Urolift

What is CIC? I couldn't find anything about that acronym pertaining to urology.

clean intermittent cathing

Thanks for sharing. Can i ask what was the next step after 2 years? My urologist said that to really get it taken care of, you TURP is the best long term solution, but it comes with the loss of ejaculation.

Dan, the next step is still TBD. I'm trying to get an aquablation procedure lined up but it is slow-going.

I have a cystoscopy scheduled for next week, which is always a ton of fun,

Not sure why but I just LOLed when I read that. I had an in-office cysto with a flexible scope last week and I have to say it was a weird experience (1st cysto I've had done awake). It started off with his nurse walking into the exam room and saying "take off your clothes from the waste down" while she started messing with the equipment on the cart she rolled in. Then she goes "you don't mind if I stay in here while you undress do you?" How does she think I'll answer that? I was tempted to say "well you're going to be squirting goop into my dick in a minute so I guess it wouldn't matter." Of course I resisted saying that and instead said "no that's OK," stripped down and then just stood there buck naked from the waist down right behind her in the cramped room waiting for her to tell me what to do next. Junior was fairly well behaved during those 30 seconds but I had my concerns! Awkward! Finally she instructed me to get up on the table where she scrubbed him down with that orange colored stuff, shot a syringe full of lidocaine into my urethra then put a drape over me with a hole cut out through which she made sure my junk was the only thing exposed. Then she left me to lie there to contemplate life for 10-15 minutes with my feet pointed towards the not completely closed door and the blue drape covering the lower half of my body except for one thing sticking out. The other thing that was strange was she didn't put any kind if clamp on my penis to prevent the lidocaine from seeping back out which is exactly what it did. I'm sure this was all routine to them but to me it was almost as awkward as the urodynamics test.

The cysto was a non-event relatively speaking. They had me taking deep breaths of nitrous oxide which does a great job of distracting you from when he runs the scope in. I nearly blacked out just before he pushed it through my prostate which I guess was the whole point. I was alert enough in 10-15 seconds to watch the screen and get the guided tour. The bottom of my bladder wall looks like it has a volcano coming up through it....aka median lobe. On the way back out he showed me where he thought it looked like one of the urolift implants was still pulling a part of my left lateral lobe towards the capsule a little but otherwise there was very little room in there and no other sign of the implants. The final bit of awkwardness was when he pulled the scope out all of the saline solution that had been in my bladder of course spilled out all over my groin and they gave me no towel or anything to clean up with, just left the room and said he'll be back in a few.

I'm not complaining or whining about any of this, just recounting the details of what may be a strange experience when others have it done (awake) the first time. I'm actually thankful that the buzz I got inhaling the N2O distracted me enough that I hardly noticed the insertion of the scope into my bladder other than a couple of twinges.

Russ, amid the uncomfortable twinges and scrunching around in my chair in sympathy I must admit I also smiled more than just once or twice at your fine account!

I think these things follow a similar pattern for all us with some (minor... sort of) variations. Though yours is the first really complete story line I've read and I thank you for both your candor and your sense of humor.

Several points of difference between yours and my first one back in 2018:

No gas, just the lidocaine squirt. In my case it was a Hispanic nurse probably in her early 50s. She was, as they say, no-nonsense. But not unkind as I recall.

My wife was there holding my hand throughout. She only had to wear the cast for 6 weeks....

The urologist was also of the n-n variety and just took hold and pushed the durn thing in. He didn't offer any commentary, no "Okay, take a deep breath". It was just grab and go. I recall the feeling of insertion was at first unpleasant and then for the final push through the prostate quite painful. But that pain was only transitory.

I watched on the monitor for awhile, until the water he was injecting to expand my bladder began causing an excruciating need to get it outta there. In my case the whole deal was looking for bad things in my bladder and not specifically BPH or PCa. Thankfully he found nothing suspicious, but those 6 or 7 minutes felt like hours.

Yeah, really the worst part other than those last few minutes was waiting around 15 mins or so (that also felt like hours) from the time the nurse squirted me until the doc decided to roll in. Since I had no idea what to expect I could just amuse myself by being terrified. Dunno how I would have gotten through it without my wife!

Anywho I'm set for this coming Weds, Jan 29th. This is with a different uro and should be a better experience, if only because I'll know what to expect. My wife will also be wearing an iron glove.

David

I think they changed the protocol now. They don't even give you the lidocaine. At least they did on the last two I had and I read some study where they concluded that lidocaine doesn't really help that much.I think the guys that made the conclusion didn't actually have it done to them. The real fun is when you have to pee the first few times after the procedure.

David,

thanks for sharing your experience. My uro said that 80% of his patients experience improvement, but he did not indicate the degree of improvement, which you have gathered to be around 30%.

I'm not sure how anyone could come up with an improvement measure, unless you can measure the rate of flow while urinating. Otherwise it seems like it would be a very subjective yardstick to measure the improvement from Urolift.

Another thing to question is How long will the improvement last? Flow max solved all of my problems and was a miracle drug -- until it was no longer working to remove the frequency and urgency issues. It is still working to keep my from feeling blocked, which is how i feel if i dont take it.

Hey Dan - yeah, measuring improvement I would think is largely subjective. At least it seems that way for me. I'm guessing at mine mainly by how many times I have to get up in the night, which is my chief complaint. Going from 8-10 to 3 on the best nights but more like 5-6 on average is better... but not what I was hoping for.

And what hasn't changed much if at all is the amount of time I stand there, both to get things rolling and to finish off. Which as I'm sure most of us know is particularly bothersome when you were dead asleep 2 minutes before and would dearly like to be again, and soon.

I've read about guys losing the improvement over a period of time, absolutely. Glad Flomax worked for you before and still helps at least in some way. When I was on it not only didn't it do anything but it made me want to audition for a role on The Walking Dead. I was hoping for Zombie #4,738.