Finally after 5 months of waiting with a catheter HOLEP gave me a new start

Yes thank you, a second chance at life, all the best to you too

Hi Bernie,

Thanks for the message and so sorry to hear about your TURP nightmare, I almost fell in that Golden standard trap too, when I say my first urologist, she proposed TURP right away and knew or never mentionned anything about HOLEP, I'm glad I did not listen to her she even told me that my bladder where streched and most likely would never get back to normal therefore I would not be able to urinate normally  but she would try TURP on me anyways. You know it's never too late, fire your uro and find one that does HOLEP it's never too late even if you are suffering and must endure more pain, in the end it will be the ticket for you, I haven't heard any negative feedback on HOLEP in this forum or else on line compared to TURP,

Good luck

John

Glad to hear of you good experience John. Like you I have done lots of research. My first uro was all set to do TURP. I just assumed it was the way to go. By happenstance I had to cancel my TURP surgery. Thats when I started researching and discovered HOLEP. 

Just curious, how big was your prostate? Did it protrude into your bladder? Have you had sex yet? If so do you have retrograde ejaculation?

 

Hi Uncklefester

Thanks for your message, yes glad you found HOLEP, did you get the operation yet, even if you have to wait don't settle for TURP or other methods. 

My prostate was over 100 gram, yes it protrude in the bladder, yes I had sex and yes side effect is retro, but for me it's not a big deal compare to not being able to urinate for 5 months and wearing a catheter that long while I waited for my HOLEP operation, for me it's a second chance at life and I just had my uro follow up appointment this past Monday and the nurse and doc. was impressed by the strengh of my stream in the IPSS test, she said you're like a 17 year old, I urinate like a race horse and empty my bladder every time. 

Good luck to you

John

Thanks for the reply John-T. I'm glad you're doing so well. I can't imagine being on a catheter for 5 months. I have not had surgery yet. I am going for surgical consult Sept 20th with a new uro. I've seen 3 so far. Last one referred me to another for HOLEP.. Right now I am on fernasteride & flowmax with pretty good results. The  only time I have trouble peeing is at night. Some nights its fine other nights I just dribble. I'm sure its dietary ( I've read what not to eat ) but I think there are things that give me problems that aren't on the list. I don't want to get to the point that I have to be catheterized. When the whole prostate thing started last November it was a servere bleed event (10 days lots of blood ). First thought was, its cancer. I've had 4 bleed events since then. Each one gets less severe. My last one was just a couple blood clots. I'll say this, those blood clots scare the  heck out of me though. Some were quite  large. I work very hard at not upsetting my prostate. We've had sex only once since last November, which really sucks. After sex I hads a major bleed event. If my uro tells me at my prostate had shrunk I may attempt having sex again.. Honestly if it was for the fear of sex/bleeding I would probably hold off on surgery hoping for a better procedure in the future. I think HOLEP is agreat procedure though. I don't think RE will bother me but I guess you don't know until you experience it. 

John please update ever so often. Many out there are looking for the best procedure with long lasting results. I think HOLEP may be at the top of the  list. 

Thanks again for sharing your experience

Hi Paul, thanks for the message and yes you are right I haven't heard any negative feedback here or on the internet so HOLEP is the ticket for sure. 

John

John and Paul I agree the only fault I see mentioned often with HOLEP is RE.

Practically instant results withh little recouperation time seems like the procedure is a no brainer.

Paul did you have any thing done yet?

Had HoLEP last January..... no issues; RE no problem for me (age 69). PAE has worked for some (without the side effects), but results do not appear consistent from reading here, plus being totally out of pocket is a huge drawback.  Highly recommend HoLEP.

Thanks Paul. 

Hi Unclefester

For me RE is a very small price to pay to be able to urinate like a horse and empty your bladder in less than 8 seconds, only had incontinence for about 4 hours and that was it, a bit of bleeding for 10 days, no zero pain when urinating, so for me HOLEP was the ticket to freedom and new life. 

Hi James

Thanks for the message, and also glad your operation went pretty well, as for me now 74 hours after the operation I have no more zero leakage, it leaked for the first 6 hours after they removed the catheter and I'm kind of surprise that wearing the catheter that long did not affect the outcome at all, mind you I was using a valve and also was doing kegels even if some told me not to do kegels while wearing a catheter, the result well my bladder is strong and even on my last systoscopy a previous urologist for green light told me that my bladder had strong muscles so yes Kegels helps for sure, I'm amazed at the result just 74 hours post the operation, no more drips, a few blot cloth yesterday, now urine is almost normal slightly pink and no pain whatsover when urinating so let's knock on wood that all will maintain, even my flow seems stronger every passing hours. 

I live in Montreal, Canada and got it done at Royal Victoria hospital, there is only one urologist doing HOLEP in this big city of over 7 million people, that is why it took me 5 months to wait, he has about 120 patients on his waiting list, and get this he's 80 years old, a master at HOLEP

Good luck to you

John 

Thanks for the reply John. Quite a story. Proves that it is very important to have a Doctor with lots of experience. 

For the record my procedure was done at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (Northwell Health) Queens County New York. My surgeon was not quite that old but came with excellent credentials and had done "hundreds" of procedures.

Hi James thanks for the message and sharing your story, yes indeed all men need to do a lot of research before saying ok to a prostate operation, I say 5 different urologist before deciding on HOLEP, yes it took a lot of running around and on top of that I don't have a family doctor since in my province of Quebec the health system is terrible, so no family doctor, I had to go to walk in clinics wait for hours just to get consultation paper in order to get an appointment with one urologist.

One other thing, I was schedule for my HOLEP on July 26th 2016, I showed up there, they prepared me for the surgery and then the doctor came out and told me he could not operate me on that date, I was crushed but he assured me that on August 4th I would get the operation so, I had to go back home and hope that they would not cancel on me again and I'm glad the operation went down as expected on the 4th of August just a few days ago. But you know when I was there waiting on the 26th before getting sent home, I was in the waiting room with 4 other men also waiting for the same HOLEP operation on that date, none of them had a catheter but for no good reasons I'm the one they sent home and push my date. Among those 4 men, none of them new anything about HOLEP versus TURP or other operations, they where there by pure luck referred by their family doctor or other uros. So my point is this, all men need to do their research and never give up until they get the best possible treatment for their conditions. 

Enjoy your day

John