Aquablation: Post-surgery expectations

@tag30 - Five weeks is an awfully short time! Your post-aquablation recovery will probably extend for several months with all impacts slowly diminishing over time. I certainly recall that sudden-onset urgency...but those feelings gradually became less frequent before ultimately disappearing.

I am seven-months post and believe I'm 99% of the way to full-normal. And that feeling is great and worth the effort you're expending, now. Best of luck!

Rest assured, you are not alone.
I'm 4 and a half months out, and still get that urgency, but much less frequently.
The improvement is gradual.

Did you do anything in particular to ease the sudden urgency issues — such as medication or kegels — or did you let it fade away on its own?

@tag30 - I didn't do anything in particular. I did focus on staying extra hydrated. I also do kegels but I can't identify any specific benefit from those...Yet I still do them. Go figure!

I am 15 days post surgery. I am about to turn 65 and athletic. I was about 105 grams. Before I got completely shut down in June, I had no symptoms. The four months leading up to surgery were far worse than the surgery. My extended time on a foley catheter got me infected with Serratia.

My surgeon did five aquablations on September 27. I was number three at 11:30. All the others went from post- op to the orthopedics ward for their one day in the hospital. I had to wait until 10 p.m. to get transferred to the surgical ward, because of the Serratia infection. It was a blessing in disguise, as the nurses on the surgical floor were awesome. They pumped a lot of fluid through me (probably around 4000 mls per hour). I decided to stay an extra day in the hospital, as I was still bleeding pretty heavily. I was discharged with a drainage catheter, which was much larger than the ones I wore while being shut down. The bladder medicine did nothing, and the spasms were the worst part of recovery so far. They only lasted a minute or two...but those two minutes were hell. The spasms came every 20 minutes or so. The worst ones hit when I went from sitting to standing, or lying down to standing. The catheter came out one week after the surgery.

I wore Depends, and then pads, for the first few days of week two...as I had a tiny bit of bleeding, but it resolved quickly.

I am now at the start of week 3. I drink 3 liters every day and eat mostly fruits, nuts, sweet potatoes, salmon and pumpkin seeds. I've lost 10 pounds since this started....and didn't need to lose weight. My urine is mostly clear, yet there still is some bleeding...especially when I first start to pee...or when I poop. I can say I am peeing like a racehorse. I'm up once per hour before 1 a.m. and each void is an amazing amount of urine. The last couple of nights I can get longer blocks of sleep after 1 (probably 90 minutes.) I know this is going to take time to resolve.

I was hoping to go back to work this week, but as I'm approved for 4 weeks off, probably will stay out an additional week. I work an hour from home and not sure I'm ready to drive that distance. Driving to the grocery store has been no problem. During the day I've gotten to the point of being able to go 45 minutes without a bathroom break.

I haven't had much urgency so far, and the frequency as stated above, is improving. I chose Aquablation over Holep...and for me I think it was the right choice. I can't say anything about sex, excepting that I do get erections every night. I have started writing a book about my experiences. It's called 'Oh Prostate, My Prostate...a medical horror story every guy needs to read...with a happy ending"

Or so I hope.

Will your book be available on Amazon? 😉

When you say you had no symptoms until you got "shutdown", does that mean you had instant onset severe BPH?

Thanks for sharing your experience, really helps us that are considering the procedure but haven't quite gotten "shutdown" yet.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I'm sure it will. I'll probably be done writing in Spring. I'm guessing around 100-150 pages. I may self-publish. I may not.

Yes...from peeing to shut down in less than an hour during a business trip in Cincinnati. Best baseball tickets ever...and a friend is driving me to the emergency room for a catheter...and I am in agony.

I asked the on-call surgeon about it after the surgery. She looked at me sadly, as you would look at a dim witted child and said; "David, the human body has an incredible ability to adapt. But make no mistake, you haven't been normal in a very long time. In Cincinnati your body just couldn't adapt anymore."

I blame part of it on my PCP, who doesn't believe in digital rectal exams. When he told me that on the first exam eight years ago, I should have walked out...but my prostate was tiny at the time. He goes solely by PSA, which is a lousy enlargement indicator. Mine has been around 2.5 for the past 15 years.

I could mention what the Flowmax and Finesteride did to me...but let's leave that gruesomeness for the book.

Thanks, and best of luck with your recovery. Looking forward to your book!

You will be fine! Ur age is probably going to slow u down but the procedure will not, at least not for me. I’m the same age and had it done in 2021.

Ten weeks after Aquabilation surgery it is worse than before the surgery. Except I can urinate with no problem compared to before when I had to go to emergency get a catheter for urination. But now I have the following problems. 77 year old male with a prostate 140 CC'. This is a note I sent to my doctor. Said he will answer questions on next weeks visit but it could take another 3 months to become normal. Almost 6 months, really! Anyone care to chime in with answers if you have had these problems 10 weeks or longer after Aquabilation surgery thanks.
One,
In chat rooms that I have read most men after 2 to 8 weeks, now are normal in the areas of no urgency of urination, once or twice a night urination and no burning at the end of urination. Yet I still have all those symptoms of urgency, incontinence, frequency, burning, is this normal? What is the average time you see that your patients become normal?
Assuming it's not a urinary tract infection what can be done?
Two,
I’m in my ninth week since surgery. If the urine culture test keeps showing no growth of bacteria. Then to cover all my bases to make sure that it's not an UTI, do you have any experience with DNA-based testing methods for UTI? Such as PCR or NGS. From my research it said they are more accurate. Or anything else you can suggest?
Three,
My wife and I started having sex 4 weeks after surgery approximately three to four times a week, In the approximately 14 times we had sex I had a good erection but only ejaculated fluid 3x very lightly few weeks in between each time. The other 11 orgasms I assume were reverse ejaculations, although I never see anything else in my urine afterward. But I still had good orgasms. Am I the unlucky 10% that will have a reverse ejaculation? Or if it will come back how long does it take?
Four.
My penis when erect now bends to the right since the
Aquabation. Before it was always straight out. I read in my research after prostate surgery, I could come down with a condition called Peyronie's disease. Will it stay like this or get worse and become painful. Can it be fixed if it becomes painful or worse?
Five,
I've only had four clots of various size weeks apart since the aquibation surgery, come out when urinating. The last one very small two days ago. Is this normal, shouldn't I have had a lot more? The reason I asked because when I had my Cystoscope, I had a couple of toilet bowels full of large clots.
Thank You.