Cancer Recovery, PE and other things

I have prostate cancer and when diagnosed, I looked all over for information. I was hoping to find a blog or something to hear from real men about real things like their treatment, sexual function, or non-function. That is how I found this site.

My doctor and I (I spent a lot of time with him on that first visit after diagnosis) talked about my options, surgery, radiation, and active monitoring. We decided on the latter, which would give me some time. Time would also allow me to get started with PE. It became one of my missions. I figured that if I really committed, I would find out if PE really worked. I was about 4.8" BPEL when I started PE in September of 2022. My goal was to get to 6" by surgery time. Not really knowing when that would be is not how I roll. I picked January. I ordered an extender device and after fumbling around with that, I found some very good posts on this type of device on this site. Anyway, I put in the hours, and have since varied it up a bit which I will get to later. I hit my goal in late January 2023. Basically, an inch in six months which was probably mostly already there, I just constantly coaxed it out it’s hiding spot. A year later, January 2024, I am consistently 6.5" BPEL measuring my morning wood, when I have it, or if I roll out of bed with still with it.

There will be some long posts and some short updates depending on how this all goes. I have elected for surgical removal of the prostate gland, as opposed to radiation. I have read here that some have had relatively good success with radiation. While not apposed, I think I just feel better about having this tumor out of my body.

Surgery will happen this Thursday on 02/01/2024. I am told I will be in hospital 1-3 days/nights. I will have a catheter inserted in my penis draining my urine for about 6 days. I will be off work for a few days and then work from home for a while. The downside of this is I would absolutely love to PE all day while working from home. I don’t think it will happen.

The back story to all of this is my PSA levels started going up above normal for my age a few years back. My father had the same thing, had it removed and is still cancer free at 83 years old. So, the family history was not on my side.

Here are some demo demographics and background on me. I am 59 years old. White with European ancestry that includes, Wales, Dutch and English. I am 5’6" and have weighed as much as 206 lbs. Most of my adult life I have been moderately overweight, mostly around 185-190 lbs. I ride a desk during the day and generally turn into a couch potato at night. My current weight is 185 after reaching 196 over the holidays. I am heterosexual and married, however I sleep in a separate bedroom due to my sleep apnea and my wife’s health related issues of her own. This not recommended, nor is it ideal for upkeeping a sexual relationship. All I can say is it doesn’t happen as often as it should.

As I mentioned before, my PSA began rising. At about age 52 I started taking advantage of free health clinics sponsored by my union, so they were annual, and fairly cost effective for getting a base line PSA level established. When the numbers rose above normal range for my age, I saw my regular provider, who referred me to a urologist. Since I was referred to a urologist, I addressed my "after urination dribbling" issue that I was having. For this issue, I was prescribed Tamsulosin .4mg daily. This slowed down my digestive system, so I asked if there was something else, they prescribed 5mg Tadalafil daily. Which helped awaken things a bit. After a while, I figured out my slow digestive system while on the Tamsulosin and asked if I could take both, Tamsulosin in the morning and Tadalafil at night. They said sure. There are a few chemical PE posts on here and I don’t know if either of these meds helped my PE progress or not. I thought I would just throw this out for anyone that may wonder what, if anything I was taking.

My provider watched my PSA numbers continue to rise, fall and rise again. Looking back at my chart in the summer of 2021 it was 4.2, then I had a 4.1. By the end of November, it was 6.22. By February it was 5.5. These are all really low numbers, but above normal for my age. The first thing that was done was a 30-day course of antibiotics to rule out prostatitis. With rising numbers, a biopsy was scheduled. This is probably the most unpleasant procedure, ever. Not because of the doctor putting a probe up my ass, but the 12 core samples in all the various regions of the prostate. Mainly felt as expected, a little pressure, and a little pin prick really, then, the second to last little pin prick, they hit either a nerve or my urethra and oh my, that felt like someone stabbed me in the end of my penis with an ice pick. It was not pleasant at all. After the biopsy, they told me that my ejaculate would have blood in it for a few weeks. Another have truth, it was bright bloody red. Not lung blood, more of sliced artery type blood. It eventually turned to a brownish ugly color that looked quite disgusting and it was several weeks before it was back to its normal pearly white color.

This biopsy in was negative. They called me on the phone, congratulations, you don’t have cancer.

In June of 2022, my PSA hit an all-time high of 7.1. My doc ordered an MRI. I told no one. The results were an anomaly about half the size of a pencil eraser in the interior of my prostate gland. My urologist ordered another biopsy, this time, it would be guided by ultrasound to hit the exact spot of the location of the anomaly inside my gland. They still stuck me 12 times and hit the exact same nerve or urethra, or whatever that they hit the first time. I think it was the urethra because before I left the office, I had an urgent need to urinate. I went into the nearest bathroom and watched my penis swell with urine, then I popped a somewhat large blood clot. I thought I was going to pass out, but I managed not to. This time it was several weeks for my semen to return to its whiteness. This time the call was from the doctor himself. I was on a business trip and the news was impactful. My mind raced through thoughts of what this meant. I told no one except a very close friend, whose wife had gone through breast cancer. It would be a month before I would be home and able to meet with my doctor.

The results were a Gleason score of 7 and risk category of 2. the Prostate Cancer Research Institute at pcri.org is a very good site for research and information.

Don’t forget to post an update as soon as you get back online!

And tell the doc you want a copy of the video; that’s always good for grossing people out at parties.

Thanks Andy, For sure on the video. Do you think I can post it on Thunders? I am all checked in. Labs and EKG done. Did my last stint in the tanning booth, aka human air fryer. That has been an absolute treat. it is about -10 F outside, so 11 minutes keeps me warm for a long time. Also helps uptake the vitamin D.

I don’t see why not. If the file is too big we can split it up.

Keep your freakin’ Alaska weather at home! That tanning bed sounds fine; houses down here aren’t insulated for the 4degF weather we had last week.

Thanks is not enough for keeping us updated with such a detailed account of everything. Takes a lot of courage to tell such private details. Please continue to follow up. One of my best friends had the robotic surgery 20 years ago and he’s doing great. Thanks again.

Best of luck on your upcoming surgery. I hope you have a quick recovery. Please keep us posted!

Yes, yes, what, you’re going to sleep all day after getting the robotic butt plug?

Lexx warned us about those: bad carrot

Hello, -26 here today. This is SDAY + 1. My surgery yesterday was delayed due to an emergency that my doctor had to deal with, I was in the suite and about to get the gas, which was how close it was. Apparently, a young teen presenter to the ER with a torqued testicle. They slid me off the table and put me in another room for a couple hours, my doc came I and thanked me for waiting and advised he was able to save it, a couple more hours and he would have lost it.

The robotic holes are high in my abdomen and I have a drain hole/drain tube below my right rib cage, there is considerable discomfort in my abdomen from being filled with gas or just a general pressure, I am not able to sit upright for very long. The catheter pinches the end of my penis every once in a while. I get itchy when taking narco, so the worst spot is my balls. I do consider myself a wuss, but this is more than I imagined, and the only thing worse would be the previously mentioned biopsies. The fluid draining out of my abdomen is purple, so I am assuming mostly blood. Catheter drainage also bloody initially, but is clearing up and has some clots.

I have absolutely no pain between my balls and anus, which I thought would the sore spot. Last night I was barely able to stand enough to move from the bed to a chair, so staff could change my bedding, the hole where the drain tube is at leaked pretty good. I just wish I could pass a little gas to reduce the pressure a little bit.

IV toradal was provided and I was able to nap a little bit, AND I felt a slight erection a couple of times. I didn’t get fully erect, but this is a good sign.

Vital signs were high, but have now returned to normal.

This morning I was much more steady on my feet and was able to get up and brush my teeth, however I am still a little wobbly.

Doctor hasn’t made rounds yet, so no news related to surrounding lymph nodes etc.

I suspect I will be in hospital for another night, as I don’t feel like I am ready to go home yet

Have enough rest, update us whenever is possible. Thank you for the great sharing

Bloody discharge is normal; unless it’s bright red and rapidly filling drain bags, nothing to worry about. If it wasn’t doing that within the first few hours, it’s highly unlikely to start.

Some of the stuff is lymph fluid from the abdominal cavity, which is clear, mixed with leakage from any small arteries or veins that they didn’t deal with. They cauterize or suture big ones, but they let smaller ones clot on their own and drain the leakage. You have around 5 liters of blood, so you can spare a bit.

The longer you’re under anesthesia, the more likely there can be a problem; better to trade a bit of blood to get you closed up and off the juice as soon as possible.

WIN!

From what I was reading it sounded like they still did most of the surgery from the rectum. In your case they went in laparascopically from the front as well? Down by the thigh crease or higher up?

Everything was from the front, they didn’t touch my rectum at all, I will have to get a picture of my entry points. So there are about 5 holes in my belly, I thought that there would be an incision near the base of my penis. Instead this would be very similar to a laparoscopic gall bladder surgery, how he gets way down there, I have no idea.

He said he would scope my urethra and badder first to figure out where the incisions needed to be, then put in a catheter, then the removal, connect the urethra back together, and when done, insert a new catheter, in case the one during surgery got nicked.

I can’t imagine what you are going through but our prayers are with you! Keep posting here, good days and bad days. The bad days will come but as long as we know they are coming we are prepared to fight like hell. Your PE will resume and you will get the strongest EQ of your life after this. I believe in miracles!