Had Urolift Procedure Today
Posted , 9 users are following.
Went in this morning for a urolift and things are going better than I had feared. The procedure itself was pain free. The doctor had me take hydrocodone an hour before and gave me nitrous oxide while it was happening. Not sure if I felt any pain but, if I did, I was so out of it that I really didn't care.
After the procedure, the initial recovery was a bit rough. Felt really nauseous for a while with a really strong sense of needing to pee, but when I tried to urinate there was pain and very little came out. The nurse said today would be that way. Over the last few hours, the symptoms have decreased but not disappeared. The experience is uncomfortable but not horrible. I've not needed any more hydrocodone. Just taking Motrin and Tylenol now because I hate the feeling of being "high".
It's way too soon to know how effective the procedure will be. Today, I'm having to pee frequently and the urine is of course filled with blood and clots. It's hard to start and the stream is weak. But I was told to expect all of the above.
I'm pleased that things aren't worse. I was fearful of the recovery. Particularly the first day. It hasn't been bad. Will post again as I progress over the next days, weeks and months.
For context, I'm 58 years old. Have had BPH symtoms for 20+ years; early onset runs in my family. Was on medication for the last ten years (Tamsulosin and Finesteride, which are generic Flomax and Proscar). Didn't like the side effects and things were getting worse. I'm off the Finesteride now and hope to go off the Tamsulosin when things shake out. The doctor had done a cystoscopy and determined that my prostate does not have a median lobe. He didn't think it was too big for the procedure. He was concerned about tissue that looked like a tongue right where the bladder meets the prostate. Said that, without that, he'd expect me to have a 95% chance of at least a 50% reduction in symptoms. With the tongue-like tissue, he estimated I'd have an 80% chance of getting at least a 50% reduction.
Given the fact that my wife and I are sexually active, I decided to go with the Urolift. With an understanding that it may not be effective, in which case I can decide to go with the TURP or another process.
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Parallax
Edited
I'm back to post another update. I appear to be one of the lucky men who has had a good experience with the Urolift. For a while, I wasn't sure if it was the right move but now, looking back from a distance of four months, I can say that I think it was.
I'm writing again to report that I continue to have improvement long after my urologist said I would not. He had said I'd get 90% of the benefit in the first 6 weeks and then could see continued improvement out to week 12. That was mostly true but I'm continuing to see incremental change in two areas.
The first is easiest to explain. Having gone off my prostate meds, my libido is returning. I'm pretty sure it was the Proscar that caused the issue. So glad to be done with it. I said when this began that I'd be satisfied if I could get off both the Proscar and the Flomax. I was able to do so. At first, the stream was weak but passable. The second improvement that's harder to explain is that, four months out, my stream still appears to be slowly getting better. Today, for the first time in years, I felt my bladder as I was urinating after enough had been eliminated to take away any pain. It's been years since I felt my bladder contract like that. I can only imagine that the musculature of the bladder, having built up to deal with obstruction, is now reducing because it's no longer needed. As a result, some feeling in the bladder walls is starting to return. This exceeds my expectations.
I don't expect to get to a point where I pee like an 18 year old but there are times when I feel like I could be 35. (In fact, I'm 59 and have had prostate issues since my late 30s.) Sometimes the stream is still very slow and the urine is slow to start. Sooner or later it comes but I have to be patient. Most of the time, to fully empty my bladder, I need to restart after the first stream has ended. But it's all become rather routine and I find that if I go to the bathroom as soon as I feel the urge (or reasonably soon after), everything tends to come out easily and with a decent flow. Not like a 20 year old but more than good enough.
On the sexual side of things, I had been at a place where I could go months without and it wasn't an issue. Now, I recently suggested to my wife that twice a week would be ideal for me and that, absent that, I need to masturbate. She and I both prefer to focus all of our sexual energy within the relationship. She's game on twice a week. In fact she said it's perfect for her in her perimenopause state (she's 48), provided she can get adequate sleep and set aside the time. We have a seven year old son with type one diabetes. Between the fact that we both work and she spends a lot of her day caring for him, plus as I've gotten older it takes me longer to climax, it's not easy to find adequate time alone. But none of that is relevant to this discussion. I share it in case it's helpful to others. The main point is that I'm feeling like a sexual human being again after having gotten pretty well shut down by Proscar for the last several years. What a relief it is to be done with it.
Montyrob Parallax
Posted
wanted to say Thank You for all your posts, I just had the Urolift this past Weds 5/4/22 and its been a hard recovery for me so far, basically every 10-15 minutes I feel like I have to pee and most times big clots are flying out so Ive taken to sitting, and that helps, but when I stand up I pretty much have to go again and blood dribbles out, I had 4 clamps put in which the doctor said is pretty normal, what I find strange is that on day 2 I had basically no clots or blood and my urine was yellow but today day 3 its all blood and clots again.