Quick TURB questions...going in on Tuesday afternoon - my doc says it is a small Ta surface tumor (he only saw 1 tumor). I do not know what to expect. Here are my quick questions for anybody that has had it done because I have to plan:
1. What is the recovery time like? Should I plan on being out of work for 2-3 days afterwords, or can I usually go back the next day? Or should I plan on being out a week (which seems excessive). What is typical?
2. What kind of shape am I going to be in after surgery? Can I walk, work on the computer from home, eat normal foods, have BMs or am I going to be in bed for a couple of days in rough shape until my body rebounds and starts to heal?
3. What is the pain like on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest) afterwords? My surgical nurse said they will give pain meds, but I am not a big fan of any kind of narcotic and I usually do the bare minimum. I honestly am not expecting much pain because it is internal with no external cuts or anything but I have no idea. What should I expect and for how long?
4. Bladder spasms. I heard these can be a pain in the butt after a TURB. Do they give you meds to control the spasms (muscle relaxors or something like that) or do you just gut it out? How long do they typically last?
5. What about urgency? I have read on line that somebody deal with increased urgency for 3-4 weeks afterwords. What other symptoms besides pain can I expect?
6. Lastly, what about work? I read online that docs dont want you lifting anything over 10lbs for 4 weeks. Why? Bleeding? I work a desk job in a software company, nothing like general labor. I do travel around the US for my job and I expect I wont be flying anywhere for 4 weeks. Does it really take that long to feel normal again?
I am also having a TUIP at the same time. Any of you guys have had the TUIP, can you speak about the recovery times around that as well? If you had both at the same time, bonus! You would be a huge wealth of info for me to let me know what to expect. My uro is a great guy and very talented, but also very very busy and he didnt do a great job setting my expectations. Just "come in on Tuesday to the hospital and we are going to do a TURB on you to find out exactly what we are dealing with" and that was about it. I really would like to know what to expect in regards to recovery because I am 2 days away.
I have had a gallbladder removed and also a hernia surgery in the past and in both situations it took 3-4 days to get back on my feet and I was in alot of pain. I am half way expecting this TURB/TUIP to be the same way but hoping it will be much better.
PS. I am in great physical shape, work out daily, not overweight at all, non-smoker, non-drinker, plus I am somewhat young (44). Hopefully that will help on my recovery. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Dean