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Fla 2nd time

Posted , 20 users are following.

jim81578
jim81578

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will being going back for another Fla procedure. Had my 2nd 3tmri. Looks like not much has changed. Prostate is smaller than before. Talk with Dr K several times now. He has never done a redo only on cancer never on bph. I am apprehensive about doing another Fla, but dr says he can be a little more aggressive and that he wished he had been the first time. I am hoping for just a little touch up and that my bph symptoms will be gone. I am keeping faith that Dr K is truthful in his ability to remove more and have better results. As of now the only thing that is better for me since the first Fla is the meds seem to be working better as before they had stop working and had no choice but to have some sort of surgery. I go in January 25 for fla. This time I have stopped the finasteride for about 3 days now so my prostate should be normal size when i go in a month for Fla. He does think this will help and says he will have anyone on finasteride stop before Fla from now on. I am sort of a ginny pig.  Dr K will be doing procedure for half the cost. $ 11,000.00 I may have to self catheterize once the finasteride gets completely out of my system. That scares me the most at this time. Wish me luck guys I will need it. If it works i hope it may give other guys hope if they choose to try again. Hope I don't get retro grade or any other problems. The pills i take do that already so I am used to retro. Best case is that i have not sexual side effects and i pee good and will be able to get off all meds finasteride and flomax. I will only be in Houston for 3 days a quick in and out. One of my concerns is that he may get to aggressive, which he said he will be more aggressive but not to aggressive. If that makes sense. I will keep you folks informed. I am nervous, but considering the alternative surgerys i feel this is the best. This will mean i have about $35,000 invested in my prostate.  I guess this means im crazy, but its only money. 

Merry Christmas

2 likes, 54 replies

54 Replies

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  • jim81578
    jim81578

    Posted

    Ok guys here's my report on my second Fla on January 25. Hate to jink myself but I have had some improvement. It has been 32 days. I have not had much bladder paint and have not had to take any Uribil for at least a week. I have not had to pee in a bottle on my ride down the hill to the city which is about a 40 minute ride. Yea.. I can now hold pee longer. My hesitation has been better, but comes and goes still. I still get a little pain once in awhile peeing, but is improving. Sometimes I don't have to get up and pee at night really depends on how much I drink before bed. Over all picture seems to be getting better, just don't feel like I'm fully out of the woods yet. But am feeling really optimistic that this 2nd time around is working.. Dr K. Has been calling me every week to see how I'm doing. Haven't even told him all this yet you guys are the first to know. As I said before I'm a little nervous about improvements cause it is not solid yet. I am feeling that this maybe is working. So the 35,000. I've spent hoping really is working and will be money will spent. I have been dealing with the effects of bph since about 55 and I am now 61. Its been a long haul. So for now I'm really hoping it only gets better and i can start cutting back on the 8mg flomax in a nother month or so. In my opinion fla is the first step in the fight against fla. Thanks to all who have given me good words and confidence. I feel grateful for this group and all it has done for me and for Dr K for hanging in there with me.

    Jim

    • j12080
      j12080 jim81578

      Posted

      That is great to hear Jim. I am happy to hear from you.  I know how you feel. I you still have a lot of inflammation to go away. I would anticipate that you start getting better faster in the next couple of weeks. And, you will continue to improve for many months. 

      Dr. K is so unbelievable. As you said, he continues to call you and check on you. Now how many Doctors would do that? I know the other IR doctors that do this procedure and I can absolutely tell you they would not be doing that. He is so committed to his patients and the success of this procedure for each man. 

      I know you are starting to get happy and no one deserves it more than you congratulations. You gave yourself the best odds you could have with Dr. Karamanian. 

    • brian34488
      brian34488 jim81578

      Posted

      Hi Jim,   I too am happy for you, in my case although Dr K  FLA on me was excellent I now find I have to retrain my bladder as it had not been able to work for so long a time but I too am much better it was worth spending the cash and I am so glad I avoided the turp butchers.
    • richard11472
      richard11472 jim81578

      Posted

      Jim, that is great news, so glad that your are doing better this second time around. I can't imagine how disappointed you were after the first time and took a big leap of faith plus a large financial hit to try again. Were you off the finesteride for a good while before this secong ablation?

      I am 16 days post procedure and hanging in there. Still have very slow stream, especially when getting up 2-3 times per night, but did not have to have a catheter put back in after taking out the first one. Hopefully the flow will continue to improve. Also got an erection today so that is working okay, haven't tried ejeculation yet but suspect there won't be a problem there either. How long did other FLA patients wait to give sex a try?

      Hope you continue to make progress as your swelling continues to go down.

      Rick

    • j12080
      j12080 brian34488

      Posted

      Brian, what are you doing to retrain your bladder? 
    • j12080
      j12080 richard11472

      Posted

      Richard,  I waited a long time to ejaculate out of pure fear. Actually, it was five weeks and that was because I was the first FLA for BPH and scared to death to try.  I had no veteran to ask about this.

      Doctor K was all over me to get with it. He called me and asked several times if I had tried I told him "NO" it did not make sense to me to have sex with what he did to my prostate and then have an orgasm and cause those jerking convulsions inside my prostate. That made no sense to me. I said I just wanted to let everyone heal up good so Thank you, but I will wait!  

      I had a erection on the second day after the procedure and that scared me as I had it with the catheter still in so I knew that part was working. It still looked might scary to me. I was a little shocked and not expected those results. Doctor K laughed at me on that one because he said there was know way of erectile dysfunction because he said he gets no where near the nerve bundles so that (ED) will not be a issue.

      On the fifth week my wife took over and I was not able to wait any more. The ejaculation was more than I had previously before the procedure by a long shot. It looked like I was 30 again. I think Dr. K talked to my wife behind my back and they had a conspiracy to "get me back in the saddle". I know Russ waited only three weeks from his procedure and he had sex three times on a long weekend. Also Victor waited only a couple of weeks. I did not have any blood in my seamen but both of them did have a little and Dr. K said that was very normal.

      You are correct about it will not be an issue when you are ready to go ahead. If there is blood in the seamen, it will diminish with use. You will know when you are ready. Sixteen days is still fresh from the procedure. I would maybe wait another week but both Ross and Victor proved it is ok to proceed when ready. You can always call or email Dr. K. for his opinion. He is always there for us and enjoys giving his opinion on this topic.

      So to be so honest but I know where your head is and I only want to help. Good luck. 

    • richard11472
      richard11472 j12080

      Posted

      Dr. Karamanian asked me the same thing and I told him the same thing as you--I was a little afraid to shake things up with an ejaculation after all the trauma from the ablation.  He laughed and told me to go ahead that there was nothing to be concerned about.  Hope to give it a try in the next couple of days.
    • brian34488
      brian34488 richard11472

      Posted

      Hi Richard, follow Dr K's instructions as there is blood to get out via sperm.

    • brian34488
      brian34488 j12080

      Posted

      Hi John, 

                    thank you for your help thus far, Dr K said to do kegal exersizes and now that sufficient time has passed since FLA on 7th Dec/17, I am now advised by Dr K to try to hold more fluid longer and now to try pushing urine out whereas before (years ago) I was told by a urologist not to push push as this would harm my bladder and kidneys, so now that Dr K has unblocked my urine flow and sufficient time has passed its now time to push .  kind regards Brian.

    • j12080
      j12080 richard11472

      Posted

      Don't do it till you're ready follow your on Instincts you'll know when you're ready do it then. You'll be much better in another week and you'll be even better the week after That. Typically the 5th week after the catheter comes out change to be the best time period that's just a general statement but seems to hold true. Again just relax and do it whenever you're ready

    • j12080
      j12080 brian34488

      Posted

      Ryan you were right about that and doctor K knows what hes talking about if he says do it.
    • j12080
      j12080

      Posted

      Brian sorry the site misspells everything
    • jim81578
      jim81578 richard11472

      Posted

      Richard was off of Finesteride for about 6 to 8 weeks before Fla this 2nd time. I waited about two weeks before ejaculation. All that works not sure on retro yet cause of flomax. But thinking it will work once off.

      Jim

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