Prostate Removal

[GMBoy]

I’ve had it done. You are going to be really uncomfortable after surgery. They should give you some prescription pain medicine when you leave the hospital.

THANK YOU for sharing your experience!

 

[GMBoy]

So the laparoscopic? Using the Davinci robot? If so, that's what my dad had done at Toronto General. Much lower risk of losing "male function" going this route, though I know he now needs blue pill "assistance", but at his age, I'm not really surprised about that even without the surgery.

Regaining bladder control will be an adventure. You have to teach your body to use that muscle and it takes considerable time and effort. Be prepared for that, and be prepared to get help with that. I will impact your ability to go places and when you have to go, it comes on insanely fast! I took my dad to his follow-ups and there were some "I have to go, NOW" moments during the trip.

It has been I think 4 or 5 years now and things are normal. His PSA is 0 and he's healthy and cancer free.

Best luck to you!

I appreciate the insight and sharing that!

 

[MParr]

Here's the good thing about having it out.....If the cancer comes back you have treatment options. If you use any of the other methods, your options are limited. Many surgeons get paid to provide result statistics to Govt., Universities etc. They promote what they are getting paid to provide statistics for. It's always best to get all the cancer out of your body if possible.
You will be fine.
My last PSA was 0 here 12 yrs later.

Yes! I had mine out in 2014. My PSA is also 0.

 

[GMBoy]

I had it done. In spite of their claims its likely you will likely lose the ability to have an erection. I would never have it done. I would do radiation, laser, pellets. Believe me they are jusst trying to pay off their DaVinci Robotic Device. Please reconsider. Please get a second opinion!!!!

Also you may suffer incontinence for the rest of your life. I was lucky in this area.

I understand those potential risks but after reviewing all the treatment plans they all looked bad in their own ways. I just hope for the best and I really appreciate your sharing this!

 

[bbhero]

Just don't take it for too long. It's bound to be a narcotic and very habit forming.

I agree…

However… yet now people are having serious procedures done and get nothing or told to take Tylenol…

Which is wrong in my very strong opinion …. And not fair to the VAST majority of people who have no issues with that type of medication.


I have no problem giving people needed medication…. And I have only seen maybe 6-7 patients ever who obviously had a real issue with that type of medication.

 

[bbhero]

I would advise you to ask your doctor for small amount of Norco to go home with. It will be better than ibuprofen or Tylenol. Don’t worry about getting addicted to the small amount that you would be prescribed.

Exactly ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Great day in the darn morning…

Swinging that pendulum way out of whack is what’s happened here.

 

[bbhero]

My doctor was smart about pre-planning. I got a Tetnus shot and a regimen of antibiotics before surgery.
He didn’t trust the cleanliness of the hospital.

I agree…

Though the cleanliness of the doctor matters a whole, whole lot too… Maybe even most important…

We had 2 doctors who keep having infections at the hospital I worked at.. . And one night the infectious disease doctor was fussing to himself about that phenomenon… And I told him yep… I know what you mean. And he said you do ? And I said yeah it’s the same 2 …

 

[MParr]

Exactly ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Great day in the darn morning…

Swinging that pendulum way out of whack is what’s happened here.

Why do you think so many people are wanting medical marijuana? You know the answer.
There are so many people who are suffering from chronic pain and can’t get any relief.

 

[53' Stude]

Just passing on that this week I am having my prostate removed due to cancer. If anyone has been thru this and has any tips/info to share I sure would appreciate it! I will be having the robotic style surgery and the catheder will be thru the stomach both of which I am told make the process a little easier but the recovery time will still be 4-6 weeks.

Prayers sent for good surgery and safe recovery sir.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

That is what I read and have heard - do you know how long it will be high pain/discomfort?

I will send you a PM. I just this past March had 75% to 80% of my prostate removed. Non cancerous but severely inflamed for years.

 

[ecotourist]

I agree…

However… yet now people are having serious procedures done and get nothing or told to take Tylenol…

Which is wrong in my very strong opinion …. And not fair to the VAST majority of people who have no issues with that type of medication.


I have no problem giving people needed medication…. And I have only seen maybe 6-7 patients ever who obviously had a real issue with that type of medication.

In my previous job we dealt with large numbers of people who had become addicted (that's the right word, though it's not politically correct to say it) to narcotics, often after taking pain medications for too long.

Twenty years ago it had become medically fashionable to prescribe lots of narcotics. The advocates for that approach suggested it was negligence to not prescribe narcotics when a patient was in pain. They caused a lot of harm. And yet the basic principal of medicine is "first of all do no harm."

Some of those medications were said to "not be habit forming" when the companies that produced them knew that they were. There have been major lawsuits brought against those companies and their senior management personally which have resulted in settlements of many millions.

To give some perspective to this discussion, our group put on medical seminar and had 2 of the top surgeons make presentations. A member of the audience asked "how long should narcotics be prescribed after major injuries or after major surgery?" The two surgeons looked at one another, then one said "maybe 5 days". The other one said "possibly a week".

So sure, lots of pain control in the acute phase is appropriate, but then lighten up fairly quickly. I would not take narcotics for longer than 2 weeks unless I was dying. When you're dying the approach changes. When you're dying it doesn't matter if you become addicted.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Just passing on that this week I am having my prostate removed due to cancer. If anyone has been thru this and has any tips/info to share I sure would appreciate it! I will be having the robotic style surgery and the catheder will be thru the stomach both of which I am told make the process a little easier but the recovery time will still be 4-6 weeks.

I just sent you a PM as I have just (this past March) had 75% to 80% of my prostate removed due to being severely inflamed. My surgery went very well and I am in a lot better recovery shape well ahead of where the Doctors expected me to be at this time.

 

[Lubener]

I had the option of the radioactive pellets. After careful consideration, I decided against it. I didn’t won’t my insides burned up. I know of several people who suffered horrible side effects.

My father had that "seeding" done back in 1997. It was something new back then. The procedure cured his prostate cancer. He was fine until about 20 years later where he was miserable with prostate/ urinary problems because of that surgery.. He ended up having some new procedure done in 2020 where the prostate was frozen which helped his condition.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

I had it done in 2012 with the DaVinci. You want a surgeon who has done a lot of them, not 30-74. I have played with the DaVinci robot and it is amazing. The 3d view allows them to see better than any other method. If your surgeon is good you will still be able to have an erection. You just won't be able to shoot anything which is half the orgasm. Pain is only for a couple of days. Don't hesitate to take the opioids for up to 2 weeks. It won't get you addicted. You won't need them that long. I wore a foley catheter for 8 days. That allows the bladder to heal. Then they do a pressure test and take it out. It sounds worse than it is. I wore a bag around my leg, wore sweats and went shopping and anything else.
When I had mine done, the surgeon told me to take a quarter of a Viagra every other day for about a week. I functioned very well. When I stopped taking it, my cavernosa clogged up and restricted blood flow. Talk to your Dr about this. It may be standard procedure these days I don't know. Highly recommend doing that whatever he says. It keeps the blood flowing in there which is what you want to do.
Here's the good thing about having it out.....If the cancer comes back you have treatment options. If you use any of the other methods, your options are limited. Many surgeons get paid to provide result statistics to Govt., Universities etc. They promote what they are getting paid to provide statistics for. It's always best to get all the cancer out of your body if possible.
You will be fine.
My last PSA was 0 here 12 yrs later.

I had 75% to 80% of mine removed (non cancerous) this past March due to severe inflamation that no drugs would help with. Mine was so large they could not do minimal invasive and had to do a vertical cut. Not a big deal. Sounds like my recovery is almost exactly the same as yours went.

 

[02SE]

Pain tolerance can vary greatly from person to person. The opioids can be addictive, cause severe constipation, etc. Try to use them sparingly.

Good luck.

 

[PandaBear]

Best wish GMBoy and hope you a speedy recovery.

About the DaVinci robot. My mom in law did a whole Ovarian cancer removal with it at Kaiser at stage 2 / 3 in one morning. The invasion was a few small opening only and they were able to cut the whole uterus and both ovaries out. She was only feeling pain for 2 days and after 1 week she literally forgot she had the procedure done. The risk of infection, need for opioid, recovery time all went down. I can see that as time goes on these kind of surgeries would actually cost less when factoring in the hospital stay, and risk of opioid addiction later on is factored in. (I'm an Intuitive shareholder so I am biased)

 

[bbhero]

In my previous job we dealt with large numbers of people who had become addicted (that's the right word, though it's not politically correct to say it) to narcotics, often after taking pain medications for too long.

Twenty years ago it had become medically fashionable to prescribe lots of narcotics. The advocates for that approach suggested it was negligence to not prescribe narcotics when a patient was in pain. They caused a lot of harm. And yet the basic principal of medicine is "first of all do no harm."

Some of those medications were said to "not be habit forming" when the companies that produced them knew that they were. There have been major lawsuits brought against those companies and their senior management personally which have resulted in settlements of many millions.

To give some perspective to this discussion, our group put on medical seminar and had 2 of the top surgeons make presentations. A member of the audience asked "how long should narcotics be prescribed after major injuries or after major surgery?" The two surgeons looked at one another, then one said "maybe 5 days". The other one said "possibly a week".

So sure, lots of pain control in the acute phase is appropriate, but then lighten up fairly quickly. I would not take narcotics for longer than 2 weeks unless I was dying. When you're dying the approach changes. When you're dying it doesn't matter if you become addicted.

I did not argue argue with you…

The 5 days to maybe 2 weeks sounds reasonable enough to me.

However I have seen and heard firsthand people getting nothing after a major procedure was done.

That’s just ridiculous…

Just saying what’s a REAL problem now that people have swung way too far the other way…. And it’s not right either.

And for the record….

I have directly given IV push pain meds, by mouth pain meds and meds through a PEG to people.

Many, many, many, many times….

To many, many, many, many, patients….

Seriously… Like 5.6 maybe 7 of them were in trouble with that.

Out of a whole, whole, whole lot of patients.

And yeah…. I’m irritated by the pendulum swing way, way too far in the opposite direction.

And for the record… In the US we had HCAPS … And guess what one of the big indicators was ?

Pain management while in the hospital…

Our reimbursement was based upon those scores….

The government was behind that fiasco as well … Yeah..

So… it was not just the “ big bad pharmaceutical companies “ behind all of that.

Though I agree with your premise that people were being told that those medications were not highly addictive back 20 years ago. That was true indeed.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

My father had that "seeding" done back in 1997. It was something new back then. The procedure cured his prostate cancer. He was fine until about 20 years later where he was miserable with prostate/ urinary problems because of that surgery.. He ended up having some new procedure done in 2020 where the prostate was frozen which helped his condition.

They did this new proceedure to me except mine was so far out of control the only benefit was that it lessened the amount of bleeding during the surgery they had to deal with as I am an easy bleeder. What they have now a days as a great alternative to any surgery in some cases is that they go into the groin (if caught early enough) and insert pellets into the main artery that feeds blood to the prostate gland. I am told as soon as they cut the blood flow off that the prostate in effect starts to die off / shrink so much so that many men require no surgery. Mine had been let go by the Doctors who wanted to keep testing all sorts of newer drugs on me that were suppose to shrink it to manageable size (they did nothing but made me sick). My prostate gland had to be surgically removed asap due to the size. A normal one is measured to be walnut size (33CCs) mine had somehow managed to get to (550CCs) by the time I stumbled across a group of great urologist who cared enough and wanted to help me since I had become almost a permanent resident of their Emergency room suffering several enlarged prostate related ailments.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Why do you think so many people are wanting medical marijuana? You know the answer.
There are so many people who are suffering from chronic pain and can’t get any relief.

My last appointment with my spine specialist we discussed the medical pot. I told him I was intersted due to taking the opioids for too long IMHO. I told him I do NOT want to smoke anything but would try alternatives, He said there are plenty. From gummies to tinctures etc but the only issue he said lots run into is the insurance companies do not pay for much if any part of that program and it is costing folks upwards of $300 or more per month. I may look into it. I smoked pot in the 70s , quiting around 1979. I hear what is out there these days is many times more powerful (maybe even dangerous) than compared to what was around in the 60s / 70s. I really am not looking to smoke anything and am not wanting to get high. Just help with severe daily pains. I have tried CBD oils and they work well but also cost a good deal out of pocket.

 

[CharBaby]

Praying for you, the Dr's and your fast recovery.