A little anxious about Greenlight PVP

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Fri, January 18, 2008

Doctor,

In a couple of weeks I am scheduled to have a Greenlight PVP surgery. Everything was OK until about 8 months ago when I got an E-Coli infection, which wound up in my prostate. To make a long story short, I had a lot incontinence and urgency issues, and painful ejaculation. Finally it turned into retention, where I had to have a cath placed on New Year's day. Over several months HMO tried several drugs, and finally sent me to a Urologist last week, who did a cysto, and found out I've got some scare tissue and prostate swelling/enlargement around the ejaculation ducts area.

She immediately told me that I was a perfect candidate for Greenlight PVP, and scheduled me for the procedure for 28 January.

When I asked about side effects, she said in my case I would probably experience retrograde ejactulation, but she said "At least you'll be able to have sex without the mess now. It shouldn't be a problem unless you're still trying to have babies". Well, I talked to my wife, and she said it would be good to have me healthy, no matter what came out of me...so OK.

My family doc at the HMO says that what he's seen on the Greenlight patients is a longer recovery period than the few days or weeks promoted at the Greenlight site. The most common thing he's seen is patients with some incontinence issues of varying degrees that persist for several months, then go gradually go away in time. He also confirmed the retrograde ejactulation effect in around 40 percent of his patients.

Maybe the difference in my case is I'm 46. Most of the Greenlight reviews online are by older guys.

What's your experience with Greenlight, and is it something you'd do if you had to?Is there any data on the outcome for younger guys doing this?

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Anonymous

1/21/08 10:45pm

My husband had the greenlight pvp in October, 2006. We had a vacation planned for Thanksgiving that year. He needed the surgery due to enlarged prostate to the point he could hardly make a stream and was not emptying his bladder, which caused bladder infections etc. He also never rested at night, because of getting up so often to try an empty his bladder.

We went to the hospital early a.m. and I brought him home with a catheter about 5 hours later. The surgery took little over an hour. When we came home he had no discomfort and took no pain pills, even though he had the catheter in. He passed very little blood in his urine.

We went back to the doctor's office the next morning and he had a problem urinating. They said that happens sometimes. We left the office and hung around town and went for lunch. (just in case we had to come back and have him catherized again). Hubby decided he needed a beer. Well within 20 mins of the beer, he went to the bathroom and came out with a smile on his face.

He has been very proud of his stream ever since. He says like a 12 year old! He had no complications. He has been pleased with the outcome of his surgery. Yes, he does have retrograde ejaculation. He has no problem with continence or getting an erection. He said sex is good just different, but he still has orgasms. His surgeon must have been excellent, because everything they say about the greenlight pvp was correct in our situation. My husband does not regret having the surgery. He was 57 at the time, and will turn 59 in April. Oh yeah, we made our Thanksgiving vacation to the carribean with no problems. Hope this helps.

gromitsprinkles

1/27/08 8:39pm

Well, I go in tomorrow. I'll post results later this week on progress.

gromitsprinkles

1/30/08 9:33am

Well the procedure itself was actually fairly painless. Arrived 11am, signed paperwork that I'm allergic to latex and sulfa, roll into surgery at 11:45am take two puffs of the gas and I'm out. Wake up at 1pm, groggy but ok, then the pain starts, and I'm given some Oxycodone and shoed out the door at 1:30pm, I'm still groggy. It burns like there's no tomorrow. Get home and sleep it off a little, but later that evening I wake up in much pain, look down, and realize they've given me a LATEX cath + tubing, and everything its touching is on fire...swollen and irritated. I had to go back to the hospital emergency room later that evening to get the cath changed out, and the ER has a bit of a time getting the new cath in...

To make a long story short, it hasn't been really fun so far. That part in the sales literature about their being little or no pain certainly didn't apply in my case. I've still got quite a bit of bleeding around the cath and the inside the tubing, part of which was caused by the mix-up. Even with bright red wrist bands indicating allergies, the post-op team goes on auto-pilot and does whatever they are used to doing.

Make sure your Uro surgeon uses a 100% silicone cath...these are about 1000X more comfortable than the "coated" latex caths...you won't even know you're wearing one. I'll have to keep this one in a few extra days now...Uggghh.

Sitting on a bag of frozen peas and a couple shots of rum help the pain. The Oxycodone dulls the pain a little, but like most in the "Class C" painkillers, you still feel the pain, you just don't care. A _little_ alcohol amplifies the pain killer effect, though, just don't over do it. The docs would never suggest this _officialy_, but I got the tip from an anesthesiologist. Just go slow.

Hoping for the best still, but not really impressed at this point - I know part of it is my particular allergy, but I know it could have gone a little easier.

Vicki M

2/22/08 8:19pm

Hi Gromitsprinkles,

I ran across a couple links while I was doing some research and found some information you might find useful. There is an article written by Dr. Jay Motola, one of the resident experts here, about the Greenlight procedure. You can read about that here.

Also, there is a member here named Lester Mapes who asked for responses from people who had the same procedure and his posting with those responses is here.

Dr Motola also wrote an article about using the Greenlight Laser as an alternative treatment to using medicines like Avodart and Flomax. You can read that article here.

Now as always, this information is just to help you form the questions you have of your doctor. This should never be used as a replacement for seeing your personal physician. Only you and your doctor know what is the best treatment for you and the best way to manage your health care.

I hope this helps. Stay in touch and let us know how you are doing!!

Vicki M

gromitsprinkles

2/22/08 8:35pm

"Oh, you'll be feeling fine in a few days" says my surgeon just before they knock me out.

What a crock of crap.

Its 3-1/2 weeks for me post-op. Still painful, still bloody, urge incontinence. Tried ejaculation, except that was so painful it'll be quite a while before anyone's in the mood for that again. Unless I'm very near a bathroom, pads/diapers or external caths are in order.

To top it off, it turns out that they think that the original E.Coli prostate infection that started me down this road was resistant to Cipro. I got an apology from the lab. Maybe I didn't need this at all, they tell me now.

The surgeon just shrugs his shoulders and says "Oh well, nothing we can do now except wait". So I don't see him for another three months. Its no big deal for him - he gets paid whether it works or not.

I am sooooo regretting this BS procedure...I should have never fallen for that gung-ho lah-dee-dah TV ad they show you telling you what a walk in the park Greenlight is. Maybe for some people, but certainly not in my case.

To anyone else considering Greenlight: Get a second or third opinion before doing this. Recovery sucks. Maybe it doesn't suck as much as the older TURP, but it isn't anything like the Greenlight advertisements.

What you need is a surgeon who has had this procedure himself, so he knows - on a personal level - what you're going through. Otherwise these guys can have a pretty pretensious attitude about it - and they'll make quite a bot of money from your pain.

Warren Rangnow

5/ 9/08 11:27am

It's a shame what your going through but your case was "elementary Watson." You, your Doc and the lab, all failed 1st grade meds. Any good Doc, or lab looks, for the right drug to fight an infection. It's very common to be allergic to any one drug. So it is also up to you to be informed and remember what your allergic to just in case the pros try to foul you up.

I've been there and done that, so I hope you have Cipro marked in your wallet as a "no no" drug for you.

Warren Rangnow

5/ 9/08 11:27am

I've been there and done that, so I hope you have Cipro marked in your wallet as a "no no" drug for you.

Warren Rangnow

5/ 9/08 11:27am

I've been there and done that, so I hope you have Cipro marked in your wallet as a "no no" drug for you.

Not so happy

4/ 8/10 12:05pm

I had the Greenlight PVP three weeks ago. Two days after the procedure I was at the ER with a diagnosis of profund septic shock. They saved my life. A question to all... did your Doc put you on antibiotics after the procedure ? Mine did not. I am now wearing Depends and having to change them 3 times a day, while facing probably a year long recovery from profund septic shock.

gene14

10/ 3/09 4:21pm

I went into Deaconess Hospital- Spokane, WA yesterday, October 2, 2009, to Outpatient Day Surgery to have the PVP Greenlight procedure. I am a perfectly healthy 68 year old male, but somewhat overweight. Otherwise I am without complications. I have almost no history of illness.

I was anestetized around 7:30am and awoke around 9:00am with no discomfort. Toast and water were offered me and I relished them. By 10:00 am discharged to home. My wife drove me home. I had discomfort from the Foley Catheter that my doctor insisted I have for 3 days until Monday. Mine was like a sea anchor since it went with me everywhere and was visable. I found out the 3 days the doctor had ordered me to wear the catherature was simply to avoid any weekend problem to spoil his vacation while he went away for the weekend.

I sat in LAz-E-Boy chair all day Friday watching TV. My only discomfort was that darn catheter. It felt unnatural. But simple pain medicine stopped that.

I slept about 12 hours awaking Saturday morning feeing terrific. Each urine bag I dsiposed of showed the blood in urine kept diminishing. Saturday morning my urine was a clear yellow at 8:00am. So......... I removed the catheter. Slight blood in the passageway I guess, but really not much effort to removing the catheter. The catheter slipped right out when I released the air bag holding it in. Fully lubricated I suppose.

Now came the period of great suspense. If I did not void in the next 7 hours I would have to back to the hospital to get catherized again to dispose of the urine. The surgery has swelling of the passageway and there are some blook clot platelets. The catheter really benefits these issues and without it I could have problems. Half the men go home without catheters, half with. Few go more than 24 hours. I decided to follow my intuition and removed the catheter.

Of course everything I read on the web boards says the operation works well overall, but there are always some people saying pain in urine, urination frequency still there, lack of urine stream strength, etc. So I was on my own to find out just how well the procedure had gone.

I felt good enough to take my wife out to breakfast at the local hotel. I had scrambled eggs, dry toast, milk. At 10:00am I excused myself. I decided to find out how well the operation had gone. I went to the mens roon, and with the slightest urge, I was able to urinate.

There was a mild acidy pain that started slightly and by the end of the urination had increased. There was blood in the urine with the heaviest being clots at first going down to droplets at the end of the stream. The stream was far stronger than it had been for a year, but the amount of urine was not a lot since I had only removed the catheter 3 hours earlier.

I was ecstatic. I went to urinated again at noon. The acidy pain was slighter and stopped as soon as the urine stopped. I expect frequency to urinate to still be around for a few days, but the noon void was not urgent. I could easily have waited. I elected to urinate to make sure that everything was working well. I had taken a lot of juices and water. Fluid passes right through and causes more frequent voiding.

It is 1pm Saturday and I am in my office on Saturday working an whatever I want. No pain, no urgency, no blood, no nothing. I am like a new born person.

I suspect by far te vast majority of men having this PVP operation are extremely successful. For those that do not do as well, I think if your doctor is not cautious, conservative, hesitant, experienced, or a bit aggressive. I doctor can remove too much tissue by vaporization and go too deep, or something. In my case my doctor is about as reserved and cautious as anyone I have met. My only lingering concern is did he do enough?

I will not know that for many weeks. But there is no question the opreation was a 100% success and as good as it is billed. Nobody should hesitate to do it since it is life changine event.

gene14

Andy

11/ 5/09 11:32am

Hello,

I read your comments about Greenlight Laser Treatment for BPH. I'm trying to decide about laser treatment, such as Greenlight. -- especially necessity of getting it done now rather than later. It's been about 1 yr since I was diagnosed with BPH and have been on Uroxatral med (similar to Flomax). I have gone through couple tests to confirm BPH and assess baller function etc. Uroligist has talked about Laser TURP....which may be the same as Greenlight (will have to ask him when meet in next couple weeks). I am 70 and very good health and very active. How would you decribe your issues leading up to deciding to go with Laser Treatment? e.g., at what point did you think this treatment was necessary?

tired

8/23/10 2:37pm

I am scheduled to have the Green Light PVP in 2 weeks . The brichure sounded good but I have read about alot of people with complications I am 62 had the Microwave Prolieve Therapy 6 years ago it was great for about 70 days then it started reverting to where I am now weak stream, will not empty , up 4-6 times a night some after dribble stop and start stream.

Hank

11/17/11 3:50am

Hope you have not proceeded with TURP (your posting goes back to 2009) I had my PVP Greenlight 2 days ago here in Australia. I was out walking around the neighbourhood (as i had to travel interstate for PVP, still a very new technology in Australia) taking photos.

It has been 2.5 days since and I would absolutely recommend PVP Greenlight over TURP (I was accidentally booked for TURP by the urologist I had originally seen for my biopsy). I took 3 standard strength Panadol to help combat the severe sharp stinging sensation in the first few hours post surgery. There was no other discomfort to even indicate I had laser surgery!

The caveat with PVP is this - find an experienced surgeon who has the latest laser machine, and the experience. This is my first ever surgery and I am absolutely amazed with such absolutely minimal physical discomfort post surgery!

A little anxious about Greenlight PVP

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