HoLEP recovery

Thanks for your low down.. Sorry it’s been the shits for you.. Not convienced I made the right decision but I, like you will have to live with it.. my story has yet to be told ..

@rwinpa can you share where you had the procedure done and who was the surgeon?

@djazcona it was done in Tucson AZ at Banner Hospital by Dr Tzou

@djazcona My procedure was done at Penn State Health in Hershey PA. I will leave out the Dr. name although he showed little respect or interest in me after I had problems. When I would call the urology dept. with concerns they always said thats normal or talk to your dr. If I could get a do over I would suggest talking to several drs. about different procedures. Ones that may be done again if your results dont last from the first time. There is no going back. On one visit I mentioned the issues I had with the dept. to the person who took me back to the room, She did not realize I could see her making faces and smerking at me when I told her what went on. I talked to a patient advocate several times also, but they seem powerless to do anything.

57yo and had Holep procedure 2 weeks ago today. Reduced size from 80 to 25.

Had constipation the first week and didn't have first bowel movement until day 5.

Currently, I have a little blood at the beginning of urination and pain the first 10 seconds or so. Stream is good. Incontinence does not appear to be bad at this point but am wearing man diapers for the time being. I took a home UTI test and it was negative - and no fever, etc. The blood and pain make me nervous, so I hope they resolve soon.

Drinking 100oz of water a day and eating a pretty strict diet in order to avoid constipation (no longer taking stool softener)

I plan to resume a few miles of walking this week. Plan to resume strength training at 4 weeks (hopefully).

@alexdav Went to the ER again last night for another UTI. I got the injection of antibiotics in the thigh. Painful to say the least. Now on Bactrim DS 800-160. I just made an appointment for a phone call to get an appointment at Mayo Phoenix. This has been the most miserable 13 months of my life. Ready to put an end to the constant UTI's. Hopefully they will take me as a patient and get this resolved once and for all. By the way the D-Mannose made no difference in the infection coming back.

@elcorbs
So sorry to hear of all the pain and suffering with no resolution.. Hope things work out and your better soon..

@patrick78 did you have the procedure? How did it go?

@patrick78 After this last UTI, I messaged my urologist. I got an appointment next week on the 20th. Going to do a second cystoscopy . The first was nearly 1 year ago. He has another urologist that came out of retirement to help him and he is going to do the procedure so it will be a new set of eyes looking for what may be causing my UTI’s. In the meant time I go to my nephrologist tomorrow to check on my kidneys. I waited over 18 months to get an appointment. Living in Northwest Arizona limits the number of doctors available. I am on my 5th PCP in 6 years!

Thanks for the report @alexdav . I'm now seventeen days past my HoLEP procedure and have been reading this website and other user experiences to better understand my recovery. So I thought I'd sign up and report my progress.

One thing I've learned is that there is a wide variance in patient experiences. Some men seem to recover quickly with a strong urine stream, others take longer. Some men leak urine. Others don't. For me, my daytime flow has improved and I am emptying more of my bladder. I do not leak urine. But I still have an initial spurt of bright red blood when I urinate. I thought that would be gone by now. My urologist tells me not to worry, progress is often uneven. But I'm disappointed that I still have blood. I think I know why. I've long suffered from constipation and got accustomed to straining when sitting on the pot. I am taking a daily laxative but I still catch myself straining a bit and, when I do that, I get blood out the penis. So I just started using a combo approach—docusate + MiraLAX. I hope that will help.

My issue was difficulty urinating and sudden urgency, particularly at night. My prostate was 65cc when I had the HoLEP. I had been taking tamsulosin (Flomax) for about ten years when it stopped working so well. So the doctor doubled my dose but that didn't help much. Daytime wasn't a problem. But at night I was getting up six to eight times to urinate. That went on for a year. My sleep quality declined. My mood, alertness, overall health and quality of life declined. I discussed all the alternatives with the urologist: UroLift, Rezum, aquablation, HoLEP. I'm older and don't care that much about retrograde ejaculation, so I went with HoLEP.

Overall I'm satisfied although I feel that HoLEP is oversold a bit. Maybe I just didn't understand, but I thought I'd be back to normal in two weeks with a strong urine flow both day and night. But I still need to be careful about exercise, lifting, straining especially since I'm still getting blood. I spent one day doing nothing, just standing or lying down, to minimize any pressure around the perinium. The next morning, I had no blood when urinating. The following few days I walked and sat normally and also was pushing too hard when defecating, and blood came back. So I guess I'll need to be careful for some time. Otherwise, recovery will take even longer.

One thing I'm happy about, my nocturia has gotten better. I place two small cups on the bathroom counter. One cup has eight coffee beans in it, the other has none. When I get up at night to pee I move a bean from the first to the second to keep track of how often I'm getting up. I'm now averaging three to four bathroom trips. Last night was only two. That's a lot better than eight. I'm sleeping better at night, feel more rested during the day. Since that was my main complaint, I'd say the HoLEP is working as advertised. I wish my recovery was completely over and done with. I want to go back to strength training and home repairs. But I better not until the blood is gone and stays gone.