Thank you Adrian & Margot. I was definitely a bit loopy when I posted Monday. It had only been a few hours post surgery when I wrote it. I'm surprised I did and hardly remember doing it!
Anyway,, I'm home now resting. To clarify a few things now that I'm more clear headed and have spoken to the surgeon directly. To recap, my RP surgery was early Monday afternoon (the 19th) in a hospital on Long Island (NY). I had Retzius sparing, DaVinci radical prostatectomy. My left nerve bundle was fully spared but the right side was partially removed. As I said in my prior post, my wife had spoken to the surgeon immediately after the surgery and thought he said they spared a third of the right nerve bundle but when I spoke to the surgeon the following morning he said said they REMOVED about a third of the right side sparing the rest which I was quite surprised about. On one hand I'm happy to have more of the nerves in tact but on the other I'm worried that over sparing on what was the heavily infiltrated side may result in leaving cancer behind. Lymph nodes were also removed on both sides (don't know how many though) as a precautionary measure but the surgeon said none of them appeared questionable.
Also, to clarify a bit about the "clear margins". Again, what was checked during the surgery is not a complete tissue analysis. The surgeon told me they freeze and shave off some of the tissue sample during the procedure and send those bits over to the lab. They did in fact come back clear but he said it's not a full 360 degree sample - just some small areas where the greatest concern was to let him know if he needs to cut wider. The real final results won't be known until the histology report comes back. More waiting!! But hey, at least so far, so good. Another good little tidbit of info he told me was that usually when there is cancer outside the prostate the tissue becomes "sticky" and is more difficult to remove. He said my tissue not only appeared clear but also removed very smoothly and easily the way normal healthy tissue should indicating there may not have been as much cancer outside the prostate as originally thought, but I'm not getting my hopes up yet.
I was supposed to be discharged from the hospital Tuesday morning but ended up having a setback which kept me there an extra day. I was feeling well Tuesday morning and was eager to get out of bed and walk around. I asked my nurse if I could so he helped me out of bed and we started walking around the hospital hallways. I felt great while walking. In fact, when we got back to my room I asked to go for a second lap which we did. When we got back to the room again I was still doing very well so while I was still standing he decided to show me how to properly empty my catheter bag. While I was standing there watching him I suddenly started feeling dizzy and said that I needed to sit down. As I was walking back to the bed I began sweating profusely, became very nauseous, vision began to fade...and bam! Next thing I know I'm flat on the floor with an emergency team of 10 people scrambling over me. The short of it was, I just passed out. But when that happens in a hospital after surgery they make you go through a litany of tests including bloodwork, full exam, EKG, even an echo-cardiogram. The worst part of it for me was it was Tuesday morning and I hadn't had any solid food since the prior Saturday evening (no food Sunday and full colon prep). I was STARVING and wanted to eat soooo bad. You would think they would want you to eat after a fainting episode but nope! They told me no solid for another day and...I'd just earned another night stay! I walked again that night and Wednesday morning without issue so they fed me and tossed me to the curb. So I'm home now.
As far as pain goes, my issues have been I am extremely bloated (gas pain from anesthesia induced constipation) and surgical pain (internal) on the right side of my abdomin and some catheter discomfort ( more on that subject in a bit). I cannot lay down flat yet because when flat, the stretching of my abdomin while breathing really triggers the right side abdomin pain badly. It feels like muscle pain - almost a knotting sensation. Fortunately I have a comfortable lounge chair which I used last night which wasn't too bad.
Finally, there's the catheter. I HATE IT!! I'm counting down the minutes to removal - 8,640 to go give or take a few. It's not so much pain though I do keep getting the pinching twinges at the tip of my penis despite using the cleaning wipes regularly - ouch. I'm also having consistent issues with the long tube not quite draining properly into the bag. I have to keep maniupulating the tube to get the urine to flow properly. Did anybody else out there experience this? When it backs up it creates pressure in my bladder and makes me feel like I have to pee - but obviously can't. When it's flowing properly I feel fine and there is no urge to pee but the issue is persistent and has been so since Monday. None of the docs or nurses seemed concerned though as long as the urine is making it's way out of me. Oi. 8638 minutes and counting...
So that's my status in case anyone is curious. Thanks again everyone and I will continue to update regularly. I'm also happy to answer any questions for anyone gearing up for RP while I'm in the midst of it all. All in all, despite my moaning and wining, it really hasn't been too bad though.