urethral shortening discomfort and pain

jimbobaz

Has anyone else experienced prolonged pain/discomfort due to urethral shortening?  I am 10 weeks post operative RRP and the pain discomfort level has plateaued at about a 3 in the morning, lessening to a 1 as the day progresses with no pain or discomfort when not standing, walking or transitioning from/to sitting or lying down.  How long can I expect it to last or is it now a permanent part of my life?  At first I thought it might be a UTI, but a urine culture was negative and treatment with a course of Macrodantin has not made any difference.  I would ask my urologist, but he has totally abandoned me after one post-op visit lasting all of 2 minutes.

jimbobaz

patient abandonment by urology surgeon

Has anyone else had the experience of their surgeon going incommunicado post-op?  I cannot believe such a highly educated and capable surgeon could just go off the radar with post-op care.  I had one visit with him post-op 2 months ago which lasted 2 minutes.  All he was interested in was how many pads I was using each day...no inquiry about discomfort, other problems.  His office called last week to tell me that he had to cancel my 3 month post-op visit (at which he was supposed to review my first post-op psa) and advising me that the next available appointment slot was in another 5 months in February!  Is this typical?

Clevelandguy

Hi,

Hi,

I had my RP almost three years ago but never had any pain from urethral shortening.  Sounds like you are having this pain at night, is it coming from laying on your stomach putting pressure on your groin?  You might have some wierd pains for a while, 10 weeks is still in the surgical healing time frame.  If your urologist is ignoring you, then go find another one who will listen.  Doc's come in all shapes, sizes, and temperments, pick one that fit your needs..................

 

Dave 3+4

jimbobaz

Clevelandguy said:

Hi,

Hi,

I had my RP almost three years ago but never had any pain from urethral shortening.  Sounds like you are having this pain at night, is it coming from laying on your stomach putting pressure on your groin?  You might have some wierd pains for a while, 10 weeks is still in the surgical healing time frame.  If your urologist is ignoring you, then go find another one who will listen.  Doc's come in all shapes, sizes, and temperments, pick one that fit your needs..................

 

Dave 3+4

Thanks, Dave, 

Thanks, Dave, 

 

No, I do not have the pain at night...only when I am ambulating, or transitioning from lying or sitting down.  It is worse in the morning and becomes less noticeable as the day progresses

SPT

jimbobaz said:

patient abandonment by urology surgeon

Has anyone else had the experience of their surgeon going incommunicado post-op?  I cannot believe such a highly educated and capable surgeon could just go off the radar with post-op care.  I had one visit with him post-op 2 months ago which lasted 2 minutes.  All he was interested in was how many pads I was using each day...no inquiry about discomfort, other problems.  His office called last week to tell me that he had to cancel my 3 month post-op visit (at which he was supposed to review my first post-op psa) and advising me that the next available appointment slot was in another 5 months in February!  Is this typical?

I have

I've had 3 surgeries in my life.  In all 3 cases the surgeon vanished after a few minutes visit immediately post-op.  Like you, I had appointments cancelled (one with 45 minutes notice) and huge delays in getting follow-up consults.  In the end I gave up and found non-surgeon doctors to provide post-op care for me. 

Mine is a small sample, but 100% of my surgeons lost all interest once the cutting part was over.

There's one worse profession: anesthesia.  In each of the 3 surgeries, I had a pro-forma, very brief consult with an anesthesiologist, who were plainly bored and going through the motions.  One was a resident who was so obviously sleep deprived that he scared me half to death.  None of these were the people who actually showed up for the surgery; I had never met them before. 

I know too much; a significant fraction of severe injuries and deaths during surgery are due to anesthesia errors and complications.  These experiences only increased my anxiety.I had significant complications from the anesthesia, but the anesthesiologist never showed up again, made no inquiries or attempt to follow up.

Much later I learned that I have some genetic and metabolic conditions that almost certainly caused my adverse reactions.  There are alternative methods of anesthesia that can avoid these problems, but given my experience I'm not very optimistic about getting an anesthesiologist to pay attention.  This makes it much less likely that I will consent to surgery in the future.

Will Doran

4 years ago

Jimbo,

I had a robotic surgery almost 4 years ago.  Actually it will be 4 years in December.  I had no pain as you describe.  As Dave said, you are still in the healing time and in your case, depending on what the surgery involved, It may just be normal.  All of are situations are different, so how it went for some of us might not be what happens in you case.

As to your doctor situation.  Sorry to hear that.  My Surgeon and the Robot were inside my body for 5 1/2 hours. Complications from Abdominal Hernia repair mesh, plus a birth defect --my Prostate had adhered to my bladder.  Thus he had to make incisions in my bladder and then repair the bladder. Right now, I have now leakage problems.    He finished the day with several other surgeries.  Came up to my room at 10PM on surgery day to see how I was doing.  I was watching a soccer game on TV and sitting up in bed.  He and his PA came in the next morning to see how I was doing.  He had the next day, after surgery--off. So, the PA took over until I went home that next  afternoon.  Then I think I went in two weeks later to see him, and then have been going in every 3 months and over the last year we have spread out the check ups to every 4 months. I was an advanced Stage 3. PSA was 69 when diagnosed with a Gleason of 3+4-7.  Had 40% involvment , and one small spot in one lymph node.    So far my PSA is still holding below 1.0. In fact it's a good bit under 0.5. My last blood work shows that the rate of PSA increase has slowed to half what it was 4 months before.  That is what Dr. "M" was hoping would happen and it has.  I see him, again, next Tuesday.  So, I can't relate to your situation.  My advice would be to talk to your GP, and ask for advice.  He/She may have suggestions of what to do.  But, It's very important that you be monitored on a regular basis.  You never know when "The Beast" will be rearing it's ugly head.  

Hang in there.  Best of Luck

Love, Peace and God Bless

Will

jimbobaz

Will Doran said:

4 years ago

Jimbo,

I had a robotic surgery almost 4 years ago.  Actually it will be 4 years in December.  I had no pain as you describe.  As Dave said, you are still in the healing time and in your case, depending on what the surgery involved, It may just be normal.  All of are situations are different, so how it went for some of us might not be what happens in you case.

As to your doctor situation.  Sorry to hear that.  My Surgeon and the Robot were inside my body for 5 1/2 hours. Complications from Abdominal Hernia repair mesh, plus a birth defect --my Prostate had adhered to my bladder.  Thus he had to make incisions in my bladder and then repair the bladder. Right now, I have now leakage problems.    He finished the day with several other surgeries.  Came up to my room at 10PM on surgery day to see how I was doing.  I was watching a soccer game on TV and sitting up in bed.  He and his PA came in the next morning to see how I was doing.  He had the next day, after surgery--off. So, the PA took over until I went home that next  afternoon.  Then I think I went in two weeks later to see him, and then have been going in every 3 months and over the last year we have spread out the check ups to every 4 months. I was an advanced Stage 3. PSA was 69 when diagnosed with a Gleason of 3+4-7.  Had 40% involvment , and one small spot in one lymph node.    So far my PSA is still holding below 1.0. In fact it's a good bit under 0.5. My last blood work shows that the rate of PSA increase has slowed to half what it was 4 months before.  That is what Dr. "M" was hoping would happen and it has.  I see him, again, next Tuesday.  So, I can't relate to your situation.  My advice would be to talk to your GP, and ask for advice.  He/She may have suggestions of what to do.  But, It's very important that you be monitored on a regular basis.  You never know when "The Beast" will be rearing it's ugly head.  

Hang in there.  Best of Luck

Love, Peace and God Bless

Will

Thanks Will,

 

I finally called the hospital patient relations rep.  She contacted the urologist's office and they called me and, miraculously, were suddenly able to reschedule my appointment for just a week past when I was originally set to see the surgeon for a follow up.  Hopefully, this appointment will not be cancelled.  Like you said, each surgery is different and post-op recovery experiences can vary.  Hopefully mine is a case of just needing more time. Thanks for your response!

 

Jim

jimbobaz

SPT said:

I have

I've had 3 surgeries in my life.  In all 3 cases the surgeon vanished after a few minutes visit immediately post-op.  Like you, I had appointments cancelled (one with 45 minutes notice) and huge delays in getting follow-up consults.  In the end I gave up and found non-surgeon doctors to provide post-op care for me. 

Mine is a small sample, but 100% of my surgeons lost all interest once the cutting part was over.

There's one worse profession: anesthesia.  In each of the 3 surgeries, I had a pro-forma, very brief consult with an anesthesiologist, who were plainly bored and going through the motions.  One was a resident who was so obviously sleep deprived that he scared me half to death.  None of these were the people who actually showed up for the surgery; I had never met them before. 

I know too much; a significant fraction of severe injuries and deaths during surgery are due to anesthesia errors and complications.  These experiences only increased my anxiety.I had significant complications from the anesthesia, but the anesthesiologist never showed up again, made no inquiries or attempt to follow up.

Much later I learned that I have some genetic and metabolic conditions that almost certainly caused my adverse reactions.  There are alternative methods of anesthesia that can avoid these problems, but given my experience I'm not very optimistic about getting an anesthesiologist to pay attention.  This makes it much less likely that I will consent to surgery in the future.

Thanks for the response SPT.  I called the hospital patient relations rep and they got the urologist's office to call me.  They set me up for an appointment to see the doc in early October.  Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease!