Part 3

I live more than 1,000 miles from Rochester, MN. I flew there on Jan 3, had a required Covid PCR test on Jan 4 and then reported at 5:45am on Jan 5 for surgery. All of the Mayo Clinic doctors, nurses and staff that I encountered were excellent. They are all so professional and pleasant. They really are a fantastic organization. The surgery went well, pretty much as planned. The doctor had estimated before hand it would take about an hour and a half. He told me after the surgery that it actually took 2 hours because my prostate was "larger than advertised". The TRUS had estimated it at 90ml back in October, but the surgeon said he actually pulled out 120grams of material which took a little longer than estimated. I had a catheter in after surgery. This catheter had an additional tube that allows them to irrigate your bladder. It slowly inputs sterile solution to your bladder to flush out any residual prostate material, blood clots, etc. I had no real pain to speak of after the surgery, just a bit of a dull ache in that area. I was in the hospital over night and in that time I was given a 500mg acetaminophen two different times which handle the discomfort just fine. I could see that there was quite a bit of red (blood) in my urine which they told me was normal and expected. The urology department sent somebody to my room every two hours it seemed to examine the output in the catheter collector. They told me each time that it looked fine. A nurse removed the catheter about 9:00 the next morning and told me that as soon as I was able to pee on my own, that I could be discharged. About 30 minutes later I pee'd the best pee I had pee'd in a long, long time! I was amazed and very pleased! To be clear, my urine was quite red still at that point, but they explained to me that "red" was okay as long as it is "clear". In other words, as long as you can see through it and there aren't lots of clots or particles blocking the view through the urine. They also said it should improve slowly over time and that it could take up to two weeks for it to be completely gone. There was a little bit of a burning when I started and stopped urinating, but it was very tolerable and subsided in a few days. Other than feeling tired, I felt good when I left the hospital. I went back to my hotel less than 3 blocks from the hospital and rested and recuperated for the rest of that day and then all day the next day, before flying back home 3 days after the surgery. It has now been about 6 weeks since I had the surgery and I am feeling great, totally back to normal... and better than I have felt in many years with regard to urinating.