Marker placement a "NON EVENT"

Well folks I had the markers implanted on thursday in preparation for the SBRT a little over a week from now.
They just used a local and enough sedation for me to sleep for about 20 minutes. Went to sleep with my legs up on the rack showing my nether regions to any and all and woke up to a pair of hands swabbing the area clean. It is now two days later and there has been NO pain, zero, zilch. A slight feeling of something not quite normal in that area but no discomfort at all.

Now that said..................the catheter insertion for the C-Scan pictures was a whole different story. The nurse doing that was trying to be nice by going slow ( I have a large prostate and some minor issues with low pressure so I guess things were already a bit tight in the area ) anyway he was moving slowly so I told him to just shove the dam thing in there which is exactly what he did. Very painful but fleeting so glad he finally just did it. Afterwards..the first 2 times I pissed felt like hot razor blades were being pushed out, then the third time not so bad and then that was it.

IMHO I would do 2BX and 3 marker placements instead of 1 catheter insertion.

So now I wait until tue-wed to talk with a nurse and get the guaranteed dates and times. I am scheduled for the 18th-22nd but they will not guarantee until they get the planning done to insure there is not a glitch of some kind.

The "hotel" rooms provided on the Swedish campus were great. I mean the room itself wasn't much, very clean but spartan to say the least. It was right there with sky bridges to most of the other buildings and a free shuttle to the ones further away. The price was 75$ a night and that is for downtown Seattle. The best I could find elsewhere was $149.00 and I would have had to take a taxi for every appointment nor would there have been an emergency call system in place if something had gone south on me. All in All I am very pleased so far with my choice of Dr. Meier RO, Dr. Eulau Uro and Swedish Medical as the institution. I highly recommend them to any in the area. Now we will just have to see how the treatments go and if I am still as satisfied.

Dr. Meier has shown a "non recurrence" rate of 97% in intermediate risk men treated by him with SBRT with follow ups so far of 5-8 years. His study is continuing and I am in that study. I am looking for "Cancer Free status" but if I can get 8 years and then ????? that will make me happy.

So that's it folks I am past what is probably the worst part of the treatment.

May all beings be well and free from animosity. May all share in the blessings springing from the good I have done.

Hey SP56: It is 20F here and we have a lot of snow on the ground as well. I will be stoking the stove if I want to stay warm. I will just bring wood in 1 or 2 pieces at a time. Was told the "heavy lifting restriction" is 10 pounds so will just do a little each time. That means about 10-15 trips a day depending on the outside temp. It looks like cold and dry for the next week which is good as I don't believe I should be riding that dam tractor to plow snow until after the treatments. I do enjoy being out when it gets down to -10 to -20F.
I just dress for it put on the -40F boots and go for it. I don't ever shovel anything but I do a lot of plowing as I have a little over a mile of road to maintain and about half of that is steep so it has to be plowed.

I am really glad to finally getting to the end of this treatment phase.

I hope you are well and I wish you the best and a happy holiday season.

Roger

I have no memory of the marker placement and no recollection of being on the table with my feet up in stirrups.

I do remember telling the nurse in the pre-op area where you get ready before the procedure that I was a bit anxious, she said 'we can give you something for that' (Versed/Midazolom) and she did.

about 30 seconds after she injected it in to the I.V. line it was lights out. The next thing I knew I was coming to and it was all over, that was about an 1 hour and 15 minutes later.

I've never had a catheter inserted, I was sort of expecting that during the CT planning session but they didn't.

I'm envious of you folks with sedation for those procedures! I never had any, just a bit of local. None of them were unbearable, though none were pleasant.

I had a cystoscopy due to some minor blood in urine a couple of times. When the probe was about to pass through the prostate, the doc said, "This will be quite uncomfortable, and I'm sorry. Take a breath, let it out slowly. And... here we go.". He was right. I felt that same peeing razor blades sensation the first time after the procedure too. That was much worse, though it cleared up quickly.

But really, my biopsies and marker placement really had no need for any general or sedation. Nice if you can get it, but I found them to be quite bearable.

BTW- 85° and sunny here, which is lovely if your house isn't on fire. They attribute this to a high pressure system stuck over the NW. So we'd appreciate it if you guys in Washington state would stop hogging it and send it on its way. We could use some of your cold, wet weather right about now.

Anyone should be able to print you a color copy. I really wouldn't count on a nurse understanding it - maybe the physicist if you can't get RO time.

Sure- just email it to me. I like seeing them. They do vary a lot if only because we are all anatomically different. I think Arica Hirsch had a nifty form where she showed all her dose constraints and the doses achieved for each one. I don't know if other ROs lay out the numbers like that or prefer to assess it graphically - personal preference, I guess.

555J - Glad you've made it through the nasty bits in good form! I had only the local/topical stuff for my marker implants, and as I said before, it was Uncomfortable, but quickly over. No real discomfort afterward, either. Just, as you said, a feeling that something wasn't quite normal down there.

For me, the catheter was a non-issue. My prostate wasn't too badly enlarged, and I had been through catheter placement for several more serious procedures, so I knew what to expect. The "fun" bit from my catheter placement was that, as the catheter was on its way in, I asked the nurse/tech if they had those things calibrated in feet. He said "No, yards." Felt like it went on forever.

And yes, if you read my posts from the days after my scans, I remarked that for me, it felt like I was pissing hot oil and crushed glass for a couple of days. After that. . . clear sailing.

Hope your treatments and any side effects are uneventful.

Kent M. said...

Redwing57 said...
But really, my biopsies and marker placement really had no need for any general or sedation. Nice if you can get it, but I found them to be quite bearable.

Was your marker placement done perineally or transrectally similar to a biopsy?

I was under the impresson that having them poked in thru the perineum, the way mine was done, was rather painful.

My only objection to having the sedation was having to find someone to drive me home after the procedure and also the 24 hour restriction on not driving afterward.

Mine were transrectal, so yeah, not sure what the transperineal would be like. Seems like that would be much worse!

"A little different?"

Yes, I did have some inconsequential side/after effects. The first one I noted was the loss of patches of pubic hair (see my old post entitled "Baby it's cold. . . down there." That seemed to happen out of nowhere, rather abruptly. The bare patches lasted a couple of months, then gradually the hair grew back. Maybe not to its original density, but enough not to be embarrassed in the locker room.

The other after effect, which showed up a month or two after treatment, was the loss of almost all ejaculate. Others have also mentioned this, but for me, the loss is near complete.

Neither of these are worth worrying about, compared to the peace of mind I have after completing treatment. Just go with it. Soon it will be just a memory.