Posted 11/22/2019 7:05 PM (GMT 0)
Haven't been on in a few weeks but I am now on the other side of this beast.
Made the trip down to Houston and went through the pre-op stuff on the 5th with surgery scheduled for Mon the 11th.
Dr backtracked on the single port robot using a couple of different excuses, one being my hernia patches and the other was that the robot could be busy with neck or head surgeries when it was needed. He made the decision like he was choosing between Burger King or Wendys but it made my stomach drop when I heard that. I was kind of excited when I first found out about the new robot, but I wasn't going to rethink my decision so we ran with it.
The only other down side maybe was that we had another discussion about taking lymph nodes and he just didn't feel the need and I kind of wanted him to for insurance but was afraid to push him to much so I just agreed to sign a waiver letting him take a few if he thought it was needed when he got in there and he didn't take any.
Surgery day came and I got excited because orginally I was scheduled for surgery at 3:30 but when I got the final call when to show up they wanted me there at 10:30 of course within an hour of checking in they told me they were already running an hour and half behind.
Got called to go at 12:30 and everything went quickly after that. Dr came in before I even had all my clothes off and was looking over my scans in the room with me while the nurse was putting an IV in each hand. He turned around and asked me if I was ready and I think i said shakely lets go. lol
They gave me a mild sedative while still in the changing room and I felt it instantly and off we went. When they wheeled me into the surgery room it looked like at least 8 people running around in there doing their part and then next shot that went into my hand was all she wrote, I was gone.
Surgery took 3 hours and he told my wife when he came out I think that he went under the bladder instead of over and that I should get good continence and that he saved the nerves. He said the cancer was contained and that he didn't take any nodes. I am allergic to Oxy it makes me itch like crazy so they told the nurse when I went into recovery I was going to have issues because they usually put some type of Oxy suppository up the cath into the bladder for spasms and they didn't do that to me. They did put some kind of pelvic block in to help with the pain saying they do that so patients don't need as much pain meds afterwards. They weren't kidding about having bladder issues, when I woke up I was instantly in pain and when the nurse asked me the level I said it was an 11. Right after that my wife walked in and she said I was wide awake and had my hands in the air and they were shaking and I had sweat running off my face. She asked me if I was hot and looked at the nurse and the nurse told her it was the pain that had me shaking and causing the sweat. I took 4 doses of something within the next hour or so to calm down my bladder to a pain level of 4 and that was the magic number for them to consider it under control.
It was a long day for sure didn't get out of recovery until about 11pm and they took me to my room.
I slept a few hours in the room and woke up around 4am wife came back around 5:30 and they had me up and walking right after that. After I walked a couple times they discharged me and my father in law wheeled me to the room we had in the Rotary House connected to the hospital. Walked a couple more times down the hall a ways that afternoon but my legs were shaking so much the wife didn't want to push me much thinking I might fall in the hallway so I probably didn't walk enough the first couple days and the gas rumbling around was horrible for the first 3 days. Made it down the hall 5 or 6 times the second day then by the third day I walked the entire hallway about 20 times but the gas was the worst part of the first 3 days.
They sent me home with a bottle of Miralax, bottle of hyoscyamine sulfate to put under my tongue for bladder spasms, tramadol for pain, bottle of stool softener and a bottle of tylenol.
I used a couple tramadol's the first 3 or 4 days several of the bladder spasm pills and lots of tylenol, I think I am a wuss. lol Hurt a lot more than I was expecting. I was telling my wife I didn't really expect it to hurt all that much more than the hernia surgeries I had, one lap and one open and she wasn't buying it and boy was she right it hurt a lot more than I thought it would, like I said I think I am a wuss.
Got a shower 3 days after surgery and man that felt good but scared myself rinsing my hair, got vertigo for a second and my heart skipped a beat thinking I was going down but recovered pretty quick and my wife was right there saying what was that you ok ? just scared me for second, couldn't imagine falling down in the bath tub that would have been horrible to say the least.
Made the decision late friday night to head back to OK on sat morning so we got up and I watched the angel I call my wife pack everything up and take it to the truck and we were out of there about 11am with instructions to stop every hour and walk around a few minutes on the way home. The trip home wasn't great but wasn't to bad either, sure felt good pulling into our driveway around 8 or so sat night.
Went into my local URO yesterday morning at 8 and got the cath out, I was pretty worried about that part but after the nurse filled up my bladder and a few uncomfortable moments it was out and I was peeing again. yea
We went to breakfast and CVS then home. Going to pee was a little painful yesterday and by last night I was hurting some I think just from the muscles working my bladder for the first time in several days.
So far unless I backtrack I think I am continent from the time the cath came out, put a pad on the bed last night and one in my underwer yesterday and so far everything is dry.
I got directions to get a psa test done 6 weeks from surgery, path report comes out within the month and I have an appointment back in Houston with the penile doc on Dec 2nd, his name is Dr Wang lol
That is my story so far I hope and pray the cancer is gone, I seem continent right from the start no idea how bad my ed might be in the future but right now I am considering it a success.
At this time I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the guys and gals on here that take the time to help a fellow brother out it is much appreciated. I learned so much from hangin out on this forum it was invaluable to me.