What is a Prostatectomy Like?
It is living hell
You wear a catheter for 7-10 days after surgery,
Then the fun begins.
You are now incontinent, and you must wear diapers, you actually leak pee,
It at times squirts out of you. You have constant urge to go meaning trips to bathroom every hour or less.
You have to deal with constant leaking, ED, potential UTIs.
Embarrassing and
Humiliating absolutely terrible time.
The care team will tell you that the
Incontinence last 9 months or more.
Remember prostrate cancer is slow growing
Surgeons will encourage surgery and your cancer will be gone but your life has changed forever because the incontinence is a daily challenge. Assuming you regain continence then you have to deal with ED.
Research as much as you can before making the decision to have prostatectomy. It is your body and your life afterwards.
But you potentially traded quality for quantity of life.
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.
1991, Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves. Bad movie, one great line....
It's been almost two years for me and I'm still wearing pads. My urologist encouraged me to wait to long and the cancer had metastisized so I think he took out more surrounding tissue than might otherwise been the case. My guess, I'm not a doctor.
I'm 73 and very active. I've learned to live life in spite of chemo, radiation, ADT and incontinence.
Get the best surgeon you can find or look into radiation although nothing is without potential side effects.
In your "What Prostatectomy Looks Like" article, you said that if you return to continence, then you must deal with ED.
Previously, there was a post in this group saying: There is a website that is very interesting and left a website address. May be beneficial in the treatment of ED.
https://melissahadleybarrett.com/penile-rehabilitation-program/
Hi
I am writing from Canada. I had a full prostrate removal 3 years ago qand was surptised by my level of incontinence. I went to a pelvic floor thyrepist. She examined my pelvic muscles in her own particular way and gave me a series of exercises that I followed with unsatisfactory results. I was still using one to two diapers (briefs) every day.
I went back to my Urologist and he suggested an Artificial Urinary Sphincter. I agreed and he pit it in. The result is that I wear a small pad for the occasional accidental leakage but often do not need it al all. Life is so much better. You can find out more with a simple Google search. I am now the proud owner of a third testicle that I squeeze to release urine when the urge is no me. The trick is to get to a urinal quickly because the urgent bladder signals demand a quick response and often I need to urinate every two hours at night. It sure beats the briefs.
The unit I have is by Boston Scientific, a model AMS all 800. There is a good brochure available with it.
I didn't find it a big deal once the cath was out and the wounds healed. Dealt with diminishing incontinence for 4-5 months and stopped wearing pads after 5. I get the occasional drip and a squirt if I sit on the edge of something hard. So I think before I sit on a rock or edge of something. No ED and mild dry orgasms. Currently on adt and doing salvage radiation and dead in the water. Like over wood is my choice.
That did not happen to me they remove my prostate a year ago I did not go through much pain I recovered fast and I pee fine don’t wear diapers never did I still have have sex with my wife just need to improvise a little bit..
I'm in the same boat as you are. No ED, no continence issues, recovering quickly. What do you have to improvise? I realize ejaculation is gone, and dry orgasms require getting used to (I still can't do that yet, on doctors orders, for a few more weeks), but I didn't consider other things that might have to change.
Oh. That's interesting. I figured that with a push-button system, I could take my sweet time getting to the toilet & push the button whenever I was ready.
Is that not the case?
I wrote about three weeks ago, saying I was about to have a male urinary sling implanted (Advance XP from Boston Scientific) and some of you asked me to report back. I am almost a week out from that surgery and leakage has been reduced to my liking. True, I have a lot of healing and recovery to go, because the original reason for this choice was stress incontinence during exercise, and I'm not allowed to return to physical activities until April. But already I feel more secure with "in the pipeline" liquid. That's what I call the urine below the pelvic floor but still in the urethra when I thought I was done urinating. If I stood up from the toilet, or just stopped peeing at a urinal, there was a half teaspoon or so that would drain out thanks to gravity. Or I'd be drying myself off after a shower, and all of a sudden, some urine would drip out, even though I have good pelvic floor control. So far, that leakage has stopped. I will not go into the real details of the surgery and recuperation today but will elaborate if requested to do so. Let me know.