The Urolift procedure; patient views and questions

Hi Executive1,  I know it's been over 7 months since you had your Urolift procedure.  Just want to find out how you are doing and if you still have any BPH symptoms this long after the procedure.  I have the same anatomy as you with a small middle lobe.  I am considering the Urolift and am going in for an evaluation in about a week to deteremine if the middle lobe needs to be resected.  I also understand that it take a while after the procedure to retrain your bladder to not feel like it has to empty all the time.   Thanks,  Terry

Hey Guy  This is Ken Had mine done in April.  It took about a week and I was peeing like I did 20 years ago.  No meds or getting up at night.  Had 4 implants put in.  Take care 

Kenneth;  Can I ask where you live???   Sounds like you did the right thing.  My uro talked me out of the Urolift as he says it concerns him over the years what the pee will do to the clamps that surround your prostate.  He thinks they may get encrusted and cause infections.  He wants me to do a "Turis"- whatever that is.  I know its not good.

Sounds a plausible theory. No one seems to have been told what happens as your prostate continues to grow encased in clamps.

This is to anyone who gets a catheter. The inside of your urethra (the tube inside your penis ) has no natural lubrication. The catheter moves around slightly as you move around. The catheter therefore rubs on the inside of your urethra. That rubbing causes the pain and blood at the end of your penis. This is easy to prevent and /or solve. As soon as you can after you get the catheter, take a Q-tip and apply a layer of petroleum jelly (Vasoline ) to the catheter on the area where it enters your penis. Then, as the catheter moves around, it will be lubricated by the jelly an be much more comfortable. You may have to apply more jelly several times a day if it rubs off. Also, once or twice a day you should clean the catheter near your penis, and the end of your penis with a solution of 1/2 clean water and 1/2 peroxide, using a Q-tip.

Thank you for the tip  I did have the catheter in for 2 days.  Most of the time with the Urolift it is not done but I had a problem peeing on demand and my doctor said it would be best and I agreed.  Had that problem cleaned it every time I went pee.  Sting for the next two day but better now was taking out.  First time I had one and I had it's the last. Take care  Ken

I agree. They are very unpleasant under the best of circumstances. The only thing worse than having one is needing one and not having it.

Neal

Neal I do agreed.   By doctor and I agreed on it.  And I knew he could do it.  It was put in after the Uro-lift was done.     I had a very bad experience last year in the hospital. I know sometimes you have to have one. But you  should be informed about it.  This was my first time having a catheter.  I had sepsis last year and was in the hospital emergency room when the doctor came in and ask for a urine sample.  I just pee before I went there I told him that and aksi told him that I do not pee on demand.  My doctors all know that.  Withing 10 minutes I had a male RM and a female RN come into my rook Tell my sone to leave.  And by son heard me ask what was going on. They did not say a word to me.  The male nurse told the female nurse to take my pants off.  Before I could get the hole question out and my pants were not off yet He forced a catherter in me.  I gave up after that. And heforce another one in me.  He was yelling at me asking if I have a prostate problem  They try 3 times and never got it into my bladder.  I pee on my own a hour later.  That was not right.  There is a procedure the nurses are to follow.  I saw a urologist.  He found out I have a urethral stricture and it will make catheterization very hard to do.  My doctor say that the nurse could have done more damaged.  That is way no one will do anything until they get my permission.  And If I can't give it My kids will  Take care  Ken       

That was assault..........possibly even sexual assault.

Are you in America?

Yes  I live in Orlando Florida.  When I came out of the hospital  I could not sleep.   Took me a while.  The only good thing that cam out of that I met my Urologist.  He is great and his staff is the best.  I take my sample when I go to see him.  The day I had a scope done to see what the problem was I didn't.  The nurse Joele told me he had to cath me I was pist but he informed me that it had to be done to is if I had a infection.  I said ok.  He was very good.  He informed me of the procedure was very gentle and did tell me he was sorry and was going to try not to hurt me.  Even ask for my permission.  He try 2 time never got it in .  Don't let anyone say it don't hurt.  I will let any of my doctors do what they what but ask me first.  I don't know what was up with the male nurse in the hospital that day but it will never happen to me again.  Thank you for your concern  Ken  

Back in 2013 I had to self cath once or twice a month for a year. They make self lubricating caths called hydrophillic caths. They come packed in a sterile water foil packet, and when they are removed from the packet, interaction with the air for a minute or so causes the surface to become very slick.

When I first started cathing I used the unlubricated caths with lube and often found my hand would get lubricated, making it difficult to hold onto the cath. I found the self lubricating caths to be much easier to insert.

The kind I used were  28416 Coloplast® Speedicath® Male Straight Intermittent Catheter 16Fr, 14" L, Pre-Lubricated, Hydrophilic Coated, Sterile. Mine were 16FR width but they also come in smaller sizes like 12FR and 14FR. I found the 14Fr was the smallest size that was rigid enough to be inserted without folding over when it encountered the prostate. These cost me about $1.60 each when purchased over the internet. 

I had this issue too, in my case after my holep.  When I was encouraged to rise from bed onto a chair next to it the day after, although I moved gingerly, it hurt at the urethral tip (meatus) both getting to the chair, and then even when leaning forward slightly to eat.  I noticed that the 3 way 22 gauge Foley catheter left in for irrigation (that's a BIG one), was holding open the part of the meatus adjacent to where the catheter went in, allowing it to dry up, and the catheter was sliding in and out all the time as I moved, with the joint to a larger diameter pipe hitting into the meatus as it was taped too far in (where taped on leg).  I remembered that the uro had used painkilling (it has 2% lidocaine in it) lubricant jelly dispensed from a blunt syringe, when he did cystoscopy on me, so I asked nurse to raid his office and get me one ("Glydo" is one of the brands).  When I put a little on the end it solved the irritation completely.  I had to repeat it two hours later.  I tried to keep hold of the syringe, without success; reason I wanted to keep it was I figured it would come in handy when I did my first post-catheter-removal pee, if I popped a little in the end - the first post-cystoscopic pee didn't hurt at all, it was the one after, that hurt, after the first post-cystoscopic pee washed out the lidocaine.  In truth, the first post-catheter-removal pee (after a panicky 2 hours with nothing coming at all), was no more painful than the second post-cystoscopic pee, because I think some lidocaine remained in there - and because for holep, they gave me oral morphine which is a strong painkiller (but no laxative with it, which 3 days later, is looking like a big mistake...). 

If you're given oral morphine, by the time constipation becomes apparent it is very hard to shift as your whole gut has slowed right down; and you can't have an enema or suppository after holep or TURP (not sure if this is so for urolift - urolift's far easier and does less prostate damage, so I guess you could actually ?).  3 days on, am taking every conceivable laxative, including the one the hospital gave me belatedly when I said I seemed to have a problem.  Straining's to "poo" is the last thing you need after prostate surgery, but would be less of an issue after Urolift.....

I feel sorry for all the men that picked the turp and holep procedures. To many side effects and other problems.  When I had my urolift only had a catheter for 3 days when it came out it did burn to pee that first day but after that I was find.  I was given a stool softner because after you have any prostate surgery they do not want you to force yourself to go to the bathroom.  It will take time for you to get back to normal   Ken   

Paul,

I had an unrelated fecal impaction once. The ER doctor wanted to do a dye assisted CT scan. I had to drink a quart of the dye in 30 minutes. About 30 minutes later, all that liquid blew me loose. I'm not sure if it would help since you have the morphine on board, but it's bound to soften you up, and shouldn't be any problem. Let us know how this "comes out". Always take stool softeners starting 3 days before anesthesia. I too learned that the "hard " way.

Neal

Well, at day four post HOLEP (it'd be the same for urolift if done under general and if any oral morphine given - but, maybe less need for oral morphine post urolift ?), I was about to use the home enema kit I'd just got via Amazon prime, or the glycerine suppository, or the mini enema (I got all three to be sure !), but prudently googled and found you're not supposed to after TURP/Holep etc, as the enema probe prods into the prostate via the rectum, and any resulting (low risk, but possible) bowel cramps from enema or suppository would be bad for the prostate operation site. Post urolift, being a more trivial procedure, I imagine that restriction might not exist at all ? - google doesn't say.  Luckily the large amounts of laxative I'd taken - syrup of figs (1 teaspoon a day), henna (1 a day) and something my wife had that you mix with water, plus three cans of prunes and a veg-only diet, worked last night. What came out was the most disgusting smelling stuff ever, and I stopped feeling woozy/sick within 4 hours; I theorise that blocked-up poo going off, may give off toxic things that might be absorbed.  Definitely, a good tip is take something beforehand, or have a little syrup of figs in your bag in case the hospital doesn't give you a laxative.  Stool softener might be better as syrup of figs and henna speed up peristalsis; on the other hand, morphine is said, I now know, to suppress peristalsis (as may, temporarily/less so, general anaesthetic ?), so maybe something to stimulate peristalsis, might make sense. I am not a doctor, so rely on none of this speculation !  To ensure that my gut doesn't become reliant on laxatives, I am eating a lot of veg, and no laxatives, for a few days, to regularise it - bowel can, I read, become "lazy" after laxatives, and easily re-constipate, then you start to get a recurrent problem. 

Enema would have been easy to do, if not contra-indicated by the surgery, without the wife's help, as it was done to me before my prostate needle biopsy, and I have no fear of it. 

Please understand that all prostates are not the same and as such not all can be "fixed" by Urolift. You are feeding the anxt of those in the process of dealing with the avenues that are open to them. Give us a break!

James this is my opinion like you have yours.  I feel that many of the old procedures are barbaric and should be stopped where you don't need it   I do understand that if you have the median lobe of the prostate in the bladder there may not be any other way to fix it. They if the patient can handle it go for it.   I think that should be a last resort.  There are to many urologist that are not informed of the new procedure so they only offer what they know.  Why have it done if you don't have to. I hate when you read on here that the doctor tell the men that all will be the same  That is a lie things will change and some men are not ready for them  Have a nice day  Ken

James this is my opinion like you have yours.  I feel that many of the old procedures are barbaric and should be stopped where you don't need it   I do understand that if you have the median lobe of the prostate in the bladder there may not be any other way to fix it. They if the patient can handle it go for it.   I think that should be a last resort.  There are to many urologist that are not informed of the new procedure so they only offer what they know.  Why have it done if you don't have to. I hate when you read on here that the doctor tell the men that all will be the same  That is a lie things will change and some men are not ready for them  Have a nice day  Ken

James this is my opinion,  All postate and men are not the same and all procedures are not the same.  Myself I picked the urolift and it worked fine for me .  My problem are with the urologist that only offer the old procedures I think they are barbaric and should only be use in a last resort.  Some of the urologist only offer you the old procedure because they do not know or are not  trained on the new one.  If a patient ask them about a new procedure like urolift pae or Rezuim or other new one they are against them.  They come up with I only do the gold standered But as you know sometime you have to have it done again The heal time is long and there are to many side effects .   You need to look at all the information you can and they pick the one you think would be best for you.  That is all I'm saying.  Ken.   

I don't think one can post a URL here, but if you google the story "My sex life was saved by a simple new prostate operation - Mirror Online", from a British newspaper, it is about urolift; the Daily Mirror is not known as a particularly in-depth or up-market tabloid newspaper, but anyway - press articles about urolift are quite rare, so I thought it might interest.  It is pro-urolift, giving one man's reasons for his decision, and his very early experience after the op. 

Thank you Paul  I will look into it.  I picked the urolift because it was best for me.  I was not giving up anything I do not like the feeling of retro and the o hum orgasm that it gave me.  Take care  Ken 

Sorry about the 3 replys  I did not think it went through  It said error  Have a good day  Ken

Hi Bob, I have a foley catheter in ,they take it out every month, see if i can void . Istill have urine rentention. Oct  5 catheter change again. I would like to order these 28416 Coloplast Speedicath Male Straight intermittent Catheter size 12Fr and 14FR and 16 FR,i don't know which is the right size?

Would the wrong size cause more pain? I 'm taking medicine Avodart and Flomax. I hear it takes 6 months before the Avodart can shrink the enlarged prostate?Have you tryed these medicnes?At 87 i would like to try sel cath,however the urologist says he would rather do a cystoscopy and a prostate ultra sound  before he recommends sel cath?

Whats your opinion on this?

thanks

Hi Bob, Thanks for this info. I have urine rentention ,been on a foly catheter 5 months, My uro wants to do a cysto,and prostate ultra sound before he wants me to do  sel cath. I would like to try?

If the wrong size is used? would this cause more pain? 

I'm taking medicine Avordate and flomax .i hear it takes 6 months for Avordart to shrink the prostate.Do you take this medication?I wwould have to learn how to self cath ,is this difficult??