Back home after Open Radical Prostatectomy

Hi Chris, unfortunately wishing for an extra two inches has been the story of my life 😁. The nurse fitted the bag to my calf with elastic straps. It did occur to me about moving it up so I have one strap above the knee and one below but I ruled it out because of the knee flexing the bag. However I have just been trialing it for the last hour. It solves the tube length problem perfectly and no pulling/rubbing. The bag had just been emptied so I'll monitor how things as it fills. The tube was actually rubbing on a still very swollen foreskin. The soreness has been improving since I've been more careful (holding on to the tube when walking around). I'll keep the Instillagel/hydrocaine in mind though if the bathing doesn't work. Thanks for your advice. Chris

Thanks Zum, I'm finding the bag round the knee is working surprisingly well. It does reduce it's capacity a little but other than that it's fine. Stays in position great.

I see you had lymph node removal with your salvage RP. How long did you have the abdominal drain in for? I'm not seeing much reduction in fluid discharge thus far (710 mL yesterday, day 6). Chris

No, I'm in Worcestershire but I think a lot of surgeons who perform open RP make that claim. I can't say I ever ruled out HT/RT. Both routes had a good chance of being curative although at my appointment following the MDT meeting the preferred option was said to be RP. It wasn't an easy decision (it never is). At lot of people just want it out and I think I was one of them. Also the HT/RT approach seemed like a very protracted interruption on my normal life. Chris

Best of luck Chris with recovery. I’m now 6 weeks post RALP and it gets better with time. 

I had the same thing with night bag where I was petrified of pulling catheter out and even managed to knock over the night bag one night and it went everywhere! 😂

not sure if anyone mentioned it yet but I emptied the bag at about half full as it started to become heavy and then pulled on the catheter. 

take care mate 

Hi Chris

Yes I had the abdominal lymph nodes removed on the rhs because they thought there was a trace of cancer in one of them. they removed 7 but the histology came back as all being clear! I didn't have an abdominal drain for some reason.

Zum

Hi Chris,  You're an interesting case.   I haven't come across an epidural open prostatectomy.  Are you awake and listening to what happens during the op?

In my opinion.  Open surgery is probably better but reduced throughput means it isn't preferred by the hospital.   Also having the lymph nodes removed is probably for the best even if they say they found nothing, you never know.

I had a pelvic drain and the continued bleeding was the reason I stayed in 2 nights, at my request.   It sounds like your surgeon has all that worked out.

Presumably your aftercare is on the NHS for 5 years?

All the best
Peter

Hi Zum

They did tell me it eases the pain after the op. I was attached to an on demand morphine drip but I didn't need it until a good bit later. Unfortunately I was still sick as a dog🤮. Chris

Hi Chris....good to see your update as I was wondering how you were doing. It's a shame you've had a couple of set backs and ended up back in hospital....did you go back to hospital where you had the op ? I hope you get sorted soon. Best wishes to you.

On another note Chris, were you given compression stockings to wear after your op?

I had exactly the same issue with my post RARP  catheter removal, my surgeon is convinced that the swift removal by a senior nurse after the catheter got stuck was the cause of my stricture. I do sometimes post that if the catheter gets stuck that guys insist on getting a urologist involved. A little surprised that your surgeon has yanked the catheter out. 

The cuffing of the balloon is a common issue with catheter removals but probably more common with long term users. Reinflation and deflation can help reduce the cuffing. One of my old school urology nurses said if a catheter got stuck they used to make the guys walk round the ward until the catheter dropped out. 

Hopefully your joint had healed enough so that the removal has not caused an issue. I went back into theater numerous times to try and fix the problem.Good job I love the whole general anesthetic experience.

Thanks Chris.

Edited by member 14 Mar 2022 at 18:46  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Jane,

Things haven't been going too well since my last post. The good news is the I had an additional drain fitted which has relieved the fluid pressure on my Iliac vein. My swollen leg quickly returned to normal. I was discharged from hospital only to rush back a few hours later with severe urinary retention. I had another catheter inserted which thankfully was removed after three days. Still getting intermittent retention but it's manageable. My main problem is the original drain which is stuck fast. Three attempts have been made to pull it out. The last attempt felt like my insides were coming with it. The disturbance caused the drain to start flowing again but this time it was a brown foul smelling liquid. I can only imagine it is trapped blood debris from the surgery. The Dr didn't seem particularly concerned about it. Better out than in I suppose. At this point they decided not to have any further attempts to remove the drain while it was still flowing. It does seem to be a case of kicking the can down the road but it at least got me discharged from hospital. However fate was against me. No sooner had I got home when I went down with a UTI. Still suffering the effects as I write but hopefully the antibiotics will sort it out. The original drain has now all but dried up again so it will be back in touch with the hospital on Monday to see how the hell they can get it out. It's not helped by the surgeon who did my prostatectomy being off with Covid. I hope next time I make a post the news will be a bit better. Chris