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Radical Prostatectomy vs. Radiation therapy?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Apr 21 7:39pm | Replies (52)Comment receiving replies
@wwsmith
"After reading many others' experience on recovery from RALP I have never heard of anyone being fully continent the day after surgery. Also, I am sure that you had weight limits imposed for awhile on what you could lift."
No one is incontinent until the Foley catheter is removed.
Of course I did Kegel exercises before surgery. During the 7-day post-op exam, before the catheter was removed, 120 ml of saline solution was poured into the catheter, & then the catheter was removed. The test was to see if I could control urination (I could) & then urinate the same amount (I did). I wore a pad the day of the post-op but never needed it.
I'm glad you are sure I had weight limits. Attached are my post-operative, 7-day, & 3-month post-op visit instructions, which don't mention it.
Dr. Walsh's book does not mention weight limits; he just says to take it easy, but long walks are allowed (even preferred to avoid any blood clots).
Remember, most people come here because of issues, so ranking surgery vs. radiation based on complaints here, is a non-scientific way to assess results. One needs to have an objective study of a controlled population in order to make such assessments. I first came here out of curiosity, 4.5 years after surgery & one year after completing hormone therapy.
Replies to "@wwsmith "After reading many others' experience on recovery from RALP I have never heard of anyone..."
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@readandlearn Ok, so while you have a catheter in place you are not in a recovery period and can do all normal physical work? Of course not, so there is a recovery period involved with an RP.
Like yourself and myself, we both came to this forum not because of any problems we were experiencing, but to learn and share our experiences for the benefit of others. But certainly there are also those of us who came to ask about problems we are experiencing. If incontinence and ED problems were equally distributed between RT and RP guys, we would see just as many complaints about incontinence and ED from both sets of men. But clearly on this forum and others like Inspire, we see incontinence and ED complaints far more from men treated with an RP versus men treated with radiation.