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time to decide and I'm stuck....
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Nov 3 8:05pm | Replies (58)Comment receiving replies
I saw both the surgeon and RO. The surgeon convinced me not to have surgery as the chance of no sex and wearing a diaper are both major NO's for me. The RO didn't spend any time warning me about side effects and I just got a 3 page hand out that said these things "may" happen. So I had 28 sessions of IMRT. I am 8 months from my last treatment. Side effects suck. Bad News - Frequent urination/stinging and 3+ bowel movements a day. Good news - No diaper & sex is fine. If I had it to do over I would go for proton radiation instead of photon. The IMRT was supposed to really target just the prostate but obviously hit other things. I should have done my homework before I trusted the RO. I have read from people that did proton they don't have any serious life style changes like I did. Good Luck to you in your treatment.
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@suzdog
You should’ve looked further into Surgery. After they took the catheter out, I had no incontinence at all, and I’ve heard from many people that have the same experience. A percentage of people have incontinence problems for a short time after surgery.
Burning While urinating and Having multiple bowel movements is not a problem with surgery.
If they are able to save the nerves, Or even half the nerves, Most people can get an erection after having prostate cancer surgery.
It’s too bad you didn’t see a doctor that was knowledgeable about surgery, You were really misled when told you needed to wear a diaper after surgery, and you wouldn’t be able to get an erection. There are many people in this forum that could disagree with that, after having surgery and neither of those problems, at least for more than a short time.