REZUM--HAVE YOU HAD THIS DONE???????

Best of luck DanaN.  I am in my 4th month today.  It has worked for me with no ill effects so far.  They gave me an information sheet after I had it done in Sep and everything on that sheet was pretty much accurate and happened the way it said it would.  I am going less and the flow for me is good.  Starts like a fire hose (exaggerated just a tad).  At night when I get up to go it is a go and not a dribble like before.  Much better.  I try to drink more water, which I never did before and I think that helps also.

Hi Ken,

Glad you had a good Rezum experience! From what I've read it could be up to three months before you see the full benefits. Also happy that CIC bought you some time so you didn't get pressured into a TURP. Also, you should find it handy until you're able to void on your own.

Jim

Congrats Ken! NxThera rep told me the edema maxes out in 7 to 10 days. Also as many others have experienced you may have to self cath for 4 days or more. I still have retro but I think mine is from complications I had. I dont know if you saw my update. Ive not been active lately. I'm hopeful the pipes will be back to normal soon. Good luck in your recovery!

Thanks, Jim, for your comments. And thanks again for taking the time to help other guys suffering from the symptoms of BPH. The comments from everyone on this forum have been very helpful to me. There seemed to be, when everything else went well, two problems that many guys had with the Rezum procedure: 1. pain during the procedure when a local anesthestic was used, and 2. discomfort from the Foley catheter.   My Rezum uro took care of the first one because that is now his standard procedure. When I told him at the previous appointment that I did NOT want a Foley, and that I wanted to self-cath, he was all for it. 

HOWEVER, I think it's important, as you have pointed out many times, to do the CIC (self-cathing) correctly, Or at least follow some suggestions on how to make it easier. I've only had one drop of blood in all the times that I've cathed, and never had any infections. There are a couple of good videos on the coloplast website that visually show how to use a coloplast prelubricated catheter. 

Again, thanks for your kind help to others.

Ken

Ken  I am happy that you did not have the TURP  That is a horror.  But you do know that you still have a chance of having retro.  Doctor tell you only 4% but it's like 10 to 15%.  I hope your one of the lucky ones.  Good luck and heal well  Ken

You're not missing anything. This is a great site but can be next to impossible to navigate because the posts aren't in strict chronological order. If it wasn't for the email notifications I'd never find my place here. That said, there is a sort facilty at the top of the thread. It will not give you a true chronological order but will help a little. The problem here is that the site allows you to either reply to the original poster of a responding poster. If you reply to a responding poster -- like I am doing now to you -- then the post is ordered differently from if I responded to the original poster. With shorter threads you can sort of muddle through and find everything but with the longer threads very difficult.

Jim

Jim

Just getting around to seeing this now on 1/23/2018.  It helps a lot.  THANK you.

You might want to try Cialis 5mg which has no sexual side effects and can help with BPH, also Rapaflo is the strongest drug of its type and expensive, Flomax is similar and you might not have retro, on the other hand it causes so called "floppy iris syndrome".

I don't think there is any guarantee on any procedure, but you risk damaging your bladder if you refuse to do anything. That's what happened to me. Self Catheterization can help prevent the bladder damage but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Also look into FLA in the groups here, worked well for most people, but very expensive.

I was originally thinking of Urolift a couple years ago. Then I heard about Rezum, and research led me to this site. Now, 2 yrs later, I still can't sleep longer then 2 hours without waking up to pee. I need to do something, and this site has convinced me that Rezum is not the choice I want to make. I will be re- visiting my Uro Feb 8th. I've had all the tests including a sleep study. Time to get my sleep life back. Any comments from people having had Urolift would be welcome.

Mike, sorry in advance to all these questions, but i'm new to this. What is  "floppy iris syndrome" ? also what is FLA ? I know Cialis is for erectile dysfunction, but will doctors prescribe it for BPH ? What long term damage is done to the bladder if you don't do anything ?

Floppy Iris seems to describe the Iris not being held correctly, I don't think it's dangerous per se, millions of men and women have been taking Flomax for many many years as far as I know  - all I know is it makes it harder for Eye Surgeons to perform Cataract Surgery, I've been told by an eye surgeon that if they know they can still do the surgery so it's not a deal breaker. I'm sure you can google it and find out more.

FLA is Focused Laser Ablation, search forums here. There are whole discussions on it. Search for Dr Karamanian or look him up and call him he can tell you if you are a candidate. It's less invasive he can explain.

Yes they will prescribe it for BPH - it's expensive depending on your health plan, but you can order generic versions from Canada, contact me later if you are interested - but the Urologist might give you a free sample, or Pfizer will give you the first 30 free - just ask Pharmacist, they can get a coupon for that.

I'm not an expert on bladders, but from what I can gather there are two potential problems. Either the bladder will get stretched out from being too full all the time. OR, when you try to pee all the time and push hard to get it out the bladder walls can get thickened. After that even if you have surgery to free the obstruction, your bladder won't function efficiently. You might still have to pee often because bladder will have lost elasticity and can not hold large amounts if walls thickened - or if stretched out too much it still might be hard to pee naturally. I know someone who had Urolift, said it worked great, sex life great, however because his walls were thickened that way he could not void efficiently. So if he wanted to go out for say 4 hours without worrying about rest room he was self catheterize, or do it when he went to bed. He can still pee, but he never gets it all out. Same thing for me although I did FLA. Having said that as we age many of us have that issue, bladder not as efficient, getting up at night to pee etc.

What other symptoms besides waking up at night? Do you have retention for example?

Jim

No retention to speak of, unless I am in a real deep sleep. Then it takes a minute to get going after I wake up.

I asked because getting up at night can have causes other than bph and if that's the case then Urolift, or any other bph procedure or surgery will not help. You should google "IPPS score" and take the five minute test online. It will give you an idea of where you stand sympton wise. I also suggest to anyone who gets up at night frequently to do a 24 hour void log. Simply write down the time and amount of each void for 24 hours. If the night time void totals are more than 40% of the 24 hour total than you have something called nocturia polyuria, which has causes other than bph. Again, in this case, none of the prostate procedures will be of much help.

Jim

Good evening BoneI007.  That was a good move on your part.  Doctor's do not care about your side effect.  When he told you to go on it you should have told you about the side effects.  I'm trying to help another man on here that was given Avodart.  His doctor did not know what it did either.  Here is a quote that I read.  Some Doctors prescribed this medications because they feel that the benefit to you is greater then the risk of the side effects.  They are just looking for you to pee.  They do not care about your sex life.  That is why anything they give you look it up and get the information on it.  Urolift would be good for you.  They are no side effects.  It will open you up just like any of the other procedures without cutting.  I am going on 3 years.  My orgasm are more intense now they they were before.  Take care  ken      

 

Good evening K  The doctor tell you that the Rezum is only a 4% chance of Retro but if you have been on this site you will see that it does take longer to see result with the Rezum and it 10 to 15% retro.  I had the Urolift 3 years ago.  Was good to go in a few weeks.  No retro or any other side effects  Have a good day  ken

Ken, thank you this is really helpful. I'll check back into the Euro Lift.

No problem  If you have any other question Just ask  Ken

it would be wrong to use this site as as a basis to gauge RE with Rezum or side effects with any procedure. This isn't a random sample - its composed almost 100% with people who had problems with a procedure or are looking at having one. Anecdotally, it would seem that their study number 04 3% is low - but that's anecdotal and could be wrong.

Urolift limitations are based on prostate shape more than prostate size. An enlarged median lobe will rule it out - ask your doc what the scope revealed - and don't consider ANY procedure until you've been scoped and had a urodynamics test. Believe it or not, there are docs out there that will put you out and cut you open just because you say you pee a lot.

Urolift and Rezum aren't perfect and Rezum comes with a pretty long recovery (can be as much as 8 weeks till you pee reasonably normally, although for most its much less than that). The advantage of both is that they have high success rates when they're done for the right reason (prostate impeding urine flow) and there is very little chance that either will leave you substantially worse than before. That isn't true with the more invasive surgeries like TURP and Greenlight. Both of those can leave you permanently incontinent, impotent or both. Both are rare in a good surgeon's hands, but still possible and even under the best circumstances, they have a much longer recovery and greater chance of RE.

I agree with you.  That is very true.  These 2 procedure are very good but will not work on everyone.  Urolift is good and have work well for a lot of men.  We have had some men complain about it that it mess up there sex life.  It can't do that because it only opens up the prostate and does not mess with anything else.  They have to look at the pills that there doctors keep them on.  2 men were on Avodart & Jalyn and you know what they do to a mans sex drive.  Thank god they stopped taking them hope all improve for them.  When I was looking them up for these guy's This is what I read  Doctor's prescribed this medication because they feel the benefits to you is greater then the risk of side effect.  So the doctor don't care what the med's do to your sex life.  That is why when you go on any med's Look up the side effects because not all doctor know what they do.  With the Rezum we have had some men on here have a good outcome but it did take them longer to heal.  And they ended up with retro and there doctor told them not to worry because it only happen rarely.  Well it has been happening more then what we would like.  I am going to repeat myself.  With any procedure you pick get all the information you can.  from your doctor, friends and the internet.  Do not take the first thing that is offered and get a second opinion.  Remember you have to worry about your body because no one else well.  Take care  ken         

OB,

      Very good summary. I didn't think about the fact that Urolift wasn't indicated when there was an enlarged median lobe, but it makes sense since the median lobe is often growing up into the bladder (as mine is/was). 

      It's only been 5 days since my Rezum procedure so it's way too soon to see any significant benefits. But I'm still amazed at how easy this procedure was for me. Granted, we are all different, and the urologists have varying degrees of expertise. But I've had no pain whatsoever. On the third day I did notice that it was uncomfortable to get the flow started. But that eased up a couple of days later. 

      I've noticed that several guys have mentioned urgency as an issue with Rezum. I had some of it during the second day/night. I took a couple of ibuprofen and for me, that was all it took. I'm sure that ibuprofen won't help everyone, but it worked surprisingly well for me. 

      One of the keys to the success of the procedure for me was that I've been self-cathing for a few months, and, with the doctor's blessing, I did not get a Foley catheter after the surgery. Self-catheterizing is something that you can control yourself; it's not necessary to return to the Dr's office a few days later to get it removed. And it sure sounds uncomfortable to have one.

When I cathed, I felt some tenderness in the urethra in a couple of spots, but that too went away within a couple of days. 

       You made a good point about the fact that the majority of the posters here have had problems. That's of course very unfortunate; I really do feel bad for those guys. But it probably does offer a scary view of the Rezum procedure to those who are thinking about it. I hope that my positive (so far) experience helps balance the scales a bit.

I'm very happy that you so far have a good out come.  Most of the men on here did not see any improvement for 6 to 8 weeks.  I hope all goes well for you and every works the way it should.  Take care and relax  ken

That is a good explanation of how compound problems can be masked and how a prostate procedure may not solve all our problems nor is it a failure of the procedure. Thumbs up!

 What is this FLA  procedure, did not hear of it . Dave

Focused Laser Ablation there are threads on it, mine went "so so" I can say a year after it helped but did not solve my issue of obstruction. Most have had good results - one I know had bad results. The surgeon uses a different technique, instead of through the penis he goes through the back side using MRI guidance.

All procedures have side effects, of course.

The vast majority of the men who have had the Rezum procedure end up pretty happy. Most men who have had it can come off their medications eventually, and will likely not need another procedure. (At least for a while; we've only been doing them for about 3-5 years thus far.)