TURP Procedure

This is for my cousin who is scheduled to undergo a TURP procedure next month. Can anyone who's been through this give us an idea what to expect, pain, recovery process, prep, side effects, etc?

I had a TURP in July 2011 following some pretty significant BPH symptoms during the previous couple of months. The TURP wasn't all that bad, and hopefully techniques have improved during the past four years, as halbert suggests.

As you might think, there have in the past been a number of threads and discussions here about having a TURP, and these can be retrieved and viewed using the forum "Search" function.

To do so:

Go to the top of this screen
Locate "Search" in menu bar to the upper right of the thread title
Click on it
In resulting Search box type TURP
Enter
Resulting display gives this forum's discussions on TURP in past

For example, this was a good TURP discussion we had from April 2014:

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=3056984

I had a thulium laser procedure in April 2015. Due to the size of my prostate (over 80 cc), my surgeon decided, after using 500,000 joules of laser energy, to convert to a standard TURP to finish removing one of my prostate lobes. I had a general anesthetic, spent one night in the hospital because of a genetic bleeding condition, but the pain was minimal. Bladder spasms were irritating. I had a catheter for 6 days and was extremely grateful to have it removed. A benefit of the TURP was tissue was removed and the pathologist found it negative.

Unfortunately, I went into urinary retention the following week, visited my local ER twice in one day and spent another night in the hospital with another catheter. I had a lot of blood clots that needed to be irrigated which is not fun. I described the pain from irrigation to my urologists as "an electric eel is biting the tip of my penis".

I was concerned about incontinence, but luckily had minor leakage for about two weeks. TURP removes the internal sphincter, but the external works just great to prevent accidents.

I was hoping to enjoy a nice quiet time recovering by housesitting in Hawaii in June & July, but went into urinary retention and experienced "third world medicine" in Honolulu. I had to wait over an hour for a doctor to tell the nurse to catheterize me. I asked the nurse "what French are you using?", she wouldn't answer, so I said "please use lidocaine!". After she inserted the catheter and removed 750ml of clots and liquid, she told me she used the 2nd to the largest catheter. Whew, it felt like it too and looked like a garden hose!

Fortunately, I met a great urology PA the next day who irrigated and removed more clots and sent me back to the beach without a catheter. The PA also gave me his direct phone number and insisted I avoid the ER if any further problems. The bleeding and clots gradually went away and the end of June I was allowed to resume sexual activity.

I was aware of retrograde ejaculation because of the consent forms, but unfortunately I have lost the ability to have an orgasm (anorgasmia). My urologist/surgeon specifically told me by email before the surgery, my ability to feel and experience orgasms would be unchanged. My urologist is convinced the surgery didn't cause the anorgasmia and asked me to consider mental health therapy. After visiting with the therapist, he is convinced I'm mentally normal and suggested I get a second opinion from another urologist. I'm getting that done in a few weeks. I am pleased but surprised that my HMO has approved an outside Dr. to do the second opinion, but I'm not complaining.

I realize that I am an unusual case, but I have found by research that surgeons don't tell their patients all the possible side effects of TURP. I can "pee like a racehorse" now, but a continuing problem since my prostate biopsy in January 2015 is nocturia; I get up to urinate once or twice a night.

Thanks for that Moose.