I am in the final stages of deciding on which procedure to go with. I have spoken with Drs. K and B and feel both procedures have their good and bad points. I meet with my Urologist to discuss Urolift next week and hopefully get him to agree to order a prostate MRI for me. I also spoke at length with our FLA pioneer, John, and was thankful for his explanation and understanding of my concerns. I will definitely speak with him again before my final decision.
I have read there are some PAE failures, or at least results that are less then were hoped for. Conversely, I have not heard os any failures or subpar results, given that it is much newer than PAE.
I request that is you have had eithet procedure that you name the procedure and the results, be it 100 percent successful down to totally unsuccessful. Also please indicate if you would do the same procedure again given what you know now.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Also please private message me if you desire.
Suposably Urolift is good for 10 years with some minor problems .I heard they sometimes need adjusted
A lot of people swear by Urolift,
But you know you will have to do it again in future.
My insurance just will only pay for Urolift, but mine was not completely finish because to painful. Make sure you are medicated if you go that route.
I've been pretty tired of 15 years of BPH. I think I would go for HOLEP, only you have retro ejaculation but redo rate is 1 or2 percent.
See what redo rate is and good luck.
I had both, PAE did not help me at all, but I know it does work for some people. Having said that I think it's crazy to fork out over 10k or whatever on a procedure that is like hit or miss. Why be one of the unlucky 20% (or whatever the stats are)
FLA worked for me, not as well as for John and the others, but at least I am confident that it is the best try if you want no sexual side effects. The reason it may not have worked for me as well as John could be bladder issues, or some other reason we don't know about. Still if you asked me what I prefer, this and no side effects or Green Light, better stream/no meds BUT side effects, I'll take this any day.
Think I may have read some of your posts. Are you from Argentina?
Does anyone in AZ do FLA and what's the cost?
Yes. My wife and I are Americans living in Buenos Aires.
Urolift, Dec 2015 Initially 100% successful, but after a few months, back to square 1.
Sorry, I am considering Urolift because insurance won't pay for HOLEP, I be 65 in 3 years and trying to decide to do Urolift or wait until Medicare kicks in .
Why did they say it failed
I followed all your posts when you had it done. It started out to be very promising but must have taken a quick turn for the worse. So sorry you had to go through the trouble and expense to travel all the way up hear just to have the procedure fail. Are you considering trying something else like FLA or Urolift. I remember that your wife is an MD, what does she recommend as another step?
Thanks, Rick
Thanks for your reply, sorry the procedure was not successful for you.
Rick
The doc, who did the FDA trials for the procedure, said it was iffy, but he didn't say why. My prostate was small (38gm). I stopped taking the meds after the procedure, and I suppose the little sucker (the prostate) just went back to growing. I have been doing CIC for a year now, assessing and waiting for iTind to prove itself!
Thanks! And yes, disappointing. But the doc had said it was a "maybe," though he had a "hunch" it would work. Ah, well! And... CIC isn't so bad, when you get used to it! :-)
I have been thinking of CIC myself since my main symptom is difficulity starting the stream when getting up usually twice per night.
As I've mentioned in many threads, the upside of CIC is that you can reduce the number of nocturnal trips, sometimes eliminating them altogether! I cath right before bedtime, and sleep through the night 2/3 of the time. A real blessing.
Rick;
You have a good memory. After 30 days the PAE's benefits quickly disappeared. I think the temporary improvement was merely from all the meds and steroids I got during the procedure. As my problems returned I called Dr. Bagla a couple of times but he had no suggestions and wasnt very interested.
I went back to my uro here and started taking Flomax again. I didn't have any side effects and am still on it. My symptoms have reduced a bit to where I can pretty much live with them. A year ago I was getting up 7-8 times a night and peeing couple of times when I walked my dog.
At this point I can drive to the airport or take the dogs out for a couple of hours without having to plan bathroom stops. At night I'm getting up 2-3 times. Its not like being a teenager but I'm not motivated to sign up for one of the more invasive procedures.
Recently My wifes gave me Rivotril. It put me in a much deeper sleep and relaxed my bladder. It was very helpful until some nasty side effcts kicked in and I had to stop. Now I take ambien at bedtime and once during the night.
I'm getting a sonagram next week then I'll see my uro. He's been recommending water ablation but I'm not ready for another procedure yet.
I'm reading all the favorable reports on Dr. K and his FLA, if my symptoms get really bad again, thats what I'll evaluate first.
I'm hoping that I can hold out until there are new and better meds and treatments.
One other thing, I believe that there's a connection between constipation and diarhea and bladder/prostate problems. So, I'm trying to manage my bowels to flow calmly and smoothly and not put any pressure on my abdomen/bladder.
Ok well I have also had both. I had the PAE done in 2013 by Dr B in VA. I was one of 36 men in a clinical trial awhich gave me some initial relief. This lasted around two years but things gradually went down hill culminating very recently in complete urinary retention In January and again in May, twice in a week. Out of desperation I called Dr K in Houston and booked my FLA. I was wearing a foley catheter for a full 11 days prior to my procedure and the obligatory week afterwards.
I had the incredible Dr K do the MRI guided FLA on May 18th and 4 weeks later I am peeing better than I have done in years. I have a lot more healing to do so I have heard it only gets better. This is truly a miraculous procedure and Dr K is the most caring and talented Dr I have ever met.
Dr K was able to show me exactly where on my pre-procedure MRI how the PAE had failed me. I have (had) a large median lobe protruding into my bladder neck and this has been the cause of the worst of my misery. The PAE had left the median lobe unscathed; the blood supply was clearly 100% in tact and as a result had continued to grow. This is the gamble one takes in my opinion in choosing an non-targeted procedure like PAE. If the offending tissue is successfully embolized then all is well, if not then the relief is either brief or non-existent. FLA is all about the targeting of the tissue causing the BPH by placing the laser exactly where it needs to be and using heat maps on the MRI so that just the Dr can provide just enough power to th elaser be able to ablate the offending tissue to an accuracy of 1mm. To me this made and still makes perfect sense. Thus the DR is able to specifically avoid the ejaculatory ducts and nerve bundle that would otherwise result in sexual dysfunction.
I can confirm that I have no sexual side-effects and as things stand and given how poorly I was immediately, prior, I couldn't be happier.
It is also important to make sure that you have no bladder or kidney issues prior to any procedure to make sure you have a fighting chance for the procedure to succeed.
I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Ross
Do you have a prescription for cath
I'm in same boat. Had a failed Urolift and wonder if I should just live with it. 2 or 3 a night, I walk 2.5 miles a day Forrest so I can stop 4 or 6 times and rest of the day do pretty well. Never had to self cic so Im thinking like you on that one
I wanted HOLEP but Cigna won't pay so if I wait 3 years I'll be 65 and Medicare will kick in.
It's so frustrating
Rick (wish this forum had an edit capabiilty).
I wanted to mention that I am still on 5mg p.d. of rivotril that my wife prescribed. I've never seen it mentioned here.
I couldn't tolerate the 10mg that we started with but the 5mg seems to be helping me alot along with Flomax and ambien.
I have a sensation that my bladder is relaxed. My sleep is much deeper. I have no other changes, not groggy or headaches or anything.
Last night I got up once.