Aquablation: Post-surgery expectations

@rdunncpa
I hate to brag, but mine is 172cc😳 lol.
Glad you are doing good now.

@indyguy
This is one of those times that I’m glad to lose on the size contest😉

@rdunncpa
Lol…it’s the only size contest I could ever win😜

@indyguy
😂

hello. yes i had it 1 week ago im 70 and had most of the prostrate issues of a person my age. everything has gone great. wonderful flow 7 days post. minimal bleeding. minimal pain. suggest a jock strap and man pads. that just keeps everything clean and catches the blood spotting. quit medication with no side effects.. My option is it’s a no brainer. have it done. Mayo # 1.

Had a follow-up with my urologist today (2 weeks post-op) and everything is looking good. Bladder scan showed 22cc of urine (less than an ounce) after urinating. So we scheduled a follow-up for 6 months from now. I did mention to him that I'd had basically no information on what to expect following the procedure and I think he got a little angry. Had to let him know I wasn't directing it at him--he's dealing with hundreds of patients, probably. But he did say he'd follow up with his surgery scheduler and make sure they send out more detailed information (like taking 2 weeks off from work, no strenuous activity for 4-6 weeks, etc.). Basically, all I got was "don't lift more than 10 pounds" and that was about it. I'm glad I found this blog, which has answered a lot of my questions (along with some Internet searching).

@bookman65 yeah I think information is a common complaint, especially since the internet has so many different directives, like no sex until 2 weeks, 1 month, 45 days or 2 months? I'm surprised your flow up after 2 weeks isn't until 6 months, you'll likely have questions during the first few months. I had to come back after 24 hours to remove catheter then a flow up at 3 weeks and 2 months with my next one at 6 months. Otherwise Your case sounds pretty common at 2 weeks.

@vtredwolf Apparently aquablation was cleared by the FDA only in 2017 and, given that procedures like ours don't really immediately explode in number, patient feedback to urologists has been paltry. I think this explains the lack of guidance by our urologists.

I was myself given virtually no post-op advice by my doctor and thus have thought of giving him a journal of my observations. I'll see him on Dec 30 and offer it but maybe the better suggestion is for him to go on prostate forums like this for patient feedback if he's not doing so already.

@bennysr I'm very thankful for this forum, virtually any issue you may have encountered in your recovery is here somewhere. I literally read every post and it stopped me from being overly concerned with obstacles and helped me be confident my recovery was going normally. My Urologist office (potomac Urology) actually had a series of youtube videos on pre and post op, but that didn't, and probably couldn't, cover every possible issue.

I’m 59 and just had aquablation on Dec 18th after having PAE in July this year and it not improving conditions after five months. I was originally scheduled for aquablation in April of this year but my insurance (BCBS) would not approve, as it was considered “experimental” and not a typical first recommended procedure. So after going through all the appeals and third party review and BCBS still saying no, my urologist said try PAE and maybe that would help for a few years or more, and by then my insurance would approve. Well that didn’t work and luckily insurance did finally approve since the PAE did not help.

So Thursday I went in for 3:15 scheduled procedure, that actually happened closer to 4:00. They said I was done around 6:00pm but I don’t remember waking up until 7:00pm. My Dr spoke to my wife and said that he was shocked how much prostate was still there having had the PAE, so I guess it was easy to see why that did not help. The Interventional Radiologist that did my PAE has done close to 8,000 of them so I was pretty sure he did things right, but for some reason it didn’t help.

Like many, this started with my PCP suggesting flomax which didn’t help and also gave me retrograde ejaculation. So he sent me to urologist. Dr Hyder in Fort Worth is who he recommended because he is a younger guy that was up on all the best new procedures and things.

So urologist recommended alfuzosin instead of flomax. I tried that and no longer had RE but it really wasn’t helping either. So he added tadalafil to it. Even with both of these, bph symptoms remained but at least things worked well sex related.

So fast forward to today, third day after procedure and still have cath. Miserable few days so far.

Dr said procedure went very well. I stayed overnight while they flushed at least 8 large bags through me. Always looked good color wise with no clots or anything. Had a rough time coming out of anesthesia, ended up going home around 5:30pm the following day.

Having this catheter has not been fun at all. Feels like someone is cutting the end of my penis with a razor every time I move. Dr gave me meds for bladder spasms but not sure it’s helping.

I go tomorrow at 10:00 to get cath removed. Hopefully everything goes well there. Will continue to post here as things progress.