Da Vinci'd and Ready for the next Step

Pca Friends and Supporters,

Life is Good!!  Here is a rundown of my week.

Tuesday - Began bowel prep.  No fun but what the heck!  Got a call from my surgeon's office at 5;00 PM.  My surgery has been moved up from 10:00 AM to 8:00 AM because the 8:00 AM had an EKG problem.  The drive to Nashville is two hours.  I have to check in at 6:30 AM that means leaving at 4:30 AM.  All in all, between the schedule change, anxiety and apprehension I do not get any sleep Tuesday night.

Wednesday - Check in for surgery at 6:15 AM.  Taken to holding area at 6:30 AM.  Meet many people: anesthesiologist, tech prep, nurse anesthetist, two recovery room nurses.  Was asked by all what procedure was being done on me.  They want to make sure that no mistakes are being made.  My surgeon's assistant then comes in and places her initials on my abdomen where the main incision is going to be and shows me where the others will be located at.  At 7:30 AM was told they were ready.  Kissed my wife.  They said here comes the valium and I was gone.  Wake up at 11:30 AM in recovery.  Although several men that have had the Da Vinci said they did not have any pain I was surprised to wake up and not have any.  I did have a bladder spasm and they took care of that right away.  Waited in recovery until a room opened up.  It was a very busy morning and there were a lot of men in recovery.  At 2:30 PM was taken to room.  My wife had been told at 11:30 AM that I was in recovery and I would be there for two hours.  As I was being taken to my room they were going to stop by and get my wife on the way.  We met her as she was coming donw the hall to check with the recovery nurse.  I can tell you that was one of the moments when my wife looked like an angel. 

In room at 2;30 PM and leg air bags are hooked up and turned on.  One thing of note for those that will be going through surgery the air bags pulsate every few seconds and they also have a warm and cool setting.  I did not know this until later that night.  The nurses are used to patients coming out of surgery cold and they have the bags set on warm.  I am a warm nature guy and they leg bags were really heating me up until I found out about the cool setting and they switched it.  Had another bladder spasm and they gave me a pill for it and it immediately went away.  The side effect of the bladder spasm medication is a severe dry mouth.  Given that you are already dry from surgery and I was not allowed anything by mouth incuding ice chips I felt like I had chewed cotton.  They did bring me a sponge on the end of a plastic handle and allowed me to take some water and wet my mouth.  This was the last spasm that I had.  I felt really good and had no pain or nausea.  I began calling relatives and giving them an update.  Needless to say, they were all surprised to be talking to me just a few hours after surgery.  At this point I began to survey my abdomen and the catheter.  First impression was that the catheter was a lot bigger then what I was expecting.  The incisions were about what I expected.  Since I was already out when they shaved me this was the first time I saw that I was shaved from just below my sternum to right above the pubic bone and all the way across.  I am a fairly hairy guy so this was somewhat a contrast.  I do not know if they give you anything to wake you up but I was pumped and not sleepy.  The nurses came around about 4:00 PM that said that they would be getting me up to walk.  I told them I was ready to get up now.  At 8:00 PM they did get me up.  I did fairly good but got nauseous and dry heaved.  Felt better and did not get nauseous again.  As Dawgfan noted you cannot sleep with those air bags going so I just got up and walked all night.  I would do three laps around the area and then rest for about an hour and a half and go again.  Kind of got a kick out of it!  One of the male nurses kidded me that I was going too fast and I needed to slow down.  I challenged him to a race if he would insert a catheter and hook up an IV and grab a stand.  He said that no way was he going to do that.

Thursday - Allowed a liquid diet.  Ate some of the liquid breakfast.  I am not a big fan of cream of wheat.  The coffee though was great!!  Kept walking.  They set up a video on the room TV that showed my wife and I how to take care of the Foley(hang!!).  This was a big help.  The only problem I was having was that the Statlock that clamps the catheter onto my leg was not in the right position.  It was okay when I was laying dwon or standing up but when I was sitting it pulled and has made the end of my penis sore.  My abdomen was fairly sore and they provided an abdomen binder that helped supply support especially when I was walking.  My surgeon came.  Good news in that he did not see any evidence of cancer in the lymph nodes or seminal vessels are the margins of the prostate.  Path report will be back on the 13th and will know more then.  My prostate was enlarged and he said because of that he took some extra time making sure that he did the best he could.  He has done over 800 Da Vinci's so I feel that I got the best that I could.  His nurse practitioner then began the discharge procedure.  The last thing that was done was the removal of the JP drain.  She told me that men said that it did not hurt but felt weird because it came across your abdomen.  She told me to take a deep breath and blow it out and she pulled it out.  As I was blowing out it did hurt and I was telling her that the other men had lied.  Despite that the pian went away quickly.  Checked out and discharged at 2:30 PM exactly 24 hours after I had gone to my room.  We stayed that night at a local motel.  I did eat some soup.  I started passing gas this day right after getting back on liquids and had a BM which made me feel a lot better.  Thursday night had another BM, passed a lot of gas.  After two nights of no sleep I was ready for a decent night.  A couple of Tylenol PM's and a few pages in the novel I am reading and off I go to have a good night's sleep.

Friday - Got up and cleaned up.  A little dizzy.  Ate breakfast at the motel and headed home.  Surgeon's nurse practitioner calls and checks on me.  Home and on the computer letting you guys know my experience.

This is a little long and detailed but I wanted to provide as much as I could for those that follow in my footsteps.  Now it is on to getting rid of Hang on the 13th and seeing what my level of continence will be.  Already have the prescriptions for Viagra and the schedule for penile rehabilitation which will start three weeks to the day from the date of surgery.

Step by step - here we go!!

Tamu

Tamu,

Good to hear form you too! Sounds like everything is good.

Enjoy the arm chair position you have now. It isn't often you can just watch sports and not get smoozed into doing chores!

Be well, Swim

Welcome to the other side. Now do as the doctor tells you and get lots of rest. Glad to hear it went well.

Hey Tamu!!!!

So glad to hear from you, and that all went well. We will be praying for a speedy recovery for you. Thank you so much for the detailed account! It helps so much to know what is in store, by someone who has been through it.

Blessings to you and your wife,

Dennis and Sara

Hi Tamu,

Thats quite a week you've had!  Glad you're back and everything went well.  Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Hi Tamu,

I bet it felt good to be home and in your own bed. Now all that's left for you to do is rest, and watch foot ball. Oh yea; you need to eat protein to help you body recover. Nobody had to force me to eat steak, burgers, or pork BBQ. So have a great relaxing week-end. Thanks for that wonderfully detailed account of your DaVinci week.

Glen

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. I sure hope all continues to go well.

Regards,

Bill

Thanks, Tamu for the info with regards to DaVinci surgery...

I just joined the group and am planning to have DaVinci at end of November in Seattle, Swedish Medical Center. My stats, 50yrs old, 3+3, PSA 4.5. Your detailed explanation helps to know what to expect. Thanks, Mikhail1956

Tamu,

way to go! I'm so glad you are doing so well. thanks for sharing the details. it's nice for the newbies to know exactly what's going to happen.

here's wishing you continued recovery. kat

Partial Quote from Tamu's posting above: The moon is full tonight and there is brightness in this the other side.     Isn’t it amazing to know that we are all under the same moon, stars, and sun!! And to realize that the sun never stops shining….   Even when the clouds hide it…. It is still there. Keeping you all close in thoughts and prayers.       Tamu ~   The little things are soooo important.   Thank you for taking time to document everything.     In Friendship,   Lee & Buddy   Personal Threads: If you pull 1 thing from our journey that helps you on your journey…… it will truly make our hearts happy!!!   Our Journey ~ Sharing is Caring , A Special Note for Loved Ones (Wives, Partners, & Caregivers) , Give Yourself a Second Opinion, and Murphy ~ Our Special Helper.  

Fourth Day Post Op

I slept very well last night. I was able to turn on my side without the discomfort I had the night before. I did take the Tylenol PM's before going to bed. Yesterday afternoon I did get tired and as Swimom has constantly reminded all of us that you have been through major surgery and just because you feel good on the outside does not mean that the inside is not having to handle some trauma. I did pick up the diet. Friends brought over food(chicken stew) and it was very good. With the more solid food the dizziness I had been having went away along with the weakness. I did go to the grocery store with my wife and it felt good to do something normal.

I got a little concern yesterday around noon when I began to feel some tingling and numbing in my right foot and hand. The concern for blood clots was raised very high by my surgeon. This went away after I got up and walkled around for a while. I was told to not sit with my feet on the floor for more then an hour and a half without getting up and walking around.

This morning I got up and was able to handle hang all by myself. Getting the hang of hang!! The soreness continues to improve. The only incision that is sore now is the large one right above my navel. In my case the incisions were closed with glue on the outside. I was told not to put anything on the incisions. The bruising showed up overnight and I have a nice yellow area below my navel. Just wondering if any of you that have already passed this way did anything to your incisions to make them feel better? The bloatness is beginning to go down some. The small amount of swelling that I had in my scrotum and penis has now gone away. Of course, the penis does not like what has happened to it and is hiding. Thanks to this forum and others I knew that this was going to happen. I have seen a few blood clouts in the Foley bag but they have been small and just one or two.

I will not be separated from hang until the 13th. A couple of reasons for this is that the surgeons office was going to allow the local urologist that I used to do it. That urologist has since closed his practice here and moved to the larger city close by. When I told them that I wanted to come back to the surgeon's office to have it removed then it became a scheduling problem. My surgeon is conservative and he opts to keep the catheter in longer then others have experienced on this forum. He generally sets it at 10 days. Of course I would rather have it out sooner but at this point it is not as much of a nuisance as I was expecting.

Okay, that is the latest update. I probably will not post another update until after the 13th but I will post replies and will answer any questions that are posted.

Daveed, hope all is going well with your recovery. It is comforting knowing that we are hanging together.

Tamu

lawink,

I will get the path results the same day that the Foley is removed which will be on the 13th. Sounds like Bob and I had about the same level of PCa. Of course I will start getting anxious and apprehensive on that morning. The next step of continency will begin that day. We all know that the degree of continency upon removal of Foley varies greatly and is totally individual based. I have received comfort in both the stories of men that have reach continency quicklyand those that have reached it after several months. My surgeon has managed my expectations by telling me that on average his patients have return to continency after two to three months. I will keep up the diary. I know how I felt wanting to knw as much as possible after being diagnosed and feel obligated to help those that follow in our footsteps.

Thanks for your interest.

Tamu

Hi. I'm a new member (just found the site today) and have already found it be very helpful. I wanted to specifically comment to JayMan56 - please do whatever you can to have your surgery as soon as possible..Back in July my husband (age 45) had a routine exam and the Dr. thought he felt a nodule on his prostate. His PSA score was only 2.5, elevated from his last score, but not anything extreme. They gave him a series of antibiotics, and his score dropped to 2.1. They decided to schedule a biopsy - I guess that was about the 2nd or 3rd week in August. Our appt. to find our the results was Aug. 25th. The week before that my 20 year old son was fond to have protein and blood in his urine, and was advised to see a nephrologist to find out if he had kidney disease. On the 22nd we found out that my dad's adenoid cystic carcinoma had returned with a vengeance, invading almost the entire inside of the right side of his face. I honestly didn't expect my husband's biopsy to turn up anything, but it did. Out of 12 samples, 2 showed cancer - one 3%, the other 4%. His gleason score was 6 - what the pathology report indicated was low risk. His prostate was not enlarged and he'd had no symptoms of any kind of prostate trouble. The cancer was not found at the nodule site.

Needless to say, I was very emotional - the Dr. reassured us that with my husband's age, physical condition and the pathology report, we had a great chance of recovery. My husband had already decided that if the biopsy came back positive, he wanted surgery. Our 18 year old son was leaving for USMC bootcamp 2 days later, & would be graduating the day before Thanksgiving. Since the cancer appeared to be non-aggressive and the Dr. said the pathology wouldn't change a whole lot even going in to Jan., we initially thought we'd wait until after the holidays. Part of our decision was based on my husband being self employed in Construction, and we needed to set money aside for the weeks of work he'd be missing (at least 6 weeks because of the lifting he does).

We went to church that Sunday and the pastor was speaking on God's will, and why bad things happen to good people. He mentioned both the situation with my dad and my husband. After the service so many people came up to us, encouraging us with information about their own family members who had experienced the same thing, and how well they did. But over and over people kept telling us not to wait. One lady whose dad is recovering from prostate cancer told us money was no object, that they would take care of my husband's pay. We were stunned. The next day our pastor called and said he'd had 5 families that had come up and offered to help cover my husband's wages, they didn't want finances to influence when we scheduled the surgery. In the end we received 6 weeks of wages plus an extra $3,000.00. We figured maybe God was trying to tell us something about the date of the surgery. So we told the Dr. we wanted it done in Oct. - now we just had to see what was happening with my son and my dad.

My son's subsequent blood and urine work showed no sign of kidney disease, although he still had blood in his urine. Our nephrologist told us he'd worry aobut the kidneys, we had enough to take care of. So at this point we were waiting on what the Dr.s said about my dad. He was referred to a specialis at USC (he's in CA, we're in NC). Initially they decided to do an extremely invasive surgery, basically removing half of his face, then rebuilding it. The insurance approved it, but they had to do a full body scan also. While we were waiting for that to happen, our Dr. called to schedule the surgery for Oct. 6th. I panicked, knowing that I would be needed to help care for my dad, and my husband. For a week we were on the phone with the Dr., trying to reschedule for later in the month. I thought for sure they would get my dad in as soon as possible because the cancer was so close to his brain. Our Dr. came through with a date of Oct. 17th. Now we were still playing the waiting game with my dad, and the schedule was getting tighter.

He then got back the results for his body scan. The cancer had spread to his liver, lungs, spine and hip. We were devastated. He was relieved. He was so worried about the surgery - it's 8 months to a year to totally recover. The Dr.s decided to treat his hip with radiation, and his face with cyber knife radiation - very cutting edge. The cancer in his lungs and liver is in multiple spots, but very small.. When his spine starts to bother him, they will hit that too. They said if they requested all of it the insurance would deny it, saying he's too far gone. They told him that he had a year plus, and that they can get his quality of life back to what it was. Since then the cancer grew rapidly in his face, pinching the optic nerve so that he lost his vision, and putting him in escruciating pain because of the swelling. Fortunately they started the cyberknife last week, and after one treatment the cancer visibly shrank, so he will be comfortable soon. They also believe he will recover his vision.

So I didn't need to go out to help with recovery, his girlfriend could handle it, and we went ahead as scheduled with my husband's surgery. Everything went great during the surgery, the Dr. was extremely happy with how the nerve sparing part went (and so were we). Having it done laparoscopically made recovery so much easier. But the day after the surgery the pathology report came back. There was more cancer than thought, and on one spot it was in the margin, up against a muscle wall. The Dr. said it was in a very unusual spot - not an area where they typically find it. I know everyone holds their breath as they wait for that first PSA result. We're hoping that what they found in the margin IS all the cancer that there is. But I'm so grateful for our friends and family who pushed us to get the surgery done as soon as possible. 3 more months for it to grow outside the prostate could have really hurt his prognosis.

becky