Post Prostatectomy Two Week Progress

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

Jeff,
Yes:
Grade group 2 (Gleason Score 3 + 4 = 7) Percentage of Pattern 4: 11 - 20% Intraductal Carcinoma (IDC): Not identified
Cribriform Glands: Present
Estimated Percentage of Prostate Involved by Tumor: 21 - 30%
Extraprostatic Extension (EPE): Not identified
Urinary Bladder Neck Invasion: Not identified
Seminal Vesicle Invasion: Not identified
Lymphatic and / or Vascular Invasion: Not Identified
Perineural Invasion: Present
Invasive carcinoma present at margin
Linear Length of Margin(s) Involved by Carcinoma: Greater than or equal to 3 mm (non-limited)
Margin(s) Involved by Invasive Carcinoma: Left posterior
REGIONAL LYMPH NODES Regional Lymph Node Status: : All regional lymph nodes negative for tumor
Number of Lymph Nodes Examined: 3
pTNM CLASSIFICATION pT2 pN Category: pN0

On the positive margin; that worried me at first, but my surgeon said that when he was pulling the prostate out, and trying to spare my nerves, the region where the margin is stuck to the prostate capsule and tore. To pathologists using their ink, it would appear as a positive margin. My surgeon feels confident that he didn't leave any cancer behind. So hopefully that is just, you know, a little hiccup in the process and not a true cancer margin.
Thanks for all your helpful and knowledgeable posts on this forum.
Quaddick

Jeff,
Yes:
Grade group 2 (Gleason Score 3 + 4 = 7) Percentage of Pattern 4: 11 - 20% Intraductal Carcinoma (IDC): Not identified
Cribriform Glands: Present
Estimated Percentage of Prostate Involved by Tumor: 21 - 30%
Extraprostatic Extension (EPE): Not identified
Urinary Bladder Neck Invasion: Not identified
Seminal Vesicle Invasion: Not identified
Lymphatic and / or Vascular Invasion: Not Identified
Perineural Invasion: Present
Invasive carcinoma present at margin
Linear Length of Margin(s) Involved by Carcinoma: Greater than or equal to 3 mm (non-limited)
Margin(s) Involved by Invasive Carcinoma: Left posterior
REGIONAL LYMPH NODES Regional Lymph Node Status: : All regional lymph nodes negative for tumor
Number of Lymph Nodes Examined: 3
pTNM CLASSIFICATION pT2 pN Category: pN0

On the positive margin; that worried me at first, but my surgeon said that when he was pulling the prostate out, and trying to spare my nerves, the region where the margin is stuck to the prostate capsule and tore. To pathologists using their ink, it would appear as a positive margin. My surgeon feels confident that he didn't leave any cancer behind. So hopefully that is just, you know, a little hiccup in the process and not a true cancer margin.
Thanks for all your helpful and knowledgeable posts on this forum.
Quaddick

@quaddick Very very happy for you, Quaddick! Since finding out that you chose to go the "RALP, using a da Vinci machine" route, I've been researching prostatectomy in 75+ men. Not much out there... Excited to find a paper --scanned to the top and it was published in 20171

It was rewarding finding someone else who scored HIGH RISK on both Prostox Ultra (SBRT) and Prostox (CFRT). But the best part of this all, is you're happy with your decision. *And* I'm grateful that you've shown the way for my husband and me.

Live Long and Prosper ..V.
Warmest regards from Canada