sexyhesays

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Sunday - January 11 (early a.m.)

Day 1 after getting home from the hospital was an absolute delight! My first
REAL shower in 4 days - I thought I'd gone to Heaven.....And real food! No
more damn ice chips, and liquids.... I'm taking it easy on the diet though,,,
small portions with lots of high fiber cereal (Multi-grain Cheerios, Wheaties),
veggies and liquids, and last night, I had chicken!!!!!!!!!!

I'm getting used to the catheter bag care, the changes, emptying, etc. It's a
tremendous annoyance, but once I get it down to a routine, it'll be time for
removal - which is January 22, 12:15 p.m.... can't f***ing wait (sorry for
the language).

My discharge nurse told me to go back to wearing briefs, as she's been getting
reports back from post-RP patients (who were normally briefs-guys) that it's
nice to have things held more firmly in place while the catheter is in, and I
SO agree! I've found that wearing a jock strap is more comfortable, though, as
the waist band is wider, and more gentle on the incision site.

No pain, for the most part. Tylenol is taking care of any discomfort I'm
experiencing.

We've set up the recliner in the living room as my primary resting place. The
first day home (Friday), I tried to nap in bed, but found that my heart began
to pound, and wouldn't let up until I sat back up. So I slept in the recliner
the first night. My biggest trouble sleeping is that prior to surgery, I was a
stomach/side sleeper,,, and that's not quite possible after an RP. My butt
aches.... a LOT. hahaha

Received visitors yesterday. First, my cousin and aunt, who loaned me a huge
stack of movies on DVD and VHS, plus a book on tape. Second, two friends from
the roller coaster club I belong to (if anyone has any questions on the club,
you can e-mail me separately). The day went by very quickly, and though tired,
I wasn't sure I was ready to go to bed, or, where I wanted to sleep.

Changed into the night bag, and here's where the trouble has begun. How do I
handle the incredible discomfort at the site where the catheter enters my
penis????? No 'position' of the catheter is comfortable, regardless of how
much 'slack' I try to put into the tube. And the damn tape provided to me to
tape the tube to my leg is amost useless. The jock strap only seemed to make
it worse, so I put on boxers,,,, but ended up taking them off. I did sleep in
bed last night (my butt thanked me this a.m.), but woke up many times with the
irritation at the tip of my penis. Any suggestions on how to overcome this???

I'm looking forward to switching back to the day bag. I'll have to wait for
Michael (my partner) to wake up first though, as he stands at the ready while I
shower, and helps with the impossible-to-reach spots with the towel when drying
off. A good day ahead - expecting visitors around 10 a.m. It's great to have
good friends and family around!

Thanks for listening, everyone. I hope to be able to aid others with my
experiences as I continue to heal.

All my best,

Rus
Massachusetts

dale.j.

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Hi Rus,
I take its just a soreness irritation sort of, in that case the
antiseptic jell of some type will help a lot. I was told to use a
product called Bacitracin zinc ointment. It's over the counter product.
There are others of course. As for the leg strap the one I had was
velcro and held very good, hard to discribe the way its made, but I had
little trouble with it. I had trained myself to lay on my back for
sleeping exactly the opposite from what I'm used to. It was a short
time and the ball and chain as my doc put it was gone. The leg bag is
much more mobile but no good for sleeping. It'll be over with soon.

Dale J.

--
Email: dalej2@mac..com

mh

Hi, Rus.....
I had a velcro strap that I used to attach the catheter tube to my leg at
night. Do you have something similar to use? There are
pharmacies/parapharmacies that sell such things. I am a briefs guy, but I
wore boxers during the time I was recuperating. Just seemed much easier to
me. Once I got the hang of it, the cath was more of a nuisance than
anything else.

I, too, was a side/stomach sleeper (much to the dismay of my chiropractor),
so it took some getting used to to be able to sleep on my back. But it
worked out. I never had a problem with irritation where the catheter
entered the penis.... and I had my cath for three weeks. Other guys here
used different products to help keep is greased and cleaned.... so perhaps
they can give you some ideas.

Yes, I remember my first REAL shower!! I thought I had died and gone to
heaven!! It feels so good to just stand under the water. I learned to use
the leg bag for the cath while taking my bath.... and that made things so
much easier to manage. It's good to have someone to help out with the
drying off part..... and to put lotion on your back... that was a nice
treat. This is a time to take advantage of! Just let Michael run and fetch
for you for awhile.... )
Let yourself be pampered and waited-on a bit. You deserve it!

Soon this will all just be a bad memory!! Hang in there, guy!! There are
much better days ahead!!

Take care!
MikeH

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john loomis

Double antibiotic creme placed on the area where the cath enters alows
slippage. A wonderful nurse showed me this and gave me the tube. You can
do it discreetly, and it is helpful when walking with bag on leg.
Good wishes and do walk....It helps with healing. John Loomis


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johng

I don't know about this. I didn't have any discomfort except when I went for a
walk and the penis got jerked back and forth with the motion. I hadn't been able
to do much walking because I was down with a spinal headache after surgery, so it
was several days before I went for a long walk outside. Until the headache went
away, the only relief I could get was from lying down, so I got up only the minimum
necessary for trips to the bathroom and for circulation's sake.

However, this reminds me of the discomfort I had AFTER the catheter was removed.
Those depends-diapers things drove me crazy. It was the irritation of penis
rubbing against them. I tried greasing the thing, powdering it, and I tried
different types of paper diapers. They all drove my crazy. Fortunately, I
hardly needed them, and finally just went without and took an extra pair of pants
with me to work in case of an accident. I tended to leak a little bit for a while,
but not enough to be unpresentable. And it was wintertime, so I didn't get too
smelly. Penis rubbing against cloth didn't bother me, but there was something
about those paper diapers...

JohnG

steve kramer

The hospital gave me great tapes. It pulled my hair off my leg, but I never
had a problem at night.

Also, I was able to sleep on my left side. Never my right. I 'graduated'
to sleeping on my back after awhile.

--
Prostate Cancer Survivor (so far), not a doctor
PSA 16 10/17/2000 @ 46
Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c
RRP 12/15/2000
PSA .1 .1 .1 .3 .4 .8
EBRT 05-07/2002 @ 47
PSA .3 .2 .2 .2 .3
Erection 05/12/2003 @ 48
HTbegins 07/21/2003 @ 48
PSA .1
Lupron 7/03, 8/03, 12/03


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wakeley purple

Good news for me - I like sleeping on my back. Unfortunately that makes me
snore and keep my wife up. Oh well.

Thanks for the updates, it's always good to hear about others' experiences -
especially good ones like yours so far.

--
Wake

Age 58
PSA 3.8
Biopsy positive 5% in 1 of 10 cores
Gleason 3+3
T1c
RP scheduled 1/12/04

don wheeler

Rus,

I had to sleep on my side; sleep apnea (I stop breathing on my back).
I just adjusted the bag around to the front of my leg so it didn't get
squeezed by the other one, and it worked fine. When I got up, I moved it
back between them again.
The straps for my bag were natural rubber with plastic clasps and I had an
additional velcro strap to hold the tubing. Not really comfortable, but
bearable.

Don