Surgery soon - questions and advice

Best of luck with the Op next month as you’re being in good hands at London Bridge. I stayed at the London Bridge Hotel the night before and got a quiet room which worked well as less stress on the morning because it’s an early check-in. I think HCA have a room rate to get a few quid off but it’s still London prices.

the urethral connection or anastomosis which is made during the operation should heal without issue if you are careful… the catheter is removed after 10 to 14 days.

I’d say go easy on it for the full three months and then after that you can do what you like. After three months I got back into the gym started doing weights etc ease myself back into it…..for the last couple of years been doing full on calisthenics without issue. 

continence post surgery is to a point down to surgeon skill. I suspect if you’re at London Bridge you’re having one of the top guys so hopefully that should be taken care of. I suspect that they’ll be using Neurosafe as well as part of the procedure so you’re lining up all the cards in your favour.

If they’re using retzius sparing approach, which tries not to disturb The nerves below the bladder, this tends to give a higher probability of quicker post surgery continence.

London Bridge has good facilities and is effectively in Guys cancer centre….good size rooms and ensuite with TV and all the channels. Plus I found the food very good which you’ll get mostly stuck into day two.

One of best things I did was to buy some Canterbury full length zip track trousers which makes catheter management super easy. I also bought pads of varying grades just to be all kitted up.

A bucket is useful to put your night catheter bag in which is about 2 L size. catheter management just takes them getting used to really and it’s easy to get stressed. we are all here Should you have any questions or need a sounding board which I found super useful.

take a extra long charging cable for your phone because the sockets although they’re next to the bed can be longer than a meter of wire. 

Other than that it was fairly easy although like others I was quite stressed but managed to keep it together. When I woke up I realised it was in many respects less trouble than having my tonsils out.

Edited by member 28 Oct 2025 at 17:38  | Reason: Not specified

The op was today!

All went v well! Seem confident they got it all and a negative margin and managed to save nerves.

Really happy with that

In a fair bit of pain on and off now with muscle/stomach spasms. They seem to think it’s the gas!

Anyway. all good and now onto the recovery.

Thanks all. Appreciate the comments.

Wow small world mate I also had mine done privately at London Bridge , your not meant to mention names on here but surgeon DC also works out of the Royal Marsden 👍 and yes it was his CNS , she is also a doctor in her own right 

Yes and funny you mention pre assessment checks as I was told initially to go the day before for the checks but then I got a call from London Bridge saying they needed to do them at least 2 days before, I am nowhere near London so had to book a hotel for some extra nights and go early 

they do look after you there mate 👍

Ask away mate if you have any queries we have all been there 👍as you can see tech guy above is very knowledgeable on the subject and he helped me a lot when I was waiting for surgery 

IMF, hope all goes well for you, my top tip is a packet of your favourite biscuits for a midnight snack after surgery.

The following link has lots of suggestions and there are other links within some posts.

https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/posts/t31026-What-do-I-need

Thanks Chris 

Hi, IMF73.

Welcome to the forum mate.

My PSA was only 6.6, yet my final diagnosis was Gleason 9 (4+5), capsular breach, T3a.

Nine hundred and eighty seven days ago, (not that I'm counting 🙂), I had RARP.

According to my wife, my life is now back to normal.

Fitness: Still in good shape. Almost spherical.

Continence: Still dribble too often.

Sex life: Still very infrequent, and nothing to write home about.

Edited by member 29 Oct 2025 at 16:31  | Reason: Typo

When I went to the hospital to have the catheter removed I was given a variety of pads plus a vacuum pump ,I think each authority is probably different,but I think you would get some to try out .It is important to try out the different shapes and absorbance levels and pads to find the type that suits you.I found Amazon had a wide range of pads available at a reasonable cost .If you can get an appointment at the bladder clinic (I couldn't,t), you may get them supplied free .Good luck 👍

Will be natural to have worries mate in the build up to it , I was having sleepless nights beforehand but it turned out that the fear of the op was worse than the op turned out to be, this time next month fingers crossed you will be well on the way to recovery 👍

Totally :-) It’s a rollercoaster ride fore sure leading up. I had random episodes of tears running down my face without crying….very odd. And folks told me post surgery they could hear the stress in my voice. It’s natural to worry but try not too as when i came round from the general anaesthetic it struck me that this was less trouble than when i had my tonsils out…very surreal tbh

Everyone’s different mate as far as continence goes so there’s no easy answer , I think you said you are having nerve sparing and I imagine well regarded surgeon at LB so fingers crossed that’s a good start 

i feel really fortunate as I haven’t had any continence issues I was dry from catheter removal, I didn’t drink alcohol while catheter was in just mainly water but since then coffee and alcohol hasn’t been a problem , I did as a precaution put a thinish tena pad in my boxers at first to be on the safe side but it wasn’t needed , social life now is as it was before 

You’ll be back on the sauce in no time 🍻🤪

Even better mate all done and dusted and great news on negative margin and nerve sparing 👍

I remember I felt like someone had tipped a bucket of ants down my pants later after surgery which was apparently a side effect you can get from the spinal injection and gas can certainly cause some pain, hopefully it will soon ease up then onwards and upwards to full recovery

just remember take it real easy , I was told don’t lift anything heavier than a kettle 

Character building lol

I was fortunate as the second day I took I think about 20ml of lactulose. and after a few hours exploded which gave me some relief. I got told off by the nurse for Self prescribing but she thanked me for telling her cause she needed to put it on my notes .

when I got home the good lady had me on prunes dried everything in terms of fruit, fruits seeds, nuts, vegetable soups and plenty of water and that did the trick after a few days.

lactulose is like a back stop and they normally give you some or they did in my case at the end as well as me buying some in the Pharmacy the week before surgery in anticipation of something going wrong. try lots of vegetable soups, dried fruit prunes/apricot etc first. mate of mine is a GI consultant and he said you don’t need to really be concerned unless you get to well over a week constipation although it’s very uncomfortable. just keep super hydrated. The lactulose effectively stops water being absorbed in the GI tract so makes the stools a lot more soft and liquid. it’s important to stay extra hydrated in this case because you’re not absorbing so much water so you can become dehydrated very quickly.

I’d be surprised if dried fruit fruits and vegetable soups. Chia (soak first) & golden linseeds also good. Maybe linseeds in cereal like all bran etc? Also pears very good. Hopefully the above will sort you out in 24 to 36 hours.

peppermint tea also very soothing.

Edited by member 21 Nov 2025 at 19:33  | Reason: Not specified

Hi All, update for you since my surgery. I am now nearly at 7 weeks post surgery and around 5.5 weeks post TWOC. 

Had my 1st PSA results a few days ago and my PSA is now undetectable !! So so happy to see that result. Next PSA in 6 weeks - fingers crossed this stay the same.

In general feeling great.

Continence is going well and really improved, had a bit of a turning point around 4 weeks post surgery, I’m dry at night and on 1 pad per day although I am now hardly leaking at all, it’s more of a confidence/security thing.

Found that I did leak a bit more or at least needed to go pretty urgently after a few Xmas beers :-) !! But overall all good.

I still get some mild muscle soreness around the cuts surgeon said thats normal as muscles heal and internal stitches heal/disolve

Really happy with the outcome and progress, the next challenge will be how my continence is with exercise once I start to do a few runs etc. Ive been doing lots of walking since the TWOC &  I’m still doing the Pelvic floor exercises so hopefully that will help.

It really is a rollercoaster at times eh

Good luck with the running, I imagine that will put a strain on the system, and I would do it very cautiously while you still have soreness round the incision sites. But getting back to normal activities is what it is all about.

Hi mate,

I guess everyone's journey is different.

Well done as you are making good progress.  After 6 months my main issue is improving ED but step by step hopefully will get there.

Cheers