Last Tuesday I had my prostate vaporized. Here’s a photo of an early, not-very-successful version of the procedure:

Early PVP with too much laser power

The surgery is called Green-Light Photo-assisted Vaporization of the Prostate (PVP). It uses a 120-watt laser to vaporize prostate tissue, and cauterize at the same time. I requested a spinal anesthetic, so I was able to watch the procedure. Rather interesting: the probe looks like a large glass needle and the laser light comes out the side. All you can see are a series of flashes, and bits and pieces of tissue (looks like cheese) coming off and whirling away. There’s very little blood. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any photographs, although there are several examples on the intertubes.

The procedure took about an hour. About 45 minutes in I started to feel the probe–no pain, at first, just an odd tugging sensation below my navel. When it started getting uncomfortable I mentioned it and the anesthesiologist knocked me out with gas. The next thing I knew I was in the recovery room. I was at the surgery center about 6 hours, much of that waiting for the surgery room to become available, as they were running behind. (It was the Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz. I recommend them, and my surgeon, Joseph Franks, very highly.)

Recovery has been quite rapid. There was only a little pain at first, and I stopped taking pain medication the next day. The catheter came out the second day after surgery. I was very happy to get rid of it, as the usual male morning salute is, as you might imagine, quite uncomfortable when there’s a tube running up into your bladder! I was able to urinate about an hour later. Deborah laughed at the expression on my face when I came out of the bathroom–I haven’t been able to pee like that for 15 years or so! One interesting side effect, not of the surgery but of the anti-spasmodic I’m taking to relax my bladder (Pyridium), is that my pee is bright orange.

When I researched the procedure on-line, there were a number of horror stories (the intertubes tend to select for that, of course), as well as enthusiastic endorsements of the procedure. So far, add me to the latter. Although I still can’t sleep through the night (it will take time for the trauma to heal and my bladder to re-learn retention), I’m a lot more comfortable, and I’m looking forward to being able to travel without wondering where the next restroom will be.

(BTW, the title of this post was suggested by the scene with the ogre, Winston, in one of my favorite movies, Time Bandits. “I can cough. At last, I can really cough.”)