Enlarged Prostate Gland - Reports to request in 2nd opinion before surgery

Tamsulosin can have nasty side effects. It can make erections difficult and prevent ejaculation if taken for a long time and cannot be taken along with performance enhancers. Your urologist or GP will not warn of that. The worst one is the effect it can have on your eyes and if you are having cataract surgery they need to be warned as the procedure may have to be done differently.

The nurse at the GP practice I go to sees a lot of Guys with problems.

  

Drugs are often a gamble. The last time I took cipro the tendons in my foot swelled up and I couldn't walk for a week. My foot looked like an uncooked meat loaf. Sure enough when I read the mini-encyclopedia of miniature print info that the pharmacy supplied along with the cipro I found "Fluoroquinolones are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture ...  at the first sign of tendon pain, swelling, or inflammation, ... stop taking the fluoroquinolone, ... avoid exercise and use of the affected area, and ... promptly contact [your] doctor about changing to a non-fluoroquinolone antimicrobial drug."

I had been using cipro for about 3 years for UTI's, and never had a problem. This happened out of the blue. 

I agree there can be nasty side effects to tamsulosin, but when you can't pee and this gives you relief, it's hard not risk the side effects, and hope you don't get the worst of it. When I was blocked up, my only other choice was self cathing, but that can have nasty side effects too. Most people don't get the worst side effects, but if you do, the statistics don't help you. After three years and much research I have found no evidence of any risk free bph drug or treatment that I thought could work for me. If I had, I would have tried it.

Fluoroquinolones gave me tendonitis last year.

Why are you against the the Laser procedures for BPH. 

Derek, I never posted I was "against" the GL. What I have posted on other threads is that I didn't get the advertised results. Three years ago I had the TUMT (Thermal Uertral Microwave Therapy). The recover was 2 months and the positive effects lasted only 8 months. Two years ago I had the 180 Watt XPS laser. My uro used two tips to remove 70g. of a 120G + prostate (a very large one).

Derek, OOPS. I hit a hot key that posted my reply before I completed it...here's the rest of my reply.

The GL resulted in a 9 week recovery and about 6 months before I had another problem. My uro found a 1.5cm membrane had grown over my bladder mouth and was blocking the urethra. He used a cutting wire on the cystoscope to remove it. No wanting more surgery he gave me the option of self cathing every two weeks to keep the channel open which I did for a year. Last December I had uncontrolled bleeding (thick red tomato sauce with purple clots, not the burgundy colored urine I had seen during my two previous recoveries). I spent a week in hospital, had emergency surgery to cauterize three bleeders, had my bladder cleaned of clots, had bladder stones blasted and removed, and had a resection of the bladder neck to smooth it out and widen it. Also needed 8 pints of whole blood. In the past 7 months I am doing OK with a decent (not spectacular stream) going every 2 - 3 hours around the clock. I have not had any retention which had been a nightly occurence before the GL, and every 2-3 hours is way better than every 45 minutes which was the norm before the GL. So the GL was an improvement, but many would probably consider I din't get the advertised result that the brochures spoke of. It may have worked that way for others, but for me, it gave me a bearable result. I just dodn't know how long it will last.

Bob, I picked this up from Wikipedia. ( I learned that the moderator does not allow links).

Maybe if we promote it here we can find someone who has tried this solution in humans.  

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia - 

An intriguing study published in 2014 showed a dramatic reduction in prostate volume in dogs treated with PEMF. The study authors treated 20 dogs with BPH with five minutes of PEMF administered percutaneously twice daily for three weeks and recorded a 57% average reduction in prostate volume with no detectable side effects. [21] Whether or not this therapy is effective for human males suffering from BPH remains to be seen.

 

I don't think that you later problems indicated a bearable result.

What was the time scale of your nine week recovery?

Membrane or other growth seems to quite a common post operation problem. 

Hi Derek, You must have a much higher expectation of medicine than I do. To me, if the doctor doesn't kill me, that's a bearable result.

Not sure I know what you mean by time scale of my 9 week recovery. I'd say by 9 weeks, the bleeding, urgency, bladder spasms, etc. were pretty much gone.

Bob

I trust surgeons rather than the rest. The problem is the time it takes to get to that stage. With my PVP I was quite happy to be the surgeons eighth patient and about the hospitals fortieth. 

With my green light laser the recovery was more or less immediate. Operation Friday afternoon in Newcastle. Kept until Sunday morning as I had some retention and they were concerned that as I was travelling home to Edinburgh by train I would be away from their care.

Pink stinging urination with some clots but no urgency for the first few days. On the Monday I went to the races. Previously I used to rush to a toilet as soon as I got off the bus but not that day until I got to the course. The afternoon went by and by leaving time I thought that I had better go to the toilet although no real need and I had three large coffees during the afternoon. There was a bus strike on the Wednesday and I walked two miles to a dermatology appointment and home again. By the end of week three my urine was clear but my flow not as good as hoped for.

Last years Thulium Laser procedure was a bit more drawn out as I was still passing blood the following morning and they sent me home with a catheter in. I had blood and debris in the catheter for the first two weeks but no pain I just went out and about as usual. The blood lightened during the next two weeks and was clear when the catheter was removed.  The only problem was the catheter aquired infection.  No urgency, no retention but a slowish flow that took a month or so to improve but not what I'd hoped for.

Probably no connection but over the last three weeks I have been passing a lot less urine than usual although my intake stays the same.          

American friends who had TUMP were not impressed and either had repeats or asked for PVP.                                                                

Hi Ron,

One company in Greece lent their pemf device to Ioannina University in Greece in 2011. They did a double bind study of 20 men wth bph and used the device known as the Papimi device on 10 of the men for 30 minutes a day for two weeks. They reported sigificant lasting improvements on the men treated with the device. So, unless the study was fraudulent, then the device has been used to improve bph on humans. On the downside, the device costs $18,000 and is banned by the FDA in the US. Supporters of the device say the FDA denial had no basis in fact, and was a hatchet job which stopped the FDA trials in the third phase without cause. What's puzzling is that Greek people with bph aren't lining up at the factory, that supposedly allows patients to use spare machines for free at the recommendation of their physicians.

Bob

Hi Derek,

I believe you are right about the time it takes to get there. Someone with bph for 20+ years and a prostate that had grown over 120 g. was probably going to have a difficult recovery. How large was your prostate?

If I understand your story you had the Thulium laser last year and followed up with a PVP GL laser this year? Does that mean the Thulium laser didn't give the results desired? 

My bladder resection had a much quicker recuperation than my GL. I wonder if this is really a two step operation for some? A  gross removal of prostate tissue first, followed some months later by a fine tuning. 

I've read of quite a few people needing a second turp procedure to clean up or supplement their first one.

Bob

I had the PVP in 2005 when my prostate was 75grms.

It had regrown to 130grms by 2012 and I had the Thulium Laser in May 2013. After it I asked how big it as then. He replied BIG but I did not measure it. A top Uro I spoke to a few years ago said that initially they thought GL was a quick simple procedure but they now realise that it has to be done with more care.

Quite a few needed follow ups or second procedures. One person I know was told on later examination that it looked like ragged curtains hanging down inside.

My first surgeon said that they originally used a bladder neck sparing method. They moved on to the later GL laser but although some wanted to continue with it they elected for HoLEP.

My surgeon last year said that GL is no good and is just a commercial procedure that was why I was back for another procedure.

Urologist are split into several obsinate camps.     

Well, the FDA doesn't ban anything. They can prevent physicians from using it on patients but they can't stop an individual from using it on themselves. I'm going to pursue that solution until I find an answer one way or the other. The greek experience with pemf does sound odd though. In the meantime, I'm going to bed after taking my 1/2 of a generic viagra I purchased for $2 from someone in India named "Charlie" who doesn't speak any sort of English that I recognize. Sort of like an American teenager. I will be up one time in the night and I will have some urgency tomorrow but not anything that I can't handle. How does this work? I haven't the slightest idea but I'm not knocking it. Good night.

I thought that one a day Cialis was supposed to be better than viagra as the Cialis effects lasts for up to 36 hours and uro's prescribe it.

When taking viagra I did not notice the added benefit but with Cialis my flow was much better during that window of oppertunity.

Hi Bob,

It is hardly surprising, if a physician's approval is required. Doctors are never keen to try something new, and, without their co-operation, the Greeks have probably not heard about it anyway. When I have found out what PEMF is, I will investigate it in UK, but I don't think it will help me.

Mike

Hi Ron,

I am no expert, but I understand that viagra-type products are designed to provide a lasting erection. Since it is generally accepted that it is not possible to urinate with a full erection, this may be the reason that it works. I hope that it did, ideed, work.

Mike

If you get a lasting erection you head for the emergency room.

With viagra it still takes stimulation to get an erection

No, actually no erection without stimulation. Yesterday I thought my flow was too slow so I took one Jalyn and all is ok today. I know I'm retaining a lot, going to find out tomorrow how much. 

When I was cathing I found I was unable to judge whether my PVR would be 200ml or 25ml. Sometimes my bladder would feel tight, but it didn't correlate to the actual amount I measured from the cath.  The only time I knew I was full and was, was when I was in full retention. Then it would be about 400ml.

Good luck tomorrow and keep us posted. 

Bob