TURP still pain after 3 months, is food and drink making it worse?
Posted , 5 users are following.
I had my TURP back in September and overall things are improved but I am still dealing with some pain and discomfort in the urethra and bladder area. Anti-inflammatory or advil helps, as well as warm baths, wearing tighter underwear that keeps my little-richard in an upright position, but the pain continues to come and go, making me wonder if certain foods might be irritating this area.
I did mention this to my urologist a month ago and he said each person's recovery will be different, and if it continues he could go back in for a look. I really am not in the mood to go through that again for some time...
1 like, 10 replies
GInAndPlatnic46 logan47817
Edited
I didn`t have pain but I did have discomfort and irritation for three months after my TURP.. It has been 14 months now and it was only after more than 12 months that I thought to myself that I am recovered 95% from my operation and peeing about 90% normally . It takes two voids on average to empty my bladder . With the first void removing around 90% of the volume in my bladder...so not bad..I am ok with that and think it mush better than self cathetarisation .
Physically overall I feel pretty good . I am 66 years next June 1st.
I wish you well with your recovery Loga..!
logan47817 GInAndPlatnic46
Posted
Thanks for the reply and well wishes.
lee56659 logan47817
Posted
I know that certain foods seem to aggravate an BPH symptoms but I have not heard of food sensitivity post-TURP. I guess I was lucky as I had no issues after 2 months and resumed all normal activity after 3. Twenty months out and all is still well. Good luck with your recovery.
logan47817 lee56659
Posted
Thanks. Like before my surgery, I was still drinking mostly cranberry juice to avoid UTI and when I stopped, the discomfort seemed to decrease a bit. That is why I assumed there was a relationship. I was also taking daily walks which also seemed to cause increased discomfort, which I have stopped because of the colder weather, and the discomfort has decreased.
NSBRick logan47817
Edited
Logan - I had TURP surgery in late October, and went home the same day with a catheter. A home health nurse checked on me each day, and removed the catheter after the third day. That's when the pain really started. For the next 10-days, I had excruciating pain in my penis every time I had to pee. My Dr told me to avoid spaghetti sauce or any tomato-based or spicy foods or citrus drinks and to drink lots of water. My Doc also prescribed Pyridium (phenazopyridine) which I'm still taking. At about the 2-week mark, the pain started to improve, but even after 4 weeks, I'm still experiencing discomfort every time I pee. The pain is much deeper if I stand to pee. My Doctor says it all normal at this point, but frankly I thought I would be further along after 4-weeks. I had hoped to be one of those guys who was fully recovered in 4-6 weeks, but I'm now resigned to a longer recovery. At least I've had very little bleeding and no incontinence. So things could be worse.
russ_777 logan47817
Posted
I guess I got off lucky. I had an Aquablation (which is a type of TURP) in mid September and after 2 weeks I've had no side effects at all. The only issue in the first two weeks is I had to keep a catheter in due to swelling causing retention when I'd had it removed a couple of times. In retrospect that could have been mostly avoided by taking some NSAIDs starting a few days after the procedure. I didn't have any pain or burning after the first couple of hours out of the OR except occasionally some discomfort at the tip of my penis from the catheter when it moved around too much. I'm always surprised at the variability in complications from patient to patient.
TKM russ_777
Posted
Russ,
How are you doing now ? Did you have retrograde ejaculation (RE) after the Aquablation ? Did you have any incontinence or ED ?
TKM (Thomas)
russ_777 TKM
Posted
Thomas, doing well with one strange exception. No RE, no incontinence, no ED, constant pelvic pain I had for a couple of years is completely gone. Everything is better except I noticed some return of LUTS, mainly frequency and urgency about 10 weeks after the surgery. Went and had a cysto done in mid December since my surgeon suspected one of two UroLift clips he didn't find during the surgery could have become exposed. He found no evidence of either of the two clips. What he did notice was there is an area where scar tissue has formed across my urethra channel where it was narrow to begin with. He called it an adhesion. He says he sees it about once a year and that it has nothing to do with the Aquablation procedure. He showed it to me on the monitor and it did look odd. It's not that thick but I can see how it would cause my bladder to act differently. I had a cysto done 6 weeks after the surgery and there was no sign of it then which means it formed over about 4 weeks.Definitely disappointing considering how pleased I was with the surgery but this was just a random stroke of bad luck.
He gave me two options to deal with it -- incise it under sedation in the hospital or try to incise it under no or minimal sedation in his office. It would require him to use a rigid cystoscope or resectoscope and a cutting electrode he called a "Bugbee." It's basically a thin wire that uses monopolar current which I'm not too crazy about. But since the cutting part would only take a few seconds I figure the return current flowing from the electrode to the pad on my butt would not be harmful. So I have that decision to make. He said since most of his patients tolerate Urolifts and Rezums OK with rigid scopes using nitrous oxide in his office he thought I'd be able to get through this in-office. I figure that since it's scar tissue it's not innervated so there shouldn't be much pain from the burn. I'm more concerned about having a 24 Fr rigid scope shoved up into my prostate while I'm conscious. Curious to know how those of you who've done it with Urolift and Rezum in-office tolerated that.
TKM russ_777
Posted
Russ,
Is it possible that the scar tissue/adhesion was cause by the lost clip ?
TKM (Thomas)
russ_777 TKM
Posted
Anything's possible I suppose. When I say he couldn't find all 5 clips during the Aquablation, he did say it was possible one or two could have washed out without their noticing. Any time you put something up your urethra there's a risk of a UTI and injuring something. I've had 6 cystos (3 rigid under sedation) and two procedures using a large rigid sheath and one two week period wearing a Foley including 2 changes since 7/16. That seems like a lot of "ins & outs" over that period of time. So I wouldn't be surprised if I developed a stricture or adhesion.