I got home about an hour ago after a 10 hour trip by rail from
London following a PVP at King's College Hospital by Gordon
Muir.

I travelled down on the 2nd December from Inverness to London
(600 miles?) to arrive around 8pm ready for PVP at 7.30am at
King's College Hospital on the 3rd.

I didn't sleep much on the night of the 1st as I was worried I
might miss the train which departed at 9.20am from Inverness,
a 40 miles drive by road from my home. Didn't sleep much on the
night of the 2nd either as I can't sleep in a strange bed and I
was concerned I might miss the 7.30am appointment at the
hospital the next morning!

Anyway, arrived at King's around 7am and was called through to
the ward spot on 7.30am. There I had the obligatory blood
pressure tests, etc. and finally was taken through to surgery
around 10am. (I was 2nd in the queue -- four cases scheduled for
that day).

I can honestly say the most painful part prior surgery was the
anaesthetist sticking the needle in the back of my hand! (A pin
prick).  After that, all I can remember is waking up back in the
ward about 1.75 hours later. That appears to be about the norm.
My prostate was 75 grams.

Muir and his surgeon colleague, a Mr Cutting (!), both came
through to see me before the operation and I was also delighted
to meet Mike Degun, UK sales manager for Laserscope, for the
first time. I have had a correspondence with Mike over several
months so I feel we are old friends. I explained to Mike that I
have a 26 year old girl friend and was concerned to keep the
bladder neck in tact!! (Not too keen on retro).  This seemed to
amuse him (can't think why!<G> I'm only 63!) and he promised to
explain the position to Muir and see what could be done.

After the op, Muir came through and said he had left as much of
the bladder neck as he could but as a result I might expect some
bleeding as he was not able to cauterize all of the blood
vessels.

I think I should say that the worst parts of the op for me were
the after effects of the anaesthetic but even that was not much
worse than being slightly drunk. I felt very cold and shivery
after coming out of theatre but the nursing staff are very
professional. Those just out of theatre are swathed in those
silver paper-like thermal blankets and given buttered toast and
hot drinks. Anyway, by early afternoon I had recovered enough
for my brother to be called to take me back to his flat by car
which is about 10 minutes from the hospital. Patients are not
allowed to leave unaccompanied after a general anaesthetic which
is fair enough in the circumstances.

I left hospital around 4.30pm with a catheter and was allowed to
go "home" as soon as the urine was reasonably clear. This
occurred after drinking fairly large qualities of liquid. The
catheter causes minimal discomfort but nips a bit if it is
"pulled" as it is held in place in the bladder by a small bulb
on the end full of water.

Actually, the catheter is something I could have got quite fond
of! I had better explain! After having had urination problems
for over four years it was one hell of a relief to be able to go
to the toilet and simply run off the urine whenever I felt the
bag was full!<G> Quite a contrast to going to the toilet for a
long wait with marginal results!<G>

With all the travelling and disturbance to my usual routine I
found I was constipated. If I had known what to expect, I would
have gone on a high fibre diet. But when I got back to my
brother's flat, I went to the toilet and attempted to defecate.
This was partially successful but the straining appeared to
cause some haemorrhage as later that evening the fluid in the
bag was very red. This was rather worrying but I continued to
drink lots of fluids and by morning it was back to pink.

I was due to return to the hospital at 10 am next day when the
catheter was removed. This was not much more unpleasant than the
initial injection and I was rather amused when the nurse
apologized for tearing some sticking plaster off my wrist,
pulling body hair in the process, as that didn't hurt much
either!

Frankly, PVP is virtually painless. I was allowed home after
urinating twice when the urine was judged to be clear. I walked
home (1/2 mile) by myself and felt fine though I did look very
carefully each way before crossing any roads. I was still
feeling the combined effects of lack of sleep and the general
anaesthetic.

As a self confessed coward, I can honestly say that having a PVP
at King's was a dawdle. The earlier biopsy at my local hospital
was far more unpleasant so that I had insisted on some sort of
anaesthetic for the second biopsy. That time they had given me a
general anaesthetic and kept me in for two nights! If anyone
reading this has concerns about having a PVP, all I can say is
that it is less unpleasant than going to the dentist to get a
tooth filled -- and the results are truly wonderful! A TURP?
Doesn't even bear thinking about!

If anyone has any questions, I will be delighted to answer them.
Now I am back home, I feel fine. The acid test came when I had
to go to the toilet on the train (only twice in a 10 hour trip -
- how about that?).

I came out of that toilet laughing! I kid you not! With the
train swaying from side to side at 80mph+ I hit the pan dead
centre and my flow was steady and sustained -- like I remember
it used to be about 8 years ago! It was a truly gratifying
experience!

Everyone's experience of BPH is different. I have never
experienced the urgency and frequency others complain about but
the slowness had got so bad I was convinced I would go into
retention just days before the operation. Now I feel 100%
normal.

BTW, I carried my bag on the tube across London without a
problem and while I have no intentions of doing any heavy
labour, I feel confident everything will be just fine so long as
I do not do anything that could be described as "very heavy
lifting" in the information sheet supplied by King's. Having
said that, I probably ought to add that as a farmer I am
normally pretty active and quite fit.

Last, I have no connection with the Laserscope company but I
will be writing up my experiences for the newspapers as I have
always intended. I hope this helps those who are as yet
undecided.

Derry