HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Arousal or ********** following radical prostatectomy

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/15/2018 1:46 AM (GMT 0)
I am almost 5 weeks after robot assisted RP and have noticed that I am becoming aroused and achieving at least a partial erection. I am scheduled to do follow-up in three months to check PSA. I did call the nurse last week to ask about this issue and she recommended I abstain from sexual activities until I see my MD in September. I just emailed my MD about this but have not heard back from him yet about whether ********** is recommended at this point and wondered what others have been advised. However, I will do nothing until my MD says do it. I believe my PSA before surgery was 4 or 5 and Gleason 7 - cancer was confined to only one side of the prostate and MD took 17 lymph nodes, all of them came back negative for metastatic carcinoma. Appreciate hearing how others have addressed this early in RP recuperation. Thanks
Posted 7/15/2018 2:16 AM (GMT 0)
Layne, that sounds like you're making great progress. You're 5 weeks out, and I was told to wait 6 weeks--and then be very cautious--things are still healing inside. But, my doc also told me that if I felt able, and we were careful--maybe let your partner do most of the 'work'--then it would be OK.

I also note that he specifically said that that thing you have asterisked out is really the very best rehabilitation program there is. The specific musculature of her woman parts is great therapy.
Posted 7/15/2018 2:20 AM (GMT 0)
I wouldn't do any serious horseback riding yet, cowboy, but if you have a partner or stable hand that would like to take your pony for a gentle trot around the track... well, let's put it this way: if I'd had wood at 5 weeks, wild horses couldn't have kept me from chopping it for 7 more weeks. My unprofessional advice is: Take it easy, but take it.
Posted 7/15/2018 4:56 AM (GMT 0)
I think the nurse you spoke to doesn't know what she's talking about - talk to your doctor only. Penile rehab can and should have begun as soon as the catheter came out. By September you will irreparably lose size and girth. ED meds can begin now, and frequent master bation is essential. This is not the time to "take it easy" - it's the time to work it hard. You should also ask your uro for a pump to be used daily. The idea is that you want to keep the blood flowing.

In this study, those men who started using a vacuum erection device (VED) the day after catheter removal and continuing for 90 days had less size loss compared to men who were non-compliant:

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17657210

For ED meds, starting on-demand use earlier, continuing it longer,at higher doses had the best results:

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949994/

Early use of trimix also was associated with early return of erectile function:

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16482200
Posted 7/15/2018 5:20 AM (GMT 0)
By “take it easy” I just meant no bucking broncos. Certainly do everything possible pharmaceutically and mechanically to promote blood flow to whatchamacallit.
Posted 7/15/2018 10:32 AM (GMT 0)
In 'short', if you have a sufficient amount of swelling and growth to make it useful, feel free to use it. Just be gentle, and remind your partner to be gentle as well. Many of us find the lack of mess to be a good thing.
Posted 7/18/2018 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
Sounds like you are doing well.

You can also have a lot of sex without involving an erection. Plus whatever you can manage that does.
Posted 7/18/2018 5:17 PM (GMT 0)
You're doing pretty well post surgery. Please read Tall Allen's post, and follow his suggestions. Penile rehab is important.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply