Frequent Urination after Robotic Prostatectomy

Hi All,

First of all, I would like to thank everyone on this forum. It has been a great asset during my whole journey through my prostate cancer treatment, and it is an incredible wealth of information.

I am 56 years old, and underwent a robotic radical prostatectomy with Dr. Tewari a little over a month ago (gleason 3+4, PSA 5.01, 10% gland involvement). Fortunately, I have been doing well as far as continence goes; however, I have to urinate almost every 2 hours. Prior to the surgery, I had also found myself running to the bathroom quite often. I was under the impression that once the prostate is removed, the urinary frequency should start to decrease. In addition, I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to urinate a few times.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, is there anything that I can do to help decrease the urinary frequency? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I will soon be going for my first post-op PSA, I hope that I too can join the 0 PSA club!

Yes, I did have urgency issues. But it improved significantly

Mel

It takes a little time for your body to figure out what to do, sounds like your doing great, hang in there it gets alot better.-Tim

Your recovery curve is normal and you will likely have a lot of "abnormal " feelings in the whole area for the next at least 3 , more likely 6 mos.

I will chime in here and say yep it looks like all of us that have had the surgery had the same issue of seeming to have to go too frequently. I can also agree with the others here it does get better with time. Part of the issue is we are haveing to learn how to hold longer and with time we start to feel almost like new. Im to years out and when I get the urge I know it is time to find a place. I am one of the lucky ones that have been dry sence removal of Cath.

I really sounds like you are doing great at this time.

Cajun Jeff

Hey Prostated,
My username should be 'Frustrated'. I am nineteen months post my Robotic Radical Prostatectomy and here is my story. After surgery and nine days post surgery because of bladder leakage problems, they sent me home with both the JP bag (Jackson-Pratt fluid collection) and my trusty ol' catheter for seven weeks post-Op. Now I feel I have scar tissue from the catheter being in so long and it hurts to pee. I had to place those big blue square pads on my bed in case I would lose control at night. I was also using two to three depends daily because of leakage. Then after about a year, it went down to one a day, none at night. Then after a recent CT, it showed a 6.5x7.2 mass lesion on the outside of the bladder where he sutures
d the urethra back to the bladder and is now putting added pressure on the bladder which in turn makes me go more than before. I may have to have that fluid lesion removed.

Right after Surgery, My Uro put me on 25mg Viagra daily to help (he says) rejuvenate and stimulate any of the nerves left, and getting the blood flow active again. I did this for six months post-Op, then he put me on 100MG of the blue pill, but after a few more months, because of the cost, and insurance does not cover it, so I had to quit. I can still orgasm, but it's always a very frustrating for me and my GF the amount of time it takes to get me there, with a limpy, very flaccid, non-responsive member. (anywhere from 10-25 minutes) I want my stiffness back, but I no longer have (at this time) prostate cancer, so the best of both evils, will have to do. I guess I can't have it all! I do have a VacPump and should be using it everyday..ED doc says “use it or lose it”, it does help a little, but only a small increase of chubbiness, but not enough for penetration, then vac goes off, I lose it. Everyone id different, so don’t give up, your recent surgery is just that, recent, give it some time to heal. Doc also told me it could take up to three or four years to heal and get something back, if anything, so I may have to resort to trimax injections, then worry about accidentally hitting a blood vessel by mistake…Ahhhh, what we go through to get a decent erection, post Op. I may never get anything back naturally again, one could only hope, and also having a patient loving, non selfish GF also helps in the tension release department.

Next, My URO suggested I see a ED Doctor, which prescribed testosterone injections to up my Libido and sex drive,(which I don’t think I have any problems wanted satisfying sex. Because of my Neuroendocrine Carcinoid Tumor cancer, my oncologist told me NOT to take those injections because of some risk factors.

Then the ED Doc suggested a Pump implant….I have a problem with that. (too mechanical, and maybe a turn-off for her too) The only other option is to take Trimax injections, which my URO told me in some cases, the erection will last longer than four hours and become a medical problem and cause more symptoms. Sooooo…here I am. I did do kegals religiously for eight months post Op, but stopped, thinking it did not help as much.

I don’t want to sound like a downer, but some guys are much luckier rebounding than others, when it comes to this surgery and dealing with both the incontinence and sexual function areas.

Good luck to you, and to any other recent radical prostatectomy patients on this site!

I too had the frequency at night. Usually up 4-5 times per night. At my one month checkup I asked my URO about it and he insisted that is was normal and that it would deminish. Now I am at about 7 weeks and it has indeed gone down, I only get up about 2 times per night now. I read somewhere that Magnesium tablets help with this so I bought a bottle of 250 mg magnesium tablets and began taking them about 2 hours before bedtime. This is about the time that the night frequencys slowed down significantly. Was it the magnesium or just the natural deminishing as the uro said? Not sure, but hang in there - I'm sure it will get better for you in time.

I'm 3 months out and started at 5-6 times per night after catheter removed, now down to 3 times per night.