Louise

Good advice about let nature take it's course, but stimulating to blood flow is important. I was non nerve sparring but 9 months on things are stirring below and  a warm shower with shower gel and a loving wife works wonders.  Search for "One wife's story of ED"  by Lyn, well worth a read. 

My biggest fear was incontinence but fortunately I was dry very quickly, but still do the PFE.

Bri

A PSA result of 6.9 was missed by my GP for three years, I only had another test three years later related to a trapped nerve in my shoulder. I don't think it was lack of knowledge just a lack checking results.

Thanks Chris

I have tried to find something on the Internet about the link between nerve repair and cialis, but can'tfind anything. Can anyone help?

hi Louise had my op 2 days after your oh open surgery i, i am ok at night and sitting but like him the more i do the more i leak but have decided stuff it and just get on with things and have more showers and use more pads, but it is not stopping me doing things , have noticed improvement that i had to get up about 5 times at night but down to about 2 also i can make the toilet from sitting with no leak, so things are slowly improving small steps which your oh may not notice i am doing PFE hope he improves Andy

"I also read something about treatment for stress incontinence regarding the use of pseudoephedrine, which is an over the counter decongestant, to aid in contracting smooth muscle at the exit sphincter. Does anyone have any views on this?"
Really, he is not suffering stress incontinence - as I said before, his mind needs to relearn bladder control and his pelvic floor needs some work. Tablets do not do either of these things.

Hmm.

Well once you get over the lack of control issue, once the recovery returns for most of the time, and once your urethra regains most of the control that you once had, all that remains when you leak is stress incontinence. When coughing. When sneezing. When twisting or turning.

The point is that your urethra was used to clamping down on itself for the years when you stopped peeing into a nappy until it was interfered with at the op and had a catheter inserted, it worked fine. Then suddenly your Urethra had to learn to clamp down to a new tube, the catheter. The that new tube, the Catheer, was removed and the Urethra had to learn to clamp down on to the new reduced pipe, the original urethra, again.

It is simple when you think about it. Was for me, and helped me understand.

ATB

Dave

Hi Louise & OH.

In case nobody else has mentioned this, your husband is entitled to a prescription exemption card which can be signed off by your GP and therefore charges should not apply to get your husband back to where he needs to be with the aid of medication.

To add another case and to help with the despondency that your OH is feeling, I wrote the book on impatience, just ask my OH!!

Like your feller I was diagnosed from a totally unrelated problem that I had gone to see my GP about. Luckily my GP called the same day that he was given my psa results a mere 4.1. I was diagnosed with PCa and a Gleeson 8 all in the left side of my prostate. I had robotic surgery at the end of October and I too was and can still be very despondent, good days and bad days.

I have been using Cialis and get a bit of a stirring, I have been using a vacuum pump with some reasonable results, and I was prescribed yesterday with Viagra to try. I'll let you know!! :)

One thing that really has helped me cope with the bad days is a good read of this website, the threads that some couples have shared, they really do help you see how progress can be made and how much help there is out there from men/couples going through the same thing. Have you been able to get your OH to sit and have a read rather than you giving a report back? I really do think it would benefit him in the long run. :)

He may have heard correctly although it indicates the ED nurse is a tiny bit gloomy by nature. Stats for the UK suggest that with nerves spared on only one side, 70% of men will regain erections within 1 year although the majority of these can only do so with chemical or mechanical assistance. The NHS does not publish stats for men being able to get spontaneous erections but anecdotally it is a very small number. Based on members here, 10% might be about right. Fortunately, many find that tablets or pumps or injections work.

The link you posted about the research was interesting although a very small scale project. It is NICE who say that daily Cialis (2.5mg or 5mg) is the best post-op recovery strategy but as Sildenafil is now so much cheaper than Cialis, it may be that your CCG has determined this is all men are going to be offered.

I would be really interested to find the nice guidelines to take with us next week- how can I find this please?

Interesting article Chris- I'll file it under 'future'

Louise

its a postcode lottery as to getting daily Cialis
our health authority wont give my OH daily due to cost
he found Cialis gave him headaches and wasn't much help really so now has Viagra
which helps a little but not a lot

we watched a food health program where they recommended someone with ED take
a handful of pistachio nuts
its early days but they seem to be having an effect
he has only taken them for a week but had a semi erection naturally
(about the same as he is getting with Viagra)
so is carrying on taking them will let you know if they work