5 days before surgery...what to expect?
I was positively diagnosed with Gleason 3+4 in December of last year after 3 years of slowly increasing PSA (4.86 at last test). MRI Showed like cancerous lesion in November and Biopsy confirmed this in December. Surgery is scheduled for next week. I have been lurking here and elsewhere for a couple of weeks absorbing and learning from all of you. My urology group has a great education plan with pre-surgery, SIMS, and VED classes completed or scheduled. One thing that was not covered and that I have not seen here was what to expect right after surgery...? Surgeons are confident that my PC is contained, but will be taking lymph nodes, etc. to evaluate. Having Di Vinci surgery.
I'm seeing issues with leg swelling from lymph node removal, hearing from a couple of folks that the abdominal pain following surgery and distension of the abdominal cavity were significantly painful as well...
Please share what to be mindful of following surgery, do's and don'ts... unexpected experiences post surgery??? Pain Med's or other tricks used, etc.
Thank in advance.
Ryan
: Hi Ryan. I was in the same place back.k in 2013 when my surgery took place. I will say that the anticipation was worse than the actual event. I had a Gleason 9 and was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours. I was scheduled for 8 AM surgery but did not go into the operating room until 4 PM. I got back to my room and my wife at 10:30 PM. I was not in pain as I was sitting up versus laying flat. Somewhere around 2:30 AM, a nurse came in and asked how I felt - I said ok, just not jumping around. She said when I was ready, I could take a walk - I said, how about now? I did have some pain where the surgery was done, but it was not unreasonable, and I walked up and down the hallway. By 11 AM, I was on my way out the door with my catheter and on my way home. I was on painkiller meds for 2 days, then went off with no issues. Ten days later, the cat was out, and 4 weeks later, I was back riding my bike 15 miles a day. Yes, some men have issues after surgery due to issues with extensive lymph node removal - I did not. You can get significant swelling of the testicles, but I did not. Guys in my support group had it occur. The MD told them to apply a bag of frozen peas (on and off) on the sack, put their feet up for a few days, and watch TV. All ended well. I hope this helped. Please feel free to also check out my website, www.PCaAware.org, for more information. 👍Dennis(ProstateCancer.net TEAM)
