Think of this as information that I hope you will never need.

The common prostate surgery in use today is a bad one.  TURP is a mechanical cutting or coring out of the prostate, commonly called the "rotor rooter job".   If you go to a Urologist, it is what they will plan on doing to you, it is the default standard urological surgery that is in use today.    

VERY VERY bad, TURP.

Issue is that it bleeds, a lot, for a very long time.   Enough to fill your bladder up with clotted blood and throw you into a week long hospital stay.

Bad news ..... that.

There is another surgery that can do the same job, called a PAE (Prostate Arterial Embolism) that is done by a Radiologist in the cardiac unit at your local larger hospital.   These are the same dudes that chase blood clots and do blood vessel and heart valve reviews prior to heart surgery, so they have the equipment on hand already.

My Turp went bad for bleeding, was grossly aggravated by an emergency room doctor trying to put in a too large catheter (tore up my cored out prostate something fierce).   I spent a solid week in the hospital due to that one emergency room error.

The hospital arranged for me to have a PAE as a repair procedure, which was "successful" in getting the bleeding to stop, but it involved 3 hours on a table under a 3-D imaging system while two doctors worked through my major groin arteries (one on the right, one on the left) shooting die into me so they could see and blocking off arteries in the prostate proper until the gross bleeding stopped.

Then big pain killers for 4 days while the rest of my prostate died (the blood supply was cut off, so of course it died).

Now I am at home doing a very rigorous nothing as I can't even pick up my own two gallon urine bag without causing myself damage.    

So I don't.   Do.   Anything.

It's still one of those imperfect and barbaric procedures.  Sorry to hear you had to go through it.  Is the PAE generally well tolerated, faster and have a better recovery?  Sounds like something they do in Interventional Radiology, similar to the Cardiac Cath Lab.

When my wife was still working as an RN, she said taking care of some of the older gentlemen who went through it would go through some pretty rough post-operative courses.  Some chemical that gets released causes temporary changes to their personality and they are not very nice.  She says it was temporary but made them really hard to deal with as a nurse.
I suppose you tried some of the new meds first, like Flomax?

I read your account of the ordeal you went through and still have to live with.  The term "cringe worthy" comes to mind.  I sincerely hope that in the long run this procedure will produce the results that were promised and that you will feel better soon.  Your warning is appreciated.  Many of us on this forum are at or approaching the age of prostate problems and it is useful to get an honest account of these  procedures.  I wonder how good that laser procedure is?
 

I feel for you dude.  I understand your ordeal.
Back in 2000 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was told it was an unusually aggressive type.  The urologist described 4 options for me; do nothing and wait and see what happens (not good with an aggressive cancer), implant radioactive pellets into the prostate to kill the cancer (65-70% success at the time), directed radiation (70-75%), complete prostate removal surgery (85-90%).  I chose the surgery, which went well and I was placed on morphine drip during the 8-10 days in the hospital.   I woke up with big stainless steel staples from my belly button all the way down to my privates, about 20 of them.  The pain was controllable with the morphine, and when I left the hospital I had pain pills but really had to limit movement.  Riding in the car going home from the hospital was very painful; every little bump I FELT.  I had to live with a catheter for about 6 weeks until healed enough.  I did not have any bleeding issues.  The nerves that control erections were cut in the surgery so nonfunctional afterward.  I spent years trying every erection aid available, including direct injections.   They worked great for a few years but eventually stopped working. There was only one option after that, a penal prosthesis implant which I elected to get.  6 weeks recovery for that one but it works, really well.
The whole journey has been long, and very painful at times, but as of today I am still cancer free.  I feel I made the correct choice considering what I was facing.

Taking both tamsulosin and finasteride to try and avoid this issue. Libido all but done. Getting old sucks, but better than alternative!
Hope you recover! cheers!

Sorry to read about your troubles and pain Oldfeller.......sometimes good genetics just isn't dished out fairly.  The whole prostate thing is a very poorly designed plumbing arrangement.....and it sure doesn't seem like the medical technology has created a proper fix.

Our prayers are with you.

 
OK, two week post PAE report time -- doing good, no bleeding, no pain.

Crop of doctors are acting out the arse with each other, as my Cardiologist is trumping the lot of them using the "mortality threatening" aspects of Cumadin/Warfarin levels to simply say to a very egotistical set of surgeons "hey, you can't be doing that'.

I never knew doctors were such petty prima donnas.

I got this one radiologist that has gone off the map completely and is pretty much being ignored by all the rest now (myself included).   He will NOT communicate with normal mortals (like me) at all and it is getting really really irritating with his arbitrary pronouncements.   I just hope the idiot isn't withholding any important information due to his ego issues.

I am one month out of being done with the big piss bag, according to the majority of players.