This afternoon I will be having my sixth general anaesthetic and sixth urethral procedure in the last 21 months. I say procedure as opposed to dilatation because I am expecting it to be more a removal of a foreign object rather than a stretch of the bladder neck. Following a slow decline from 12 mls/sec to 5 mls/sec in the flow rate, a cystoscopy two weeks ago restored the flow to around 11mls/sec, they could not get into the bladder and one of my consultants still wants to carry on with today’s procedure, I now have two consultants, am I being greedy ? I think the odds of finding a third migrated clip are about the same as Leicester winning the premiership and we all know what happened there.
It is now almost 25 months since my robotic assisted radical prostatectomy, I actually met my robot last week at an open day of our local urology department, the robot was not quite as big as I thought it would be. My PSA has slowly risen from 0.03 to 0.07 a few weeks ago, still good but I would have preferred it at a constant 0.03, the next test in July is eagerly awaited.
Following a trip to the GP about itchy skin we suspended the daily 100mg of sildenafil two weeks ago and the itching seems to have stopped. Although I cannot get an upright erection, with stimulation and no chemicals I can achieve about 90 per cent of the pre-op size, not bad for a “supposedly” non-nerve sparring Op. As I keep telling people you do not need an erection for vaginal intercourse and it is wonderful.
Continence has stalled at around 3-5 mls a day and I think I can live with that and I am not sure an AUS would, A be fitted at such a low leak level and B might still leak a little anyway.
If I could turn the clock back would I have surgery, one hundred percent yes. For those who might be considering surgery do not be put off by my experience, there are many guys who have had a more straight forward journey. At three months post op I had been back at work for two months, was completely dry and having fun getting around erectile dysfunction, At fifteen months life was almost back to normal until the urethra was punctured.
As I have said before I am still in a good place and far better off than many of the guys and girls on here. I admire the resolve and optimism you and your ladies give to the rest of us. Twenty five months ago in April 2014 one of our member’s husband had just been diagnosed with PCa, sadly we lost him earlier this year, how cruel life and this disease can be.
Thanks Chris