the prostate cancer could have spread further.

Being diagnosed is a shock, but I’m a positive-minded person. My view was that cancer is only an illness and it was a case of getting on and treating the illness. I had a radical prostatectomy and because they discovered some prostate cancer cells in the area around my prostate, I also had radiotherapy. It was very intensive – I had five sessions a week for six weeks.

I wasn’t warned about the side-effects of radiotherapy. Immediately after my course of treatment, I found that I couldn’t pass urine. We were driving home to Kent from hospital in London and I was in terrible pain. We had to turn around and go back to hospital where I had a catheter fitted and I had to self-catheterise for several months. It was because a lot of scar tissue from the radiotherapy had built up around my urethra, the tube which carries urine from the bladder out of the body.

I had several operations to cut out the scar tissue and ended up with severe incontinence. It was so bad that I had to wear a sheath and leg bag. I felt like an elephant walking around with this thing clinging to my leg – it was awful. I lost count of the number of operations I had been through when my consultant said there was a new procedure available at University Hospital London, which may help me.

I’m not a young man, but I never lost faith in the doctors and they never gave up trying to find a treatment which would help me. I was really enthusiastic about the artificial urinary sphincter and felt it could be the answer to my prayers.

It was fitted in March 2010. Coming round after surgery, I was elated that it had been fitted and was not in any great pain – just the mild discomfort you expect after any surgical procedure. I couldn’t feel the device at all. You then have to wait for six weeks until it is activated, to allow for any swelling to go down and your body get used to it.

Whenever I need to go to the toilet, I have to press a switch located internally within my scrotum. At first I did wonder how I was going to catch hold of an internal switch, but once you get used to it, I found it very easy. I get a normal sensation when my bladder is full, go to the toilet and press the switch which releases pressure from the cuff around my urethra.

This allows my bladder to empty normally and then within minutes, fluid from the balloon moves back into the cuff, securing my bladder until the next time I need to go to the toilet.

I don’t spend any time thinking about how it works or whether it is natural. The main thing for me is simply that it works – it allows me to go to the toilet and be free from leaks and bladder bags. After all that I have been through, that is absolutely wonderful and I would urge other men not to suffer in silence but seek treatment.”

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