Tulsa Pro Experience, Mayo Clinic MN – July 2024

@tcan2

Real good info on catheter so far, however, many people have catheter for 10 to 14 days like I did, so one does have to plan around that. You might want to call and ask what they say how long the catheter will be in and since I had a lot of BPH it was in there awhile. I heard some do fly home or try doing activities, but I don't think I could have done that post Tulsa. I rented an AirBNB for the time I had catheter and found what worked is to catch up on streaming TV shows and so on. I guess it varies widely and does depend on how much ablated or ablation fraction, and how much BPH one has.

I carried the catheter bag around in a small bucket around the house and in a reusable shopping bag when walking thru the neighborhood!

Thanks. And that was with a catheter for the first few days? Wow. Didn't think it would be that easy. Good to know

I only had 30% of my prostate ablated. I walked out of Mayo at 12:30 pm and walked 3 blocks to my car. I felt like I could have driven home. Went for a 2 mile walk the next morning. My recovery may not be the norm though.

Will I feel like flying home later the same day or next day? I have to fly into town the day before for treatment. Then I have treatment at 8am. I'll have a catheter for a few days. Will I feel like flying home later that day? Or the next day. Thanks folks.

Mine was covered under Medicare in 2024 (had to be done in a hospital— I did Mayo Rochester).

What did it cost and does Medicare now cover

I had TULSA done at 68 years of age. Total gland ablation was performed for a 3+3 Gleason, with nine out of 30 cores positive for cancer. At 3 months post-TULSA, my PSA was 0.10, and my MRI results at 6 months ( see above ) show no cancer. My PSMA before TULSA showed no uptake, not even in the prostate, though the biopsy indicated cancer. I had two tumors and some mild BPH. It looks like TULSA resolved all of those issues.

Post-TULSA experience was zero pain, seriously, zero pain from the treatment. I had two medications for bladder spasm and the feeling that I sometimes needed to pee. I rarely took those for the 12 days I had a catheter.

You can have your prostate removed, and still have a chance of cancer returning. I looked for a procedure that was minimally invasive, low pain, quick recovery, did not limit any future treatment that hopefully I would not need, and did not require me to have the prostate removed. TULSA was the answer for me. At 6 months, I appear to be cancer-free. I will see what my URO wants to do, maybe another MRI at 1 year post-TULSA. I'm not sure what he will want to do, but right now I am delighted and grateful.

Here is my 6-month post-TULSA MRI W/WO contrast. I deleted the non-prostate findings. PSA at 3 months post-TULSA was 0.10. Looks like TULSA was a success for me.

I did the total gland ablation as there was no sense in a focal ablation that would have almost been a guarantee to return at some time in the future for further treatments. I wanted this taken care of now, and to be done with it.

Healing has taken longer than I hoped. Only now has my stream really improved to what I would consider normal. My Testosterone is low-normal, so I have no sex drive and very mild ED. All in all, at 69 years of age, I think I don't even care about that at all.

FINDINGS:

Localizer/T2 coronal: No acute abnormality.

Prostate: Post ablation changes of the peripheral zone of gland. Residual
transition zone is measuring 3.0 x 2.8 x 2.6 cm = 11.4 ml. No findings of
high-grade tumor.

IMPRESSION:
1. Post ablation changes of peripheral zone of prostate gland. No
recurrent disease or findings of new high-grade tumor. No pelvic
lymphadenopathy.

My Mayo Doctor told me all options are on the table if it returns. Really depends on how and where it comes back.