Husband having op this morning

Hello Kerrie.

A very worrying time for you and many with empathise with having to hang about waiting whilst our loved ones are having treatment. You have come to the right place for support. Why not distract those twiddling thumbs and put your husband's journey on the profile. This will help the friendly bunch here give more guided help if you need it.

I am sure everything will go fine as it is a routine procedure now - doesn't help with the anxiety though does it.

Hello Kerrie - Welcome to our club.

As Alwayshope said you are in the right place to be for help and support. If you run through some of the previous threads you will find people who have been through the operation and by clicking on their icon (mine's the beach) some have charted their journey. Not me, mine is HT/RT - you are welcome to read it - it's not quite a thriller - but it's got a happy ending!!

It will save the thumb twiddling and you will still have nails left!!

Best wishes - Brian.

Bless you. I was in your position 10 weeks ago but I was allowed to stay with my husband until he went to theatre, which was as well as he was told to arrive for  7am. We got there early but he was second on the list and wasn't taken to theatre until just after 12.

The surgeon rang me at around 3:30 to tell me how it went and told me to ring recovery in a couple of hours  

I didn't have a direct number so I rang the main hospital number and they transferred me to recovery.

I hope everything goes well for you both.

If you look at my profile you can read about our journey down the same route.

If you have any questions I will do my best to help you x

The surgeon has just called me to say that everything went as planned but he decided to remove his lymph nodes.  Not sure what that means or if it’s standard procedure now?

Thank you - just heard from the surgeon that everything went to plan but they decided to remove the lymph nodes just to be certain.  Poor thing, I can’t visit him until tomorrow afternoon but I’m hoping he will feel well enough to call me himself later 

The surgeon didn't tell me what they'd removed when he rang. He just said we would need to wait for the tissue analysis and follow up PSA test results.

The day after surgery a team of student visited the man in the opposite bed and one of them who was wearing scrubs broke away from the group and after asking if he was David he abruptly announced that they'd taken his nerve bundles and lymph nodes.

As my hubby was still groggy from the surgery he wasn't sure if he'd heard correctly. When he was discharged the letter to our GP said they'd dissected the lymph nodes and taken the nerves. He had his first follow up appointment on Monday and the surgeon told him that they'd spared some of the nerves, but we forgot to ask about the lymph nodes. I understand that they remove them or take samples if there's a charge that the cancer court have spread there. Your husbands stats at diagnosis shows have picked this up. He will have been given a gleason score, a T number followed by M and N. If the N was follow by the number 1  this means that it is in the nodes, if the M is followed by a number 1 this means it has metastasised. 

If you have his stats and you would like to share them with us, we may be able to help you. It can be difficult to get your head around all the figures that are thrown at you.

I didn't see my husband until visiting time the following day as it was too late for me to visit when he'd been moved to the ward. He was able to ring me at 9:30 that night though.

Hi there -  well I’ve just spoken to my husband and he was very groggy, I’m grateful that it’s over for him.

so he had a Gleason score on 3.4, his numbers seem to be differently (I live in Spain) but here they are anyway:

1 tumor was PI-RADS 5

2 tumor was PI-RADS4

they found some cancerous cells within the gland too

his PSA was 4.1

Maybe they took the lymph nodes because of the cells in the gland?

has anyone had glands removed and can you tell me if the recovery might be longer, what do you think the complications will be for him.

thanks so much

kerrie 

ps. I made a huge batch of soup, that kept me busy for a while :-)

Hello Kerrie.

I'm glad you're husband is coming round. Such a relief for you.

The prostate is a gland and this is what has been removed. The lymph nodes or lymph glands are small lumps of tissue that contain white blood cells to filter rubbish out of the body. There is a whole system of them throughout the body. If you have an infection then these can get bigger as they go into overdrive. What the surgeon might have done is remove some of these near the prostate if they looked suspicious. You need to ask whether any of the nerve bundles were removed. The lymph system acts as a highway throughout the body to get rid of rubbish so if the surgeon was suspicious of cancer invading them then he would remove the affected ones to prevent cancer spreading along this highway to other parts of the body. Hope this helps. Shouldn't make any difference to recovery but removal of nerve bundles could.

Have a good night.

Hi as  Always hope has already said, the prostate is the gland that is removed during this surgery. When they remove the prostate gland they take the surrounding tissue and this is checked to see if any cancer cells are very close to the cut. If there's any chance that there may be cancer cells in the lymph nodes and nerve bundles they will either take part or all of these away.

Removing the lymph nodes can cause swelling in the leg's (lymphedema). If the nerve bundles have been taken this will cause erectile disfunction. If they've been saved or partially saved there is a chance of them regenerating, but it will take time.

Your husband will need to have regular PSA tests and if it's the same in Spain as here in the UK he should have his first one 6 to 8 weeks after surgery and he should get the results within a couple of weeks. At this point the PSA level should be virtually undetectable and as long as this is the case and the surgeon has no reason to think that any cancer cells could have been missed he shouldn't need any further treatment unless it starts to rise. My husband was told that if it rises above 0.2 he will need radiotherapy.

Hello Nightbird, I’m sorry for a late response but I just wanted to say that I hope all is going well for you and your husband this morning and that he will soon be back at home with you and makes a good recovery.