one more day!

I have surgery scheduled with Dr. Moul at Duke on Wednesday 11/16. I've been working out hard - trying to strengthen my core, been doing my kegels, think I have all my supplies needed for post op. Any words of wisdom from the surgery veterans? As anxious as I was to get this done - the butterflies have arrived!

It sounds like you are well prepared for your surgery. We will look forward to reading your update when you get to the other side.
Michael

see you on the other side brother !

ed

You will be on the other side and doing well before you know it. Plan on sleeping in a recliner chair for several days since it will really hurt to try to get in and out of a prone position in a traditional bed.

When it's time for the cath to come out, take a hot shower, deflate the balloon, relax and gently tug on the hose - it should easily come out. Let us know how you're doing post surgery.

MTM, my RALP was done March of this year and I consider it only a little "bump in the road". No pain, only soreness from incisions. Catheter was no problem. Take lax and stool softeners as directed, while watching your diet. I had scrotal swelling several weeks post op, but again no pain. Follow instructions, eat right, walk, begin kegels again after catheter is out. I had Physical Therapy along with the kegels, and think it was very helpful.
Prayers for a quick recovery,
Mack

Best of luck. Hopefully you don't have two beautiful nurses like I did helping you out. There was one thing on my mind and they wanted no part of it. Anyway make sure you have some good walking shoes. I feel that walking, now up to four miles every other day, has done wonders for my re-hab. I was originally doing too many Kegels which I think make it difficult for going #2. I backed off and have not had a problem since. Not my prior activity, but after the catheter was removed, I have been pulling on my buddy as much as possible with my lovely assistant. At this point I am getting 3/4 hard presents once or twice a week which keeps her happy. Another key point is not to over due your recovery. I tried to go too hard on walking and other things and I regressed a little. It is ok to be tired and take naps for the first six weeks or so. I am nine weeks out and doing pretty good.

Like others have said, hopefully for all of us this will just be a bump in the long road.

Howdy MTM,
You're going to do great. I was a bit nervous and unsure during all the exams and testing but once I found out that I had cancer and studied my options I settled on RALP pretty quickly. I did more research and read many articles and talked to my surgeon and an oncologist and after that I was even more confident in my choice of treatment. Once that happened I was really looking forward to surgery day and was not nervous at all really. I can say it was not as bad as I thought it could have been. Of course I had the usual sore ab muscles but not much worse than many core workouts I had done over my lifetime. Mr. Wiggly was a little sore but not bad at all. The catheter and JP drain was a nuisance but not painful....I was happy to get rid of both. Now every once in a while I look in the mirror and I see the scars and then it dawns on my....Oh yeah, I had a prostatectomy! I don't regret having the surgery and would choose it again in my circumstance.

bdb - You bring up an important point. . . constipation. I am a long-term participant on a cardiac surgery related board, and one of the points we try to always bring to mind for people getting ready for surgery is that the anesthetics and pain meds they give you in the hospital often bring your digestive system to a complete halt. For me it was so bad that when I had open-heart surgery, I had to be readmitted to the hospital 4 weeks later to get my digestive system back on track.

So. . . the advice from the heart patient (me) is to be sure you have some Miralax handy when you come home, and if things are difficult or stopped, use the Miralax as per label instructions. Once things are moving again, you can titrate down to half doses for a few days, then stop it. That type of laxative is recommended by some heart surgeons as being effective without causing the patient to have cramps that would be extra painful after surgery. That might be a good choice for prostatectomy patients as well.

Of course there is always the remedy suggested by one of my Finnish friends -- he swears by Kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage).

Anyway, if you're like me, after surgery the last thing you want is to be straining to move your bowels.

I pray you have a successful surgery and little pain afterwards. I had similar numbers as you and elected to go with the HDR brachy instead of surgery. Just making a choice between the 2 was a relief. I am scheduled for my first session of two on Dec. 6. I too am getting butterflies. Good Luck

Mtm, thinking of you this morning. Be nice to the nurses, they are the ones who really make sure things go well....

We'll - got back home late yesterday afternoon. Doc said it went perfectly. Nerves spared , removed 2 lymph modes. Only pain is when I get up to walk. I would expect that to get drastically better within a day or 2. Catheter isn't nearly as bad as I anticipated

Now to heal and get my results 11/29. Thanks for all your help guys - you helped so much!

You will find the more you are up the better. Good luck