Post GreenLight Laser Surgery Recovery

Ask your doctor to put in a foley catheter. I have worn them for a couple of weeks with no problem. If you have a UTI you need an antibiotic. The catheter will let you sleep (connect the 2 liter bag for night use, the 500ml or 1 liter bag for day use, strapped to your leg). You will still feel pain due to bladder spasms, but you won't have to get out of bed at night. If you are passing a lot of clots, you may need a suction device (looks like a large plastic syringe that you can connect to the foley output port and either suck the clots through the cath or push them back into the bladder to clear the cath tube.)

Hi Clifford-

Glad to hear that you are satisfied with your GL results. 

I had about the same results as you. It's a few months but I recovered after the surgery pretty fast and was back to gym -lifting within weeks.

I am also a runner -with precaution even less time. I think being in shape helped with the recovery process. I am able to control the day urges. I often get urges but try to ignore them & they pass. (average every 3 hours, sometimes even up to 5 hours). I was hoping that this behavior would carry over into night. but as you said- the nights are a different story. It's hard to fight urges when you are sleeping). I'm up atleast 3x but I'd rather live with that than every hour (although I do have a bad night on occasion). 

I was very dissapointed with my Dr. that he didn't tell me that I would have rentrograde ejaculation. (he said it might come back a little). My orgasms aren't as intense but satisfying. 

I would love to see more sucess stories with GL surgery posted. 

 

I'm almost at week 8 from my Greenlight TURP and things are finally looking good for me. I had the night hourly RUNNING to the toilet - still leave the light on all night. I saw some small improvement at week 6 but now I've had 2 nights when I only got up once. (I keep a record).

I take a Vesicare tablet about 7 pm, go to bed at midnight. The Vesicare is supposed to reduce the urgency but can only take it once a day so still running during the day but not so often.

The pain is just about nil now thank goodness. If only that could have been controlled during the 1st 6 weeks! Doc recommended Ural (the fizzy stuff) - didn't touch it.

My prostate had prolapsed into the bladder (his description) and Doc said it would take 3 months to heal.

So I now feel I'm getting my life back at last - a big relief. I'm 72 and reasonably fit - walk a lot. Live in Australia.

Last comment - I'm not looking forward to a repeat!!! (my father has 3).

I've been very grateful & impressed by all the kindnesses shown on these sites and wish you all well.

PS - I laugh about it - but if I even walk near the coffee machine, or the kitchen sink, etc I immediately have to RUN!!!

I think the size of the prostate might be a factor. The larger the prostate and the more tissue removed, I think the greater the pain and the longer the recuperation. I had 2 GL's and both were 6 to 8 weeks of bleeding and eye popping pain at the end of urination. Terrible urgency and frequency for a couple of weeks, and a cath for 5 days, each time.  Neither GL worked as hoped, finally had a turp about a year and a half ago. It was an easier and less painful recovery, but more bleeding for a longer time.

Surgeons should be required to wear a Foley catheter for a couple of days so they can know exactly how they feel.  And for those of us who end up with long term incontinence, they should live in diapers for a week.

r21958 here (I ought to figure out how to have an actual name). 

One month anniversary today.  As of Sunday and Monday, episodes of lightheadedness and fatigue. Continued bleeding, and not just a few drops. 

Surgeon didn't respond to an email about whether or not this could be anemia induced by bleeding. 

My primary care doc spoke to me by phone. The first thing he suggested was stopping the flomax (which the surgeon told me to continue post surgery). Can't sleep very well, but lightheadedness has been gone. 

Bleeding, for the first time in three weeks (not much bleeding during the first week) seems to have diminished a bit. Nobody would mistake it for normal urine, but it's better. 

Pain continues, but is tolerable. No more gasping. 

Flow is improved. 

Urgency can still be extreme, but I can go a couple of hours at times. 

Today I returned to work. Doc predicted return to full activity as of this week, but also mentioned to watch the bleeding.  Since I'm still bleeding, I decided to take it pretty easy.

What troubles me about my experience is that, after the surgery, the surgeon acted like it was well within normal limits-- and that's probably true.  But it sure isn't anything like he predicted, or the websites predict.  

My guess is that my kind of experience is common enough that they should be telling people about it and not acting like the aftermath of the surgery is going to be as mild as they've been saying. 

By the way, the doc said, last week, that it would be three months to full recovery. 

I forgot to mention -- blood count was normal. Despite what seems like a lot of blood down the drain, red blood cell count is normal. 

I read that it's possible to need a transfusion (maybe more after TURP), but, apparently, that's not true in my case. 

You are about where I was after my last GL in Dec 2013. It took 9 weeks for the burgundy colored pee to change to pink lemonade and then became normal. At about 6 weeks the sharp pains after urination started to subside. At 9 weeks the aftermath was pretty much over. The 5-6 night time urinations improved to 3-4, where they still are.

In case this is helpful to anyone, here's another update. 

As noted earlier, I had way more pain and bleeding than I expected based on my surgeon's comments.  And he didn't say anything about how much to drink or stool softeners (apparently, straining isn't so good). He did tell me to resume tamsulosin right after the surgery. 

At day 24 and 25, with no reduction in bleeding the light-headedness really was bothersome. I don't know if it was actually worse. My primary care doctor pointed out that it is a known side-effect of Tamsulosin. He recommend that I stop the Tamsulosin and see if it improved. 

So, I stopped the Tamsulosin on a Monday, meaning Sunday was my last dose. The lightheadedness stopped immediately. By Wednesday, there was a dramatic reduction in bleeding. I chanced sexual activity for the first time on my month-anniversary of the surgery.  A lot of blood in the next urination, but, very little in subsequent urinations. I restarted exercising (2 mile walks) with no ill effects. I returned to work that Wednesday. 

On Thursday night I had the best night of sleeping in at least a decade. Six hours without waking up to pee. I'd been averaging 75 minutes. Friday night, also very good. For the first time since the surgery it seems as if the surgery might actually improve my life.

But there's a question -- was the Tamsulosin helping or hurting my recovery in the first 25 days or so? 

If I find anything out, I'll post it. But, if the improvement wasn't due to stopping the Tamsulosin, it was quite the coincidence. 

Again, another update, in case this is helpful to anyone. 

I'm now two days short of 6 weeks. 

For the last 6 days or so, I had no bleeding, so I started exercising (a few days ago) and resumed sexual activity yesterday. 

I was feeling pretty good. Still hurts to urinate, but nowhere as bad as before. 

Today, though, I suspect because of the sex,  the stream was very red. Lot of blood. 

By coincidence, I had my followup appointment for a uroflow test. Go into a machine, which apparently tracks flow and then an ultrasound to see if you empty. 

My doctor said the results were great.  He said 42% above normal flow. Emptied well. He said the bleeding will probably be intermittent for a few more weeks and I am probably never going to need another surgery. 

He said to stop the Tamsulosin (I already had) saying "you don't need it". 

Next appointment is in 3 months for a repeat of the same test. He said that if I'm still having symptoms which cause me to get up too often at night, he could prescribe oxybutynin or myrbetriq (sp?) for overactive bladder.

And, that's it.

In his view, apparently, the surgery is a success and the symptoms I've been having aren't worrisome (to him, anyway).

Bottom line, and this will probably be my last post on it, unless something unexpected happens -- the surgery seems to be helping, but the recovery period was a lot less pleasant than I was led to believe. I'd be extremely reluctant to do this again. The doctor could have helped me by providing more information on the possible range of post surgical symptoms.  

 

Good to hear things are improving! While my visible bleeding (as opposed to microscopic) was of a much shorter duration, everyone is different. You got the spelling right on both drugs. (Oxybutinin = Ditropan XL). I know I had overactive bladder for a long time before the surgery and it continued afterwards, so I am on both drugs (M. in the morning; D. at bedtime) I'm also have a treatment calle PTNS (basically acupuncture with electrical stimulation) which helps also (at least some people) with the OB. 

I know the recovery can be a somewhat unpleasant, but if you had a really enlarged prostate causing you disruption to your sleep and life, then maybe you would choose PVP again. In my case, while things are certainly not perfect, there's a world of difference and I generally do not get up during the night to pee any longer .. though daytimes are not always great. :-)

Another update. Next week is my 6 month anniversary. 

I had another uroflow test a few weeks ago with strong flow. 

As I had mentioned at the time, the recovery was a lot slower and a lot less pleasant than predicted. 

But, with benefit of hindsight now nearly 6 months out, the doctor's predictions about the eventual result were exactly right. 

He predicted that I'd be happy with the surgery. I am. 

He predicted I'd still be up 2-3 times per night. That's about right, but I also have sleep apnea which may have something to do with it. 

The burning sensation is now gone, but that took about 5 months of gradual improvements. 

Orgasms are good. He predicted zero discharge, but there's a little bit. 

Urgency is probably about normal. I no longer have to rush. I can now sometimes wake up and not need to urinate. That hadn't happened for years. 

So, all in all, it was worth the discomfort. As I was going through it, I wasn't so sure, but it had gotten to the point where I had to do something because I was sleeping so poorly. 

Best of luck to others and I hope my report has been helpful to somebody. 

I remember reading somewhere recently that a couple of drops of blood can turn your urine pink while a teaspoon full can turn it cherry red.

I remember reading somewhere recently that a couple of drops of blood can turn your urine pink while a teaspoon full can turn it cherry red.