TURP - 2 week post-op visit
Posted , 5 users are following.
The doctor said: 1) I could resume all normal activities in 1 more week, 2) total healing time is about 3 months and 3) frequency and urgency would continue to improve. The (mostly small) chunks I am expelling are scabs. I am still seeing an occasional burst of pink at the start of urination and he said that was normal. PVR was higher than I expected but from the time I voided to when he did the ultrasound was over 30 minutes so I think the number was artificially high. I feel like I am fully emptying my bladder which I only felt about half the time before the procedure. Stream is pretty strong compared to pre-procedure. Still getting up twice at night. Overall, no regrets whatsover.
Now the bad news: low grade cancer (Gleason score 6) discovered in 15% of the tissue evaluated. I had a biopsy last fall which was clean. Will check PSA in 4 months to establish a new baseline (reading last fall was 10.9 which prompted the biopsy) and will start "active surveillance." He said it's possible that all the cancer was removed during the procedure. One can only hope!
0 likes, 6 replies
alanatcroydon lee56659
Posted
A close friend in a similar situation now takes warfarin on a regular basis. His PSA has reduced to zero (to be expected as he now has no prostate)
lee56659 alanatcroydon
Posted
I thought warfarin was a blood thinner. Not sure what benefit it would be for prostate cancer.
derek76 alanatcroydon
Posted
What is the point of Warfarin in his situation ?
derek76
Posted
A woman I worked with between 1980 and 1994 was on Warfarin after heart surgery. She said that her surgeon had told her that he had never had a patient on Warfarin get cancer. I assume that was why she carried on smoking:-)
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tom86211 lee56659
Posted
Lee,
I really understand what you are going through - got a positive biopsy in 2012, went on active surveillance, then had radiation in 2014.
My PSA was in the 4-5 range when I got the positive biopsy, also Gleason 6, and not many cores. So, if your biopsy last year was clean, then it's likely you only have a little of the G6. Some urologists don't believe this should be called cancer - only Gleason 7 or higher. However, a 12 core biopsy is only a sample and can miss a lot. You should look into a possible 3T MRI that would give you a detailed picture of the lesions, if any.
After my second biopsy I had more cells showing Gleason 6, and more percent of each core and more cores, so the doctors called this "progression" and recommended I get treated. I used the year and a half between biopsies to look into my options and interview doctors who did the different treatments.
If you choose to have a RRP, robotic removal of the prostate, you won't have BPH anymore, but you might have some issues gaining control of your peeing for a while. If the cancer comes back at some later point you can then have followup radiation.
If you do what I did, have radiation first, then the BPH is still there, but I never have any urination "accidents". However, if the cancer returns, it's more difficult to remove the prostate in a "salvage" operation.
For a RRP you really need to select a skilled surgeon. For radiation, it's not as essential, since the treatment is computer guided. Besides normal "external beam" there is Proton beam, and low and high dose Brachytherapy. I had the HD Brachytherapy, because, through extensive research, I found it had the highest percentage of cure. So far, five years later, my PSA is still extremely low (0.1 to 0.2) and so I am happy I went through with that treatment. However, my prostate is still there blocking my urine flow.
So, you have a lot to think about, but plenty of time to do your homework. I did learn that the active surveillance after a while was causing me anxiety because I knew I was untreated. Once I went through with the radiation, my stress level dropped considerably.
Another thing you will have to consider: if you do go for the external beam it's 40 treatments, the low dose brachytherapy is one session, and the HD is two (was for me). The prostate swells during this process and you may go into total retention as I did for five weeks requiring a Foley catheter until the swelling went down.
There is a very high probability that you will eventually be completely cured of the PCa, and your Gleason grade of 6 is low, and you have a lot of time to do your research. All good news.
My very best,
Tom
lee56659 tom86211
Posted
Thanks Tom. I will save your post for future reference. I have several friends who have either had RRP or radiation and all are doing fine. At this point, I'm not worried.