Rectum Pain/Discomfort + Inspiration from you all!

Ventura · Regular Joined: 19 Apr 2009 Posts: 20

Hi folks,

After lots of agonizing, my Dad finally made a decision to have the robotic surgery to remove his prostate. Surgery was on 9/21/09.

His stats prior to surgery were PSA 3.1 (although in a span of 8 months his PSA went from 3.2 to 4.5 to 5.3 back to 3.1 just prior to surgery), Gleason 6, 5/12 positive cores.

Pathology report came back with a Gleason of 7 (3+4), all nodes negative, clean margins and a "cancer invades into capsule but not beyond capsule".

He's up and about and except for the incontinence generally feels good.

But he keeps complaining about a rectum pain that seems to flare up after he's been on his feet for a while and subsides when he lays down. He's refusing to take any pain meds. Is this pain normal?

He goes back in December for his first PSA test post surgery.

Also, I wanted to let you know that you all have inspired me to start a local PC support group for men like my Dad. He lives in a densely populated immigrant community and these guys are left to sorta fend for themselves as they don't have a great command of the english language. I'll be using this site at our meetings to sift thru questions and translate the dialogue for them.

Thanks for taking the time to become so well educated on this topic so the rest of us can learn about this crazy disease.

V

Marathon Man · Regular Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 49 Location: Ireland

Hi Ventura,
I had an Open RP approx. 16 months ago. While my procedure was different to you dad's, I did have some rectal discomfort for a few weeks afterwards. I got one of those cushion 'thingies' - an inflatable ring that you put on the seat and sit on. It takes some of the pressure off the rectal area. It won't get rid of the pain/discomfort, but I found it a great help.

I would be more concerned with his reluctance to taking pain meds. [b]Pain delays healing.[/b] If he's in pain/discomfort, then that's a hinderance to healing. He doesn't have to 'dope himself up to the eyeballs', but I would strongly recommend taking enough to reduce the pain to a tolerable/manageable level.

IMHO, it is unwise to refuse painkillers while he's in pain.
_________________
Marathon Man

PSA May 06, then 6 monthly; 4.3-4.9-6.8, Dx Feb 2008, PSA 9.4 @age 54 - Biopsy Gleason 4+3
RRP 22 May 2008 - Gleason 4+4, Tumour Vol 5%, T2a, N0M0, Negative Margins. Aug 08, PSA <0.01, Feb 09 <0.02, Sep 09 <0.02

http://prostaterunner.blogspot.com/ Irregularly updated & months behind!

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