Pre-surgery preparation

Hello all - yes, I'm a newbie, so new in fact they haven't removed my umbilical cord (catheter) as yet. Its nice to find an active forum where a fairly broad spectrum of topics are addressed in one box rather than tooling all over the web looking for stuff.

Just about every site found addresses choosing a procedure, a surgeon and sex recovery to varying degrees but seldom or to any extent is much, if anything, said about patient preparation. Maybe I'm off base here but it seems there is too little emphasis on what we are giving the surgeon to work with especially since (unless advanced or other issues come into play) PC is not generally a race to the surgical suite. With this in mind high priority questions to the surgeon on my part were "does my current physical condition make me a good candidate for the surgery?" and "what can I do to make things better for you on the table and me after the procedure?". Fortunately, because of a relatively active lifestyle, metabolism etc., he indicated no problems but did suggest building a little more endurance to help in the recovery phase. I took his advice and believe that the extra effort in the weeks leading up to the procedure have been beneficial thus far in bouncing back to some semblance of normalcy - well, as normal as one can expect after being sliced, diced and tortured with a rubber hose.

Also, during the two night stay in the hospital I was able to see a pretty good cross section of the, mostly, younger people working there. Sorry to say that two out of three health care providers were definitely overweight with a couple knocking on the obese door. This is sad to see people train for and work in a profession where the emphasis is on health and well being.

Enough of my soapbox pounding as I need to hurry back to ....... well, whatever it was I'd like to be doing but can't and won't until sufficiently recovered to not try and overdo doing.

Thanks 142

I'm hoping the "other side" and the "new normal" wind up being close enough to the original side and old normal so as not to have to make too many adjustments.

welcome aboard, oldfireguy

glad you found our little corner of the world. hope your recovery goes well for you, as you already know, post surgery life varies so very much from guy to guy.

you are quite correct, knowledge about pre-surgery is very important, and can help pave for a smoother path after. don't know about you, but i don't like surprises, so i asked and asked tons of questions and what-ifs with my uro/surgeon, and despite that prep, i still had to make a lot of adjustments to side effects and complications that came in my own journey.

david in sc

Thanks Purgatory and Tim

One of the reasons I immediately had thoughts of physical condition is due to my background in HS and Col. running track plus having coached High Schoolers for 10 years. Believe me, I'm not a personal fitness freak but the upcoming operation reminded me of building and fine tuning the body throughout a season so you can peak your performance at the end when it counts. The big difference being age 61 vs 17-22, meaning downsizing the activity level so as not to cause more harm than good.

Tim - about the moving, no problem there as my post op haunches and pelvic floor soreness made sitting uncomfortable for any length of time and having a treadmill (and using it for something other than taking up floor space and gathering dust) is a plus. As for liquids, you bet. Even thought of the days when beer was a regular on the menu but there is a bit too much downside there so water and juices are more the order of the day.