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25 days after prostate surgery, there is still a hole at the mouth of the bladder. A problem?

I am 59, in Japan. Otherwise in good health, I had an enlarged and cancerous prostate removed at a Japanese hospital on Aug. 16, 2010. Today Sept. 9.

I am home now. I feel great. I plan to go back to work on Monday. But I still have a catheter (and, apparently, a ballon device in my bladder) because a hole remains where the bladder was sewed to the uretha. Xrays showed the leaking hole on the right side after nine days. Apparently this is not unusual. After 16 days, it appeared smaller but still significant. But after 23 days (yesterday) the hole was still there and appeared just as big as the previous week.

A while back, the doctors said the hole will close in time, no matter what. But more recently they seem somehow less confident. One let slip a statement: "I don't think we'll have to do another operation." Don't think???

Is this a common problem? (I don't find it under the list of problems)
Should I be worried?
Might another operation be necessary?
How long might I have to wait before the hole closes?

Thanks for any help!

Mark L
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Avatar universal
The bladder is a muscle, it should close soon...yes, it should have been by now, but wait.  I sincerely doubt another surgery!

Just wondering, being you are in Japan, did your doctor tell you about HIFU as a treatment?  HIFU is accepted in Japan, but I wonder if doctors mention it, or if men just need to find out about it on their own.  HIFU is high intensity focused ultrasound, it's in clinical trials in the USA and doctors are terrified about it being approved (loss of $$)
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Avatar universal
I am so glad to hear it's healed up.

That's discouraging regarding hifu, so it's just like here, no surgeon will tell anyone.   Heck, AT&T doesn't tell us that Verizon offers more areas!

There are some doctors who do HIFU in Japan ( www.hifu-jp.org ), and unless you hear about it on your own, no doctor will tell you, that's why these forums are great.....however ~ lots of forums erase what people say about HIFU and we don't get email alerts to our posts.  

Thanks for the update, much good luck going forward.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Forsunny, thanks for the info and encouragement. As you predicted, the hole seems to have mended itself as of yesterday.

As for HIFU, not a peep. They have some hospitals specifically for cancer in Tokyo. If I had gone to one of those, maybe. But I choose a middling sized hospital close to home, new, clean, and up-to-date for the most part, but I'm guessing they didn't have the equipment for HIFU and thus didn't mention it. Maybe I should have gone in more informed and asked about it, but I'm basically just too lazy for that.

Anyway, thanks again. You definitely put my mind at ease.

ML
Helpful - 0
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