I was diagnosed April 18th (last month) Gleason 8, 3+5, and a bunch of 4+3. They're taking it out here on the 29th (10 days). I'd be lying if I was to say I wasn't nervous about the procedure and everything that goes with it. Doc says I'll only need the cath for one week. That can't be fun at all. I'm sure there are plenty of others who have been through this. How's the whole cath thing? Can't be comfortable, at all.
I know, I know, so much other happening and "could happen", and I'm worried about the cath. Yeah, I am....lol, but let's face it, I would think a week of that thing in would definitely have an effect on ones happiness. Let alone worrying about everything else that may or may not come afterwards. I'm in good spirits and all, a bit "nervous (ok scared)", but I'm still allergic to pain
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My uncle had several operations for kidney stones, so he said the Cath hurt and was uncomfortable but that went on for months. For a week you will be annoyed by it but you'll.do just fine. Though I.am a woman, I do have knowledge in the area and I've had many surgeries so after Cath is out make sure to do follow up urine tests. Sometimes they cause a uti but it's more common in women than men. Just a forewarning that lots of water and cranberry pills are your friends. You'll be in our prayers. Keep is posted!!!you got this!
Hi Daddyishealing! How is daddy healing? Every time I had a foley 3days later a UTI surely showed up, like clockwork.. That lasted for me for 11/2 yrs of hell. And finally exhausting all anti biotics. That alone damaged my immunity and strength. Avoiding urological conditions is my daily goal. So no cath, TG.. once you’ve been there, we don’t want to go back.. Blessings to you ...
Blessings as well. Dad is doing well on immunotherapy so far..results I'll let all know as things go forth.
Gottabekidden, if you can get on probiotics before surgery that would be helpful.and protect your gut from.antibiotics if given. I take pb8 @ digestive advantage, but the group may have a better recommendation.on which probiotoc. Also vitacost.com has a return policy wherever doesn't work within 30 days, so check them out as well for some supplements. Prices e free at different times but the policy is perfect so I find it worth it.b of luck xoxo
Cath. wasn't bad. Walking second day. just got used to bag and didn't care if the neighbors saw me carrying it around the neighborhood or not. Diapers for a week, pads for a month an away with all those things. Just get feet under you and do 5 kegels before you stand up. Pretty normal after 6 weeks.
I live on 3.5 acres, and off the road in the middle of a bunch of farms. My neighbors are straight up gold. Betting I won't see many folks, unless they come by to see how we're doing. We picked up the diapers and pads (no dignity...lol). Are the diapers for leakage and blood, or are the other things going on there I need to know about (the other end, please say nothing from the other end). I had to ask my wife what a kegel was. I've heard of them, but never done them. "Acting like you're trying to cut off mid stream" is what I got. I can do that. Especially if it's going to help exercise my only set of muscles holding anything back I'll have left.
They're saying 6 weeks down time. No bike or tractor for six weeks should be interesting. I drag an 84" mower with a 3 point hitch with a John Deere 3320 (smaller tractor, not a huge farm tractor). I have to cut the grass. Well, actually neighbor says he knows a boy scout that might want to earn some money. Maybe I'll just pay him a 100 or two per cut (every two weeks). Well, dude's about to learn how to drive a tractor...lol.
Thanks for the heads up from everyone's comment. Knowing what to expect is half the battle.
I'm in the club too. Ask my buddy who had the surgery if he went to Walmart at 2 in the morning to buy the man's diapers to avoid being seen. He a tall big guy, so he said "Hell no, I go to Giant Eagle in the middle of the day and stack that cart up to the ceiling and get in line and smile".
I can't believe they are telling you "6 weeks down time". I was doing everything I wanted to after about two weeks including my normal exercises (I was 61)...pushups, sit ups and weight lifting. I also gave the left-over 'Depends' away at that time. I only used them for initial urine leakage. The robotic RP took about four and a half hours back in 2004, was finished at 6:30 PM, they woke me up at midnight to walk the halls, and I was home at 4:00 PM that afternoon. I took one Vicodin at home. Not much more to that story other than I should have gotten rid of the bastard five years sooner!
Get the Boyscout on it. Save some of the too strenuous stuff for another day or get help.. You want to consentrate on recovering and that means rest also. Until you’re feeling stronger. Teach me how to drive a tractor and I’ll,come work for you.. That kid could turn into something some day with your guidance. I love being around young people , kids and animals. Take it easy . Easy to say, almost impossible to do with the things on your head right now.. Keep the faith.
Yeah, if old boy is willing. He's going to make some money over the next month and a half. I will contribute significantly to the funding of his first car...
Strictly front end leakage. Rear probably won't want to work for three or four days. Have stool softeners on hand. Take at least one with every pain pill. I don't handle anesthetic well, so rear was shut down for 5 days. Only took 3 pain pills. 2 in hosp. step down ICU and one at home. MiraLax days 4 and 5, no go. Finally max dose Milk of Magnesia and wait 6 hours. Most guys here didn't have plug so long, but be ready with something. By week four I was back to work with pads.
Surgery was no big deal, Chemo. and ADT much harder. I Pushed too hard, 9 cycles. This month 2 surgeries, 1st and 2nd. Recovering and back to work on 22nd. New normal sometimes sucks. Don't know all your problems, If contained and they can get it out should be much easier than with mine.
Stick around, no modesty here, we will answer/discuss any topic you need info on. Some one here has been there ahead of you.
Had Cath for 12 days after robotic surgery pain was fine after about 2 days incontinence was more of an issue for me it took a good month to get that under control.
12 days....why so long? The doc is saying a week with the da vinci/robot. Why did they make you keep it in for 12 days? I'm seriously asking. Yes, I'm nosey
I went through robotic surgery August 31st 2016 it went good , I was worried about the Cath as well the same way you are. I will say, it was unpleasant mostly., it was tolerable and my week came and went pretty fast. The worst if you don't address it, is constipation, attack that quickly.
Stop worrying 'Bro'! You're going to be just fine. I assume that you are having that 'useless weight on the drag strip' eliminated via the robot? If so, you will most likely experience very little pain, be home in a day, and back on your Harley in a few days. Had mine extracted on a Tuesday afternoon and was jumping waves on my waverunner with the bag under my jeans on Saturday in San Diego Bay. Had the catheter for about a week, experienced little to no discomfort and was about 90% continent with 10 days...now 99%. Sex life was still great until the last year or two; however, I think that's to be expected since I just completed my 75th orbit! My path numbers were very similar to yours...PSA in the 5s, 8 Gl, stage T3a. I still remember my urologist saying to me after he received the results of my biopsy, "Ron, you have the real deal." He didn't think that I was going to make it much past 5 years; here I am 14 years later feeling great and enjoying a wonderful life in Thailand! The only adjuvant therapy/procedure that I have had was a recent lymph node excision which was no big deal. I just started applying transdermal oestrogel (E2) estradiol 17B in hopes that it will reduce my PSA (0.74 last month). If you're interested, I have posted numerous blogs on this forum.
My (our) best to you; however, you probably won't need it!
Hoping things go well. Yeah, it's the Da Vinci code/robot. I didn't have any cancer in my bones, and hopefully they will get it all out. I'm trying to avoid Chemo like the plague. I'm not sure of the T number, but my psa was 6.7 last they checked, and the Gleason was 8 of course with a 3+5, and a bunch of 4+3's, but all on one side.
I had robotic surgery 5 1/2 hours June 2016. In my hospital room by 8pm and walking with that bag by midnight. At home next day and had for 7 days. It's more of a hindrance then anything else. When having a bowel movement found myself with a feeling it would "pop" out. My surgical RN other half assured me it wouldn't! Still kept hand pressure on it. She also made me do Kegel exercise before surgery daily .I did them ALL the time. I had my catheter pulled and have had TOTAL control with no leakage since that moment. I'm a stage 3 Gleason 12. My PSA was .024 three months after surgery. Never zeroed. So with minimal healing (that 3 months) I did 38 radiation sessions. I still did Kegel up to the radiation and now a year plus still do. Still total control and no drip during radation.Ironically after the radiation I was .042. PSA had doubled while doing it. Radiation didn't slow it. My doubling rate is 3.5 months. My last blood work in April '18 was .72 with July 18 it will he 1.2 to 1.5 predicted . Looking now for bone met. I can also get erect. Still have feeling and have dry orgasms. If Viagra in play hard good 90 out 100 on the working parts. That will slow I sure when HT begin. My PSA was originally 12. Still yes Kegel exercise continue now....
I had the old fashioned RPD and two hernias repaired. In Friday morning out Monday morning. Nurse said the one appointment men never miss is the one where they remove the Foley. It ain't gonna hurt but it's a nuisance (like a wife). I buy my depends on-line by the case at Costcos, (best price) they arrive in a plain brown box if that's a concern for you. At first expect leakage for at least a 30 to 60 days. As far as your best friend "willy" saluting you every morning just consider yourself a lowly private from now on. Keep practicing your Kegels and -
I got one package of each to start me off (diapers and pads). Yeah, I'll probably do the Amazon thing if I need more. Hoping to only have to use them for a month or so, but know things could get longer depending on the person, pun pun. Wonder if they kept you longer due to the weekend, or due to having the two hernias in addition to the prostate work.
Oh by the way, make sure you're ready to make a toast to the staff if you hear a pop like a bottle of a champagne being opened when they remove your Foley. Cheers.
Ah....that can't be good....lol. I just want to make sure the balloon is deflated all the way. They're like, "you can't remove it unless it is deflated". Well hun, I've heard stories of people who tried. My uncle for one, they scared the inside of his penis/urethra and he had to get treatment for it. This is from a nurse who did not deflate all the way and made the poor man hit the roof. My uncle Tim is an old hippy. I love him, but he's normally pretty mellow "figure the odds". Not that day, mellow was not in his vocabulary, and I don't blame him....lol.
TG for the day the foley isn’t needed anymore.. pure drudgery...
9 days to count down. That sucks, the waiting... Mama Mia..I was always happy to be a man. I felt bad for our women and now I really know how much Hormones affect our entire being.. we didn’t have monthly pains and hormonal issues before Pc. ..so this is our “thing” the price of being a man .. shows us our mortality.. do something fun in this time of waiting. You’re going to get thru what you need to in order to be with us for some good times. Although we are all permanently chemically altered. There is life after these treatment. The calmer you are tha better you take care of self the better your chances of great outcomes after whatever they do to you.. Keep the faith... this is our “true” test in life.....YGBKM ..You got this! I’ll be praying on that infamous day for great results.. It can save your life..........
YouGottaBeKiddingMe, read your post and all the replys below it. 3 years ago I was diagnosed with PSc and started doing a lot of research. PSA was 5.9, gleason was 7, 4 +3. I settled upon Proton Radiation Therapy. Would highly recommend this before going under the knife. Three years out PSA is still 0.55 and no side effects or reactions to it. If not too late, check out a Proton Therapy center near you and read about it.. You don't say your location but my treatment center was in Knoxville, TN. Won't hurt to check it out. Be sure it is Proton and not Photon radiation. Whatever you chose, may the good Lord bless you with a successful and speedy recovery.
Me too. I hope I don't have to go through radiation and chemo after removing the prostate. The Cancer is only on one side he said, so that's a plus. Well, not really seeing the loss of my prostate a plus, but we'll take positive notes when we can
Very good , if contained inside prostate. Very great chance of success for you. None of this is what we wished for when we were young. Time to pay the piper a bit. Hopefully the surg will be the end of pc for you... Stay thinking positive thought only.. Take care.
The cath was no fun - mine was in two weeks. I only left the house during that time to get the cath taken out. Cath pain is more uncomfortable than anything else, and you probably won't notice it over the surgical pain and pain meds. Dr gave me a small tube of lidocaine which helped. good luck with the surgery. Hope all goes well.
I picked up some things last night with some numbing agents in it. NeoSporin with "pain relief". It's pramoxine, and then on suggestion of the pharmasist "nuper-cainal". It has dibucaine in it. I'm willing to try anything. Keeping things soft/moist and numb will be my game plan.
Nice, lidocaine should numb it pretty well. Man, this date is getting closer. I told my work place about all this. I'm pretty great friends with my manager. He was my partner before he made manager. He said that they will turn off my active directory access so I can't work during my disability/6 weeks. He knows I would be trying to work. "I'm not a workaholic, I can stop whenever I want"....lol..... I have a new partner who is a very strong woman of color. We call each other cousins...lol. I tell her all the time, "you're a workaholic", and she says the same back to me, but the fact is, we're both on at 3am trying to get things done....lol. I'm going to miss work. I don't think I'll need all 6 weeks. I hope the doc cuts me loose early.
One week and counting. Envoy your viagra while it works and you are up to it. 4 weeks will probably be all you need, but if work has sick days, (mine doesn't) you might just want to take a couple of weeks vacation before going back.
They're putting me short term disability leave. My work will give me 75% of my base pay. I'm a System Administrator II (Windows Server Geek). I take care of just under 200 servers. I was talking to my manager today and he was all but hinting that he's got the paper work in to make me a Sys Admin III, which would be awesome (pretty big thing where I work). See, cancer is good for something I've been hard charging at work making sure things are taken care of for when I go on my leave. I think they like the fact that "cancer" isn't slowing me down, and they see the effort that I'm putting in at work even though I have cancer. Kind of nice of them. What they don't know is that I'm only really experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath. I work from home though. I've been on call all week. I'm not letting this thing slow me down. I'll take my down time, and come back charging hard. Hooyah!!!!
No sick days and they want me gone even though they are short of engineers right now. Killed my FMLA again without notice, working to get it back.Medical dept OK, but corporate not so much.
I'm scared of that too, but get this. I wrote a little post above that explains that my manager is actually trying to give me a raise. I love my work place. I'm happy to be there. I work from home with an incredible team. We're short handed as it is after all the layoffs. We were a team of 15. Now we're down to 6 +manager. We're getting a new guy, but it will take him months to learn all the processes. He'll be fine, just get ready to do paperwork.....lol...blah...Tickets, Change controls, emergency bridges. Funny they say "emergency", I was involved in two wars. If no one is bleeding "heavily", it's not an emergency.....lol.
This certainly is a war. Call it 3 for me. I floated off the Iranian coast trying to lure them out. I supported Iraqi freedom via operation enduring freedom, which was actual operation enduring boredom....lol
First enlistment: 88-94 (normal navy, was a sonar tech)
Second enlistment 01-07 (Naval Special Warfare Unit 10)
Today is preop testing today. Urologist wants $600 and the hospital settled on 25%/$600 of my insurance which is 80-20%. 20% being mine. Not too bad to tell you the true. I thought it would be much more. Here goes nothing
Pre op work found some irregular EKG issues, and I am having shortness of breath. Which I should have never told them. What a dumbass. Anyways, anesthesiologist wants a clearance from a cardiologist, which I don't have, and the nurse scheduling all this is frantically trying to find one, so I can go and get a clearance. The clearance might require a stress test. Here we go.... I submitted my disability package from the 29th to July 9th. I might have to resubmit all that paperwork, because the nurse is telling me that if we can't get all this done in the next two days, they're going to push the surgery out to the 5th. Ok, so now I'm talking to HR asking what do I do. We use our vacation for the first week anyways, everyone does as Sprint. It's how things are done. I asked my contact at HR "disability case worker" if I could just leave things as it is, and use my vacation to run around Atlanta finding a doctor, or do I need to resubmit the entire package, which has to be fax in and signed, filled out, and approved by the urologist again. This is fun stuff, let me tell you. Way to stress someone out before their surgery. It's not like it's not stressful enough to deal with having the shit to begin with, they have to throw drama in there. At this point, throw me into surgery. If I have a heart attach and die, it will kill two birds with one stone. No more cancer issues, and my wife gets paid the insurance money. End of story, and how I'm feeling right now. Pissed off. I try to stay positive, but it's shit like this that really erks me. Especially the fact that I got my package approval today for the original dates.
Just got through with 3 full days of fighting with Drs and scheduling trying to get back to work. Two who could clear me both went on two weeks vacation and MA I finally got to send in paper work through a big monkey wrench in the works. Got call from work (5:15 this morning) telling me no way could I come back to work this month. She put a 4# limit on push, pull grasp with left hand. Guess I can't even drive to appt. any more. Takes more than that just to open and shut drivers door.
21/2 decades of engineering ... you’re a loyal employee, a month more, not what you wanted, but sounds like you must play the ya,e and jump through more hoops. Sorry about that. Typical Corp mentality.
I ran my ass off today, but I got my medical clearance !!!! We'll see if I have that fight on the other side like you did. Hope things go well or get better for you sir!
Miss spoke. Went in to argue with Drs and get copy of papers for my records. Not 4# restriction, 2# restriction. With that I can't even open or close my car door even though Phys. Ther. said i could drive,Go Figger. They don't talk to each other. Work now has me off through June 30 without pay.
Tuesday, have to be there at 7am for a 9am butchering....lol. Nah, Da Vinci has this covered. I'm just there for the shorter shaft and the complimentary urine bag... Here we go....The only easy day was yesterday....no shit...for realz...
Day before. Supposed to be liquid diet day and flush day, but I'm sneaking a Jimmy Dean's biscuit in this morning. They never said when the day was supposed to start.... One last "somthin" before two days of liquids. I'm ready. Let's get this shit over with, or at least "in progress"... Surgery isn't until 9am, so technically, I'm just under 24 hours before. Biscuit is "in play"....
My ass is so sore, and I haven't even gotten there yet...lol Liquid diet and flush combination? Feels like I'm being waterboarded via my ass! Tomorrow morning 9 am. Good bye prostate. I'm sure I'll sleep just fine...rofl See you all on the flip side.
Sending my good wishes for you with your surgery tomorrow. Keep your good attitude even through the tough patches... if there are any. Knowledge is your power. Keep us posted.
Hello all. I'm out of the hospital. I went in Tuesday morning of last week and ended up staying until Friday evening due some swelling and other fun (liquid diet until release). They took the prostate, but left the lymph nodes as he didn't think he saw any issue with them. Got the report back today along with the cath out. Says the 10 lymph nodes are neg/clear, but on the other hand it also says there was some extra prosthetic invasion (hmm). Doc was kind of confused on that part of the report as well (thought we paid them not to be confused). He thinks they were speaking about the prostate and the tissue he removed as he knew it was spread outside the prostate, but he felt he had gotten it all. We shall see. I guess we just wait for the psa to tell the tale now. He didn't think there was too much more to do other than incontinence training in two weeks (if need be). Right now, when I open a coke/ginger ale, I might as well just pour it into my pants. Hope this squares up in a few days, but i imaging this is what happens when you remove the muscles from inside the bladder and stretch the urethra how many time larger that it's supposed to be. I knew there would be some incontinence, but I'm on depends number 4 today. My appointment was at 1030 and it's now 1556. Lot more than I expected. Of course, I can't really say how much I expected. So there's that.The cath was not great. I don't care what anyone tells ya. Everything swelled up to unrecognizable sizes. Laying down, propped up was ok, but sitting upright was pretty much pure pain. The Vaseline idea really helped, but I used NeoSporin just to help from getting any UTIs. Either way, it helped. Getting it out, wasn't "great", but by the time it really started to hurt it was over. Then the water works started, and I told the nurse...."that's not me"....(doing that)...lol. Nice to be able to sit up again. Nice to be able to see the dogs again. Couldn't be around them while I had the cath in. They are large and excited when they see us. One is a Great Dane pup of 1yr and she would take the cath out with one swat, so I had to stay away from them until today. Right now, my focus is to stop peeing all the time. Laughing makes it worse, but is good for everything else
This is nuts, but I would say 90% of the incontinence is gone today. Just when I make strenuous movements and such. Even then just a little. I didn't expect it to clear up this fast. I would have expected it to take at least a week or two to be at this point. Surprise surprise. Nice!
Ok, things not to do after prostate surgery. I'm still sore and what not, but grass needed cut. 3.5 acres of ugly, took the tractor out and cut it only to find blood in urine afterwards, none before. It was much more bumpier than I remembered it...lol (sarcasm). It went away as the day went on, but will rethink that before trying it again. It's been a week and a half, almost two weeks. Thought I was ok. "Not so much"...lol. Incontinence getting better everyday. I've actually stopped wearing pads. One, because there's just not that much that often, and Two,"they are making my junk sore".... You don't realize how course they are until you wear them for a few days. As of now, grass cut, no blood/not that much, junk feels better with no pads, minimal incontinence. Life is good, though I'm looking for someone to cut the grass....lol....paying $100-150 per cut (use my tractor and 84" finishing mower)....lol.
I don't know what's going on, this weekend my incontinence was fine and getting better. Yesterday and today, I'm filling pads again. I was at the gun shop, picked up 3 more guns, it's my hobby. I was there, and talking to my friends and the owners and I had to hurry up with the paperwork, because I was leaking outside of my pad. My jeans were getting wet. This sucks ass. I don't not want to be the guy that smells like piss all the time. Grrrr lol
It will get better. I just don't understand why it is getting worse. I'm at the two week time period since my prostate removal. Maybe I'm doing more, lifting more, "doing more out and about" and that's why it's getting worse. I have a wall of ammo cans, that I use kind of like a file cabinet for ammo. Every time I picked up and ammo can, BOOM stream comes out and I can feel that shit. No control what so ever. I'm just frustrated. It will get better in time.
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Has anyone here completely overcome Radiation Cystitis or Radiation Urethritis for the long term?
One year to the date of treatment start and was doing great, now has AML.
Update 
SARMs RAD 140 up date
