Prostate Cancer Support Group

Hi All,

I'm new and the wife of a great man who had Divinci Robotic prostate removal on 2/23. The doc came to see us after his sugery and said everything went great, plenty of 'stump' to reconnect the blader/urethra etc...

Problem one, he'd had too much anesthsia, went to ICU for breathing problems, inactive in ICU he got phneumonia. His digestive system was so slow to wake he finally had an NG tube. In Short his "overnight" simple procedure turned into a full 8 days in the hospital. Our real problems were just starting, Now it seems that the Cath balloon keeps slipping & his bladder/urethra are not connected. It's been 5 weeks, 3 caths & counting. We were set for reconstructive surgery Monday 3/30, but his doc decided to send him to a specialists 6+ hours from our home,,on 4/10. Another 2 weeks! I guess me question is has anyone had any experience with the bladder/urethra not healing back? If so what was done & what has your outcome been? MY sweet husband has seemingly gone into depression, he's so lathargic, yet up most of the night, his only interests are food and TV. He used to go hang out with his buddies for a few hours, even after he came home from the PC surgery..until he got the 2nd cath and becomes more dispondent daily.

Thanks for hearing me out, I'm so lost about all this.

Hi. I really don't have a good response, but wanted to give you support. I had Davinci 2 days before your husband and it went well. The urethra reattachment is not a complicated part of the procedure, so I hope he is simply having incredibly bad luck. With a competent surgeon, he should be fine. Please give him my best. The same to you.

Thanks for the reply & support Hobbies..we realize all his problems are just a run of one in a million complications that can happen. They just all seemed to happen to one man. It's just so irritating to keep going through these set backs and reschedules, ,ore so heartbreaking to watch my husband's spirit decline with each return visit.

It seems totally unfair and it must be very difficult for both your husband and you. Perspective is very important. I feel fortunate that I was luckier than your husband. It really hasn't been too bad for me. I'll be thinking of both of you. Hang in there. Shoot me a message if you're feeling down.

Wow that's horrendous. I'm scheduled to have the same kind of sugery on 4/9/09. Why wasn't the urethra connected to the stump during the surgical procedure?

What do they use to reattach the urethra, super glue? i'm having the same surgery on 4/9 and that's one little detail they left out of the video and the literature I read.

Thanks for the support Hobbies & do't be surprised if I take you up on the maoral booster. I wish i could get my husband to get on here.

Flix,

Don't stress, the urethra is stitched back with the bladder. In my husbands case they say the bladder neck was stretched from the enlarged prostate, thus the 'balloon slipping'..we've ran onto many many men who had this done before, same week & since my husband and all are doing Great,cath's coming out right and left & guys going forward with a new cancer free life. My husbands urethra/bladder were stitched back,but when the cah balloon slipped the first time it tore out the stitches, 2nd cath was an attempt to ull the ladder neck down to the urthra and Hope, they reconnected on their own. This 3rd current cath is more or less just to hold things open until we can see the reconstructive specialists. Which is another point of frustration since we are not even seeing him till 4/10. Plus the last two caths leak & no matter how ood of care we've done hub's still has developed a rash..of which the dpc told us to do exactly what we'd already been doing! BUt, didn't tell us before hand to do anything to ward off a rash. I'm exhausted & was not thinking 'rash', hubby didn't mention it till it became bothersome. As far as the robotic surgery I'd still advise it over open surgery as far as a normal recovery goes. The outcome has been fantastic for everyone except my husband. Off to work.

roadrunner--

Thank you for your quick reply. I wonder how frequntly such complications as your husband is experiencing occur. I hope his ordeal will be brief and that he has a good outcome next time around. How many robotic prostatectomies had the surgeon done before your husband's?

I had the surgery on 7/31/09 sorry for all the complications with

your husband. I didn't have a lot of problems but with a enlarged

prostate it takes a lot longer for your bladder to reshape it took

me 10 weeks before I had very good control of my bladder and I still

have a leakage problem when I cough or sneeze but it gets better as time goes by.

flix,

The doc that did his surgery had done a LOT, or so the number seemed to us at the time a lot..for the life of me, I can not remember what the actual number was. Sorry. We reviewed his stats 8 weeks ago & have long moved past what have you done? to what can you do? LOL

JBT, Thanks for the encouragement. hub's bladder was mis shaped due to the enlarged prostate..somehow, it seems to me that this should have been taken into account when putting him back together. Hind sight will not help, we're just looking forward now. I do have calls in to both is docs & aiting a call back from someone. The Detrol has him too dried out he's hoarse & his eyes are so dry and itchie. But, it's not doing squat for his bladder spasiums. Too, I've lit a fire under the sergons butt to call the next sergon and at least get our first office visit moved up to an earlier date if at all possible. I did get my husband to at least get out a while this afternoon and visit with his buddies. I'm hoping a short outing w/ his pals will do him some good.