What is a Prostatectomy Like?

My husband had very fast recovery with no issues. "Gas pain" the first morning after surgery was the only pain he experienced. Catheter was non issue for him also (maybe because he is not circumcised), no pain, no irritation. Some pressure in perineum area for the maybe first 2 weeks but no pain. Yes, he had some incontinence at the beginning, no big deal - he is now 4 and a half mos post surgery and incontinence is gone completely. ED was present at the beginning and is now nicely resolving with Cialis. It is all so very individual and a lot depends on age, fitness of a patient, expertise of a surgeon and extension of surgical margins as well as of the size of a gland.

Besides , 60 % of general population of men over 60 years old has ED (70% over 70 years old etc.) , and about 25% over 60 has an incontinence due to aging.

Both my husband and I are very happy that cancer was removed and he would do it all over again if he could turn the time back.

Find the best surgeon that you can find, do recommended exercises and rehabilitation protocols and you have about 95% chance to recover completely.

Radiation therapy can cause both ED and incontinence, 5-20% for incontinence with 2% for permanent incontinence which is just 3% better result than for RP (5% for permanent incontinence).
Regarding ED - if you need ADT , you can count in it , about 70-90% patients have ED while taking ADT . For some patients testosterone levels never returns to normal range and ED becomes permanent issue.

So - there is no "perfect" treatment for PC or the one that will not effect body in some way, and probably in multiple ways, either temporary or permanently.

However, the main goal is cancer elimination and life extension and one should keep an eye on the prize ; ) !

I had ZERO pain, & no incontinence. I had ED, but that was because I chose "non-nerve-sparing" as a surgical option. I chose non-nerve-sparing because the cancer had already reached the surface of the prostate, so the nerves were probably already compromised.

I drove the day after, & walked my usual two miles a day after that. At the ten day mark, my catheter & drain tubes were removed without incident. Before they removed the catheter, the PA poured a measured amount of saline fluid INTO the bladder via the catheter. He then removed the catheter & measured how much I could then urinate, to verify that I could empty the bladder.

I had my RP a little over two years ago. One month prior to my surgery, I did Kegels religiously. After the surgery, the only problem I had was terrible pain as I was coming out of the anesthesia. I wore my catheter for seven days. After removal, I did Kegels every hour on the hour. Never had one drop of incontinence. My surgeon said I was one of the lucky 10% who have zero problems. If you do choose RP, I hope you are one of the 10%. 🤞

@kjacko
I never did kagles Before or after surgery. 16 years ago, when I had the surgery, they never even discussed the issue. I had no incontinence after they took out the catheter. Results may vary.

@jeffmarc Agree that everybody is different.

My 2 cents on the ride home from the hospital: I had a friend come pick me up in his small car that sat only a few inches off of the ground. If I'd known, I'd have had someone else pick me up. The bending at the knee and hip to get seated was very difficult with the catheter and having only just gotten out of the bed. Suggestion would be to get driven home in a big car. And just for comparison, I had the catheter for 20+ days. That was easily the most painful days of my life. There was definitely something wrong. Best wishes.

@jeffreyg
I got driven home in a big car, But sitting in the front seat was painful. I got into the back and laid across the whole backseat. It was not real comfortable since I had no pillows, but better than sitting in the front seat. I’m 6’4” so seats are always a little crowded And laying across the backseat required lots of bending.

I’ve never heard of anybody having the catheter that long. I had surgery 16 years ago and had it for two weeks. It was never a problem or a pain, and I was working every day after the first week. It could be, they put in too thick a catheter, which could be uncomfortable.

Hi all,

I am scheduled to get RARP in the next 2 months. I am not sure how my experience will be after the OP, but having the catheter in for 7-10 days is a piece of cake. I kind of look forward to it.

I am 45 now, but when I was 28 I had urethra stricture and underwent surgery (Buco-urethra-plastopy, 12 hours surgery back in 2008). This is where they harvest tissue from your mouth (the inner cheek) and graph it onto the lengthwise-spliced urethra, to be able to open it up so you can urinate again.
Trust me, leaking is much better than not being able to empty at all. After that surgery I had a catheter for almost 3 months. On top of that I would go to work every day, and guess what, I was in the military during that time.
So please, to all of you that may think catheter for 7-10 days is bad and leaking afterwards sucks, let us all stay strong for few days with the catheter and leaking afterwards.
I would take leaking anytime to not be able to leak at all for days.

Also, as it has probably already been mentioned in this trend, there are many clamping options available on the market.
Also, let us count ourselves lucky and blessed that we get to live another day with the ones dear to us!
To all out there that have gone through or are about to go into surgery, BE STRONG and STAY POSITIVE!

Best regards,
Dinu

I had no pain, but had to keep the catheter for two weeks. When it finally came out, complete incontinence but it improved over the following weeks.

Now, 6.5 months post-RARP. Only occasional stress incontinence, but still complete ED and only very partial erections with Cialis. Also, still having climacturia.

@jeffmarc

Same - 12 years since surgery never a discussion of or performance of kagles, catheter was easy, no urinary problems (only problems I don't have though). Sorry to say after reading the incontinence probabilities from good old fashioned knife prostate, seminal vesical, and bladder neck lesion surgery I feel lucky. My surgeon was ecstatic that I didn't/don't leak or have problems.

I have problems with bowels with all the above plus 39 salvage and 2 photon treatments though.