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Posted 1/23/2010 11:59 PM (GMT 0)
Another post here got me curious. Supposedly there is a quicker recovery with robotic surgery. Hence one would expect less pain. I know I had laparoscopic knee surgery (torn meniscus in 2 places and arthritis) and it went well but was far from pain free.

So, what's the real deal on this surgery. For those who had the surgery, how was the pain. Did you require pain killers stronger than tylenol?

Also, was there a lot of lingering pain?

Someone mentioned that coughing/sneezing hurt a LOT. Correct?

Just curious and killing time.

Mel (T-3 and counting!)

Posted 1/24/2010 12:27 AM (GMT 0)
Mel, you must admit this time, that your question is very personal and extremely subjective. Personal in the sense that pain levels and pain tolerance are very unique from person to person. Proper pain management is such a definitive science. Some here have needed virtually no pain meds not only from robotic, but even with some open surgeries. It's kind of like comparing hospital time, some more, some less.

With my open surgery, and having a natural low tolerance for pain, I needed pretty strong meds in the hospital. I was on prescription pain meds for about 3 weeks after the big surgery.

You should know how you deal with pain in general, and the rest, I hate to say it this way, you won't know till you are done. But if you need it, best advice I can give is to take what you need, you arent' going to become a pain pill junky in your recovery. You will heal better and faster if you are not addressing untreated pain issues. That's a medical fact.

I have had more chronic pain post salvage radiation then I did with my actual main surgery. Some of my corrective surgeries have left me with a great deal of pain too. The other thing is, make sure you communicate clearly with your medical staff on pain matters. Understand the pain scale chart, and always give honest estimates. There's no prize for taking less, or lying about how much you really hurt, unless you tell them, they won't have a definitive way of helping you.

David in SC
Posted 1/24/2010 12:50 AM (GMT 0)
Mel Discomfort absolutely, Pain with coughing YES, However as I have stated a number of times to friends and co-workers I had very few episodes of actual Pain. I don’t do Tylenol, but as soon as I could take my Aleve I didn’t need any additional medication for pain. You are very well informed. You will most probably have 5 abdominal stab wounds with the central wound being extended vertically. Your going to have pain from that trauma. I wish I would have known then what I know now. I would gladly go through this again if we were just talking about toleration of the pain. I have read your post regarding back pain. 8 years ago I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and had excruciating pain. I was in bed and wonder if something broke inside me. I wondered if I had gotten drunk and run over by my tractor,(again). But what I had was a herniated disc. It was bad enough that I had pain down my right leg that actually gave me foot drop. I was really lucky that I didn’t need to have surgery, (that was suggested) just lots of physical therapy and that is how I got into running. Just for clarification I would tell you that I think that I’m a normal person when it comes to toleration of pain. Your going to be just fine. Your back pain is going to be a huge trump in relation to the amount of pain from the robotic surgery. Back pain 10, robotic pain 3.1459265, or to completely ******ize things...a piece of Cake. Good Luck and Godspeed. Hero
Posted 1/24/2010 1:00 AM (GMT 0)
Mel, My doctor gave me an RX for Darvocet to control pain. I'm no tough guy. I took one just before bed time to help me sleep but did not fill to need for pain control during the day. I found that holding a folded towel or pillow firmly on my lower stomach helped for cough or sneeze.
Posted 1/24/2010 1:00 AM (GMT 0)
Coughing and sneezing were really the only sources of pain I had post-surgery. (Catheter was more an annoyance than actual pain.) Neither was horrible, but neither was pleasant. I was given Percocet whenever I asked, but found the headache on the rebound was worse than the pain it was intended to treat, so I quit that pretty quickly and went straight to Tylenol.

I recommend religiously using the spirometer that they'll give you after you are rolled in from surgery - if you're not familiar, it's a device you exhale into to encourage full evacuation of the lungs. This will help minimize congestion and the subsequent coughing. USE IT FREQUENTLY! It's your friend.

(If nobody provides you a spirometer, ask for one. It's that important.)
Posted 1/24/2010 1:59 AM (GMT 0)
Mel,the robotic is much easier not much pain when you cough hold a pillow against your abdomen it helps a little.take care

Zach
Posted 1/24/2010 2:14 AM (GMT 0)

Id say the pain was a two at the worst.  My stomach felt tight but not painful.  I did use the pain medicine prescribed for several days more to keep my body loose than for actual pain. 

Ten days post surgery it it still uncomfortable to sleep on my side but other than that no pain at all.

 

 

Posted 1/24/2010 2:15 AM (GMT 0)
I think most people have relatively low pain.  However, I experienced a lot of abdominal pain for almost 6 weeks.  Took Vicodin as needed.  Am pain free now that I am 10 weeks out, but it was very rough for me in the beginning.  everyone is completely different.
Posted 1/24/2010 2:28 AM (GMT 0)
My pain was pretty severe, but didnt like the pain meds either. Having said that that was an anesthia error after they started my surgery and they had to pull me out from under the robot to put the iv back in a vein. Good thing I was asleep, but I hurt all day long for about 4 weeks and then it began tapering off. Woke up with my left arm wrapped in warm towells and when I was finally able to look at it, it was 2-3 times its normal size as was my hand. When I looked at the other guys walking around the hall later that day I knew they were feeling a lot better than I was. Some people have minimal pain and hope you are one of those. It wil go well for you.
Michael
Posted 1/24/2010 4:18 AM (GMT 0)
This surgery was the first major surgery that I ever had so I don't have much to compare to, but I found robotic surgery to be a walk in the park. Very little pain. Never used any of the pain pills they sent me home with. Just the inconvenience of the catheter (hurt a little when they pulled it out) and the leaking that followed. Now almost 100% dry..

Good Luck to you!

Ricky
Posted 1/24/2010 6:15 AM (GMT 0)
Mel,

So for me it went like this: Woke up in recovery room, felt like I had to pee, but otherwise no pain. Still groggy. Went back to sleep. Later, in the hospital room, the nurse asks me to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I don't remember what I said, seven maybe. He then asked if I wanted him to inject some morphine into my IV. I thought, why not, never tried it before. So he did, and I did feel better in less than a minute. The pain was not as bad, say, dental work, but with the morphine I felt fine. Next day, they gave me Percocet to take home. I did take some, but only for a day.

At a different level, when walking around, I felt like I shouldn't stand up completely straight, as this seemed to make surgical area hurt. This persisted for weeks, but I could stand up nearly straight with no problem. Went to work like this and nobody seemed to notice.

DJ
Posted 1/24/2010 7:03 AM (GMT 0)
With the robot, I had no pain. The portal wounds were sore if I pressed on them, but no pain with movement, coughing, sneezing, or walking. I took a few Motrin type pills because the nurse handed them to me.
Posted 1/24/2010 12:32 PM (GMT 0)
Mel, I had robotic surgery on Sept. 15th in Boston. They wheeled me into the operating room awake and showed me where the surgeon will be and where I will be. They asked me to slide over to the operating table and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up in the recovery room. The nurse asked me to rate my 'pain', but I didn't really have any, so I said about a two or three. They gave me some chicken broth to eat and that's about it. The wonderful nurses got me up doing laps right off the bat, and that turned out to be a way of life even up to now. Walking is big. I stayed one night in the hospital and when leaving they gave me a vicadin for the 1 1/2 hour ride home, in case my wife hit some bumps or pot holes. Bring a lap pillow for your ride home. I never used the prescription for vicadin, and didn't need any other medication. Like all the guys say, the catether is really the worst of it. Getting out of bed can hurt a little at first because you will have very little strength in your abdomin muscles. This weaknes lasted about three days and gradually got stronger every day. I learned to use my arms and legs more to get out of bed. I had never had surgery before, so I suppose I expected much more pain than I actually had, which was practically none. I trip to the dentist is worse. Good luck.
Posted 1/26/2010 2:57 PM (GMT 0)
After my DaVinci surgery I only need 2 Tylenol for discomfort. Actually I had no pain.
Posted 1/26/2010 3:27 PM (GMT 0)
Mel,
I used "the button" half a dozen times in the 4 days they kept me. It was extreme discomfort, not severe pain. I had more significant problems with nausea in the hospital.

I took home Norco 10-325, 30 tabs in the script, took 10 in the two weeks following DaVinci(had more pain at night from the catheter and related swelling than anything). Did not want to get dependent on the meds, but wanted to sleep. I have taken a total of 4 ibuprophen since then.

I've had broken bones and crown preparations that were much more painful.

That said, I am the one who mentioned pain when sneezing. If you can hug a pillow when you sneeze, it is bearable. I still have a spare pillow in the chair next to me. On the second or third in a row for the first few days, it was off to the pill bottle. It is still a bother to be avoided, but not real pain (DaVinci +13 weeks).
Posted 1/26/2010 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
Compared to the implant surgery I just had, the robotic was a cake walk. Up and walking a few hours after surgery. If not for the catheter would have been back to work in a day or two.
Posted 1/26/2010 9:36 PM (GMT 0)
First of all, remember that this is not a toughness contest. Pain tenses the body and slows healing.

I took pain killers the first couple of nights so that I got a good sleep. After that I didn't need them. But every person is different. Do remember that painkillers lead to constipation so if you need them, be sure to take laxatives as well -- getting your bowels moving is important to healing.
Posted 1/26/2010 10:26 PM (GMT 0)
Geezer, I think you got the point about pain management right on the head. And yes, if you are on pain meds, even mild ones, they tend to be consitpating, so compensate with stool softeners and/or mild laxatives as needed, clearing this with your dr. of course. Even the ditropan I have to keep taking for spams is a constipating drug, so I factor that in too.

Without proper pain management, one's recovery can take longer, or even relaspse. So why suffer needlessly.

David in SC
Posted 1/27/2010 12:39 AM (GMT 0)

geezer99 said...
First of all, remember that this is not a toughness contest. Pain tenses the body and slows healing.

I took pain killers the first couple of nights so that I got a good sleep. After that I didn't need them. But every person is different. Do remember that painkillers lead to constipation so if you need them, be sure to take laxatives as well -- getting your bowels moving is important to healing.

Great, great post. Important for all to remember, at all points of the process. Kudos, geezer!
Posted 1/27/2010 1:19 AM (GMT 0)
It hurt more than I thought it would.  5 incisions + belly button.  Needed combo of hydrocoedine + sleeping pill to sleep at night for the first two weeks.  After one week, I tried walking more than 5 - 10 minutes at a clip, and found that it hurt too much.  After two weeks I was able to walk 30 - 45 minutes.  After three, back to an hour plus. Very tender for about 6 weeks.  Took that long before I could sleep on my sides -- before that, pulled too much.  Also, surgeon didn't mention it before, but shoulders ached a lot for 36 hours after surgery -- gas they pump into you.  Normal, I'm told.  After two weeks, things progressed very well.  Other aspects of recovery went fine.  Had hip replacement two years ago -- that was a steeper climb.

NewsPaper Lover

 

Age 66

PSA:  6.0  on 07/31/09 having risen from 4.2 on 12/02/08.  Free PSA 23.5%.Other PSA History: 4.3 on 05/01/08; 3.3 on 11/15/07; 3.1 on 05/20/07; 4.0 on 11/30/06; 3.40 on 09/01/05.

 

Biopsy:  09/04/09  13 snips;  two positive.  Right Mid  4+3 = 7 and 15% of the total volume.   Right Lateral Mid 4+3 = 7 and 20% of the total volume.

 

DaVinci robotic surgery:  11/05/09.  Post surgery pathology:  margins clean, no invasion of seminal vessels, no upgrade of the Gleason scores, no evidence of cancer outside the prostate capsule.

 

Cathether removed one week later:  11/12/09.   No  incontinence.  Stopped pads after two days.

  

 

 

Posted 1/27/2010 4:18 AM (GMT 0)
The surgery itself didn't present any real problems or pain for me! ... It was the associated problems of the co2 and consitpation that was the real source of pain. After a week that finally that finally passed (PUNN INTENDED)!
Posted 1/27/2010 1:23 PM (GMT 0)
I was surprised that I had more pain with Davinci then I thought I would. But my wife reminds me I do not tolerate pain very well. On a scale 1-10 I would rate mine at a 8 or 9. They actually changed the pain meds twice to give me more comfort. Please don't let that scare you though as I am very happy with the surgery was just surprised based on others feedback. My six month check up is on Feb. 15th and doing great overall.

another Larry.
Posted 1/31/2010 8:38 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone,

I am new here. Had my prostate removed roboticly 1/6/10 My first time in a hospital got myself ready for the worse! I have to say I had no pain what so ever never took any pain pills at all. Just a little tenderness where they did the incisions to me that was just like healing from an average cut. The catheter was more of a pain in the neck than anything else. Be prepared for incontinence when the catheter is removed got mine out 12 days ago Jan 19th much improvement in that time.

Age: 43

Diagnosed 12/3/09

Biopsy 1 out of 14 samples

Gleason 3+3=6

P.S.A. 3.9
Posted 2/1/2010 7:37 PM (GMT 0)
Hello
(Hello everyone and anyone. I've not been able to post for weeks as IE8 was blocking everything, but I'm here via Google Chrome now)

I've just reached 6 months since my op.

I only ever needed paracetemol after coming out of hospital the day after (but they did give me a prescritpion to get soemthing stronger from the pharmacy if I'd needed it)

Walking was almost the "best medicine"

Six months on I still have an ache around the big navel scar almost all the time. And if I forget myself and suddenly leap, on a chair to get something off a high shelf then I also get an ache inside.

I was warned not to forget that while the holes on the outside are smaller with robotic there is almost the same amount of chopping on the inside and it is major surgery.

The only thing that has elft me curled up in agony since the op are orgasms, a few of which were the most painful thing I've experienced (apart from the biopsy)

Which all goes to show how subjective it all is.

Alf
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