The day of my Turps operation

The day of my operation, I hardly slept the night before, and when I did it was interupted with my mind conjuring up visions of the forthcoming operation.
 The operation was planned for the early morning, but yes I'm sure you guessed all operations in front of me were taking longer than expected and the hours ticked by into the aftermoon, a surgeon came to see me to apologise and discuss the proceedure of the operation. He said the operation could be carried out with a local anesthetic injected into my lumber region ! Well forget the brave soldier act I admitted I was a coward with out hesitation and asked if I could be knocked out? Thankfully he agreed that would be no problem. The hours dragged on and wasn't helping my anxiety ,people were being taken off to the ops room and returning semi concious. Eventually about 4 pm the trolly and porters came for me, by this time I was starving and thirsty going all day without food and drink.
  On arrival at the ops room I was given my pre med and lumbar injection , laid on the trolley and wheeled into the ops room luckely by then I was feeling drowsy.
 Well what can I say a walk in the park! what had I been worrying about I knew nothing till I woke up and was wheeled out of the ops room asking when they were going to start the operation !
  I was taken back to the recovery room, a catheter had been refitted and was full of blood. My legs felt like they were laying on air cushions and Iasked the nurse to take them out from under me as they felt uncomfortable. She informed me that my legs were directly on the bed and it was the effect of the anesthetic I couldn't feel them still.
 My first thought was for food it takes a lot to put me off my food and I was starving,a meal was arranged and within a about an hour after my op. I was heartly eating a full dinner with no post op problems.
 I was taken off to the ward, it was to have been an outpatient op but due to it now being late evening I stayed overnight which turned into a number of days as it took a long period of time to be able to pass water without a catheter. Eventually after many days I was peeing like a 21 year old with no side effects from the operation. Some people I understand have complications after the Turps op, I was lucky I had a good surgeon.

Out patients visit for my biopsy results

The day arrived for my appointment to receive my biopsy results, so off I set with girlfriend Paula and catheter in tow ! to the Churchill Hospital, not knowing what to expect from the results of the test.
 On arrival and booking in at reception I was shown into a room and my catheter was removed. I was then asked to go to another room where I was asked to pee into a contraption that measured the rate and amount of flow. I wouldn't of won any prizes at the fair if it had beeen a game LOl ! I was still at the stage where my flow was very weak.
 Next I was shown into the Dr's room for the dreaded results ! You have a large hard craggy prostate said the Dr., visions of a Chineese hairy lychee shell came into mind Lol. You deffinately have prostate cancer I was informed.
 Other Dr's came to see me and said that in their opinion I should have a Turps operation as soon as possible to improve my urine flow as I was retaining far too much in my bladder and it was dangerous for my kidneys. A Turps operation is where a laser is inserted in the one eyed 'monster' - or maybe not in my case lol , and a passage is burnt to the bladder to improve the flow. The treatment for the cancer would continue with Zoladex hormone injections every 3 months. I had never had an operation before in my life and left the hospital in fear of what was to come after being suited and booted with a new catheter!

My follow up outpatient visits

I must admit having a catheter fitted permanently was a relief not having to get up in the night for a pee as I had been getting up 4 or 5 times a night, and during the day suddenly having to rush to find non existing public loo's. Also when calling on clients I was driving miles to find a bush with leaves on before going into see my clients, in the end I was peeing in a bottle lol. Not to say what a catheter does for your sex life!

  An appointment had been made at the Churchill Hospital to have a biopsy and on the day I was feeling anxious I had googled all the alarmist comments and how painful etc. it is to have done, (as you do treating google as an all encompassing answer to all things medical!) By the time I arrived at the hospital with my girlfriend I had worked myself into a nervous wreck, I could empathise completely with murderer's going to the electric chair, or prisoners of old going into the Tower of London for torture, I was imagining the pain even before I was touched! I must admit I'm a coward when I'm visiting the dentist and would rather let my bad tooth work it's own way out over months then let a dentist lose on it! They say blue eyed people feel pain more than people with other colours, as I have blue eyes I think that justifys me being a coward!
  Of course the doctor was running late on his appointments  so my anxiety was prolonged! Eventually I was called in to the torture room luckely there were no instruments of torture on view. Well I don't know what I was worrying about It was a walk in the park to what I had built myself up to expect,apart from the embarassment and the feeling like someone flicking a finger inside me ( I assure you I'm not talking from previous experience lol !) it wasn't too bad, I had about 12-14 samples taken.
  I was sent home to await the results of the biopsy and whether I would need an operation or not. Having cancer controls your life in stages of awaiting the next test and then the next result.
 

PROSTATE CANCER VIDEO

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