Post prostatectomy

I'm 6 weeks post-op RARP. I was told by 9 different doctors that they recommended RARP over radiation at my age (54) because the side effects of radiation might impact me before the end of my natural life. I have no regrets, I'm fully continent and no ED. That's not everyone's history with RARP, but it is mine. With a couple months to prepare, you could start working your pelvic floor and core muscles to better improve your recovery and even prevention of both incontinence and ED.

Radiation has some appeal, as do alternative treatments, because the side effects are often less, but you never know the true scope of your cancer until they remove it and analyze it.

If you haven't talked to multiple doctors, you should do so now. Nobody here is qualified to tell you which path you should take, but your doctors absolutely are. The best we can do is tell you how it went for us - and remember that most of the people here, me excluded, are here because they either are new and have questions - like yourself - or they continue to have issues. The success stories have no reason to stick around, but there are plenty of RARP success stories out there, I had a hell of a time finding them because they don't participate in these types of forums anymore so I'm trying to stick around to sprinkle some good news over all the bad that comes with this terrible disease.

Yes!! My husband had his surgery on 2/28….he was very swollen after surgery but as far as incontinence, the pelvic floor exercises have helped immensely!! That and a very positive attitude!! I tell my husband every day how proud I am of him for being such a trooper through this whole thing…

Sorry..meant to reply to another post…did not mean to do a repeat …

Hey hogy, Pretty good info on that Dr Grimm website. Took me a while to figure out those graphs and how to manipulate them, but they still leave me somewhat confused.
I plugged in robotic surgery and different EBRT regimens and they don’t seem all that different to me. Seed therapy, however, seemed to be better than both. Am I reading this correctly?
Thanks
Phil

Sorry for my delay phil.
Yes you are reading correctly. With external beam radiation, they have to quit radiating you because they are also dosing the other organs. At some point, they have to quit shooting.
With seeds they can dose a bit higher because the radiation emanates from inside the prostate

I've got to disagree with those who claim that a prostatectomy does not shorten your penis. Before my RALP, I said to the surgeon, if you remove a walnut length of urethra from me (the average size of the prostate) how do you make up that difference? Does my penis withdraw that much? His answer was that the hope is the bladder will drop down that much, but usually there is a "compromise" and both happen. The bladder is held in place by many things in your gut, restricting its ability to move lower and make up entirely for the loss of urethral length. My penis is still shorter two years after the surgery, even doing VED therapy daily. How do I know? Foreskin piles up around the base of the glans, like a turtle head withdrawing into its neck. And I'm circumcised. It never did that before.

@tomf
I agree with you! It definitely shortens your penis! I had an extremely enlarged prostate on top of prostate cancer. I took medications to reduce my testosterone for 1.5 years to shrink my prostate and then I had a prostatectomy! My before measurements was 6 inches long soft. After taking the meds for 1.5 years my penis began to shrink! I, like you, was circumcised at birth but my penis shrank to 3 inches long. I have so much extra skin after 50% shrinkage it looks like I’m uncircumcised now! In fact I experience “turtling” where the penis is inverted. I understood that the prostatectomy would shorten my penis, especially with my very enlarged prostate!
After surgery my soft penis is now 2 inches long! Being 4 inches shorter and being unable to have an erection is very troubling! Do you feel this may change as I continue my recovery? I am 1 month out from my prostatectomy.
Any advice or information would be appreciated!
Bill

@tomf
I agree with you! It definitely shortens your penis! I had an extremely enlarged prostate on top of prostate cancer. I took medications to reduce my testosterone for 1.5 years to shrink my prostate and then I had a prostatectomy! My before measurements was 6 inches long soft. After taking the meds for 1.5 years my penis began to shrink! I, like you, was circumcised at birth but my penis shrank to 3 inches long. I have so much extra skin after 50% shrinkage it looks like I’m uncircumcised now! In fact I experience “turtling” where the penis is inverted. I understood that the prostatectomy would shorten my penis, especially with my very enlarged prostate!
After surgery my soft penis is now 2 inches long! Being 4 inches shorter and being unable to have an erection is very troubling! Do you feel this may change as I continue my recovery? I am 1 month out from my prostatectomy.
Any advice or information would be appreciated!
Bill