Going with Focal Laser Ablation for BPH

Same thing here John,  no idea why????

Ok, I think I got it. I found 138 emails in my spam file. I selected them and then selected the NOT SPAM button at the top of the spam file. It moved them to my inbox and my wife says that that should stop the problem. I suggest you first look in your spam file and if no Patient emails are in there, then they have been bounced back to the sender and you should contact the moderator of the site. We will see if this stops the problem but if not, I know the emails are in the SPAM file and I can move them my self. Hope this helps.

I had the same issue several months ago for about a week. Then it resolved although I occasionally still check my spam folder. Your wife gave you correct advice. 

Jim

Don't you hate it when the wife is right 

yes but also would not figure it out without her! Darn that hurts to say that. 

I know exactly what you're saying. 

Trustme,

You had reported an email from us as spam. I've removed the report so you should now start receving them again.

For reference or if anyone does have email issues:

https://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/437095-i-do-not-receive-notification-emails-or-the-regist

Regards,

Alan

Thanks Mike, I got your email and  i will give you a better answer to this email later this morning after I am at work. i now have to answer a lot of emails! 

Mike I have not yet had a PSA and it will be done here with a Uro. and not with Karamanian though he will want and get the results. He tells me to wait until 4 months post op. Ultrasound, yes I can do that and will but I can feel an empty bladder now so I doubt I will not have any retention. I did have it before so I know well what it feels like.

Size of prostate well, I will want to know but with a 125 cc prostate pre procedure, I know that they took out between 30 to 40 % so I can do that math

.

Dr. K's follow-ups will  be an MRI in 6 to 12 months. Dr. K will not incorporate my results in the clinical trail. Sure he would like to but he will not do that as he has to have the trail completely registered and reported to have the results validated and approved. He is very strict on the criteria of the trial.

As far as quantifiable data, I assume you mean symptomatic history of the past compared to the improvement over the two months now post op?

 

I did keep a daily log of events and of urine output and liquid intake by date and time for some 3 weeks. But I was really shocked because right at 3 to 4 weeks out mark, it all made a dramatic change for the good in one single day. I slept for the first time through the night and the urine volume naturally climbed very high. Then four days later, I tried the sex and to my surprise the volume and force of the ejaculation was actually like I was in the thirties. The most amazing surprise was that I had no blood in my ejaculation. This also surprised Dr. Karamanian who warned me that it is very normal to have a little blood in your ejaculation. But, I have had none. 

You do have a great idea here. I think I am going to suggest to my wife that now that I am retiring soon and I have had such fantastic surprising results form the FLA that I want to take on a new career in this adult film industry and thereby give her a little break. Mike, if you never hear from me again you will know what happened and I need you to commit to telling the police and showing them this email.

Seriously, I am still having to retrain myself on urgency. Dr. K is even helped me with that. What I mean is that my body is trained to go urinate more frequently than it should from many years of BPH. But with the success of this procedure, I can now stop the urge, make it go away,  and hold it longer. Before I would not be able to hold it and if I tried, I would sometimes go in my pants before I got to the men's room.

Now I believe that some of this neurological urgency was not BPH but is worsened by BHP. I believe that a lot of it is these same urgency feeling some men get is when we get nervous or stressed. I got it a lot at work with several critical impacting things in a time sensitive situations and BPH made it uncontrollable. Lots of men have experienced this even without BPH and in those cases you can hold it until the urge subsides. Well, not with BPH added to it and that was where I was before FLA. But that can be controlled again after FLA and that is were I am now so I am back to the days when I could hold it and that is what I have to learn again and not stop and run to the bathroom every time I feel an urge because that trains my bladder the wrong way. If I continue to run to the toilet I condition myself to pee with only 200cc or less instead of holding it and peeing with 400cc. Funny thing is the urges do not happen to me anymore at all on the golf course or at night time any more since FLA! But at work it happens a lot. This is just another justification for my retirement in about 6 month. I am getting much better and relearning control now as the FLA has given me the tools and ability to do it. The reduction at  the base of prostate of the median lobe has stopped the retention feeling completely. And the films confirmed this by Dr. Waser.

 And, I have a lot of little tricks to help me with the work urgency. For instance an example is that the company bought me one of those adjustable desk tops you can stand or lower and sit at will, I now stand a lot and this is a lot better especially while my prostate was shrinking. I in fact am using it now as I write this to you and in the last 45 minutes I have had 3 urges to go pee and I have made them go away. One time was by sitting back down. Now I am standing up again. Before the FLA procedure I could not fight off the urge an I would have gone  at least twice to the bathroom. I have not gone since 7 am this morning and I will go in about 30 more minutes with a full strong flow. All of this may sound strange but I have had BHP for almost nine years now and guys form habits that they think become normal over that much time and you have to relearn.  Urgency is a lot of  the bad BPH symptoms and FLA gave me what I needed to take control of it.

At night, no issue. I still wake up maybe once or even twice a night due to stressful things going on in my life but I do not  need to pee unless I stay awake for a while. But like I said, it is 1 or maybe twice a night at most. What is totally gone is the situation where I would get up 8 time each night too go  pee. I would get up and pee then ten minutes later I had to go back and pee again and  a lot of times none would come out so I would walk around the house for a while and go back and pee again. Then go back to bed. ABSOLUTELY NO MORE OF THAT!!!!!!  I know that Focal Laser Ablation is expensive but it is well worth and seems inexpensive to me now.

Glad to be back on line and Good luck.

 

Hi John,

Like Mike, I think you probably should get a bladder scan to check your PVR probably sooner than later. Given your void volumes I'd tend to agree with your assumption that you are draining to the bottom but given all you've put into this, PVR follow up is an important "i" to dot. 

You mentioned several times about "holding it in" at times, something you weren't able to do before. Are you doing this as part of a bladder training program because of excessive frequency, or are you doing this just because you can, as another by-product of FLA. 

If it's the latter, you might not want to test the waters (no pun intended so much.

If there's one I could change going back to my 20's in terms of my plumbing, it would be bad void habits, specifically "holding it in" and rushing the process. I am sure both habits significantly contributed to my flaccid bladder later in life, and therefore contributed more to my LUTS situation than even my obstructive bladder. It's taken me close to three years now to partially reverse that process.

My guess is that your bladder was  (and is) in better shape than mine -- and given your age and the fact that it takes years for a bladder to

stretch -- that you *probably* aren't doing too much harm "holding it in". But again, given the great work done on your plumbing by Dr. K., my suggestion would be to heed nature's call as soon as you can, at least most of the time. I try and do that now and wish I had done that many years ago.

Jim

Phil

This is Mike.  John, I am sure will get in touch with you.  He had his procedure on Dec 19 about 2 months ago.  He had fantastic results in such a short time.  Was getting up 8-70 times a night down to now maybe 1 a night.   Prostate went from about 125cc down to about 75cc and it could go smaller during the healing and reshaping process.  I will let John explain every thing to you.  

Good Luck, Mike  

Mike,

    Who did the fla. Which doctor<

Thanks Jim

Jim

Dr Karamanian in Houston did my FLA/BPH on April 6th.  I am 5 weeks out right now and everything is Great.  I was dribbling now I am peeing great.  I had a foley cath in for 8 days and had some blood in my urine for almost 4 weeks, but my prostate was very large 175 grams with a large median lobe.  So Dr K took out a lot of tissue and so precisely.  Reviewed the 3T-MRI of the procedure the day after and compared it to the MRI that I had done 2 weeks before, it was unbelieveable.   

Hey Mike glad it is going well good to hear. Thats good news...I'll be glad to get it taken care of. Tired of peeing all the time, the meds and hoping it helps with bladder pain..

Mike,

Glad things are going so well. Just sent you a private message.

Jim

Jim

Are you scheduled with Dr K?  If so, when are you having it done?  What is you condition like going in?  Have you had your preliminary 3T-MRI done yet so that Dr K can evaluate your prostate so he can give you the game plan for the procedure.  The bladder pain, should be discussed with the doctor before and he may have some tests done first on the bladder.  I am sure that you will be very happy with this procedure.  It has been almost a life saver for just about everyone I have talked to that have had this procedure done.  

Let me know Jim, we all want to here about all the specifics to help everyone that is a future patient to aleviate the mystery of this procedure and to give some real patient data to evaluate.

Mike