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Turp experience and questions

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pty10
pty10

Hi there,

JUst wanted to share my experience with my turp surgery. I'm 45yrs old, too young some say for me to having prostate issues but I put it down to my father side of the family (my father and uncles all currently suffer from enlarge prostates) 

For the last couple of years been suffering from weak urine stream, having a full night sleep and waking up in the morning with the urge to go wee just to wee a small trickle. I also suffered from time to time having blood in the urine.

Went to see the Urologist, he did some testing, test on the strengh on my urine flow (very weak the doc said) he put a camera up my penis to see inside and we could see clearly that my prostate was enlarge and was putting pressure on my bladder which probably explained why sometimes I could see blood on my urine. I have a benign enlarged prostate, no cancer worries which is good.

While I decided if I wanted to have surgery, doctor put me on Avodart. It did help but I wasn't sure if I wanted to take antibiotics for the rest of my life. Avodart temporary reduces the size of the prostate but if you stop taking it, you will still have the same problem again and it will only get worse.

Dedided to have the surgery, I had it three weeks ago. spinal block, stayed in hospital one full day with a catheter inserted. Catheter was removed the following day in the morning, had to urine a few times into a container, followed by a scan machine pressed to my belly to see how much urine was left in the bladder. Passed the test and  was allowed to go home that day at midday.

I can see the immediate benefit of the surgery where my urine stream is very strong. When I get up in the morning with a full bladder, no more urine trickle, just a strong urine flow. On the other side, I'm still suffering from post surgery effects, for example, frequent urges to go to the toilet and pee ( I probably go every 40 to 60 minutes) blood on the urine and pain (burning/stinging) everytime I have to take a piss. The doctor says is normal for this symptoms to happen and it will take weeks before everything is back to normal. how long?  it depends on the individual. I can get an erection, it feels a bit different and I will suffer from retro ejaculation ( I was warned about this)

Anyone that had Turp done, how long it took until you where pain free? (no blood and pain)  Did you take any medicine to stop the pain or the bledding?

Thanks for reading,

Henry

6 likes, 509 replies

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  • RonTexan
    RonTexan pty10

    Posted

    Yeah, I know you're right about just hearing from guys who are having a really hard time. But we're beginning to see more success stories as well and I'm encouraged. I know these blogs are an excellent source of real information that you won;t get from your Doctor. For example I learned about Urolift on the net, my Doc had never heard of it and he's head of Urology at a first rate hospital.  It won't work for me but for younger guys with smaller prostates It could be a quick, easy solution that will last for at least several years, maybe a lot longer. You'll have to search for a Doc that is doing that procedure as it isn't widely known and you may have to pay out of pocket since Medicare and Insurance companies are not yet on board but the procedure works for the majority of BPH sufferers and in a week or so your problems may be over!  I also learned that  "Cialis for daily use" has been found to help with BPH!. I've taken Cialis when needed every since it was introduced, seven or eight years, i guess, all that time having bph symptoms and taking all the different meds for that. I've taken Cialis to help counter  the ED effect of the damn BPH meds. So, I heard about Cialis For daily Use, just cut my pills in half and take one every night. I quit taking Jalyn, a combination of two BPS meds,  at the same time and so far it's working great. Not a single BPG med at present and I'm getting up once at night and with reduced urgency during the day. I doubt that it will continue for very long but I am surely going to hold out as long as i can. 

    Knowing what I know now if i were younger with a smaller prostate and I was diagnosed with BPH I would find a urologist to perform the Urolift procedure and NEVER TAKE ANY OF THE MEDS!! They cause retrograde ejaculation for one thing which is probably irreversible, they destroy your libido and cause ED which after years may also be irreversible. If the prostate grows too large for Urolift there's always TURP and by the time that occurs there will be other, less invasive procedures. Plus they will eventually figure out how to perfom Urolift on large prostates,  medical technology advances at remarkable speed. I remember not so many years ago when there was no TURP,  green light or button or however. My advice: find out if you are a candidate for Urolift and if so, do it, now.    

  • pty10
    pty10

    Posted

    Had a bit  of a setback 10 days ago. Thought I share, see if this has happened to anyone...  Entering my fifth week after surgery and having very little blood on my urine and still some prostate spams, one night I went to the toilet about three times. Those three time I urinated a lot of blood with either blood clots or scar tissue, hard to tell because of the blood. when trying to wee the fourth time, I was completed blocked. I could fill my bladder full but when trying to urinate very little came out and what came out was just a bit of thick blood. Luckily I leave about 10 mins from the hospital where I had my surgery and since it was 4AM, I just put my clothes on and drove myself to emergency.

    Once I got there, I got admitted, they inserted a catheter and hook it up to saline solution to flush out the clots. This went on for about a day and a half, they then took off the catheter to see if I could pass the clots which I did then went home the second day in the morning. The doctor explanation for this was the it could have been that some of the scar issue fell off causing blood vessels to bleed.

    For the first week after this happened, almost no blood in the urine, just the ocassional small clot. Frequency of urinating improved a bit, still suffering from prostate spams. For the past couple of days I have seen some blood in the urine.

    Is been 6 weeks since surgery and I'm still bledding at times and also having the discomfort with the spams. Not sure if I should be concern. I will see the doctor in three weeks time, see what he says then.

    Cheers

    • Prost63
      Prost63 pty10

      Posted

      Hi,  I read the sloughing of scar tissue with some bleeding can occur.  Don't be scared about the bleeding.  It took me almost 7 weeks for the bleeding to stop.  I still have spasms and it is now almost 2 months.  
    • pty10
      pty10 Prost63

      Posted

      Glad to know I'm not the only one. I think the wife is a bit concern since her dad had turp done about a year ago and he reckons he stopped bledding in a week. I guess it also depends on the size or amoutn of prostate that was taken off.
    • Prost63
      Prost63 pty10

      Posted

      It also depends on age and mobility.  You are much younger and also much more mobile.  One thing that probably delayed the bleeding cessation for me was probably being on a plane 2 weeks after the procedure!  Which means sitting on a chair for 7 hours that probably led to pelvic congestion.   How is your retrograde?  Does it bother you?
    • pty10
      pty10 Prost63

      Posted

      Retrogade doesn't bother me to be honest. My biggest concern was not being able to have an erection but I passed that test smile I get all the sensations, bit different but the only thing missing at the end is the semen. Because of my prostate being a fair bit enlarged, the doc did warned me from the beginning that I will must likely suffer from infertility.

      I'm 45 and before having the surgery,  I had to decide to either take meds (flomax, etc) for I don't know, 10, 20yrs just to mask the problem that still would be there the minute I stopped taking the meds ( not to mention the amount of money and a cooked liver) or to just go ahead with the surgery and have a better quality of life. At my age It was a no brainer for me. I used to have an urologist that didn't wanted to do TURP on me because I was too young so had to seek a second opinion.

    • Prost63
      Prost63 pty10

      Posted

      At the beginning orgasm felt weird and 'flat'.  Off course the comments in this blog as well as other blogs made me very nervous.  After a while I got used to it to some extent. I guess the silver lining is that it is less messy smile
    • pty10
      pty10 Prost63

      Posted

      Yeah true about feeling weird and the not messy bit. hey maybe it will come back after a while.
  • bart99957
    bart99957 pty10

    Posted

    Thought I would add in it's been 8+ weeks for me......and still suffering with my recovery. Stream is lousy, and getting worse than the earlier weeks of recovery. Spasms are still there, but not as bad. And the retrograde ejac is nothing to write hoe about either- I'd say it's only about 50% as enjoyable as before. Thankfully, no blood at all since the first week, but still have some discomfort when I excercise or do yard work. Some nights I'm only up once, last night I was up 5X. I thought I'd be a lot further along in my recovery at this point......
    • pty10
      pty10 bart99957

      Posted

      Whats the doctor take on this Bart, all part of the process?
    • bart99957
      bart99957 pty10

      Posted

      I haven't been back to see the Dr. for a few weeks and my next appt. is in a month.........but although he generally just listens and doesn't say much, he says it's all normal and he's happy with my progress. His claim is the longer one has had problems (for me, 15 years), the longer the recovery period. He's prescribing me  med's for 1 year periods and has told me previously it could take up to a year to be completely normal again. I find I'm worse for a day or two when I have sex, do yard work or am very active and struggle during bowel movements...... 
    • pty10
      pty10 bart99957

      Posted

      I got my first post surgery app in a few days and will be interesting to see what he got the say. 8 weeks since surgery and still sufering from on and off bledding, spasms and not great retention. Thought the progress will be a better by now. He hasn't giving me any meds so I will be pushing for some when I see him to see if it helps with my recovery.
  • bob120
    bob120 pty10

    Posted

    I had small pieces of scab for months after the GL. I have also heard of people having large bits of prostate block their urine many weeks later. Regarding bleeding, as long as it's burgundy urine you are OK. About 18 months after my GL I developed hematuria (uncontrolled bleeding) and massive clots covering my whole bladder. Blood was the color and consistency of thick tomato sauce  and blocked me comletely. I was on a 3 way cath to flush out the bladder with more than 80 liters of sterile water for 4 days. At that point my Hemoglobin had gone from 15 to 6 due to blood loss and I passed out.

    Had 8 pints of whole blood and emergency surgery to cauterize three bleeders on the prostate and bladder neck, remove bladder stones and do a widening (resection) of the bladder neck. It's been 6 months since the surgery and so far so good. My urologist said that sometimes veins get weakened during the GL and subsequent cathing, and can let loose in the future. In my case I was self cathing every two weeks fotr about a year and that may have weakened some spots as well.

    • pty10
      pty10 bob120

      Posted

      Thats was happened to me as well with the hematuria, not to the extent where I lost that much blood but massive amounts of saline bags to flush out the clots. Scary stuff I have to say.
    • bob120
      bob120 pty10

      Posted

      pty10,

      Were you self cathing prior to the procedure? My uro said that was one possible reason for the hematuria in my case. Another possibility was that the GL had weakened some veins and that they just let go 18 months later. The day I passed out in the hospital I felt like I was in a dream state the whole day. Finally I just passed out. I could hear my wife yelling at me and slapping my face but I couldn't get up. Scary indeed. When I got home I looked up hematuria on wiki and it said about 20% of the cases are never explained.

    • bob120
      bob120 pty10

      Posted

      The other odd thing is that with all the saline I was getting flushed with through the 3 way cath, the hospital staff never checked my hemoglobin count again after admittance during the 4 days of being flushed. When I passed out, my GP happened to have rounds in the hospital that day, and lucky for me she stopped by and ordered a hemoglobin test. When she saw the result I was started on whole blood and got 8 pints to raise the count from 6 to 12. I had come into the hospital with a count of 15.
    • pty10
      pty10 bob120

      Posted

      Sorry for the late reply Bob, I didnt do any self cathing before surgery. Did try Avodart for a few months but decided to have the surgey to try to correct the problem. In my case with the Hematuria doctor said that scar tissue could have fallen off causing blood vessel to bleed. On my eight week post surgery and not sure if Im making progress. One day no blood in urine, next day blood with small clots sometimes. Not sure if what I eat or the bit of walking I need to do to get to work is setting me back.
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