Guest guest Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 Hi Guys, Just joined the group. Looking for experienced accounts from anyone who has had this sling surgery done. I am scheduled to have it performed on Friday. Quite nervous. Mainly due to my Dr.'s lack of experience performing the surgery. I think he has done around a dozen. Suppose to make me feel better that a more experience surgeon will be assisting. Sigh. A little background about me. I am 52. I had a Da Vinci assisted surgery in 2007 to lop out the cancerous prostate. Have had mild incontinence since. 1-2 pads. I am told I am a good candidate for this sling surgery. I have read quite a few accounts on different sites from men who have had it done. Varying degrees of success. I am starving for more detail I guess. Would be particularly interested in the little things you would do to make the pre/post op period easier on you if you had only known...I am a very sad to see so many spam posts in this group. Hope there is some real content to be found. Thanks for reading. To: ProstateCancerSupport ; advancedprostatecancer Cc: Dmetz80232@... Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 5:54 PM Subject: FW: Sling Procedure Gentlemen, Would those of you who have had the sling procedure administered for incontinence please make contact with Doug at his email identified in the address of this email? Please include me in the Cc line so I know he is being answered. Deeply appreciated. I haven’t had the procedure and off-hand cannot recall the several men who have mentioned having the procedure performed in the past, so “calling all hands!†Chuck From: Dmetz80232@... Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:41 AMTo: maack1@...Subject: Sling Procedure I'm contemplating having the Sling Procedure done. Do you know anyone who has had this procedure and would be willing to discuss with me the results? Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 G'day folks, Thanks for having me on board. I joined this group a few weeks ago and have been just lurking and learning since. I too am interested in learning something of the sling procedure and how effective it is, I have read conflicting comments. I had my prostate removed September 2010 and had no idea of the impact it would have on my life / life style. Since soon after my op I have been weighing all of my disposables each day and recording the results in an excel file which then gives me a weekly and quarterly average where I look for a trend. the last few weeks I have been loosing an average of been between 500 and 700 grams / day. Usually I am able to go all night without having to get up and remain dry but as soon as I move about it is a different story which I find very frustrating. I am 79 and live just out of Sydney Aust. I find there are places and activities that I am OK with but many I am not happy to attend perhaps this is the depression I hear of. Before my surgery I was very active and involved with people but this has all changed. I find that I am starting to feel my age probably due to nearly 2 years of relative inactivity. About a year ago my uro. suggested the sling procedure but so far I have been a bit reluctant go that way. Regards Ian ----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Maack Gentlemen, Would those of you who have had the sling procedure administered for incontinence please make contact with Doug at his email identified in the address of this email? Please include me in the Cc line so I know he is being answered. Deeply appreciated. I haven’t had the procedure and off-hand cannot recall the several men who have mentioned having the procedure performed in the past, so “calling all hands!” / o:p> Chuck From: Dmetz80232@... Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:41 AMTo: maack1@...Subject: Sling Procedure I'm contemplating having the Sling Procedure done. Do you know anyone who has had this procedure and would be willing to discuss with me the results? Thx No virus found in this message.Checked by AVG - www.avg.comVersion: 2012.0.2195 / Virus Database: 2437/5122 - Release Date: 07/09/12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 7:26 PM > Just joined the group. Looking for experienced accounts from > anyone who has had this sling surgery done. I am scheduled to > have it performed on Friday. Quite nervous. Mainly due to my > Dr.'s lack of experience performing the surgery. I think he has > done around a dozen. Suppose to make me feel better that a more > experience surgeon will be assisting. Sigh. Welcome to the group . I understand your nervousness about having the procedure with a surgeon who has limited experience. This is a problem, but if you went to one of the best teaching and research hospitals in the world, the same thing might very well happen. A famous surgeon professor might supervise the procedure while a much less experienced resident wields the scalpel. And yet these hospitals have among the highest success rates in the world. I think that if the supervisor and supervisee are in good communication they will talk through everything that is being done and the supervisor will say yes or no to it, give advice, and even jump in if he thinks the supervisee doesn't understand the next step. Even famous private clinics work this way. If you go to a private clinic run by a famous surgeon, he may well have some younger colleagues with much less experience who work under his supervision until the supervisor tells them they're ready to work alone. This is how surgeons get trained, and it really is a good thing. If no patients were treated this way then first, there wouldn't be any good way to train new doctors without hurting the patients and second, there wouldn't be nearly enough experienced people to treat everyone. What would scare me a lot more is a relatively inexperienced surgeon working *without* supervision. .... > I am a very sad to see so many spam posts in this group. Hope > there is some real content to be found. Thanks for reading. I haven't seen any spam recently. This is a moderated group and anyone who sends spam is immediately banned from the group and can never post again. Most spammers never manage to get into the group at all. Sometimes a member of the group will have a spambot virus infect his computer and send out spam using his email account. When that happens we put the user on moderation so we can intercept any email from his address and delete the spam before it gets to the group. Though I think it's been a little while since I've seen that. Perhaps you're confusing spam from some other group with this one? Best of luck with your procedure. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 For anyone ele interested in the sling procedure, this is what I said to Doug: , If you go along to my website at http://www.yananow.org/query_stories.php you will find more than one thousand stories from men diagnosed with prostate cancer. If you enter sling into the site search engine you will find a number of references to men who have used or considered using a sling. Most of them will have left their e-mil addresses and will be happy to correspond with you. All the best Prostate men need enlightening, not frightening Terry Herbert - diagnosed in 1996 and still going strong Read A Strange Place for unbiased information at http://www.yananow.org/StrangePlace/index.html From: ProstateCancerSupport [mailto:ProstateCancerSupport ] On Behalf Of Chuck Maack Sent: Wednesday, 11 July 2012 7:54 AM To: ProstateCancerSupport ; advancedprostatecancer Cc: Dmetz80232@... Subject: FW: Sling Procedure Gentlemen, Would those of you who have had the sling procedure administered for incontinence please make contact with Doug at his email identified in the address of this email? Please include me in the Cc line so I know he is being answered. Deeply appreciated. I haven’t had the procedure and off-hand cannot recall the several men who have mentioned having the procedure performed in the past, so “calling all hands!” Chuck From: Dmetz80232@... Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:41 AM To: maack1@... Subject: Sling Procedure I'm contemplating having the Sling Procedure done. Do you know anyone who has had this procedure and would be willing to discuss with me the results? Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 I had my prostate removed by the DaVinci method in August 2005. I had a Gleason 6 (3+3). I had moderate leakage after I got off the pads and was basically a 1 medium sized pad a day user. My doctor Karol in the SF Bay area and someone who had performed over a thousand DaVinci procedures said I was a good candidate for the male advanced sling procedure. I had that in late 2007. It was a complete failure and I fault my doctor for that, because I do not think that I was such a good candidate that he thought I was. The only thing he based his decision on was on my verbal responses to his questions. He did not perform any other diagnosis except to look at my pads a couple of time in the morning when I had my appointment. After the surgery I leaked more than just before it. I had done Keegal exercises all the time in the shower to make it part of my morning routine. I am not back to about where I was before the surgery. In 2008 I was working in Chile and had a bad bladder/urinary tract infection (bad in my opinion based on the pain and need to urinate every 15 minutes through the night). Simple antibiotics cleared that up quickly. However, the urologist that treated me decided to do a cystoscopy to look at my bladder to make sure that was OK. Besides being a unique experience (with a smile), it also revealed as pointed out by my urologist that the urethra was cut too close to the bladder when removing the prostate and that in his opinion I would never again be fully continent and that he would not have recommended the male sling. If my Dr. Karol would have done that first, and hopefully would have had the same opinion, I could have avoided risking my life again under the scalpel and under anesthesiology, not to mention what it cost me financially and for recovery time. I did only a little research prior to the surgery and probably should have done more. So, in summary, I recommend that you have your doctor check out your urethra and bladder and do what ever other type of pretests that can be done to really determine if you are that " good " candidate, which to me means one that has a much better than average chance for having the condition rectified for the better. Good luck. > > Hi Guys, > >  Just joined the group. Looking for experienced accounts from anyone who has had this sling surgery done. I am scheduled to have it performed on Friday. Quite nervous. Mainly due to my Dr.'s lack of experience performing the surgery. I think he has done around a dozen. Suppose to make me feel better that a more experience surgeon will be assisting. Sigh. > > A little background about me. I am 52. I had a Da Vinci assisted surgery in 2007 to lop out the cancerous prostate. Have had mild incontinence since. 1-2 pads. I am told I am a good candidate for this sling surgery. I have read quite a few accounts on different sites from men who have had it done. Varying degrees of success. I am starving for more detail I guess. Would be particularly interested in the little things you would do to make the pre/post op period easier on you if you had only known... > > I am a very sad to see so many spam posts in this group. Hope there is some real content to be found. Thanks for reading. > >    > > > > > ________________________________ > > To: ProstateCancerSupport ; advancedprostatecancer > Cc: Dmetz80232@... > Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 5:54 PM > Subject: FW: Sling Procedure > > > > > > > Gentlemen, >  > Would those of you who have had the sling procedure administered for incontinence please make contact with Doug at his email identified in the address of this email? Please include me in the Cc line so I know he is being answered. Deeply appreciated. >  > I haven’t had the procedure and off-hand cannot recall the several men who have mentioned having the procedure performed in the past, so “calling all hands!†>  > Chuck >  > From:Dmetz80232@... > Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:41 AM > To: maack1@... > Subject: Sling Procedure >  >  > I'm contemplating having the Sling Procedure done. Do you know anyone who has had this procedure and would be willing to discuss with me the results?  Thx >  >  > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 2:18 PM > I had my prostate removed by the DaVinci method in August 2005. > I had a Gleason 6 (3+3). I had moderate leakage after I got > off the pads and was basically a 1 medium sized pad a day user. > My doctor Karol in the SF Bay area and someone who had > performed over a thousand DaVinci procedures said I was a good > candidate for the male advanced sling procedure. I had that in > late 2007. > > It was a complete failure and I fault my doctor for that, > because I do not think that I was such a good candidate that he > thought I was. The only thing he based his decision on was on > my verbal responses to his questions. He did not perform any > other diagnosis except to look at my pads a couple of time in > the morning when I had my appointment. .... I read stories like this and they're very discouraging. I had a knee surgery in 1986 that made everything worse for me and, for about ten years, I walked with a limp and was in pain from it. I have since learned that it was a mistake to have the surgery at all, the chance of it helping me was very small, and maybe non-existent. > I did only a little research prior to the surgery and probably > should have done more. So, in summary, I recommend that you > have your doctor check out your urethra and bladder and do what > ever other type of pretests that can be done to really > determine if you are that " good " candidate, which to me means > one that has a much better than average chance for having the > condition rectified for the better. Good advice I think. We need doctors, but we can't assume they are always right or will always do a good job. In my own work (computer programming), I try to do a good job but I've often been wrong and often made mistakes. Fortunately, the mistakes I make are correctable. Smart users question what I do. We should try to be especially smart users of doctors because their mistakes aren't always correctable. > Good luck. And that never hurts either. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 FWIW -- If I were leaking badly (500 ml per day is bad), I'd try two things _before_ any surgery: 1. Wearing a " Texas catheter " ( " condom catheter " ) and leg bag, in social situations. I did that for months after surgery, while I was getting my muscle tone back. And I did it occasionally (when I knew I'd have no bathroom breaks) in the 5 years since surgery. 2. Using an " incontinence clamp " in social situations. One such clamp is here: http://www.vitalitymedical.com/jackson-medical-j-clamp.html I bought one recently, and it's comfortable and effective. But I don't leak as badly as you do. Neither of those things is very costly, there's no surgical risk, and if it doesn't work for you, you can stop using it. Also, if you haven't been doing Kegel exercises, now would be a good time to start. / Richmond, BC, Canada > > G'day folks, > > Thanks for having me on board. > I joined this group a few weeks ago and have been just lurking and learning since. > > I too am interested in learning something of the sling procedure and how effective it is, I have read conflicting comments. > > I had my prostate removed September 2010 and had no idea of the impact it would have on my life / life style. > Since soon after my op I have been weighing all of my disposables each day and recording the results in an excel file which then gives me a weekly and quarterly average where I look for a trend. the last few weeks I have been loosing an average of been between 500 and 700 grams / day. Usually I am able to go all night without having to get up and remain dry but as soon as I move about it is a different story which I find very frustrating. > > I am 79 and live just out of Sydney Aust. > > I find there are places and activities that I am OK with but many I am not happy to attend perhaps this is the depression I hear of. > Before my surgery I was very active and involved with people but this has all changed. I find that I am starting to feel my age probably due to nearly 2 years of relative inactivity. > > About a year ago my uro. suggested the sling procedure but so far I have been a bit reluctant go that way. > > Regards > Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 7:43 PM .... > Neither of those things is very costly, there's no surgical risk, and if it > doesn't work for you, you can stop using it. That's a great idea. Why take the serious risks of surgery if something simple works. > Also, if you haven't been doing Kegel exercises, now would be a good time to > start. I can't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall reading that Kegels should be done a *lot* in order to be effective, like doing some every hour, doing them driving to work, doing them when you happen to wake up at night. Ten or twenty times a day might turn out to be effective when once or twice a day is not. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.