Aquablation: Post-surgery expectations

i was planning on doing a trip to europe 1 month after acqublation surgery. will this be enough time to heal? has anyone went into retention a month following surgery?
could really use your thoughts

thanks

@albiet I had my aquablation in September of 2024. I was completely asymptomatic until I couldn't pee...and lived on a catheter for 4 months while figuring out options. I think what you will find reading these entries is that everyone has different outcomes. Mine was great. Still peeing normally, no retention and no retrograde shooting. I was 120 grams and as the operation removes approximately 50%...I'm still a bit large.

I had a lot of bleeding in the first week after surgery and that kept me on a larger catheter for a week. Drinking lots of water (3 quarts a day) made it much better. Bleeding stopped completely at the end of week 3 - beginning of week 4. I went back to work at the end of week 3...and it wouldn't have prevented me from traveling. However, I wouldn't have done miles of walking when first back, and certainly not in hilly areas. Hope that helps.

@albiet I also had aquablation in September. While I think i could have done a trip a month later I wouldn't chance it. You'll likely know right before you depart how your recovery is going, but if you over do the walking, when into the second or third month you'll likely increase bleeding though it shouldn't be something significant. Recovery varies so greatly is hard to know how quickly you'll recover, but with average recovery you should be okay if you take our easy. Again, you'll know whether it's a good idea at 3-4 weeks, which is when bleeding usually stops for most folks.

I'm going on 3 months. The catheter came out after 6 days, I immediately noticed the stream was forceful and I did not have to wait 5 seconds or so to start. However the urge to go is way worse than before the surgery. Over the past week or so, it has diminished some but still urgent. The dr did tell me it would take 3 months or more. I'm 67.

Based on my experience a trip to Europe would have been possible 30 days after aquablation, but I would advise waiting at least two or three months. I noticed that the full benefits of the procedure were not evident until three months. So, yes you could probably go after a month, but the trip will be more enjoyable if you can wait three months.

@albiet

If you can put it off, it would be better. You "might" be fine but 2 to 3 months is safer. At one month I was still wearing Depends because I couldn't hold it.

@icorus1959
Thank you for the reply. I went into retention the day after I wrote this and have a bag attached. How was it wearing a bag for 4 months as that is about what I would need if I had to reschedule. Did you get any utis or infections while on the bag? How often did you have to change it. None of this was explained to me when they put it on. I’m going to see my uro on Tuesday . Thank you for you continued help.

@icorus1959, @randman, @kocour, @wjn, @vtredwolf
thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate them. As I mentioned above, I now have went into retention and have a catheter and bag attached.

@albiet I went to a bigger bag nightly. Going from one to the other took about 15 minutes. I completely changed my leg bag weekly. I'm pretty small...5'5"...so I wore a 1 liter bag. There are good one's on Amazon. I can recommend the brand I like best, if needed. During the four months I picked up two infections...probably from showering. The second, I was infected with Seratia...which is common in shower stalls and antibiotic resistant. There are a couple of antibiotics that will treat it, and my urologist recommended I eat yogurt daily. Stonyfield Farms probiotic strawberry mixed with healthy oats became breakfast every day. I went to work every day...which included 1 hour drives both ways.

My surgeon operates two days per month...5 aquablations per day. The other 4 were transferred quickly from PostOp to the orthopedic ward. I was in PostOp for hours until a bed opened in the surgical ward...where I was in quarantine. It was a blessing in disguise...I received awesome care. I stayed in the hospital an extra day because of bleeding and received probably 40-50 bags of saline per day. I had to wear a bigger drain catheter for almost a week because of the bleeding. The was the hardest part...as the bladder spasms were vicious...and the spasm meds did nothing to control them.

On Day 3 after surgery I passed a large clot that fouled the line. I was worried I was going to need to go to the ER to have it cleared...but a spasm cleared it.

Hope that helps. If you want to talk I will send you my number. Had I know anything about any enlarged prostate before I got shut down...I would have completely skipped the Tamalosin and Finesteride and gone straight for aquablation. That would have cut things down 5-7 weeks. If my prostate grows back and again becomes a problem (God forbid)...I will go straight in for another aquablation.

@icorus1959
It was interesting to hear you picked up a Serratia M. Uti while you were catheterized. I had an aquablation and a few months later they did a minor turp followup to fix some significant retention I was still having. I had a catheter for a week and the day after the catheter came out i had a fever so we did a culture and i too had a uti with that bug which most likely was acquired in the hospital. How soon after your catheter was placed did you get the Serratia Infection? That bug is a bit worrisome since as you mention it is resistent to many antibiotics.