Island,
Let me get this straight: are you volunteering for potentially life altering and traumatic surgery mainly because you are afraid of the soft rubber catheter that you might have to have put in for some form of RT? Hmmmmm.
Like the other bros have said, you have to have a catheter anyway for surgery, and not just for during the surgery but maybe for a week or two. I have a friend who had one for RP, then after it was removed he had urinary retention and had to have it put back in in the ER. Only he was so swollen from the surgery they had a lot of trouble finding the
opening. No fun.
If you are terrified of the catheter, there is more than a good chance that if you just make that a big deal upfront, they will probably make available to you (at your request) some local anesthesia gel squirted in the
opening before the catheter is placed, and/or some sedation. They give sedation for all kinds of things these days. I bet if you make a big deal out of it they will find a way of accommodating you. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.
So you say sex is very important to you, and you have the extra burden of being a single man who would like to have sex in the future? Okay, so I realize there are quite a few men here who have remarkable recoveries from PC surgery, seemingly with everything virtually as good as it was before surgery. With orgasms that feel just as good as ever, and a few where they are even improved compared to presurgery condition. I'm very happy that it works out that well for some of us. But have you also heard from the men here who never have an erection again, despite full nerve sparing surgery, without injections or pumps or penile implants? A few others who never have successful or satisfactory intercourse again even with pills, pumps or injections? As a single man(you), assuming you have great success with pumps and/or injections, do you think they might be a bit of a hindrance to you on a date?
Have you communicated with the men with severely bent penises? How about
the guys with major shrinkage? How about
those who can get an erection and have an orgasm buy one crazy means or another, even if only while standing up, but it doesn't feel good anymore? All of these people are right here at HWPC. Do you have any way of knowing which group you might be in? Some of these bad results had full nerve sparing surgery with very experienced surgeons.
And all of the above is not even considering wild and whacky adventures with incontinence. Once again, we have guys here who are dry from the minute the catheter comes out and never look back. And lots of others who are dry within week or two. But then there's a whole bunch of other guys who are wet for months or for two years before they finally give up and go back for more surgery. There's plenty of these guys. At least one I know of had possibly the most experienced RRP surgeon in the world, and he was only a G6 going in so no need to cut wide. If you are the unlucky group with incontinence, or in the group that ejaculates your urine, even if you can get a good erection, do you think that might be a bit offputting to a new girlfriend?
Now please, don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to talk you out of surgery even if it sounds like that. I'm just saying that if you're making a decision on surgery, and especially if an active sex life as a single man is very important to you, you ought to be making that decision based on something other than the possibility of having a catheter.
If you have come to the decision that surgery is the best way to deal with your PC, and that approach is superior to RT, and you feel you have a superior chance of a cure going that route, then by all means go for it(As if you need my permission LOL!). But please don't make that decision because you have a fear of a catheter.
Lastly, I don't know your stats. But just out of curiosity: you don't happen to be one of those G6s do you? If that's the case, are you sure you really have to make a decision– and especially in favor of surgery –like yesterday?
Please take no offense at my above words, Certainly no offense is intended. I just don't want to see you make a rash decision based on something like a soft rubber catheter.(If indeed I was even reading you accurately about
that, if I was reading you wrong my apologies). If you make a decision for surgery, or for indeed any other treatment or no treatment at all, I'm just hoping you do it based on sound information about
the pros and cons and likely cure rates and side effects of your various options. Good luck on choosing, and may you have a good outcome which ever way you go!
Bill in MS
PS/EDIT: I see your stats in another post from you. Yep, G6, low volume, low PSA. Is there a hurry?
Yes, I realize anxiety can cause a person to be in a hurry. Or, maybe something has changed? But if still a low volume G6, have you researched the odds of that ever killing you or even metastasizing before a heart attack etc will get you? Even if you never do a thing? I don't know the number off hand, but pretty low.