Had sex one week after green light laser surgery for prostate. Have I injured myself?

Guest · Guest

I had the green light laser treatment 4 weeks ago. I thought just before the surgery that I would be "pissing like a racehorse" and throwing away the pills within 24 hours after the operation. No way. I still am bleeding a lot and have urgency. I get up about 6 times during the night. This site gives me more hope than I get from my urologist who keeps saying, "It will get better" I see that a lot of people have had the same results as I have had which is reassuring as I think the doctors are way to optimistic when they sell you on the procedure.

tony l. · Newbie Joined: 01 Mar 2007 Posts: 1

Had pvp green light late 9/06. all was fine till 2/07. Early in 2.07, Stream reduced almost in a week and is now far worse than before procedure. Split stream most of time (one week, one dribble, and both at same time). Going more now during the day than ever before, with greater urgency and less flow. Nocturia has trippled. Urologist states "probably scar tissue is the cause", and it may have to go back in and cut scar tissue away, which will be determined after cystoscopy. Thought one of the biggest benefits of PVP was no scarring. Not a happy camper. Anyone else out there going through this???

golo · Newbie Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 1

i appreciate all the input you are all leaving... I am very concerned for my father (74) who has been pretty cranky over the past 3-4 years and I am pretty sure it is from his enlarged prostate... he gets up about 6-7 times a night.. is cranky in the mornings and can't help but take naps on and off most of the morning / afternoon because he is still very tired since he NEVER gets a full nights rest.. he is cranky and easily irritated from the lack of a good deep sleep. i heard about the green light.. started looking for more info on it where all i found were rave reviews from doctors... and now i see this thread.... is there no hope? does this green light not work as advertised after all... =( my father was taking flomax and that was helping either.. any suggestions.. i really do hope those of you with problems after green light do get better.. please update your progress with another post if you can.. best wishes..

golo

d levine · Newbie Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2

what happened subsequently?
did this hurting go away?
were you able to resume normal, healthy sexlife?

d levine · Newbie Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2

What happened subsequently?
did the pain persist?
did you do permanent damage?
do you now have a healthy normal sex life?
didyou experience retrograde ejaculation?
i am 56, and there is no helpline. any info would be greatly appreciated.

Guest · Guest

Apply a cold treatment for hemorrhoids called "Anuice". anuice.com It stops bleeding from and shrinks hemorrhoids by application of ice cold. Keep in mind that the prostate is right nearby and will benefit from the cold. It worked for me on day 30 after my GL surgery, and might have worked sooner had I thought of it. Get two kits so that one is always ready in the freezer. You'll need them for hemorrhoids anyway. Smile

cthseg · Newbie Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 3

I had Green Light surgery about 11 months ago. A lot of the problems I'm reading about here sound familiar. At the time I had Green Light I couldn't find anything except proprietary information online. I checked out Johns Hopkins website and others but could only find references to older methods of laser surgery. I asked more questions of my urologist and was told TURP was the Gold Standard and had been proven to last at least 10 years but that Green Light had a record so far of about five years. The main selling point for Green Light was that it was less invasive and, after asking a lot more questions, I decided there was no reason not to use it. I said to my urologist that it seemed the main issue was removing material from the prostate to stop blocking the urethra and there was no reason why one means of removing the material shouldn't work as well as another. Although he'd been non-committal as to which was best he agreed with that logic. And he always came back to the fact that it was less invasive and involved a shorter recovery time.

Now I'm sorry I didn't go with the Gold Standard TURP. It took about four months before initial problems went away, including feeling like I might pee on myself and almost constant bladder spasms. I finally figured out that the medication I was given to address the spasms seemed to be making the spasms worse. It was a difficult call thought because it took about a week following stopping the medication for the spasms to go away. I only stopped when my primary care physician said I'd have to be on it for the rest of my life. That seemed unacceptable to me so I stopped. That was seven months ago. I had to figure out a lot of things for myself, going back and forth with some feelings of desperation between my primary care physician and my urologist, neither of whose advice seemed to work for me.

During the following months I saw my urologist several more times because my urinating didn't improve much. He asked a number of times about whether my bowel movements had changed. When I finally asked why he said something about the intestines putting pressure on the bladder.

Now its 11 months later and my stop and go urination is back to about the level it was prior to the operation. And in the past three days there has developed what feels like a constant inflammation somewhere in either my lower G.I. track or my bladder. Part of the problem from the beginning has been not knowing where exactly the stress, pain or whatever is coming from. I initially assumed pain was from the bladder because of some bleeding. But later the doctor's questions about bowel movements made me realize that some of the stress might all along have been in my lower G.I track. In the past three days there has all of a sudden developed a disturbing feeling somewhere either in my lower G.I. track or my bladder that feels like a constant inflammation. I'm very worried that there is something worse wrong with me. I'm going next week to my primary care physician and ask for a referral to another urologist or perhaps for something like a CAT scan to see what's going on down there.

cthseg · Newbie Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 3

to toni i.

My urologist is also telling me I may have scar tissue that is causing my stop and go and recommending the same tests you mentioned. But I think I'm going to see someone else for another opinion. It has just seemed like one excuse after another for too long. I want to see someone who isn't necessarily tied into the Green Light surgery.

gork830 · Newbie Joined: 09 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

I am a 49 year old man (from what I can gather, I am young to have this condition). I have had chronic BPH symptoms for around 8 years. My procedure was performed Mar. 30. Like some other posters, the urologist who performed the procedure gave me little information on what I could expect post op. I also made the mistake of believing the wildly optimistic claims in the Greenlight pamphlet. If you are considering Greenlight, please make sure to ask your urologist specific questions on recovery time, etc.

The procedure was performed in a local hospital on an outpatient basis. I was given general anesthetic due the severe urethral pain I suffered when undergoing a pre-op diagnostic cystoscopy. 10 days on I am still suffering from increased urgency, burning when urinating (the pamphlet does predict these issues)and considerable swelling of the prostate. I have had some intermittent blood in the urine, which is now mostly brown in color (or 'old' blood), and appears when the flow begins. My urine flow started out poor, but has steadily improved in both volume and stream strength. Post-surgery pain has severely limited my activity.

My whole groin area has been very painful since the procedure; however, I must point out that I had pelvic pain issues previous to the surgery. I had suffered from this condition intermittently along with the prostate problems for most of the aforementioned 8 years. The surgery seems to have amplified these symptoms.

My question for my fellow prostate patients is this: Did any of you have pelvic pain issues along with your prostate symptoms? If so, what effect has the Greenlight procedure had on this (and prostate symptoms in general)?

regclarke · Posted: 04/12/07 - 14:17 Post subject: Green Laser TURP

Hi, I am 52 and had suffered with my prostate for about 4 years. It had been getting progressively worse and I finally decided to have the Green Laser procedure to improve my quality of life. I was getting so bored with having to plan my activities around the availability of public lavatories.

I had my Green Laser operation on 1st March 2007. I was in the hospital overnight and home by 5 pm the next day. I had not fully appreciated my surgeons advice to 'take it easy' for a couple of weeks and ended up off work for a month.

I had a fever the day after I returned home which lasted for 2 days. I developed Thrush (Clamydia), diahorrea and suffered bleeding for 5 weeks. The pain was debilitating but the drugs the doctor prescribed for the inflamation and pain made me so sick that I had to stop taking it and switch to Ibuprohen which was not so effective and gave my nightmares. I suffered spasms in my prostate after urinating, burning and inflamation.

I was anxious that the procedure might affect my sexual function but I still get strong erections and a show of seminal fluid. I rather stupidly tried to have sex with my wife after two weeks and this extended the bleeding period and I passed a frighteningly large blood clot. My wife has made me wait now and I have agreed we will not try again until eight weeks after the operation. There are other ways to have sex so you can still satisfy your wife with a bit of imagination.

It is now six weeks since the operation and I still have a little pain at the tip of my penis but I no longer have any pain in my prostate and can function normally. I have some urgency but no where near as bad as before.

I am still amazed at the strength of my urine stream and the novelty of going in to a toilet, peeing and coming out again quickly without having to stand there willing my prostate to relax enough to let the flow out.

I have been been a bit depressed since my recovery was not so quick as I had been led to believe by the surgeon and I don't doubt that by trying to be too active too soon, including sex, I delayed my recovery. However, I feel much better now and I think I would still have had the operation even knowing what I now know about the recovery and the pain etc.

If someone who reads this is thinking about having the Green Laser procedure I would advise that the operation is not pain free, it takes longer to recover the larger the size of your prostate and when you are told to take it easy that means go home, sit down and don't move for at least two weeks. Lastly, even though you will be desparate to know don't try to have sex too early in the recovery period.

Had sex one week after green light laser surgery for prostate. Have I injured myself?

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