Focal Laser Ablation for BPH treatment
Posted , 14 users are following.
After reviewing the different procedures I am inclining for the FLA to treat my problem with BPH. Do any men have experiences to share, as for the surgery itself and the recovery thereafter? Thanks to all!
0 likes, 20 replies
Motoman emil54651
Posted
There are several threads on this on this forum. Do you a search and you should find them. I had it done by Dr K 9 weeks ago with great results so far. Two others that I know of have had it done, as well as two more that should be having it done this week. There are probably more on here that I don't know about.
uncklefester Motoman
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Motoman uncklefester
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uncklefester Motoman
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Motoman uncklefester
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Yeah,
it's on here somewhere. I don't think you can put links in. But it was active a week or so ago.
uncklefester Motoman
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Thanks I'll look for it
Motoman uncklefester
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I will try posting the link:
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/had-fla-for-bph-done-feb-13-568652
uncklefester Motoman
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jimjames emil54651
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Jim
MikeSkier jimjames
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Jim
Mike here. You are the perfect one to get this info to be spreed on to others. "Clinical Trials Awareness Week" starts May 3rd 11am to 12pm, Experts discuss Industry Trends & Challenges with a free online seminar to make people aware of some of the new medical procedures that are currently going through testing for them to follow the progress, requirements and controls for these tests. It also gives indicators the timing for possible approval and an idea of many of the New Procedures that are being worked on.
Dr K will have his trial listed in here as well. When he gets the official link as to how it will be labeled he said he would send it to me to post.
Mike
"Clinical Trials Awareness Week" starts May 3rd 11am to 12pm, Experts discuss Industry Trends & Challenges:
https://www.worldwide.com/ctaw-webinar/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=7010G0000012WcQ&mkwid=cfE1a7UxE&SourceID=&crid=&pcrid=191533234251&pmt=&pkw=&pmid=patient.info&dvm=m&slid=&_vsrefdom=google&leadsource=SEM&leadtactic=Google
jimjames MikeSkier
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for the link. At what stage is Dr. K's trial in? Any completed procedures?
I'm happy to hear that your FLA went so well. Please keep us updated on your post FLA progress. Also, you might try and slow down running through airports until they develop a "runner's model" Foley
Jim
rogcal emil54651
Posted
As Motoman has already said, plenty of discussions on here on the subject of laser treatment for BPH, so trawl through them and assess the pro's and con's for yourself.
Laser treatment in all its forms is far, far better than the standard TURP which still uses a hot cauterising wire to remove prostate tissue which is pretty barbaric however, it does allow the pathology team to put the tissue under the microscope to search for prostate cancer which all the laser treatments with the exception of HoLEP do not allow, as all the tissue is vapourised.
I went for a HoLEP procedure and was discharged within 24 hours without a catheter. The down side was a non agressive cancer was discovered but hey that's no big deal.
Good luck.
uncklefester emil54651
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Bear in mind FLA isn't usually covered by insurance
Motoman uncklefester
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My insurance just rejected my claim. I thought they would, but tried anyway. I think they sent it to Dr K for more information.
I don't care, it has been worth every penny to me.
MikeSkier Motoman
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Motoman
Mike here. We have talked before. Weren't you the one that took off on a motorcycle trip to Japan shortly after the procedure?
I just had FLA for BPH in Houston on April the 6th (19 days ago) by Dr K. The procedure was a breeze, with no pain or side affects. Because I was on blood pressure meds prior to and you have to stop takeing them about a week before, I came into the procedure with elevated blood pressure and my blood oxygen levels were just a little low, so Dr K did not put me under totally. I was basically awake for the whole procedure. Also, my prostate was very large, 176cc or ml. So I was in the MRI scanner for over 3 hours. It all seemed to go very quickly, considering the time involved. No pain during or after the procedure. Dr K and his assistant, Samantha are excellent. These people are unlike no others, they really care. I have talked to Dr K for sometimes 2 hours on the phone. I have been in touch with him every couple of days, either by phone, email or texting. You have a catherter in you for the 1st week, then if everything is OK, you can remove the cath. There will be some blood in your urine for awhile, Just where a Depends pad in your underwear till it disappears, I still have some so I continue to wear one, just so you don't wreck your underwear.
I had real problems when I tried to leave Houston. I had the procedure done on Thursday and was going to fly home to Michigan on Saturday morning per the doctors instructions. That weekend is when they had all the storms accross the whole south. My wife works for Delta and was with me, but we fly standby. Needless to say we could not get out of Houston. We had to take a flight to Salt Lake to get to Detroit, because all the flights to Detroit were overbooked. The only way we got out was the last flight to SLC they only had one flight attendant and needed a minimum of 3 for the flight to go. So my wife volunteered and wearing her street clothes and we cut an agreement that if she worked that I could go on the flight as well. Made it to SLC late at night and then had to start all over again the next morning trying to get to DTW. The real kicker was the cath bag that dr K used on me had a 3 line manifold stuck to my leg. One of the lines had a shutoff that fell out of the line when we were running in the terminal to catch our flight. All of a sudden my pant leg was totally soaked all the way down into my shoe, which got soaked. I did not know what I was going to do. Went in the restroom, opened my suitcase and found a Qtip. I rammed it up into the line, changed my pants etc. I put my soaked clothes into my suitcase. We checked in for our flight, checked the bag to DTW, but we could not make the flight. By the time we got home Monday afternoon and found my suitcase. You can imagine what it smelled like, UUGh! This was my first dealings with a catheter. I called john12080, and told him and he laughed his ass off.
I got all the procedure codes from Sam and just now submitting them to my insurance. We have out of Network coverage and with the discussion I had with them prior to the procedure, they thought that parts of the procedure they might cover, being that this is the same procedure Dr K uses for FLA / Pca. But there will be deductables for both meeting the insurance deductable and then the out of Network deductable. By the time they slice and dice the deal I might get a couple hundred back, but at least the dedutables will all be paid if I need something else done and the rest I will claim on my taxes for 2017.
So how you really doing? 19 days and I still have blood everytime I pee. I can sleep all night now, what a blessing that is along with a meletonin and the Flomax script I got. I am not peeing in dribbles like before the procedure. I have a light to medium stream, but the blood you have to be carefull you don't get it on your clothes.
Motoman MikeSkier
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That is quite the story on the catheter. I honestly was worried about that exact problem. And I carried the right stuff with me to block the line if I needed to, as well as had a valve to use in place of the bag.
I did go to Japan, but it was 6 weeks after the procedure. Everything is fine with me, my prostate was a little sore sitting on a motorcycle seat all day for two weeks. But that has improved as well.
I got off the BPH med I was taking at about 4 weeks. It was Terazosin instead of Flomax. I can pee on command now, that hasn't been the case for probably 10 years.
My insurance was rejected last week. Dr. K had given me all the codes as well.
Sounds like you are well on your way to recovery, it should only get better for another 4-6 weeks. Keep updating us.
Trustme MikeSkier
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uncklefester Trustme
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Trustme, Please do an after action report when you're done.