RE: Post Radical PCa

[Guest guest]

Mike,

I had RP in 1998 and had a catheter in for 5 weeks post op. I won't pull any punches. It took me around two years to regain any quality of life, so it will take a little time.

Some men gain almost complete control of their urinary function but many don't ( bet they didn't tell you that pre-op ) None will recover normal sexual function. All will be sterile, all will have smaller penises. Those that do achieve erections will only have partial erections. I have yet to see a study showing that RP will extend my life by a single day so it is a high price to pay for 'getting it out'. I had stage T2C Gleason 3+3 PCa so I guess I would still be here now if I had done Watchful Waiting, which is not doing nothing, but I wouldn't be peeing myself everyday and I would be enjoying sex a couple of times a week with my beautiful wife which I really used to enjoy more than I appreciated at the time. I don't know what your pre-surgery stats were but I'll wager you are amongst the 80 percent of men who need not have opted for such a radical solution. As Bradley Hennenfent M.D. says in his new book 'Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery' "Sometimes a falsehood can be so big, so incredible, so threatening, that no one even dares to refute it. Is the epidemic of radical prostate surgery a conspiracy? It's at best an example of misguided medicine. The big lie in this case is the widespread claim that the radical prostatectomy cures prostate cancer, because to date, randomised controlled trials say otherwise."

Welcome to this wonderful world of prostate cancer where incontinence and impotence are referred to as 'side effects'.

Things will improve but life will never be quiet the same, that I am afraid is reality.

Regards

Hello, I'm new to all this and was hoping for some info. I'm two

weeks and a day after surgery and the catheter was removed two days

ago. I'm still having a lot of leakage of blood and urine and was

wondering how long this will last. Everytime I move, IT runs. I'm

using a pad but as you all know, it's annoying. How long will this

all go on? What do I do to get control back? Any useful sites to

read up on what I'm in for, or what I can do to regain my quality of

life would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mike

[Guest guest]

Mike --

I love your email address. You ARE doing your Kegel exercises, aren't you?

This excerpt is something by renowned urologist Dr. Catalona that I

found on a quick Google search:

Q: " Will you provide me in writing the proper way to do kegel exercises

post radical prostatectomy? "

A: " There are disagreements about what is the " proper " way. I like to have

patients do Kegel exercises by imagining that they are urinating and then

contracting the muscles to " cut off " the stream. They should hold it for

only a second or two. Then, they should let the muscle rest for 5-10 seconds

and repeat the contraction. I advise patients to do a set of 10 contractions

four times a day - usually at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bed time.

This allows the muscles to rest between exercise periods so the muscles do

not remain in a fatigued state. In addition, I like the patient to actually

stop the urinary stream once or twice when urinating to determine whether he

is contracting the right muscles. If the stream stops, he is contracting the

right muscles.

Taken together, this leads to about 50 contractions per day. This is like

doing 50 pushups a day and will strengthen the muscles if done faithfully.

More than 50 contractions may be too much and may leave the muscles fatigued

- resulting in worse continence. "

Donna Pogliano

Co-author of " A Primer on Prostate Cancer, The Empowered Patient's Guide "

Post Radical PCa

Hello, I'm new to all this and was hoping for some info. I'm two

weeks and a day after surgery and the catheter was removed two days

ago. I'm still having a lot of leakage of blood and urine and was

wondering how long this will last. Everytime I move, IT runs. I'm

using a pad but as you all know, it's annoying. How long will this

all go on? What do I do to get control back? Any useful sites to

read up on what I'm in for, or what I can do to regain my quality of

life would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mike

[Guest guest]

Mike

I had RRP in 1996.

When they took the catheter out I was leaking like mad, in fact they fitted me up with an external catheter - a sheath that is changed daily (sticks on the penis) and this is attached to a tube that can be disconnected when you want to pass water normally. The tube goes into a leg bag. This is cleaner than pads but takes more time to soak off the old and fit the new sheath.

I think it is early days. I found that the bruising from the op made Keegals etc difficult for the first month or two. Slowly this and the continence improved and I was only loosing a few drops after 6 months and went onto ladies stick on pads back to front. You can have a spare in your pocket.

Many folk do better than I did as the surgeon had quite a task with my operation.

I'm sure things will start to improve after a few weeks

[Guest guest]

Mike

It has just occurred to me that we have been concentrating on the incontinence but missed the blood.

The first thing to say is that a bit of blood mixed with urine goes a long way and probably looks worse than it is.

However I would think that it should tail off to nothing in a few days. If it is significant or has not tailed off in a few days talk to the hospital people - nurses or urologist and double check with them.

Best wishes