The returning runner…

Act 36 – Oh cr**!! I think I just peed a little…PART II

A few weeks ago (blog 32) I wrote about my impending prostate surgery scheduled for the next day (April 30, 2025) with a promise to “let you know how it goes”. Considering the prevalence of enlarged prostate (technically called benign prostate hyperplasia or BPH) which effects 50% of men over ages 51-60 and 70% of men ages 61-69, I hope my experience helps someone. Even if you are a female, you might know a mature man who is still too much of a dork to get help for this very common problem. The following is a quasi-diary of my experiences with BPH:

Age 55ish – Found myself getting up frequently at night to go pee. The doctor said my prostate was “quite a bit larger than nomal” and prescribed Flomax (also known as Tamsulosin) which is supposed to help with emptying the bladder and reducing the frequency of nighttime peeing. I only seemed to have very modest improvement (maybe dropped from 3x per night to 2.5x per night…). I gave up on the Flomax after several months.

Age 60ish – I now found myself peeing 3-4 times per night with occasionally having to pee in excess of 6 times per night! The doctor prescribed Finasteride which is intended to actually reduce the size of the prostate with an odd side effect of also helping with male pattern hair loss. Finasteride works by interfering with the natural conversion of testosterone to the more potent androgen (hormones that promote male sexual characteristics) dihydrotestosterone. Not sure if it helped me with male pattern baldness as I had my hair going in and still do, but it did seem to at least stabilize the prostate enlargement such that frequency of peeing wasn’t getting worse. However, after 2+ years on Finasteride I started getting pretty clear signs that I was having a known adverse sexual side effect. We’ll leave it at that…So, with Finasteride you might keep the cool hair but not be able to do anything about it. I stopped the Finasteride around age 63.

Age 65ish – Without Finasteride my condition had progressed to regularly having to pee 4 times per night, more frequent bouts of 6 plus times per night, and with some added negatives:

·       Weak stream

·       Extreme urgency to pee (by the time you realize you need to you’ve already peed a little)

·       I was having to pee (urgently) every time I did a workout

With my symptoms worsening and meds not doing the trick, Dr. Tam at Urology Nevada recommended either the TURP surgery (transurethral resection of the prostate - basically, roto-rootering a tunnel through the constriction caused by the enlarged prostate) or a more recent innovation called Aquablation. Basically, a “a real-time, ultrasound-guided, robotic-assisted” high-pressure fire hose. And hey, I’m a hydraulics engineer – aquablation just sounded right…

I’m happy to report that the surgery went great! And, although the doc said the real benefits might not apparent for a couple of months, at 3.5 weeks I’m a very happy camper. Here’s how things went with the surgery/post-surgery.

-   4/30 – Surgery day: To say that this was easy for me is an understatement. Seriously, I asked the nurse at the end of the bed when they were going to get started and he said that I was already done and in recovery. He asked if I had any pain. I didn’t. 0.00. No pain.

- 4/31 (day 1) – You spend a night in the hospital while they flush the prostate and tubes made sleeping uncomfortable but other than that just lying around watching TV. No pain at all.

- 5/6 (day 7) – The literature said no vigorous exercise for 2 weeks. Dr. Tam said no light running for 1-2 weeks. Of course, I heard “1 week” and with the clock starting the day of the surgery (rather than the discharge date). The literature also recommended regular walking. So…I started walking 3 miles just 2 days post-surgery and added in a short jog after 5 days. At 6 days post-surgery I ran 3 miles and ramped up to 5 miles over the next couple of days. Occasionally, if I pushed it, I had some blood in the urine (which I was warned was a possibility running or not). So, I backed off a bit a couple of times to get the urine back to normal.

- 5/13 (day 14) – Peeing 2 times per night, strong stream, less urgency and not having to stop during a workout at all! Over the past week ramped the running back up to “normal”.

- 5/17 (day 18) – Ran a local 5k race without issues. Definitely not peak performance but got through it ok.

- 5/23 (today – day 24) – Feeling very strong during workouts and the peeing issues are close to eliminated. Although I’m peeing  2 times per night typically, I feel like part of that is just habit. I wake up and decide I should go pee but without the urgency. So, I’m hopeful that over the next couple of months even that get’s reduced. Oh… and let’s just say that all other systems in that area are fully functional - no adverse side effects ;O)!

If you have the prostate issues that I was having I strongly recommend the procedure (assuming it is performed by a great doc like I had).

Photo: Heading back to the beach at Monterey for some sand play with a buddy ;O)