What are the early relapse signs after Urethroplasty?

[amir]

Hello everyone,
I did urethroplasty 11 weeks ago. Starting from last week, I’m having a mild burning while going when my bladder is not that full. When it is full the stream is still good and there is no pain but when the bladder is not that full it is burning a little bit which reminds me the pre-surgery times. Also, I see more drops in my underwear after going, compared to right after catheter removal. So, are these ok? Can it be an early sign of relapse of the stricture? Is there anyone here who has relapsed? What are worrisome signs?

thanks
–amir

[Clayton]

As far as I know, the main sign of re-stricture is a limited stream, the same as the original stricture. The stream is always weaker when your bladder isn’t full, and there can be some mild discomfort if you’re even slightly dehydrated.

At three months you’re also bound to still have some weird nerve things going on. I’m at 6 months, and I still have spells where it feels like something is wrong, and then it passes.

If your stream at times is still strong, my guess is that you’re probably fine. If you’re unsure, or it gets worse, you should contact your surgeon’s office and ask them about it.

Clayton

[amir]

Thanks Clayton for your response.

Unfortunately, I had a few drops of blood after urination today. Did that happen to you too? The last time that there was blood it was a few days after catheter removal (day 24 or something.) I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

–amir

[Clayton]

It sounds like you might have a UTI. You should definitely contact your doctor to get tested. It could be prostatitis too. Both are fairly common after operations like this.

Prostatitis is basically an inflamed prostate, which can be triggered by both stress and nerve problems in the pelvic area. It usually goes away on it’s own once the underlying cause is gone.

Only your doctor will be able to figure out what it really is.

Clayton

[CatheterChris]

As far as I’m aware a true relapse would take a lot longer than 11 weeks to start showing up unless the entire surgery was completely botched, which I highly doubt is the case. Either you are experiencing normal recovery side effects, or you have one of the things Clayton suggested. Regardless, I wouldn’t panic.

[Steve]

Amir,
I have a constriction due to Prostate Cancer also. You are the first person on this website that has gone through this surgery. I would appreciate it if you would tell me your age and how your doctor repaired your stricture. Mine appears to be in the lower valve area and the prostate. Doc says stricture is less the 2cm. I am finally scheduled for surgery on the 17th of April.

Clayton if you are monitoring this I was the person scheduled back in September for my surgery when hurricane Erma caused my flight to terminated. Due to damage to my property I had to reschedule for April. I also did not have much time to get back on this site. I was pleased to hear that both You and Greg are doing well.

Thank you both,
Steve

[amir]

Hi Steve,
Sorry that I’m seeing this late. My cancer was blood cancer, during which I developed the stricture. Mine was 4 cm and there was no way other than urethroplasty.

Hope that yours has gone well.

–amir

[amir]

An update on this:

I did the UT test and there was no infection.

I started to go to the bathroom every 3 hours or so. Even at nights, I set up alarms to wake me up every 3 hrs and after a week the bleeding stopped. I had another course of bleeding which following the same routine helped stopping it in a few days. So things were very well over the past 2 months until yesterday.

Yesterday I had the 6-month follow-up visit. I had a lot of bleeding in my urine test. Based on my previous experience I knew that the direction of my penis during urination/ejaculation is very important. Also, when something is coming out I shouldn’t hold it ever. To fill out the cup I held the penis in a slightly abnormal position and also hold myself to put aside the cup and finish going to the bowl. I thought this was the reason for the bleeding. My dr insisted on doing a cystoscopy and I strongly opposed him because I was sure that this was the reason. He was concern about bladder cancer (prevalent secondary cancer), kidney stone, and surgery site problem.

One day after, thank god, I’m doing fine and there is no bleeding, pain, or weak stream. Who knows what would have happened if he was doing the cystoscopy? I’ve learned that you shouldn’t let any dr peeking around there unless it is absolutely necessary.

The lesson is to know your body! Drs nowadays are like robots following protocols and for them (this was one of the best dr at the best urology clinic), you are just a point in a diagram in a paper and you should be similar to other patients otherwise they are stuck. It’s their job to tell you the protocol and your job to adjust it based on your info about your body.

–amir

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