72 hours out from robotic prostate surgery ..

This is unusual. I have my prostatectomy when I was 62. I was back at work the fourth day, Since I had my own business and only have to sit down at computers to work. Some people take two weeks off or three weeks off or more but usually within two or three days Tylenol is all you need.

Maybe you should go back to the hospital and get a scan to see if something is wrong, I can imagine that at least they will want to run some blood tests.

Just because you can handle pain, doesn’t mean you should.

I'm sorry to hear you had to go through this too. I'm 11 weeks out from my RARP, which I had on March 20th of this year, and still dealing with the pain. I'm 55 with no family history of any cancers and WAS very fit and active, mainly weight-lifting and bicycling. After the surgery, I was on oxy for about 5 days, then switched to OTC Ibuprofen. Just remember, everyone is different and how they react to the surgery varies greatly. Sometimes it seems that I have issues that no one else seems to have, but this forum has helped tremendously in my recovery. I had my appetite back a few hours after the surgery. One of the worst parts for me was the catheter, which I had removed 8 days later. I thought once it was out, I would be home free, but that is no where near where I am. I am fortunate in that I maintained my continence. I believe the pelvic floor exercises helped with this. I wore diapers for about 2 months, then switched to pads, which I still wear. I go through about 2 a day. The one thing I have not seen on here is the pain I still experience. I have really bad rectal pain, especially when I stand up to urinate. If I sit down, the pain is a lot less, but still there. This pain never seems to go away even if I take OTC meds. Most of the time I describe the pain as sitting on a golf ball that constantly pushes up into the perineum or rectum. Because of this pain, I can't ride a bike yet and weight-lifting has been reduced to light weights. Heavier weights, which I lifted prior to surgery, still cause leakage. The worst thing of all is that I am impotent. I take 5 mg. of Cialis daily, but this has not helped. I increased the dosage to 20 mg a few times to see if it helped, but did nothing. Prior to surgery I had ED for which I took 10 mg of Cialis as needed, increasing to 20 mg if the 10 mg did not work, per my Dr.'s recommendation. This has been nothing short of a nightmare. Prior to surgery, my PSA was 6.7 and a biopsy showed 7 of 12 cores positive for cancer, Gleason 3+4=7 on 4 of them and 1 with Gleason 4+3=7, the rest at 3+3=6. Having to do it all over again, I think I would have taken my chances with active surveillance, even if against my Dr's recommendation and knowing the negative outcome. I've been married for 26 years and still very young, yet at this point it looks like my sex life is gone. This is just my experience. Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences. Hang in there. I wish you all the best going forward.

50 years old. I am almost 3 weeks out from surgery. I also have the “sitting on a golf ball” pain. Also hurts to laugh sometimes. Not much pain otherwise. Also have ED and minor incontinence.

It definitely is possible to get an erection again. There are multiple different things that can be used. Were they able to do nerve sparing surgery? You can take some people a few months or longer before they can get an erection if that was successful.

Have you used a penis pump? It’s really good to use to make sure the tissue stays active because it can deteriorate if not used. My medical provider supplied me with one after I had my surgery.

You can get bimix or Trimix, which you inject into the side of your penis with a very small thin needle. It can give you an erection with great results.

The following link gives you a lot of first hand information on using Trimix.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/my-trimix-experience/
Since you had one 4+3 core, you are a 4+3 7. The other Gleason numbers are not relevant. Definitely not an active surveillance Gleason score.

Have you seen at least two different doctors about the problem you’re having?. You should be contacting a doctor at a center of excellence and/or a Genito Urinary Oncologist. I must admit I never heard of the problem you’re having but it may be Resolvable, Possibly the doctor you were going to now as unable to do that, but another doctor will know what to do.

Thank you for the suggestions Jeff. I have an appointment with my Urologist in about 2 weeks. I'll talk to him about a pump. I will also look into your other suggestions to see another Dr.

Feeling some pain in the pelvic floor area is something that I saw very often while reading through many, many posts. It usually resolves after couple of months when all of the internal swelling goes away and everything heals completely. Having some surgeries myself (as well as many of my friends and family) , 6 to 8 week time-frame that doctors mention is in most cases for any type of surgery overly optimistic and it does not mean "no pain" and full top notch functionality in most cases, but is more on the line : "will be able to do light work and do basic activities around the home" and not depend on medications.

That being said, everybody is different and needs different amount of rest or time to heal. Also, generally younger patients recover much faster.

Regarding ED, there is a fantastic video that was posted recently by "Retiredguy" and I wish he posts it as separate thread so everybody can easily find it. I read in many places that if a man had some ED problems before surgery (needing medication) it is great chance that he will have much more problems after surgery and will need injections to achieve erections. BUT, again, time is your friend ! It is said that one can need up to 2 years to have natural improvement in quality of erections and up to a year to see improvement in continence.

So, try to be patient with your recovery time and in the meantime try to concentrate on getting stronger, healthier and finding happiness in the fact that you are cancer free < 3. For everything else there are MANY solutions available and remember that in the most cases it all gets better with time :).

Sicescu2 - you are just 3 days out of very serious surgery. You might have trouble standing up and sitting up because you had 5 ports cutting through your abdominal wall. It weakens temporarily muscles big time, especially at 77. One member here used hernia belt to stabilize the core even though he did not have hernia but had experience with laparoscopic surgery for some other issues. According to him, it helps with sitting up and getting up of the bed. I already bought that belt for my husband in preparation for surgery.

Maybe you do not have appetite because there is still a lot of gas in your abdominal area and it presses on your stomach making you feeling full ? Did you have normal BM by this point ?. Try to stay hydrated and rest and of course, if you really think something is very wrong you should go and check your vitals, basic blood work etc.

Sending everybody healing vibes < 3 and wishing you all fast-er recovery :).