History:

Had appt with ENT specialist 5/24/04 where the ENT blew out the nasal
cavities with Afrin nose spray to diagnose a large deviated septum.
Several days after that visit, was unable to urinate and getting up q
1hr at night to urinate, but not able to empty the bladder.  Internist
placed me on Uroxatral 10 which relieved the immediate problem. The
Uroxatral made me sleepy, stuffy nose and low back pain.  In order to
get off the Uroxatral, I had a Prostatron 2.5 TUMT July 2, 2004 with
some improvement in urinary flow.  Cystoscopy done just prior to the
TUMT procedure.  Had septoplasty of the nose 7/21/04 with good outcome
to correct deviated septum.

  TUMT reduced AUA score from 25 to 10.  Still unable to empty bladder
at bedtime, some difficulty starting flow, and nite visits to bathroom
2-3 x per night.  Had a second cystoscopy 2/2/05 which showed that the
distal half of the prostatic urethra was blocked along with some median
lobe tissue.  Was told by the URO that there was a 20% chance of retro
with the PVP.

Green light PVP was done 2/23/05.  "The apical tissue was ablated
initially until there was a nice channel right up to the high bladder
neck.  A single incision was made through the bladder neck at the 5
o'clock position which opened it up nicely."

Flow test 2/2/05 max flow rate was 5.8 ml/s, average flow rate 3.4 ml/s.
 Repeat flow test today max flow rate of 11.2 ml/s, and average flow
rate of 6.4 ml/s.  Volume today was 313 ml.  I was in significant pain
having drunk 2-8 oz bottles of water before the flow test.  Had to
strain a great deal to start the urination and to keep it going.  Do not
feel that today's flow test was typical of flow rate when bladder was
not stressed as it was today.

Currently, my AUA score is 4...getting up an average of 2x per night,
with gradual improvement in the night visits...recently have had nights
with only 1 bathroom visit.  PSA tests since 1995 have ranged from .7 to
the latest in April 05 of 1.7(.7, 1.1, 1.2, 1.6, 1.1, 1.5, 1.7).

At 32 weeks post PVP, I do have retro.  I have not been lucky to have
the retro clear by 8 months as several on this ng have reported.  The
quality of ejaculation has definitely been compromised by the PVP
procedure while it was not compromised by the TUMT.

Overall, I am satisfied with the results of the PVP, but PVP did not
measure up to the experience of others on this board who had outcomes of
35 ml/s flow rates.  The plan now is to wait 6 months until the next
scheduled PSA test and reassess outcome.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to send them direct  to
chockman@canby.com.