Rezum is terrible

Thank you very much for the words of encouragement!

Thank you Ken for telling us about your experience. I also decided to do Rezum and scheduled in November under sedation. I am also apprehensive after reading such posts. My prostates is about 36 cc with median lobe and high bladder neck. I am worried about the high bladder neck because they may inject steam into it. But still there is more chance of preserving the architecture than with other more invasive procedures. I am willing to keep the cather for 10 days to till the swelling goes down. . My urolosogist has done more than 100 rezums and he also does Holep and he states he is getting good results with Rezum. 

Get some disposable catheters for yourself once the Foley comes out. Having a Foley catheter for 10 days is a little tricky.

I would suggest the same thing that John98818 suggested. Self-cathing isn't as painful as we all have it made out to be, as long as you get good instruction. I know that we're all different, but I self-cathed for about three weeks after Rezum. I could have stopped after a week easily. I noticed a definite difference after about 5 days, and probably could have stopped then.

How are you doing now?

Thank you. If you decide to go through with the procedure make sure you are put under. I was only given a Vicodin and a Valium and it was extremely painful.

Yes I made sure they would put me under!  

Gary,

     If you've arranged to be put under for the procedure, that's good. For me, the Rezum procedure was truly a 'walk in the park' because 1. I was put under for the procedure. When I woke up, there was no pain  2. I was self-catheterizing before the procedure, so I was able to avoid the Foley catheter afterwards. As you may have read, the Rezum procedure will not give immediate free flow. I believe that is because of the swelling of the prostate caused by the steam. Obviously that swelling will eventually go down, but for the first few days, or perhaps a couple of weeks, your urethra will likely be constricted by the swollen prostate. If you can self-cath, then you won't need to fuss with the Foley catheter. However, if you do need to have a Foley installed, take heart that it will only be for a few days,

KEN thanks so much for your encouraging words.  I’m going do more research and continue with the Cialis and maybe I can live with those results for a while.  I never knew how miserable BPH could become!

Yes bph stinks. I hate the medication side effects. They give me a stuffy nose.

Gary,

      About 18 months ago I went into retention, and had to start self-cathing. Like most guys, I had seen commercials on TV about catheters and thought: "I sure hope I never have to do that!". But it turns out that self-catheterizing isn't difficult or painful. With the proper instruction, and good catheters, it gives you the ability to live a normal and less stressful life. I self-cathed for almost a year while I researched various BPH surgical options. Tamsulosin didn't help me at all, and I never took any other BPH drugs, so I don't have any experience with those, or the side effects. My original urologist only did bipolar TURPs, and I knew that I didn't want that. For me, the Rezum was an easy and effective procedure. But again, the two things that made it so easy were the general twilight anesthesia and self-cathing afterwards. If you don't do those two things, I still think that Rezum is the best procedure for BPH. 

So you're experience with Rezum was excellent or good or just ok?

My results have been excellent. I can pee like I did many years ago, and there have been absolutely no side effects. For TURP and Holep, there is a near certainty that you will end up with retrograde ejaculation. With Rezum, the opposite is true. 

Good to hear. I'm hoping everything will work out. Thank you

Ken  

Having to be cath'ed to me is probably the scariest parts of BPH.  It scrares me more than you can imagine.  I have been very healthy till now and haven't spent much time around doctors/hospitals, so this is bringing me down to earth.  I'm a wuss when it comes to pain. However I am very seriously considering your advise about learning to self cath.  It makes sense to figure it out now before I'm in pain and stressed out after the procedure.  Can you tell me how you went about leaning to to do it?

Gary,

       I didn't have time to be scared to cath. As it turned out, I went to my urologist's office because I could only pee a very small amount, and I knew that something was wrong. He wasn't in the office that day, so his very attractive young Physicians' Assistant did the usual prostate check, retention ultrasound, and then, step-by-step, taught me how to cath. I did everything myself, but she did an excellent job of telling me how to do it. It was such a relief to drain off that 450ml of urine.

She gave me a handful of catheters and wrote a prescription for an extended quantity. Since I had just turned 65, Medicare and my supplemental insurance paid for the catheters. 

I found that the Coloplast Speedicaths worked best for me. Mine were FR16 coude tip. I tried some other configurations, but these one time use catheters with the prelubrication worked great. I could even fold one up and put it in a pocket so that I could go into a public restroom and use it. 

Another way to look at it is that the catheters are giving you some time to think clearly about what you want to do surgically.

There is a you tube video on the technique for inserting the Speedicath. For me, the key was to relax as much as possible when inserting it. Otherwise you will be fighting the sphincter muscles. There was only one time that I got any blood from catheterizing, and that was in the first week. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.

 

There are videos on YouTube, but it's pretty simple, just gently slide that tube into your urethra until urine starts to flow our and make sure the other end is pointed at the toilet. I am a wuss also. The Rezum procedure have me nightmares! I screamed at the top of my lungs, but cathing yourself is no biggie. The first time is scary. That's it

Ken - I have seen many mentions of ultrasounds on the forum.  I am going to urologist in a couple of weeks.  Do they use the same ultrasound for everything? Or do they have a specific one to check for retention, and another to check for prostate size?  Are they all operated like when an OBGYN is looking at a fetus?  Thanks.

The type of ultrasound that examines the prostate is called TRUS, Tranurethral Ultrasound or 3D ultrasound. It requires special equipment inserted into the rectum and not every hopsital or urologist office does it. It can measure the size of the prostate and  whether the medium lobe is large and protruding into the bladder. Both of these are essential information for urologist because They are key info to decide if a certain surgery technique is applicable. The cost is about $400-600.

however, if the urologist just want to treat a patient with drugs first, he may not order TRUS, but I would recommend to do it so the patient knows what situation he is in. For example, if the prostate is larger than 100cc, he should be concerned.

i am sure that Ken, who has more experience, will give u a better answer.

 

More:

it takes a few minutes to perform including setup. 

Sasquatch,

    The answer that dl0808 gave is correct; a TRUS does use a unique instrument specifically for inserting into the rectum to give a view of anatomy in that area. 

     I was talking to someone today by PM about the TRUS and when it was used. In my case, the urologist used the TRUS a few weeks before the Rezum. I believe that is was part of the qualification to see if I was a good candidate for the procedure. I am no surgeon of course, but to me it makes more sense to do a TRUS just before the Rezum procedure so that the person performing the Rezum procedure can see where it would be best to insert the needle and inject the steam so that it does the most good. 

Sasquatch,   A different ultrasound is used to measure retention.  It  is placed on the abdomen and is similar to the type for a fetus. I don't know if they can tell the size of the prostate from that type of  ultrasound (Good question for your Urologist).  I think they can get a rough idea, but for more accurate size reading of the prostate they use the TRUS (Transrectal Ultrasonography).

Thomas

ThE answer is correct. This is an not too accurate way to measure urgine retention. Every urologitst offer this test and the patient will be charged.

an accurate way of measuring post void urine retention is the test call urodynamic, which costs over a thousand dollars and not every urologist offers it

 

Thank you, DL.  Wow, I had no idea it would be so spendy!  In any case, it sounds like it's necessary to get a view of things.  

Thanks, Ken.  I agree - more information is better.  With surgery like this, you definitely want to only treat the affected areas.