Sad TURP experience !!!

  This is my brother's message to me 2 weeks after his TURP:

  "Yes, it is a b***h. Now, I have both upper UTI and lower UTI. Blood is still continued leaking out. Sometimes it clogged up a long the urethra so that I could not pee. I had to drink a lot of water to create more pressure in the bladder to push the urine down to unclog the old bloods. There is more frequent irritation, pain, and burning sensation during urination (every 30 min or so)..."

   This may sound typical post TURP but the sad part is that my brother, 61, did not even know what TURP was and did not even need it. He was put under for a bladder biopsy (which may not be needed), waking up shocked with a Foley catheter sticking out of his penis, and a urine bag taped to his leg, was told :"Since I was already in, I decided to give you a prostate biopsy also." That biopsy turned out to be a TURP.

   My brother is a highly intelligent person yet real naive when it comes to medical procedures. He told me :"He is a real nice doctor. He said he did this extra  biopsy for me because he really likes me." Sure, he probably also made thousands of dollars on this extra. 

    Even the bladder biopsy may not even be needed. My brother had some abdomen pain together with frequent urination problems for a while so he went to see the urologist. He was given ultrasound and cystoscopy and was told everything including bladder and prostate was fine. There was no prostate obstruction. His PSA has been stable over the years and has never been higher than 0.6. Bladder inside was clean. Urine test also came out negative. No blood. No UTI. Nothing. No urinary retention. So the uro suggested bladder biopsy. 

    While waiting for the bladder biopsy, the pain went away. He now contributed the pain to his change into a diet that is very-low carb, high-fat, high-protein diet, probably causing some kind of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The pain went away after he returned to his normal diet, less restrictive in carbs.

    So the only symptom he had then was peeing too often, every 1 or 2 hours. I told him I think it is probably due to his habit of over consumption of liquid, over 3 liters a day, after he measured and recorded his voids. His typical void is 300ml, with strong flow, more than 300ml during the night. This is a very typical healthy void (that many of us wish to have) without any meds. 

    I told him to cancel the bladder biopsy after reading so many stories on this forum about how things can seriously go wrong. My brother often asked me for advises but he never followed them,  thinking that he was the smarter one (which he is not, BTW. )His attitude then was: "There is nothing to lose. It is free. Insurance is paying for it." So he went in for the bladder biopsy. The rest is history. Both the biopsies turned out to be negative, which still don't negate the facts that they were not really needed. Other than the current sufferings, my brother recovery still has  a long way to go. 

   I am sure the doctor covered himself up by having my brother signing some papers before the bladder? operation. The moral of the story is: do not have an operation just because it is free and nothing to lose. Sometimes things will go wrong and you will have a lot lo lose. It is what guys like kenneth1955 have been telling people on this forums for years.

Hank

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