Turp experience and questions

What country are you in?

Usa. Also, cathater was strapped to my leg so close, I developed a blister on the underside of penis. Post turp, took me three months to get back to clear pee, still have slow pee, but better. 11 months so far.

Recovery from TURP surgery varies from person to person. For me it took 3 months before I felt comfortable.

It is apparent from all these helpfull comments is that the recovery time time varies from patient to patient, and ranges from a few weeks to 3 months+.

Depends what you mean by frequent. Took about 8-9 weeks for the urgency, frequency, pain and bleeding to stop. It cured the retention but not the night time urination. Still get up 4 to 5 times a night. Use a bedside urinal while sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark, so I get back to sleep in about a minute.

Martin, i had my turp 3 1/2 months ago, still dealing with requency and frequency. i am on Toviaz for it turns out to be an overactive bladder. i was blocked also by my prostate, i take a couple of motrin pm pills before bed and it allows me to sleep all night with only getting up maybe 2 times at the most. i read on a different site that it takes 4 months plus for all symtoms to subside. Good luck.

Many thanks Bob, very encouraging . I guess more patience is needed.

Thanks Rick, I cannot take motrin because of kidney problems but Vesicare has been prescribed. I will need more patience as perhaps I was hoping for too quick a result.

Do any of you have a leaking problem. Mine is more at night, althugh I do leak some through the day.. I wear a Depend pad all the time and when I wake up in the night it is saturated. I seem to pass urine while I am sleeping and don't wake up in time. It has been only 3 and half weeks since I had the catheter removed even though I had my TURP on the 9th March. It makes it feel like I am only starting to recover for the last 3 and half weeks.

I did have some leaking after my turp for a couple of months. I did wet the bed once and started putting abosrbant pads on the sheet in addition to the water proof mattress cover. A few times on the way back to the bed from the bathroom I just leaked on the floor. I didnt even feel it, just heard it. It went away after a few months. I do leak a little after urinating, so I make sure I am really done, and wipe with a tissue.

Bob when did you have your TURP and did you wet the absorbant pad on the sheet at all. You are the only one who mentioned they actually wet the bed. I have an absorbant pad on my bed as well as the waterproof matress protector and there have been a couple of occasions I slept through the urge and woke up wet. I too have dribbled sometimes going back to bed, although now I have depend pads in the bathroom if I have to change it. Because I hadn't read that anyone else had wet the bed or dribbled alot I thought it was only happening to me.

It seems the TURP is not an easy fix like I was lead to believe.

Pelvic or bladder exercise will help a lot John. Google will tell you how to do it.

John, In the course of 3 years I had two greenlight laser operations and a turp. The last was the turp in June of 2015. Of the three, the last had the best results in terms of fixing the retention and getting a good stream. But none allowed me to stop needing to get up several times a night. I think that 20 years of bph thickened my bladder walls and reduced my bladder capacity to about 300 ml.  Also at night I make more urine, probably due to being reclined so my bladder is more relaxed. I was pretty well good after 3 to 4 months. No more incidents at night and I stopped using the absorbant pads on the bed after about 6 months (I wanted to be sure). I haven't had any incidents since, although I always wait a good half minute to be sure I'm really done peeing, and wipe with a tissue so I don't leave a quarter sized spot on my underwear.

Thankyou everyone for all the comments. I was not put on any medication at all. I had no pain or bleeding. I have read some are on a medication for the bladder spasms. Is there one that can help that.

thanks

John, Nor was I put on medication for any pain (minimal) or bleeding (very little). However, because of frequent urge to urinate at night (a consequence of Over Active Bladder) I was put on "Vesicare" which you may Google for other generic names. Frankly, it's not helping a lot, but all advice is that after years of my bladder being blocked by an enlarged prostate, the bladder is now learning to cope with larger amounts of urine.

Bob you said you did wet the bed once and you put the absorbant pad on the bed. After you put that on the bed did you wet the pad or did you wake up to go to the bathroom. I have put a pad on the bed. It is good that the bed doesn't get wet anymore but I am still sleeping through the urges to go to the bathroom. My depend pads and bried=fs are still getting wet. Did you take any medication that may have helped you wake up.

 

John, I started using a plastic urinal kept in a basket next to the nightstand (and still do). Whenever I have the urge I sit on the edge of the bed in the dark and use the urinal, then go back to sleep. The bed wetting was unusual, though I did leak a few times without feeling it and would have to change underwear and the pad. The leaking didn't have any feelings at all, it just fell out. But that went away on it's own after a few months. I never took any meds. I'm not sure why you aren't being woken up unless you are also leaking without any feeling of having to go. For a while I used diapers in bed and knowing I was wearing diapers would just pee in the diaper. But that didn't work for me becuse the wet diaper would wake me  up. Are you taking any meds or sleep aids that would make you sleep too deep to wake up?

Bob no I am not on any medication or taking sleep aids. When I wake up sometimes I am wet. I too use a plastic urinal bottle near the bed and if I wake up I do go in the bottle but I just seem to sleep so soundly and don't always wake up. It must be just like you said it just leaks out without me feeling it. I have just started to set the alarm to wake up every couple of hours with minimal success so far. I still sometimes get alot of bladder spasms in the day espcially in the late afternoon and early evening and think I need to go to the bathroom and nothing. My urologist said to drink about 1 litre of water a day.

John, maybe give it some more time. It sounds like you are leaking without feeling it, like I did. So waking yourself up to pee doesn't sound like it will work. It takes some people 8 or 9 weeks to recover from a turp or laser. The bladder spasms and urgency and any pain or bleeding should stop in a few more weeks. If they don't, maybe you have something still blocking the bladder or urethra. I generally drink about 2 to 2-1/2 liters of liquid a day, mostly bottled water, some decaf coffee, and urinate about 1 to 1-1/2 liters of urine a night into two one liter plastic urinals. At one time a few years ago (before the turp, but after the first greenlight laser) I was urinating about a dozen times a night and planned on using an external condom catheter at night and sleeping in a recliner chair (so gravity would prevent splash back) with a 2 liter bag on the floor so I could sleep the night. However I got better before I implemented that plan.

You have been very hepful Bob, it seems like it will have to be just a matter of time. I just wasn't told enough about it before I had the TURP, and expected to be better after about 6 weeks. Maybe I am just not having enough water. I too drink decaf coffee and sometimes hot chocolate. The Australian doctors don't seem to tell you enough about it. When I have a good pee it is usually about 250 ml., so I would imagine I would not be blocked to do that much at one time. What time of the day do you usually start slowing down drinking water before bedtime. Thankyou once again for all your help. This is really starting to run me down and am getting uptight with it all. We bought a caravan just before Xmas and am thinking now I may not even get to use it. I am 75 now.

Hi John,

I'm told 500 ml is the ideal but 250 is pretty good. I suggest you stop liquid intake about 3-4 hours before bedtime.

It's understandable you are getting uptight (as I did) but it will be OK in time and you can enjoy the caravan! (PS: I'm 74)

Martin, thank you so much for your reply. It seems like everyone was in the same boat at some stage or rather as me. I have only been drinking 1 litre a day and usually stopped just after lunch. Maybe I am not drinking enough. I have to see the urologist tomorrow and have a lot of questions to ask. How much did you use to drink.

John, You are welcome. When recovering I found other's comments very helpful and to know we all had similar problems.

Everyone, including my urologist, recommends at least 2 litres a day but part of the reason for me is I have/had kidney disease. Good luck!

Hi John, Glad I could help. I don't restrict my liquids at all. In fact I take meds for afib before bed so I drink water right until I go to bed. I can't have caffeine because of the afib, so I have two mugs of decaf every day from a small cofee pot. It's easy to get rattled with the urinary issues, especially when you can't get answers. I was going about 10 to 15 times a night at one point (passing up to 3 liters in 8 hours), every other day, and got no sleep every other night, and got by on naps during the day. No doctor could help me. After about 9 months the excessive night time urination went away on its own. Generally I pass from 250 to 400 mls. Average is about 300 mls. I only measure at night because the urinals have ml markings on them and I know how much a quarter of a urinal or 250 mls is. As far as being blocked, the only way to know is having an ultrasound that measures PVR (post void residual). You drink a lot of water, then they ultrasound the bladder to measure the volume of urine, then you go to the bathroom to urinate as completely as you can, and they measure your urine a second time. This is the PVR, or how much is left over in the bladder after you urinate completely. On my last ultrasound in November (I go once a year to measure the prostate size and the PVR) my PVR was 32 mls. Anything under 50mls is excellent, anything over 200-250 mls usually requires a procedure. The amount of urine we pass is also a function of the bladder capacity. Having bph for decades (like I did) will thicken the bladder walls and reduce the capacity.  If your capacity is 300mls and the body generally produces 100ml per hour (more for me as I produce more urine when reclining) you will need to get up at night even without a blockage of any kind. I'm 70.

Bob, I am not much better. Still was retaining urine. Got that bad had to go to emergency this morning, I go back to my urologist on the 30th. They did a bladder scan and I had 1300 mls still in my bladder. That was after I did a pee. Haven't been able to do much of a pee for a while. anywhere from a tablespoon to about 150 mls. They put a catheter back in and told me to come back in 48 hours. Told them I would leave it in for a week and have it out just before I go to the urologist.  Will see them what he will do.

Hope he will have the answer for me as it is 10 weeks since I had the TURP

I went through something similar and know how stressful and scary this is. I first had a minimal invasive procedure called Urolift (search Google for a description). Urinated fine for a week then volume decreased. I could only squeeze out 50ml at time. After 1 week my bladder filled and I needed a catheter. Doctor said this was due to swelling and I should self cath as needed for the next month. I did this for 2 days until I could not urinate at all and had to self cath morning and night. Doctor then decided to do the TURP. I had a very strong stream after the TURP. It’s now been 4 weeks and the stream is still strong. However, over those 4 weeks various sized blood clots came out with the urine. The largest one was 1.0cm x 2.5cm. This scared me thinking what would have happened if this didn’t make it through and got stuck somewhere in the urethra. I hope your urologist finds a simple solution.

John, sorry to hear this. One thing is not to drink a lot water to try to start a pee, that will just accumulate. I did that one night and needed to go to the ER to get cathed. I had 1400mls in my bladder and it was very painful. If you diu not feel pain from the 1300mls, then it may be your bladder is  stretched out and you will need to learn to self cath. A relative of mine had a turp but the bladder wa so stretched it became inelastic. He has no sensation of his bladder being full. He self caths 3 times a day. Sometimes self cathing can rehabilitate the bladder, depending on how bad a condition it is is. I had to self cath every 2 to 4 weeks for a year, to keep strictures from growing. The single use self lubricating Speedi-caths packed in sterile water are the easiest to use. If you cath into a urinal you can measure how much you are retaining after you try to pee normally. Anything over 250 mls is probably a problem.