Recent surgery

jdugan

Hello everyone. My name is Jim. Today is my first complete day home after having the surgery done to remove my prostate. If anyone would like to hear how it went in my case please send a message to duganjssp@adelphia.net or duganjssp@yahoo.com. If anyone thinks I should share my experience on the board I would be glad to but I could write for days on what I have experienced and I wouldn't want to waste bandwidth when someone may want something more specific.

Sincerely,
Jim Dugan

nutt

Jim,
Very glad to read your up beat attutude. Your experience / sharing is your choice of course but there are others out there who read what those of us have experienced even though they choose not to engage. Therefore, your experiences could be a help to someone else who does not have the same results or is contemplating what to do.

Look forward to your participation but either way glad to read in your positive attitude.
Joe

rogermoore

Jim,

Welcome to CSN! Joe is correct, anyone that has something to share regarding their fight with Cancer should feel free to express it on this page. I am a survivor of a Prostatectomy almost two years ago and consider myself extremely fortunate to have suffered absolutely no side effects of the surgery.

Again, congratulations on your handling of the first phase in conquering this disease. As you move forward with your recovery, feel free to contact me via this page or my e-mail listed on my home page.

Roger

RONS

rogermoore said:

Jim,

Welcome to CSN! Joe is correct, anyone that has something to share regarding their fight with Cancer should feel free to express it on this page. I am a survivor of a Prostatectomy almost two years ago and consider myself extremely fortunate to have suffered absolutely no side effects of the surgery.

Again, congratulations on your handling of the first phase in conquering this disease. As you move forward with your recovery, feel free to contact me via this page or my e-mail listed on my home page.

Roger

I am so glad that the surgery is done and that my Doctor said that I am cancer free. I will be glad when I can get back to a normal life. I an already tired of beong cooped up at home and mostly in bed. I am a survivor. My mother is also in the hospital now with a big surprise in that she has colon cancer. My mother is hurt by the fact that the two of us have cancer. She will be having the surgery this coming week. This Tuesday she will be 91 years old. I commend her for her stamina and mind for accepting cancer and doing something about it. I pray for her all of the time. She is so special

jeffingbmich

Hello all. My name is Jeff, I'm 56 and in excellent health and physical condition (I ride and race mountain bikes - no, cycling didn't cause the cancer) and I had a radical prostatectomy on February 10. The surgery went well as did the hospital stay (2 days) except for 3 waves of nausea the morning after the surgery. I guess I had an adverse reaction to some of the anesthetic, etc. My healing continues to go well. I never used the codeine based pain medication prescribed but have been using Tylenol as needed. The catheter was rather annoying after awhile but not painful. The incision was closed with 22 staples and was not a problem. I got the staples and catheter out on 2/24 (with very little pain) and was blessed with good bladder control almost from that day. I wore a "diaper" for two days until I was confident and now put a 1/2 maxipad in the front of my briefs for the few times each day that I forget to tighten up (coughing, standing up, laughing, farting, etc.) but I think I'll be able to go without in another week or two. I feel lucky because one of my colleagues had the surgery on 1/9/03 and still has major problems. His doc didn't tell him about kegel exercises until the day he got his catheter out so he didn't prepare ahead of time. I guess that's why we research this stuff on our own, too. I've also had a few partial erections, which my doc said is encouraging.
I was allowed to drive and return to work after 3 weeks. My doc wasn't thrilled with my returning to work but I have a desk job and know 3 guys who had the surgery and they returned to their desk jobs in 3-4 weeks. If you have a physical labor type of job, you'll probably want to take the 6-8 weeks off that they recommend. I was able to do quite a bit from home via email and phone within a few days of surgery so I didn't get too far behind at work. When I returned to work this past Monday, I only worked 5-6 hours each day and that was enough. I napped each day when I got home and felt fine except for some aching in the belly and rectal area where the prostate used to be. I wasn't able to wear my regular pants until almost 3 weeks because of the distended and tender belly area.
That's about it for now. The next milestone will be my PSA. My margins were positive and the Gleason score was 7 instead of the 6 that they had on the biopsy, so I may need follow-up radiation. I'm hoping and praying that isn't needed but we'll do what needs to be done, right?
Pray for me, guys, as I will for you. Keep the faith!

rogermoore

jeffingbmich said:

Hello all. My name is Jeff, I'm 56 and in excellent health and physical condition (I ride and race mountain bikes - no, cycling didn't cause the cancer) and I had a radical prostatectomy on February 10. The surgery went well as did the hospital stay (2 days) except for 3 waves of nausea the morning after the surgery. I guess I had an adverse reaction to some of the anesthetic, etc. My healing continues to go well. I never used the codeine based pain medication prescribed but have been using Tylenol as needed. The catheter was rather annoying after awhile but not painful. The incision was closed with 22 staples and was not a problem. I got the staples and catheter out on 2/24 (with very little pain) and was blessed with good bladder control almost from that day. I wore a "diaper" for two days until I was confident and now put a 1/2 maxipad in the front of my briefs for the few times each day that I forget to tighten up (coughing, standing up, laughing, farting, etc.) but I think I'll be able to go without in another week or two. I feel lucky because one of my colleagues had the surgery on 1/9/03 and still has major problems. His doc didn't tell him about kegel exercises until the day he got his catheter out so he didn't prepare ahead of time. I guess that's why we research this stuff on our own, too. I've also had a few partial erections, which my doc said is encouraging.
I was allowed to drive and return to work after 3 weeks. My doc wasn't thrilled with my returning to work but I have a desk job and know 3 guys who had the surgery and they returned to their desk jobs in 3-4 weeks. If you have a physical labor type of job, you'll probably want to take the 6-8 weeks off that they recommend. I was able to do quite a bit from home via email and phone within a few days of surgery so I didn't get too far behind at work. When I returned to work this past Monday, I only worked 5-6 hours each day and that was enough. I napped each day when I got home and felt fine except for some aching in the belly and rectal area where the prostate used to be. I wasn't able to wear my regular pants until almost 3 weeks because of the distended and tender belly area.
That's about it for now. The next milestone will be my PSA. My margins were positive and the Gleason score was 7 instead of the 6 that they had on the biopsy, so I may need follow-up radiation. I'm hoping and praying that isn't needed but we'll do what needs to be done, right?
Pray for me, guys, as I will for you. Keep the faith!

Jeff,

CONGRATULATIONS on your successful surgery! I too had a prostatectomy. My surgery was almost two years ago and I continue to marvel at my return to normalcy. It sounds like your case is progressing as mine did. I was 58 when I had surgery and my healing progress was almost exactly as you explained yours. I consider it very important that "successes" like us continue to spread the word that Cancer CAN be conquered.

Again Congratulations,

Roger

jeffingbmich

Roger,

Thanks for the encouragement! I've read some of your other posts and have found them to be very helpful and positive. I agree with you that we need to help each other through this. The doctors, nurses, family, friends, and associates are great, but unless you've been through it yourself, you don't have the same level of understanding and credibility. My plan is to get on this message board once every week or two until I'm "cured" and then come back to help the new members of "the club".

As a cyclist, I read Lance Armstrong's book, "It's Not About the Bike", when it first came out. Hopefully, this fight with prostate cancer won't begin to compare with what Lance went through, but his experience shows what the human spirit can accomplish. Most of us rely on good medical care, the love of family and friends, our religious faith, etc. But like Lance says, the bottom line is, there comes a time when it's necessary to just "kick ****!" I've designed a tatoo (that my wife and daughter don't want me to get, so maybe I'll just have a t-shirt made up) that has a red circle with a "C" in the middle and a diagonal line through it (like "no cancer") and then below it the letters "NFW", which stand for "NO F___ING WAY!"
(supply your own F word!) I really believe that some pure hatred for the enemy can serve us well in this situation!

Another thought on cancer; cancer is like terrorism. If we let it consume us, then the bastards win. Give cancer a place in your life, but don't let it take over. Sometimes that's easier said than done, but we must continue to be as normal as possible and not give cancer the satisfaction of taking any more of our time or energy than is abosolutely necessary to effect our own cure and further the cause of helping others.

Keep the faith,

Jeff

barobison

jeffingbmich said:

Hello all. My name is Jeff, I'm 56 and in excellent health and physical condition (I ride and race mountain bikes - no, cycling didn't cause the cancer) and I had a radical prostatectomy on February 10. The surgery went well as did the hospital stay (2 days) except for 3 waves of nausea the morning after the surgery. I guess I had an adverse reaction to some of the anesthetic, etc. My healing continues to go well. I never used the codeine based pain medication prescribed but have been using Tylenol as needed. The catheter was rather annoying after awhile but not painful. The incision was closed with 22 staples and was not a problem. I got the staples and catheter out on 2/24 (with very little pain) and was blessed with good bladder control almost from that day. I wore a "diaper" for two days until I was confident and now put a 1/2 maxipad in the front of my briefs for the few times each day that I forget to tighten up (coughing, standing up, laughing, farting, etc.) but I think I'll be able to go without in another week or two. I feel lucky because one of my colleagues had the surgery on 1/9/03 and still has major problems. His doc didn't tell him about kegel exercises until the day he got his catheter out so he didn't prepare ahead of time. I guess that's why we research this stuff on our own, too. I've also had a few partial erections, which my doc said is encouraging.
I was allowed to drive and return to work after 3 weeks. My doc wasn't thrilled with my returning to work but I have a desk job and know 3 guys who had the surgery and they returned to their desk jobs in 3-4 weeks. If you have a physical labor type of job, you'll probably want to take the 6-8 weeks off that they recommend. I was able to do quite a bit from home via email and phone within a few days of surgery so I didn't get too far behind at work. When I returned to work this past Monday, I only worked 5-6 hours each day and that was enough. I napped each day when I got home and felt fine except for some aching in the belly and rectal area where the prostate used to be. I wasn't able to wear my regular pants until almost 3 weeks because of the distended and tender belly area.
That's about it for now. The next milestone will be my PSA. My margins were positive and the Gleason score was 7 instead of the 6 that they had on the biopsy, so I may need follow-up radiation. I'm hoping and praying that isn't needed but we'll do what needs to be done, right?
Pray for me, guys, as I will for you. Keep the faith!

It has been two years since my surgery and the kegel and ab crunches exercises and weight loss before surgery enabled me to have solid muscle area for the surgeon to work in and my healing was faster and I never had to use pads. The advanced preparation in conditioning my body before surgery made for a better result.