Surgical Experience

Here we are in the aftermath of radical prostatectomy.   There were more terms listed for the 'technical' wording of my procedure but I can't find the paperwork that listed it at the moment.  So I want to give a rundown of how it all went before I forget much of it.

We got to the surgery unit about 5:20 AM for a scheduled 7:30 AM start.  They did all the usual things to prep me such as getting me changed into the fancy hospital gown everyone loves and taking vitals.  I stayed calm throughout, never did experience the anxiety I anticipated.  From what I could tell about Kim she was pretty calm also.  Had a few visitors come in to wish me well.  Around 6:30 things started moving pretty quickly.  Meeting the anesthesiologist and discussing concerns and his explanation of how things would go prior to surgery.  He gave me a  cocktail of drugs to make me relax and he said would most likely cause amnesia.  At that point, I remember absolutely nothing until I woke up from surgery.  Either it knocked me out completely or the amnesia was total.  There were quite a few folks that came out to support Kim and I, and most I didn't even get to speak to at all.  I think Kim said we had 21 folks in the waiting room.  They really do love Kim and I am so thankful they were there for her/us.  She thrives on that type interaction and I am so glad she had it.  Made it much easier on me.

I finally wakeup in recovery, with no idea how long I laid there before they woke me.  Took me straight up to a room.  I am so thankful it was a single.  The way things went later it would have been hard on anyone else that would have been stuck with me. 

The first thing I noticed was the intense pain in my groin with no pain where the incisions were made.  It was so intense I thought something was wrong.  It felt like my bladder was going to explode with an intense need to urinate.  My thought was that the catheter was messed up.  The gave me morphine, no relief at all not even a minuscule amount.   Two hours later more morphine and an oral narcotic.  Nada.  No results at all.  This went on for at least 12 hours and then they added dillaudid ( sp?) along with the oral.  They say that's the strongest thing they have.  Still nothing, not even the edge taken off.  I am not at all familiar with how nurses work/think in dealing with patients in pain.  I didn't think that I was being a pansy, I have had surgery on my throat and didn't even take pain meds.  When I explained that to the night nurse, she proceeded to tell me about everyone being different in how they handled pain and how she lived with pain every day because she had arthritis and her tolerance was higher.  Well whoopee for her, I have arthritis too.   This pain was nothing like that.  I felt I had to die to get better by this point.  I was getting to my limit.  After administering the pain meds she said she would return in an hour to check on me and administer the oral.  One hour, no nurse.   Finally at 1 hour 45 in I buzzed her.  Look, I take people at their word for the most part and know that nurses can get overwhelmed with work is I tried to be patient and understanding.   Come to find out, if you don't call then at that one hour mark they think the meds are working and won't come administer them.  My bad.  I think I was a pretty good patient considering how bad I felt.

The surgeon and his resident assistant both came in to check on me early.  The surgeon said he never had anyone experience the pain I was describing and not getting any relief.  He mentioned that my bladder was probably having spasms as they mess with it quite a bit.  But I felt no spasms just constant pain.  He ordered a suppository that would take care of the spasms.  Along with the other meds he felt this might work.  No.  Still absolutely no change.  

We are now into day 2 at this point and I am getting to the limit of what I can handle.  Still intense groin pain and an urgent need to urinate and by this time the 6 incisions are making themselves known.  Another resident visits me and then another.  The second one got there while my oldest son was there.  He deals with a lot of conflict resolution and became a pretty aggressive advocate for me at that point.  I could see the resident was a little taken aback by his approach.  He wasn't mean at all just forceful with his questioning and suggestions.  Pretty proud of him.

Around 3 PM Thursday they come in with some other meds, no real idea what some were, two pills that turned my urine a very dark orange, more dillaudid, more of the oral narcotic, another suppository and an IV of Tylenol.  By the time the Tylenol drip finished (about 30 min) I could tell the pain was finally easing up and within and hour I felt pretty good.  By this time it was 4 PM and they wouldn't send me home until they were confident the pain had subsided to a manageable level.  They most likely wouldn't  be able to give the IV Tylenol again so they wanted to be sure the other meds could handle it. 

Apparently it was a bladder spasm that couldn't be controlled until this last round.  Nurse shift change and one of the sweetest most helpful nurses saw may face and said right away that she could tell I was feeling better than I was on her previous shift.  So I had about 30 hours of having no pain control.

The surgeon came in around 7:30 PM, the resident said he NEVER does that, usually just one time and the residents handle everything else.  He could tell I was much better and felt confident I would go home Thursday.  He is a very personable guy and we got along great.

Pain continued to abate throughout the night and I finally got some sleep.  I hadn't been asleep since Wednesday morning at 4 AM and it was now Thursday evening around 9 PM.  There were 2 hours that I slept restlessly Wednesday evening from 9-11 PM but not any more.

The resident came in around 6 AM and left orders for my release.  They also started cutting back the IV pain meds to see if the oral meds would handle my pain and they did and still do.  We left the hospital around 10 AM and at home doing pretty well.

Having a catheter still attached is no fun at all and can get a little painful but I have no real choice and am dealing with it pretty well.

The next issue is getting the full pathology report to determine if there was any spread of the cancer and getting that catheter removed.  We are preparing for a bad pathology report due to the lymph node issue I mentioned earlier. 

At this point we are doing as well as can be expected and our family and Brothers and Sisters in Christ are taking better care of us than we deserve.  We are so very thankful for all the support, it would have been really rough with out it and of course the readers of this blog that have also been very supportive and kind with comments and emails as well.

Thank you all.  I have been deeply touched and will never forget the outpouring of kindness toward us.  If you have any questions about what I have been going through don't be shy to ask, we can do it privately if you want it that way.

It could always be worse.

Happy Trails.