6+ Years, Still OK. Medicare Coverage for Green Light?

Today someone posted a comment to this 'Me and My BPH' blog, which reminded me that I haven't posted any updates in awhile. While trying to remember how to create new postings, I noticed that people actually read this...ten to 30 people per day...who knew?!

It's been six years and a few months since the GreenLight procedure, and everything is still OK.

As in past years, there is still a tendency toward hesitation in starting to pee, if I didn't really need to go. For example, I'm getting ready to go shopping so I decide (just on general principles) to pee before I leave. Getting started may take 5, 10, 20 seconds.

But if I do need to pee, it starts right away.

Flowrate is still great. I never need to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and I haven't had any urinary tract infections since the procedure.

I'm still surprised that one of the doctors that I consulted with recommended TURP over Green Light. From what I've read, TURP is bloody (maybe even a blood transfusion), painful and requires a hospital stay. I'm glad I didn't follow his advice!

I'm now on Medicare. Had I delayed getting the Green Light treatment, I do not know if Medicare would have covered the procedure or not...does anyone reading this know?

3 Years Since GreenLight for BPH, No Regrets

It's been 3 years since I had the GreenLight treatment for BPH (benign prostate hypertrophy). Everything is fine.

There are two minor issues, which are closer to non-issues:
1. Sometimes I can't tell if I really need to urinate or not.
2. If I don't need to urinate, but choose to (say, before a car trip), it may take up to 20 seconds for the flow to begin.

I don't know if either of these is related to the GreenLight BPH therapy. When the flow does start, it's firehose-esque, not a tiny stream.

My PSA before the treatment was 2.4 to 2.6. Sixteen months after Greenlight (April 2007) the PSA had dropped to 0.90, in April 2008 it was 0.90, in April 2009 it was 1.10.