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robot surgery complete and now on the mend

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Posted 3/7/2011 5:58 PM (GMT 0)
On 3/3 i had the robotic procedure.  all seemed to go well however i am still awaiting the pathological report.  my anxiety level was out the roof the day of surgery and two days following.  i would take one look at the cath and begin shaking uncontrolably.  i know, man up viperguy, but this has been a horendous experience and i am still neverous.  but feel that i am healing.  forum has been a major support for me.  i was off the pain meds withing two days but the anxiety was worse than anything for me.  it took several days before i could even look at the cath.  now i'm more used to it and cleaning it daily.  but what an ordeal for a nervous person.  BTW that darn cath did feel like little bee stings for about a day. 
Posted 3/7/2011 6:02 PM (GMT 0)
Glad to hear that you made it out of the hospital without issues...as expected.

I do also recall not wanting to inspect the catheter area too closely, although I did do regular cleaning in order to maximize recovery outcome. And indeed, it did fully recover.

best wishes...
Posted 3/7/2011 6:06 PM (GMT 0)
So it sounds like you are eating okay? GOOD! Now get out and do some walking..You will feel much better quickly..Tape that catheter to your upper thigh so it doesn't flop around and irritate Junior..Welcome to the other side...
Posted 3/7/2011 6:11 PM (GMT 0)
V,

Nothing to be nervous about - keep Cath clean, and she'll not be quite such a pain.

Keep moving, and keep up the water.

Sounds like you're doing well.

Posted 3/7/2011 6:55 PM (GMT 0)
V,
Welcome to the other side. Glad surgery went well.Hopefully you read all your pre-op material. I missed the part about the possible scrotum swelling,and that threw me for a loop. Once the shock was over I had to laugh because then it reminded me of Jabba The Hut with a silly straw tongue
Like they said get your butt up and walk as much as you can. That helps everything heal easier if not faster.
Next step, the great catheter with drawl , then the journey is off to bigger and better things. Good Luck!
Posted 3/7/2011 7:08 PM (GMT 0)
viper - wishing you all the best for your recovery - and don't fret about freaking out about stuff .... the bee sting feeling could be due to a narrow urethra and the catheter stretching it a bit and then fitting fine...
- just take your time - drink water to flush everything out of your system- and go for walks - NO inclines - and keep flights of stairs to a minimum ( I have a three storey house so was restricted to one or two levels for the first few weeks)
- take care,
hugs
BRONSON
Posted 3/7/2011 7:49 PM (GMT 0)
viper,

you are probably doing better than you think you are. every day now, you are in the recovery zone, things should get a little bit better with each passing day.

after spending my first 63 days without a break on a cath after surgery, can honestly say i know how you feel. after my 21st and final cath, i think i could write a book on the subject. hopefully, yours is a short time one, perhaps 5-10 days? Soon that unpleasant part will behind you.

Good luck

David
Posted 3/7/2011 8:20 PM (GMT 0)
The doctor has scheduled cath removal at 14 days out. I'm to go to the office have cath out drink and come back two hours later for a pee test. I know I'm not out of the woods yet and am worried about the pathology report. The doctor told me he did not think it had spread but was unsure until the report. I suppose you have radiation therapy if there are positive margins. I have not read up on that part yet.

I hope the cath removal does not hurt.   

I'm having a terrible time sleeping at night. I've become a napper.

Posted 3/7/2011 8:25 PM (GMT 0)
viper,

the 14 days means your doc is thinking of you, and wanting to make sure you get a proper healing in that all critical bladder neck to urethra stitching. i often attribute my almost total lack of incontinence to the extra long healing time that i had after surgery.

until you get the path report, you will be on edge, very typical for all of us. your biopsy was an estimate, and this pathology is the final bill so to speak

the sleeping bit, is not uncommon post any major surgery. that should improve in time, or ask your doc for some short term use of something like Ambien to help you.

david
Posted 3/7/2011 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
Viperguy I welcome you to the other side. I got lucky my bowels didn't start till the 7th day. The pain was so bad I didn't get to think much about the cath. My doc said he wanted the urine to be very very light. He said do that and all will be well. I followed his advice. The day of the removal I went to the hospital to get a scan. They filled the bladder with a dye and the doc showed me live scans of the full bladder. He said all looked good so he felt my doc would agree with his advice to remove the cath. Off to my doc's office he said out it comes. His nurse had me on a table draped my front. proceeded to do some work and then held up to cath. I felt next to nothing.
Hang in there it gets better with time. Keep reminding yourself you are not the first guy to have gone through this thing.
Today most all of what I went through is a fading memory.
Posted 3/7/2011 9:18 PM (GMT 0)
Hang in there champ. Mine was in for 13 days. She drained it,told me to cough hard 3 times and it was done! Easy-Peasy!. The hardest part sleeping for me is the fact I'm a side sleeper. with the cath I had to sleep on my back, thus I had some early morning back pain.After a few days I was able to roll on my right side for a little while and that helped.
I didn't have a BM for 17 days and man that was ugly.
Posted 3/7/2011 11:26 PM (GMT 0)
V, Welcome back. You have great numbers on your biopsy take a deep breath and walk walk walk. You should be fine. I am a bit surprised at how long your going to be on that darn rubber snake. I had open surgery and kept that cath for 10 days. Man was I glad to get that thing pulled.


Do keep us posted of your healing. Best wishes.

Cajun Jeff
Posted 3/7/2011 11:56 PM (GMT 0)
with your numbers I'm sure the pathology will be fine. You've already gone through the toughest part of the journey. It's all downhill from here on out.
Posted 3/8/2011 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the other side. I hope you get the good results from the pathology report.
Posted 3/8/2011 10:22 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Viperguy,

With your biopsy results, there is every reason in the world to believe that the pathology will be fine.
My husbands catheter removal was painless (I watched him and there was not a hint of a wince). The most painful thing by far during this entire prostate cancer saga (and this includes incision pain) was his first bowel movement about 6 days after surgery.

If you have already done your first BM, then if you follow my husbands recovery trajectory, the worst is over.

An
Posted 3/8/2011 1:45 PM (GMT 0)
It's interesting everybody refers to the BM thing.  Wow!  that was a major concern.  How we take things like that for granite.  I have only been slightly constipated today being the worse so far.  May need a little milk magnesia to get things moving. 

Last night I did something incredibly stupid.  I got my meds mixed up.  I was supposed to take the benedril tablet to help with sleep and ended up taking an old Flomax pill instead.  I found out within 1/2 hour after doing so.  Instead of the usual groggyness and began getting anxiety and not sleeply.  I freaked out a bit and called the poison center and told them what happened.  They indicated one pill should not have a toxic effect since flomax was orginally designed for blood pressure control.  I still can't believe I did that.  My sister has been helping with my care and she said one of her friends took the dogs heart worm pill and was okay afterwards.  (actually I found that kind of funny). 

I will continue to report progress, concerns etc. and share my stories with others even though my giving of advice is quite limited.  I guess I can actually make a worthwhile contribution now, "Guys don't be stupid and get your meds mixed up, like me" LOL.   You guys and gals on the other hand have been pretty much right on with everything. 

Posted 3/8/2011 2:03 PM (GMT 0)
As much as it seems to be too simplistic, get a couple of the "slot a day" type pill boxes, different colors - one for morning, one for night.

That helped a lot with sorting out the dozen pills a day -

Posted 3/8/2011 2:31 PM (GMT 0)

Viperguy said...
It's interesting everybody refers to the BM thing. Wow! that was a major concern. How we take things like that for granite.

Come to think of it my first BM post surgery did feel like I was passing granite.

Dan
Posted 3/8/2011 3:05 PM (GMT 0)
My first few BMs were also very difficult.  My first was 3 days post-OP.  I finally took a stool softener to get things going.  I was afraid to push hard because I thought I could feel my urethra pulling agains my bladder.  Also, pushing hard increased the amount of blood in the urine.  This went on for a couple more weeks even after the catheter was out.

 

My catheter and urine bag became my little friends.  They followed me wherever I went.  They even went with me to a controversial Planning & Zoning meeting where we discussed a new cell phone tower.  After 8 days it was time to say goodbye to my little friend and I was happy to see him go.  Viperguy, soon you will be saying goodbye to your little friend too.

Post Edited (axle) : 3/8/2011 8:09:09 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 3/8/2011 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
Viper, my doctor recommended caster oil for constipation (old school). With that there is no crampy-gassy feeling like there was with the milk of magnesia. It doesn't taste bad, it was just like swallowing oil.
Good Luck!
Posted 3/8/2011 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
The morning of the day after surgery I was given a dose of milk of magnesia by the nurse but it didn't get things "moving" so later in the day she came back with a second dose. The second one worked. I did use stool softeners for a short time until things were back to normal for that part of recovery.
Posted 3/8/2011 5:00 PM (GMT 0)
They said I couldn't go home till I passed gas so they gave me a laxative and a suppository. I had more gas after that than the Saudie's  but they let me go home. This was on my third day.

 

Posted 3/8/2011 6:07 PM (GMT 0)
P-elliot, now that was funny about the gas thing.  Shame we can't bottle that up and sell it.  LOL

Since my last post, two movements without assistance, so I feel blessed.  I can't believe I'm writing about BM's but they are so darn important. 

about the only thing I've noticed about my general health thus far is a slight increase in BP.  My normal is 130/78 it now runs 145/80 (I'm not on BP medicine) .  Some of my post surgical meds may cause a slight rise in BP like the Levaquin and Meloxicam.  BTW has anybody priced Levaquin?  It's about $500 for 14 days.  Lucky I only paid $60 with the insurance.

Posted 3/8/2011 9:38 PM (GMT 0)
Next to my loving wife, doodies are my best friend cool
Posted 3/8/2011 9:57 PM (GMT 0)

wigged-out said...
Next to my loving wife, doodies are my best friend cool

I guess my failing eyesight is to blame, but when I first read this, I thought you sad "doobies". My reaction was to laugh and say "good for W-O, he HAS found a way to relax"!

I'm 5 days post-op, and the only pain is hernia related, not RaRP. The catheter aches, but who am I to complain.

Am pleased that the 2 guys getting surgery virtually concurrent to my own are also on the mend. I hope some poor guy who is lurking....and facing a decision or an imminent procedure can take a large measure of comfort in these posts.
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