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Suggestions for questions of surgeon following RARP
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Oct 29 8:21pm | Replies (13)Comment receiving replies
Hi, sorry about this late message.
The meeting went quite well, with the surgeon saying that all the margins were clean, and he was able to spare the nerves, as well as the (sole, remaining, "girly") urinary sphincter!
He didn't really go into detail, e.g. what the final Gleason scores were, but perhaps that's irrelevant if it's all gone. Perhaps detailed lab results will appear on the online portal, as is usually the case.
He says I will get a PSA check in three months, and he put in a Cialis prescription. He says to expect my incontinence to start improving within a month!
So I'm very pleased, and my wife and I celebrated with a brunch at a French bakery/restaurant.
Recovery really hasn't been too terrible. I only needed to take the fairly high-dose acetaminophen they gave me (skipping the oxycodone), plus some anti-spasmodic pills for when my catheterized bladder was acting up, but only during the last three days of having it in. I was quite constipated and had little appetite the first two days (surgery is an unfamiliar "adventure" for me).
Haven't taken any special meds for that last five days, as my belly seems to be healing up just fine, not sore.
I think I made the right choice, in part because I'm not so old as to have been on the fragile side for such a major surgery.
I see the uro/gyno PT in two weeks, but will continue with Kegels in the meantime.
I'm feeling rather relieved, as well as truly fortunate!
Can't wait to be able to bicycle again!
Replies to "Hi, sorry about this late message. The meeting went quite well, with the surgeon saying that..."
Hi @sandguy -- glad the post surgery meeting went well with the surgeon and he had good things to say. After my surgery my surgeon had immediately called my wife. and told her how the operation had gone. Since it had gone well, I (personally) didn't actually talk to my surgeon again until the 9 month checkup. All the other checkups were with FNP associates. Nor did anyone go over the pathology report with me in detail (although I already had gotten a copy and studied it myself), but rather they tended to generalize and just say things like "with the clean margins and no extension, you have very low risk of reoccurrence". So I guess I'm saying my meetings were much like yours; very general and positive. I took it as a great sign they didn't feel compelled to dive into the details because there was bad stuff we needed to talk about. One thing I would caution however. Even though I had a great recovery that exceeded my expectations, I did have perineal pain (if I sat on a small seat like a bench at the gym or a bicycle seat) for much longer than the 2 month normal recovery period. I don't remember how long, but it took loooong time for that area to get back to normal if I sat on something narrow. I'm not a medical professional so I don't really know if what I did was necessary, but I really avoided anything that caused that pain for a long time (at least 5 months). It did go away, but it took a while. If you have that perineal pain like I did when sitting on anything narrow and you really wanna get back on the bike, I'd talk to the doctor first and make sure he thinks it's a good idea. Better safe than sorry. Best wishes.
@sandguy
Thanks for sharing the good news! Very happy for you!
@sandguy
It’s very important to see the final results of the prostate biopsy. Things could be in there that are an issue even though there are clean margins. You need to carefully review exactly what it says.
Hopefully he didn’t get into the Gleason Score because it didn’t change, and nothing else was found.
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@sandguy
Ha ha, you are my husband's lost twin , I guess ! That is his thinking also 😆👍- "it is all gone and who cares what was inside" and "why am I stressed about something that was yanked out and is now somewhere in a hospital basement stored in paraffin" ??? 😅.
How I wish I have that way of thinking and what is the funniest part is that he might be correct at the end 🧿 as he usually is 😆.
Yes - celebrate life by all means 🥂🍾💃🕺 and may you be cancer free forever :).
Cheers to that !!!