HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Another new guy to this journey

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/22/2015 3:01 AM (GMT 0)
Hello all. 1st post here. Well, I'm barely 4 weeks out from my DaVinci surgery. It's been one hell of a ride so far, and something I sure wasn't expecting at 53. But, I'm here, and lucky my PC was caught when it was. As my signature says, I had full left side nerve sparing, and Doc says he saved about 1/2 on the right side. I have the vast majority of incontinence addressed. I'm still a bit sore though & I know I am still healing. My question is on ED. It's probably fair to say at 4 weeks I've got a ways to go here yet, but for those of you who had nerve sparing, what was your experience? I realize your experience may not be mine, but for those who got your functionality back, how long did it take? What, if anything, did you do to optimize your success? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

-NL
Posted 7/22/2015 9:47 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the club, Northern. I appear to be an outlier, but I started having nightime erections a week or so after the cath came out. Not enough to be useful, but enough that it woke me up because it was tucked down by the pad. ED results are all across the map.

I'd suggest, that if you're not there already, you need to be on daily cialis to get the blood moving down there. Usually by 4 weeks a lot of us were having stirrings. It can take up to a year to get function back, or sometimes not at all, sorry to say.
Posted 7/22/2015 10:40 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome, pleased to meet you. :-)

2 & 1/2 years since DaVinci, now recovering from ADT chemo since then. "Some" nerves were spared...before 40 sessions of external beam radiation. Very little action down there, but absolutely no desire at all. Maybe sometime in the next year or so.....

...am mostly looking forward to cessation of side effects from everything, ED is just another side effect. :shrug:
Posted 7/22/2015 1:34 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome Northern. Sounds like you are doing well on most fronts @ 4 weeks. Took me 14 weeks to be pad free.

As noted - ED recovery is all over the map. For me I'm now a few days short of 6 months post surgery and responding OK to 50mg Viagra. If I'm on my back I get about 5 minutes at 100% then down to 75%. If I'm upright, (kneeling or standing) it seems gravity helps out and I'm able to maintain 100% for the duration.

If your partner is willing keep your boots on and see if gravity helps to optimize your recovery.

Jon
Posted 7/22/2015 4:31 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to HW, sorry you need to be here.

ED recovery takes time. Could be months, days, who knows.

You might want to get a copy of Dr. Mulhall's book, "Saving your Sex Life" He offers a great guided to post op ED recovery.

Hang in there, you never know what might come up,
Andrew
Posted 7/22/2015 9:11 PM (GMT 0)
I will ask about the daily Cialis, hadn't heard that. Then again, there isn't a lot that I HAVE heard at 4 1/2 weeks out. It's all still pretty new. I should say I have tried 100 mg Viagra & have noticed some change (20-25%maybe), but that's about it. Any other thoughts on staying ahead of the ED curve?
Posted 7/22/2015 9:19 PM (GMT 0)
Time, Cialis, Viagra and 'practice' are your best methods. It takes months for the nerves to heal and often it's a year or more before you'll be back to anything like normal.

It's also not uncommon for there to be no improvement and then suddenly things jump to life.

Andrew
Posted 7/22/2015 9:24 PM (GMT 0)
Here's a link to a video by Dr. Mulhall that covers the use of PDE5s for penile rehab:

/www.mskcc.org/videos/penile-rehabilitation-after-treatment

Good luck and best wishes.
Posted 7/22/2015 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
RCS.... VERY informative link. Thank you !!
Posted 7/31/2015 7:27 PM (GMT 0)
Northern Lights, welcome, sorry I'm late to this thread, been away.

I too was prescribed daily Cialis. And with it, I was fully functional, immediately, I would say, a 9 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being where I was pre surgery.
In Mid June, about 6 months post op, I was forced to go off Cialis temporarily due to cardiac issues. After about 4-5 weeks with no Cialis, I was still functional, but I would say a 6-7 rather than a 9.

Two weeks ago, I went back on Cialis, BUT every OTHER day, rather than Daily. I am finding that I'm back to a 9, maybe even a 10, so I'll ask my surgeon if every other day is good enough at this point

Remember though, as you said, everyone's situation is different. And many guys continue to improve for 2 years or more.
Posted 8/2/2015 12:51 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Prato. Tomorrow will be 6 weeks since surgery D-Day. Started the daily Cialis routine a week ago. Having some response, but I would call it only a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10 if 10 was my pre-surgery ranking. In other words, some noticeable "plumping" but that's about it. I'll keep at it. Next stop, talk to the Doc about Trimix.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply