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Surgery 3.9.2018 - My story - New Video 23 hours later
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Mar 26, 2018 - 11:44 am
------------- Video added 6.19.2018 https://youtu.be/VT5ThDnq0Kk March 2018: I'm a normal Kansas guy employed as a barber. 5'10" 210 pounds...I drink beer, eat beef jerky, pickled eggs and I can walk 2 miles no problem. So pretty much I'm a normal midwest fellow. I'm 59 and my PSA had bounced to 4.0. Gleason 4+3 on biopsy. (that's another thing....the biopsy is painless if the doctor numbs it first. Numbing shots were a little startling but I was in Walmart walking 20 minutes later) Topeka Kansas Dr. Branstead. He prescribed .5 Valium and .75 Hydrocodone to be taken 40 minutes before procedure. Please get yours done the same way. Getting my teeth cleaned is more annoying than a prostate biopsy! Prostate removal is a piece of cake: 2018 KU Med Friday - March 9th Surgery Saturday - March 10th Home that afternoon Wednesday - March 21st Catheter Removal Saturday - March 24th Raquette ball and bowling (and beer)
TOTAL bladder control at the time of Catheter removal. No drops when coughing, sneezing, jumping or sleeping. Sexual functions are better than before surgery. Erections included! The living room couch is the best overnight sleeping situation when hooking up to the large piss bag is a must! Catheter is a real annoyance and the tube in your pecker is the size of your little finger! Yes its that big! During the day I did not use any piss bag....I just plugged the hose and every hour I'd remove the plug and drain. I did use Anbesol toothache medicine to numb the tip of my penis. That helped a bunch. No pain on stomach wounds. A little bleeding but no pain at all. No fear...Looking back I wonder why I was all scared. Just get it done. I probably have more energy now because I don't get up 4 times a night to piss. Once and sometimes none. Nothing to fear guys....I got my surgery at KU Med. The best in the nation!
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Joined: Jun 2015
Great news
Hi Rickdean,
Glad to hear everything went so well. I spend about ten days on the couch with my catherter in, much more comfortable closer to the ground. Very glad to hear you have recovered with no ED or leakage problems. Hopefully a lot of undetectable PSA tests in your future.
Dave 3+4
Joined: Feb 2018
Way to go
Certainly good news all the way round. I had my surgery on 3/20/2018. I get my catheter out on 3/29/2018. I am 67. Anyway glad to hear you are doing great.
Joined: Mar 2018
How's it going?
Wanted to see how your recovery is. Hope all is going well. Rick
Joined: Feb 2018
Doing Great
Doing great thanks for asking. 3 weeks since surgery. I had 20 miles in steps last week. Made it through the night with about a quarter size spot of urine on my pad. Pretty sure the urinary systems are reconnecting and coming back online. Less leakage every day. Go see my doctor 4/27/2018. Looking forward to what he has to say.
Joined: May 2012
Wow
Rickdean,
You remind me a lot of my reatives; most of my father's family are wheat farmers in Rooks County, Kansas (central-western section of the state).
I read and reread your post several times, thinking I had missed something, or was getting something wrong. You were having sex three weeks after RP ? I have never heard of such a thing before. God bless ! You are for the record books !
max
Joined: Mar 2018
All good here
Here is the play by play...Di Vinci prostrate removal
Joined: Aug 2014
Only 16 days to some serious fun
As others have said, that's pretty amazing!
Joined: Apr 2011
Interesting story
My story may be OK too. I have lived with prostate cancer 27 years. 65 when I had surgery, almost 92 now. My Gleason score was 3+4. A variety of treatments over the years. My PSA is beginning to rise again. Not overly worried--yet.
I am a WW II infantry veteran. My best army buddy was from Kinsley, KS--a wheat farmer. Now deceased.
Best wishes to you.
Old-timer (Jerry)
Joined: May 2012
Hello again
Wanted to give you a shout out Jerry, and say hello again. Take care of yourself. You saved Europe and probably the US also from total destruction.
We corrosponded a few years ago. If you recall, my dad's family all lived/live in Rooks County, Kansas, just north of Hays....total wheat country. I hope to drive out there this summer, my first visit since 1973 !
max
Joined: May 2018
Thanks for your service, Old
Thanks for your service, Jerry (aka, Old-Timer), and thanks for helping make America the finest country in the world for the rest of us. Straight from the heart . . . salute \
Joined: Mar 2017
Im jealous
Thank you for sharing that outstanding success, Rickdean, as well as the most probable cause of that success... a skilled experienced surgeon named William Parker. Now patients in your area can be confident of his ability when they seek out robotic surgery as their best alternative.
Joined: Mar 2018
30 days post surgery and going strong
From day one I've been dry and in total control of peeing. Even at night I don't have any issues with pee leaking.
In the sex department there is not a big problem...however recently it seems to take a little longer to get an erection. I'm starting 20mg of the sildenafil tomorrow. Its about .80 cents per pill and is custom made by a pharmacy in Overland Park. Pretty cheap I thought. I'm still amazed at my recovery...Its been 30 days since my surgery and I've done 2 different hikes totaling 6 miles. Also Raquette ball...Tilling my garden....putting exhaust on my car. 4 of the 5 stomach wounds have completely healed. However one is still rough looking because on week two I quickly sat up in bed and ripped it open.
Get William Parker at KU Med......he's the best. All he does is Prostate removal. 2 on Wednesday and 2 on Friday.
Joined: Aug 2014
Good news
is always welcome!
Joined: Jun 2015
Great news
Another success story from experienced doctors & and great facilties. Good proof that not all Robotic RP's are a disaster, your recovery is remarkable.
Dave 3+4
Joined: Mar 2018
3 month Post surgery PSA
First PSA after surgery 3 months ago - .09 and my meeting with surgeon is next Wednesday. Don't know if that number is acceptable or not.....but one thing for sure is I'm not going to spend hours and hours pounding the internet. Comments appreciated.
Rick from Kansas - 59 years old
Joined: May 2012
Good
Rick in the Wheat State,
You are not going to scour the internet for what your PSA reading "might" mean. That is a GOOD thing.
Technically, following RP, PSA levels should be what are described as "undetectable." Undetectable is NOT identical to numerical zero, however, and ultrasensitive assays (lab proceedures) WILL show some numbers to the right of the decimal point. What constitutes undetectable therefore varies by lab. My RP was a little over 3 years ago, and every result has been listed as "undetectalbe," although I have never had a numeric score that was all zeros.
Me, I would not worry about the result, at least not now. It does NOT qualify as chemical failure.
Hopefully it will continue to drift down, but only time will let you and the doctor know. Not worrying is the best reaction for now. Hello from my relatives out in Rooks County,
max
Joined: Jan 2013
3 month Post surgery PSA
Rick,
My understanding is that the PSA level, 3 months post-surgery, should be undetectible. There is a chance that your PSA reading is not accurate for any nmber of reasons related the sample and its handling and testing, but that chance is rather small. You will probably be advised to have another PSA test in 3 months and then view and compare the results.
Mine was .05 at the 3 month mark, and it rose to .11 within a year. Subsequently, I went on concurrent hormone and radiation therapy.
I wish you good luck and the best of outcomes on your journey.
Joined: May 2018
Encouragement Noted
Rickdeen,
Thank you for sharing your story and for the encouragement it provided. As a recently diagnosed "high-risk" prostate cancer patient with some pretty ugly numbers, I am presently in the process of trying to decide between surgery and EBRT myself, so news of your relatively smooth surgery and subsequent recovery is fantastic to hear. Best of luck to you in your future long-term recovery.
Joined: Dec 2017
regulator
look into combo radiation ebr and ibr high dose brachytherapy...if itsoffered in your area...works well for high risk..very well..so i been told and read
Joined: May 2018
Steve,
Steve,
Thanks for the recommendation. I'm slowly learning that it doesn't much matter what methods or forms of treatment I might research or "look into"; the decisions are essentially made by others and its more than a bit frustrating. I'll know more in the next 3-5 days, but right now, opinions as to best treatment option are like belly buttons, everyone's got one. Thanks again.
Joined: Aug 2014
Disagree
It's your health and body and you CAN make intelligent decisions regarding treatment. Information can come from the medical literature, doctors (specialists mostly), friends, and internet folks that you have never met. Personally, I pay most attention to papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Advice from MDs is certainly worth listening to, but their recommendations will often be based on their expertise. For instance, urologists tend to favor surgery and often are not up-to-date on radiation therapies. Much 'advice' on the Internet should be considered anecdotal even if it is well-meaning (like most posts on this forum). However, several contributors to this forum do base their recommendations on medical science; you will easily discern those contributions.
Initially one may be confused. Just about every one who has been told to have prostate cancer is! Since you have a background in science, I recommend that you make an evidence-based list or spreadsheet detailing outcomes of the various treatments that appear to be suitable for your case. After you have gathered enough information, one therapy may jump out as the preferred one.
PS: My own urologist did present me with radiation options after discussing my case (Gleason 9); bless his heart.
Joined: Apr 2009
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Regulator
To add, you are the CEO of your medical team.....your docs are hired hands and work for you...............you , along with their input and science based information, are the decision maker.
Joined: May 2018
Hopeful:
Hopeful:
Thank you and no doubt! I can and should be the captain of the ship, but it's not always easy to shuffle things around in terms of expertise or team members, especially when you are seeing an array of different professionals in multiple (unrelated) facilities. Such has been the case in my journey, and I'll be providing far more information about this aspect of my diagnosis and future treatment options in my next posting to my original thread (https://csn.cancer.org/node/316458).
In addition, I'll add that its also hard to resist the perceived pressure to make a treatment decision when your overall numbers and diagnostic particulars (high PSA, high Gleason), are as alarming as mine appear to be.
Anyway, thanks again for your contributions.
Joined: Nov 2010
... a normal midwest fellow
Rick,
This PSA=0.09 ng/ml is your nadir which cannot be used to judge your cancer status, but it will be compared with your doctor's threshold in judging surgery's outcome. My surgeon used a lower PSA of 0.06. This was the threshold of his "glory". Anything lower would make him pride of his profession.
Best wishes for full recovery in all fronts.
VG
Joined: Mar 2018
Video 23 hours after surgery
I was a little jacked up on pain medication in the first part....but anyway here it is.
https://youtu.be/VT5ThDnq0Kk
Joined: Feb 2018
Good video
Very positive. As far as the catheter goes, I agree, you might as well tied a pull cord to the bottom of my brain (maybe that was where it was). That's a joke. Anyway, glad to see the video and tie a face to the surgery.
Joined: Mar 2017
A Star is Born
I smell an Oscar!