Urolift, a fun and exciting new procedure!

Considering getting the Urolift procedure for an enlarged prostate? It is a revolutionary new procedure that supposedly cures a lot of problems that come from an enlarged prostate. Does it hurt? Does it work? I thought I’d just share my experience so that anyone else (googling and looking for info) can gleam some insights.

Back to the hospital I go. It is October 29th. This time for an elective procedure (covered by insurance) called a ‘UroLift”. It sounds like cosmetic surgery to reduce wrinkles for European women, but it is actually for the prostate and mostly for men. It involves shoving cameras and tools up your…. um… well, you know… and literally stapling your prostate wide open.

The Procedure

Was it painful? No, not too bad. Uncomfortable, yes. And awkward. There were 6 people in the room including the doctor, nurses, and one student. Everyone was watching (including me) the whole procedure on a TV monitor. They were all very young, too. My doctor was just 36 years old, and the nurses were in their 20’s. So I felt old and exposed laying there on a pelvic-exam table (similar to a gynecologist table with stirrups) while kids joked and poked and stapled by junk. They will slide several metal objects up your penis, pump in some fluids and then empty your bladder, and then procedure to poke around until finding the right spot to attach the staples. It didn’t really hurt at all when he attached the staples.

I was given some Valium which did help. Also, there was some kind of numbing gel smeared on to my d***. I don’t know what that was. Overall, it wasn’t terribly painful, but unpleasant and uncomfortable most of the time. The procedure took about 30 minutes. When it was over, I was able to walk to a private room and just relax for awhile. I was also given a plastic bottle to pee in if necessary. Yes, it was necessary. One of the after-effects, I learned, of this procedure is that you will suddenly and urgently need to pee and can’t stop it. Also, as I discovered, it would be EXTREMELY PAINFUL TO PEE FOR ABOUT 24 HOURS. We’re talking blood and pain. Lots of blood and pain. Make you wanna scream pain. But the painful part of this ordeal began to quickly wane. Within 24 hours I was able to urinate without much pain. And within 48 hours there was no pain at all.

A weird (and kind of funny) moment came awhile after I was in my recovery room. No one ever came back to check on me. After about 2 hours, I began to get antsy and opened the door and wandered out into the hall. No one was in sight. Keep in mind this was Friday afternoon about 5 pm. It turns out that I was the last patient of the day, and all of the kids had packed up and GONE HOME! We’re done for the day! Ready for the weekend!!! Not only that, but they apparently forgot about me. Looking around in the hallway there was absolutely no one. Every office was empty. I ventured further…. with my butt fully exposed to the air by this hospital gown… and calling out “Hello??” “Anyone?” I made my way to the front desk, and suddenly they were like, “OMG, WE FORGOT YOU WERE BACK THERE!!” So a nurse helped me get dressed, performed a final sonogram to see how much (if any) fluids were still in my bladder, and then turned me loose. I requested a ‘pad’ or diaper because I could tell I wasn’t able to control my bladder movements. She gave me an adult diaper. It turned out to be a very good thing. Even on the way home, I had an ‘accident’, but the diaper saved the day. I also awoke in the middle of the night with a sudden urge to pee, scrambled toward the bathroom and didn’t quite make it. But thankfully the diaper saved the day (night) again.

Fortunately, those problems don’t last very long, and within about 48 hours the pain was gone. So was getting the UroLift worth it? Was it a miracle cure? I’ll update this blog in a week or so and let you know….

Update 11/9: Okay, all pain and blood has ceased, but the urgency of having to go pee at any moment of the day has not. I did stop taking the medication, so maybe I stopped too soon? I dunno. I’m going to start taking the medication again and see what happens. The doctor DID say it would take about 12 days before I’m completely recovered from this procedure…

Update: 11/23: Yes, finally the urgency to urinate is slowing down.  This took a lot longer than I expected, but finally, yes, I’ve been able to sleep through the night without having to get up and go pee (although, it has become so habitual that I sometimes get up and go pee by choice).  This problem hasn’t gone away completely.  I’ve still had a few situations where I had to stop everything… such as yesterday when I was walking through Walmart…. and suddenly I needed to pee.  I just dealt with it for about 60 seconds (wiggled, walked around, etc), and the urgency went away completely.  That is a BIG improvement!  I’m hoping that urgency problem will go away completely in the next few weeks.