Turp operation or laser ?or leave alone?

Had my turp yesterday 1/16/15, under general anesthesia and woke up an hour later with a little discomfort and a Foley catheter the size of the Chunnel. Drinking plenty of water and Watched the pee turn from burgundy to pink to orange to yellowish and then the urogesic kicked in and it went blue-green. Noticed a few scraps of flesh in the tube and then when the blue-green hit, a whole bunch of scraps of flesh.

Anyway, I had the catheter removed this morning and I've had two burning but successful pees of about a cup each. Hopefully it will continue.

Best of luck Buster, I hope turp works for you. Your experience will help others decide the best solution for their problem so keep us posted here.  

Ron in Texas

Hi Buster. Best of luck with your recovery. I think if a person gets to the point that they can't pee comfortably and empty their bladder sufficiently when they do, then they have no choice. I didn't have the turp, I had the Greenlight laser. If I had to I'd do it again, although I'd look for something newer like the holep or button turp.

 

Hi Bob,

I read your last post to me several days ago, but for the life of me I can't find it again, so I will reply here.

Sounds like you covering all the bases regarding your nocturnal polyuria and hopefull you will find a solution at some point, and if so, please share it with us. (I was interested in your log numbers, so if can copy and paste them into your response that would be great)

Jim

Hi Jim,

I also have a problem with this organization in finding posts.

I got all my tests back and there are no irregularities other  bilirubin just above the normal range and protein in my urine which I have had consistently for more than 30 years. I didn't really expect any answers from the tests. It's hard to tell how this is prgressing. I've had stretches of 10 days, 6 days and now 4 days without an all nighter. So I'm greatful for every night I can just get up 4 to5 times and get right back to sleep each time. I've been taking a half teaspoon of baking soda in sletzer a few hours before bed. I recall when I was recuperating from the GL laser that the baking soda seemed to calm things down. Whether or not it actually helps remains to be seen. I've also started meditating at night which seems to get me to sleep. 

Regarding my logs, they are on a spreadsheet that spans 4 months and has a dozen or more columns. Is there anything specific you were interested in? Maybe I could summarize it. Columns of numbers usually don't show up well on this type of text boxes.

Regards,

Bob

 

Hi Buster

I had my TURP exactly one month before you. I was a nervous wreck going in but I love the result.  If I need to have it redone again in 10 years I would not hesitate.  I waited way too long to get this done and I hope my words may help someone who needs surgery and is hesitant. It is not easy but it is nowhere near as bad as I feared.

It's been a week and a day since my TURP and things are going very well. Still spotting a little blood, still having a slight burning but it is diminishing. The stream is very strong, although I can tell that I'm still not voiding completely. I still get up a couple of time a night, but I no longer strain to relieve myself. So far I am very happy with the results.

Thanks, jem - you said it well: it wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be. I know different people have different experiences but my experience has been very satisfying.

Well, I didn't necessarily mean a bad surgeon or hospital, I mean the ordinary ones found in every large town and city in America. As a rule they are not equipped, staffed and managed to maintain the best possible environments. If they were then we would not have the epidemic of surgical failures, infections, etc that is found  in our hospitals today. The problem in America today is so large that many patients come out of a hospital with worse problems than they entered with.

We read a lot about prostate procedures that went wrong and follow-up surgery that didn't help either. Some of the procedures are so bad that no permanent fix can be found and the patient is left with a life-time of suffering. I think that can be avoided in a very high percentage of cases. 

I just wonder if some of these disastrous turp, green-light and recently urolift and PAE procedures had been done by a Holep surgeon in the first place whether the outcomes wouldn't have been much more likely to be successful?

My Holep surgeon told me that less than 1% of his surgeries have ever needed any follow-up procedure. That's darn close to 100% success and when you consider that Holep is performed on very large prostates with third lobes, such as mine, that the excellent results are even more remarkable.  

It's simple, the Holep laser is a superior tool compared to any of the others, much more precise and safe to use. There are case studies on Google that support that fact. At the same time it is also very difficult to learn, the curve is so steep that only a handful of surgeons take the time and expense to undergo the extensive, supervised training necessary to be competent and only a handful of Hospitals are willing to provide the environment necessary to support the Holep surgical method. All of the other procedures are far less expensive and time-consuming to administer and support.  If the patient suffers considerably more than they would with Holep, well, they'll usually get over it eventually.

But why is this true? I believe it's a matter of funding. The huge endowed clinics like the Mayos and Johns Hopkins and a few of the  state-funded University teaching Hospitals can afford to care more completely about their patients and are able to provide staffing, and equipment that will attract the sort of surgeons who also want to perform the latest and best methods and are willing to undergo the extensive training necessary to be the best in their industry.    

Hi Ron, I agree with your assessment that the holep at the Mayo Clinic would yield the best odds of success and that the holep is probably the new gold standard for bph. My point was only that the condition of the patient must have a lot to do with outcomes, perhaps as much as the surgeon and hospital. Even a 1% rate of failures as quoted by your surgeon would amount the hundreds of cases over time. So what went wrong with those patients who had the same surgeon, procedure and hospital? Were they medical errors or just that the patient presented a more difficult anatomy and condition? Who can know? The only reason I bring it up is to interject that there is no guarantee of success regardless of how good the odds.

Bob