Recovery

WARNING!  This post is graphic (urine and penises and pain...oh my!)

My post-surgery experience was not very positive. I had an unusual amount of pain in my abdomen.  I was unable to sit down for almost 6 weeks. Gratefully this is unusual.  Most men do not have this much pain.  A physician friend believes it was due to fluids left in my abdomen which was confirmed in a later MRI.

Like all men I had a catheter for two weeks. Not fun. Not so much painful as irritating and a constant reminder that I had tube up my penis. Very unpleasant. Every movement was uncomfortable.  I did my best to ignore it but I was SO grateful when the day came to have it removed. 

Removing the catheter was an adventure in itself. The thought of somebody pulling the catheter out (remember...I was anesthetized when it was put in) freaked me out. In fact it was not so bad. No pain, just a creepy feeling.

Now that the catheter was out I had a new problem: incontinence. As mentioned earlier most men have acute (temporary) incontinence for a few weeks or months after the surgery. In my case it took a couple of months to get my control back.  It is hard to find good statistics on the recovery time but I think my time was close to the median for my age.  Apparently age can affect time to recovery: I was young. The recovery was not linear for me.  I went many weeks with minimal improvement and then saw sudden changes. Of course during the recovery period you are returned to your 1-year old self: diaper-laden.  This wasn't wonderful but it was not that bad.  There are great products available.  They are almost stylish!  OK...I admit that is a stretch.

The next "problem" was potency.  As mentioned earlier men generally have reduced erectile function after a prostatectomy (again...age of the patient matters). Though I had "nerve sparing" surgery I was no exception.  Due to pain from surgery I wasn't interested for the first couple weeks.  My surgeon provided Viagra for the first few months.  Having watched the marketing for years I was always a bit skeptical but it is quite amazing.  Remember though: not every guys has nerve-sparing surgery and even then there are no guarantees of any recovery.  In fact, two years later and I still don't have the pre-surgery erections.  I can manage a wimp hard-on sometimes but I need the drugs for the real thing.

One important point to make about this whole sex issue: erections are not equivalent to orgasms.  It is different for every man but my orgasms were not as affected as my erectile function.  I was able to achieve orgasm within 2 weeks of surgery...well before I was even close to obtaining an erection. 

More details...

• Work.  I was 59 years old while going through this. Still very active in my career and not ready to let go of it. My employer was very cool. They gave me a medical leave (this is actually required by law in most situations) to give me time for recovery. In the end I only missed about 3 weeks of work.  This was mostly because I wanted to work.  Nothing is a better salve to anxiety and pain then work. I was grateful to lose myself in my job as quickly as possible.