Prostate and Bladder Issues: What to do?

Thanks, delmar418, for your great comments. Definitely food for thought. I have a non-profit health provider, so I don’t see motivation for them to “sell” me an untested procedure for some kind of business profit. Still, I’d say just about any step beyond doing nothing that we might end up taking toward easing our prostate symptoms is a hard call, definitely tainted by uncertainty, doubt, and risk. I am choosing PAE because it is performed by a number of prestigious medical facilities across the country, and it promises the least potential negative consequences which, I admit, is probably directly proportional to the degree of symptom mitigation it actually provides.

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.

did you have any incontinence

"Everything" seems to be following the textbook. There is one disturbing thing that is in the textbook but still disturbing. One month out and when urinating the start of the urine has a brown color. Sometimes blood red. Other than that, everything is peachy.

Re: Rezum, that is similar to what my Urologist said. Plus I would have to be catheterized for three days. It sounds like Rezum is significantly more involved than Urolift. He said Urolift is a same day procedure and you walk out of the office. I would like to hear from someone if Urolift is effective (only one or two trips to the biffy each night) and lasts until I don't need it any more.

Re: Rezum, that is similar to what my Urologist said. Plus I would have to be catheterized for three days. It sounds like Rezum is significantly more involved than Urolift. He said Urolift is a same day procedure and you walk out of the office. I would like to hear from someone if Urolift is effective (only one or two trips to the biffy each night) and lasts until I don't need it any more.

I HAD UROLIFT PROCEDURE ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO. I'M 75 AND WAS TOLD IT USUALLY LASTS 5 YEARS. I GOT 2 GOOD YEARS OUT OF IT HAVE BEEN HAVE ISSUES EVER SINCE. IM GUESSING TURP IS NEXT FOR ME. MY APOLOGY FOR THE ALL CAPS, I'M NOT SHOUTING, JUST IS EASIER FOR ME TO SEE.

By the way, congratulations for at least getting a referral to a radiologist and it looks good for you. Please keep me posted on this.

@delmar418 Did you go for the PAE? How did it turn out?