Roger,
To chime in on your questions:
1. Was urethroplasty the right choice? Absolutely! No question about it. Especially if you can have the ETE. The only issue with the ETE, ever, is whether your stricture can be properly fixed with ETE (stricture needs to be small enough). If someone does have a large stricture or multiple strictures, things can get murky on the topic. But for most, urethroplasty is the gold standard.
2. For what questions to ask, see my post here: Some Questions To Ask Before Your Urethroplasty if you haven’t already.
3. Once you’re home, you’ll want a decent donut pillow, the inflatable kind. The hospital gave me one, but it developed a leak almost immediately. I got one from CVS and it lasted for weeks. Just make sure you stop using as soon as it is tolerable to sit on a normal soft pillow! I made the mistake of staying on the donut pillow for too long and developed a large hemorrhoid problem:-P. Also, I’d say make sure you get some tighty-whities, if you don’t already wear them. It may seem counterintuitive, but you need some pressure and support for your scrotum during healing. Things will hear faster. And it may be a good idea to get some small alcohol swabs to clean the area where the post-surgery catheter comes out. OH, and I recommend getting good catheter securement devices – the kind that stick to your leg. You’ll have a leg bag and you need it NOT to pull on the catheter! The stretchy velcro ones don’t hold up to the weight of bag as it fills up. Your doctor may give you some. But if not, see the home page on this site. There is a little banner where you can buy a 10-pack of GRIP-LOK stickers.
Hope that helps!
Ken