FLA in Houston

Mike, Thanks for your note. I'm hoping to help anyone who needs it to find this op. Ross from NY, and John from Dallas were so damn good to me over the period of the op I'm eager to pay it forward. Also, Dr. K and Samantha were totally brilliant. I'm hoping the price of the procedure comes down greatly soon so that those who cannot afford it can benefit. I'm not a rich man but I bet the farm on this op as I was at a point of no return with the misery of BPH.

Wishing you well.

Pete

Have you seen any posts by Dr K? I thought once Sperling started participating, Dr K would start responding once in awhile.

Have you had any slight relapses? I can still hold off for a couple hours, but then sometimes when I get the urge it can be that I need to go right then. Plus every once in awhile I feel a little pressure in that area that i have not had before. The stream has mellow ed out to somewhere around a medium stream. First up in the morning requires usually 2 times before I settle in for the day.

By the way, how is retirement going? Or did you cave and work part time? You know that once they get you back, the hours go up and before you know it, you are working as much as before for less pay and benefits.

Good Luck and enjoy this time, find that smaller home to reduce your dependence on being a slave to your own home. Take vacations with your wife, take your dad once in awhile, but most of all,enjoy things for you.

Mike

Good to hear from you Micheal. Yes I pulled the trigger but they call me almost every day and I went up there twice to help the kids out. I told them to leave me alone this month and I am going to Western North Carolina to get out of this heat. I will come back when I am ready and then I will discuss consulting for them some just to look over there shoulder. 

I am am doing great but I did get a small UTI maybe for a day or two. I think it was from too much sexual activity over too short a period of time (not boasting) but it is all good now thanks to some essential oil called Thieves that I used for a week. My symptoms are all still good. My flow also seems medium but this is because I forget sometimes how bad it was last year. And I am 66 years old not 26. I have to be realistic about this. But, I am very pleased I just will not win at competitive peeing contest.  I don't get up at night now but maybe twice at most unless I drink a lot at night. 

Last night I drank about 60 ozs. between 6 and 10 pm. because I was out in the heat all day and it is HOT outside. With that much to drink, I got up 5 times by 7 am but my volume was around 400 cc each time. So I did it to my self. Other than that, I am very well. 

I did pass 4 bladder stones over the last month and had no pain. These are the ones I saw and there could have been more. This in its self is a teatime the to the success of the FLA procedure. I could not pass those out of my bladder before the FLA procedure. There was no pain in the passing of those stones. It just caught my attention as I do have to admit I like to watch the flow of the stream now and have developed a new hobby. 

I known own you are playing soccer again now but I am wondering did you get back on that bike? I am not sure that would be good for a reforming prostate!  I really think it takes a year to be finished with the reforming. Hope you are slowly continuing to make your improvements.

Doctor K is very busy as he has a lot of Cancer patients and last time I spoke with him he said he was trying to take his 3 kids on avacation before school starts back up. I think if someone ask a question on here he will answer but I also think he is a very respectful guy and does not want to chime in unless asked. Maybe he is somewhat bashful at times. He is a great caring person as we have all experienced. If you speak with him, invite him to respond. Again, it is good to hear you are better. Call me sometime.

John

Mike, in further response to your question on posting and participation by Karamanian on this web site, I called him today about my MRI followup that is ahead of me in a couple of months.

After our discussion on that topic, I ask the question you posed on his participation on this site and he said he is willing to try  but he said the real issue is there are only so many hours in the day and he prefers to use his time each day on the procedures and specifically the post op care and personal support of the patients in recorvery. I can fully understand his comment as you and I both experienced this first hand. I did not mean to take the specfice use of his time for granted when I asked, but I also did not stop and consider it like I should have before I brought up the question to him. It is ture, there all only so many hours in any mans day!!

He said it is his opinion that his time is better spent in the detailed analyzing the 3 T MRi flims of each of his patients before the procedrues. Then as you know, he meets with each of the patients the day before the procedure for a period of 1 to 3 hours showing that patient and their spouse the MRI and the diagrammed plan of why, what and where he will remove the actual tissue in that specific prostate. This meeting seems to answers all questions and it absolutely shows you what part of the gland will not be touched. (the important parts). I have not ever recieved this level of detail in any other procedure that I have had done. I am sure you as well as others found this process to be very comforting. 

Then, the day after the procedure, he sits down again with that patient and the spouse and compares the orginal MRI that he used in that previous meeting with the MRI done post procedure to show you where the tissue removal that you discussed was actually removed. This meeting usually takes a couple of hours to complete.

Then as you and all of us know, his personal post op follow up attention is extensive and continues through the recovery period. Most doctors do not have the time for all this attention and detail as it is unique to the way he prefers to practice. All that time added to the fact that he will persoanlly speak to anyone as much and for as long as they want to talk in regard to investigation and researching of the FLA process prior to making a decision to go forward, takes up all his time each day. And, let's not forget the acutal procedure time! You for one know how long those take. 

His explaination to me was that  this is merely a choice of how one prefers to practice and the time expended does not leave him a lot of time to do what we have seen from other doctors who instead choose to use that time to watch and sign on to many of these and other sites threads participating in the conversations. Just seems to be a difference in what is important to the individual doctor is how he explained it you me. But he did say he would try to participate more if he knows of a area in the thread where he would be helpful. His answer to me made a lot of sense. 

Thanks for asking me and I hope this answers your question. I did not even think about this yesterday until I spoke to him today and ask the question. 

Great to hear from you. I may come to Colorado (Vail) for a Pro/Am event next month. I will let you know.

John

Hello J.

I hope you are improving continuously.

I would like to ask you about the bladder stones. Were they there before your procedure 8 monthes ago and have been seen by Dr K in the MRI?

Was it ok with Dr K to do the procedure in spite of the stones or  had he another opinion?

I heared some docs advise or prefere to operate on prostate only if bladder stones are already removed.

I have a small bladder stone and don't  like to remove it through cystoscopy hoping it will go out by itself after the procedure (PAE or GLA) .

Best wishes,

Ben

Ben,

I was full of bladder stones when I had the operation. Didn't appear to make any difference.

Pete

Hi Neil

I stayed in the USA for 14 days.  I don't think there was any real need ( most folks who live in the US just go home)  but I wanted the continuity of the same doctor and to be near someone who understood the procedure. They don't know what this op is in Hong Kong.  Looking back I think it would have been cheaper to find an Airbnb. It was expensive but I feel it was worth every penny now I am seeing the benefits.

I'm afraid I'm not up on all the technical issues such as median lobe, but suffice to say that with an 185 cc prostate I was going through the full BPH symptoms sometimes up 10-12 times per night and a lot of bleed outs.  Where are you, Neil? IF you want to send me a private note on logistics feel free.

congrats on your success and best wishes to you .

You mentioned you had ( lot of  bleed outs ) before your procedure.

Did you mean prostate bleeding ? Can you give some more details on that.

I am asking you about this point because I have recurrent  bleeding which is very annoying beside the other bph symptoms .

Ben

Ben

I might get bleeding after driving a car for long hours, certainly after riding a bike or after sex. The bleeding could last for 3 or 4 days sometimes and was so bad I would need to put padding in my underwear and not wear light coloured trousers. I asked a number of urologists about it and never really got a satisfactory answer. My guess is my prostate was so big (185cc) that something would rupture easily.  Even Dr K in Houston said he could not guarantee his procedure would fix the problem but it has. I'm even thinking I'll get a bike again although with a prostate saddle. I hope you can get your bleeding fixed because it is very distressing. Sorry I'm not much help. If you need to know anything else feel free to email me privately, Good Luck with this. Pete

Pete