ACTUAL recovery time for Aquablation

Hi Marc

I, too, struggled with those, but I'm English , so speak a different language anyway.

I'd guess Retrograde Ejaculation ( where it seems to take a wrong turn and up in the bladder) and Premature Ejaculation ( where it goes the right way but at the wrong time).

I'm recovering from robotic aquablation (4 weeks ago) and the process has been a bit up and down. No problems with the actual getting it up or down luckily; just painful at the end of peeing and blood appears in urine every now and again, once with what they seem to refer to as "debris".

Little advice given by surgeon prior to op so its learning on the job really. was told ok to return to work after 3-4 weeks but at this rate it'll be at least 6-8 weeks.

Flow rate seems better, and volume passed greater, though the urgency to go is still great. I have faith that it will all improve with time. I'm 64 by the way and reasonably fit, though that's probably nothing to do with it.

Good luck with it all and I hope it works fine. Nothing to be scared of...probably best to stay away from the internet though...ignorance can be bliss!

Paul, your last statement is so right. I too am in UK and read many sites. Seems to see mostly patients who had bad experience, which made me aprehensive. Eventually found the BAUS site ( British Association of Urology Surgeons). The site is full of approved procedures, risks, advantages etc.

I was admitted to hospital in August 2023 due to water retention which was impacting kidney function. The Uros at the main hospital did not know about Aquablation and were persuading me strongly towards TURP. I had investigated TURP and although it seemed the standard op, does comes with after effects I was not prepared to accept. After much research, I found Urologists in the UK, who are experienced with this relatively new technique. Aquablation is NICE approved. The Uro's in UK who do the procedure are few and far between, usually based in and around major cities. That said I found a very good Urologist 250 miles from my home. I was offered a consultation in September. The Uro was thorough, mapping my prostate at the same time. I was shown in real time on the Uros scanning screen the shape, size etc of my prostate, which showed lobes within the bladder neck. Had the Op on 9th October, had been offered and earlier appt, but logistically was not possible.

The op went fine, apart from being wheeled into the pre-op theatre, I knew absolutely nothing about the surgery until back on ward just over an hour later. No pain, just catheter and solution flushing my bladder. The flushing was done for just over 24 hours when all traces of blood had disappeared.

The TWOC was more difficult. I had catheter in for 3-4 weeks. Uro said having had a catheter in for almost 2 moths before the Op had made my bladder lazy.

All is now well and functioning properly including ejaculation.

We are all different, physiologically. I am not overweight ( BMI 23.7) and fit, have allowed time for the healing etc to complete, have not pushed myself. Have seen others who start stenuous excercise too soon and then have problems.

heres my long and convoluted story. I am 72 and in reasonably good shape. I was shooting out bladder stones shortly after starting working out on a recumbent bike. it didnt hurt . i finally saw a urologist. sent me for xray and ct scan. many stones and also a suspicious lesion which turned out to be bladder cancer. it was very low grade and non evasive. surgery on oct 19 2022. went home with a catheter. catheter out 5 days later. developed a UTI. it was the weekend so had to go to a doc in the box where they confirmed a UTI. they did a culture which wouldnt be available for a few days. gave me antibiotics , but they were the wrong type for what i had. the infection got much worse. went to the ER because of 102 fever and i could not pee AT ALL. got there just in time. i had sepsis . they put a catheter back in. i was admitted for 5 days. on super IV antibiotics, and also for 2 weeks after discharge. my urologist put me on flomax and took out the catheter after 6 days and sent me home. i couldnt pee at all. catheter back in. he referred me to a surgeon at NYU in manhattan. he recomended aquablation . he thought i had underlying prostate issues before any of this happened based on what i told him. procedure was scheduled for a week later on dec 29 2022. still on flomax to help urinate. dr told me i was 60 percent blocked and prostate was 66 grams. stayed overnight in the hospital. they took the catheter out the next morning. i was peeing a little but not enough. catheter back in. follow up a week later. all this time on flomax. the nurse took the catheter out and filled my bladder with saline. i then peed it out no problem. i was happy. the dr called a few days later to check on me. he said to stop the flomax. however my urologist said to take the flomax. iam so paranoid that i wont be able to pee without it, so i started to take it every other day. i just started doing this this week and dont notice any decrease in urination. im planning to stop it altogether very slowly. after all , the blockage is clear now so it should be ok. fingers crossed.