Hello Dave S and welcome. We are getting a lot of Daves and Davids in here. I am a David, I am 56 also, and I had open surgery and stayed in the hospital 4 days, but back in November of last year. Yes, there is nothing good to say about having a catheter. My 63 days on a total of 5 of them after my surgery have the makings of a legend, lol. If it is rubbing type pain, then make sure the tip is well lubicrated, and make sure you stay clean down there of course. If you get spasms in your bladder, ditropan will resolve that, you could ask your doctor for some. And it rarely if ever hurts when they take it out, many of us feared that, but in most cases, it just kinds of slips out and its all over in a couple of seconds or so. Thinking about it is worse than having it removed. Once it is out, then you will see how you will do in the next stage of your recovery, the incontinence issue. Hopefully, you will be dry early. Please keep us posted.
David in SC
Age 56, 56 at DX, PSA 7/7 5.8, 7/8 12.3,9/8 14.5
3rd Biopsy Sept 08: Positive 7 of 7 cores, 40-90%, Gleason 7, 4+3
Open RP surgery 11/14/8, Right nerves spared, 4 days hospital, staples out 11/24/8, 5th cath out on 1/19/9
Post-surgery Pathlogy Report:Gleason 3+4=7, pT2c, 42 grm, tumor 20%, Contained in capsular, clear margins, clear lymph nodes
First PSA Post Surgery 2/9 .05, 6 month on 5/9