Anyone know anything about prostate problems?

[Moomin]

My lovely dad was admitted to hospital last night. He had an operation 3 years ago to sort out an enlarged prostate and has seems fine since. Yesterday he had a wee and it was pure blood. My dh took him to the hospital where the locum GP said it was probably a urinary infection, prescribed some anti-biots and sent him home. He stayed the night with us and spent the next 3 hours standing at the loo in great discomfort, trying to wee but passing clots and blood with a bit or urine and then getting the urge to wee again straight away. He wasn't in pain as such, but in a lot of discomfort. Eventually we knew he couldn't bear it any more and dh took him back to hospital. He was admitted to another nearby hospital (as ours doesn't have a urology dept) and they are flushing his bladder through to get rid of the blood. He had a scan today but doesn't yet know the results and is scheduled an op to send a camera in on Tuesday.
I can't help fearing the worst. What would make him haemorrage like this? I'm keen to hear from anyone who has experience of older male relatives who have had prostate problems - good or bad outcomes. I've done some searches but all I can find it that blood in the urine is not good and a symptom of cancer. I'll be back on later to see of anyone can help. Thanks in advance XXX

It can be a symptom of prostate cancer, but it can also be a symptom of bladder infections. Try not to worry, not easy I know. And remember that wheras lots of men get prostate cancer, many of them live with it for years and years and often die of something unrelated.

I hope everything turns out well.

My dad (now 79) had the surgery for enlarged prostate and then several years later was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I have no idea if he had blood in his urine or what his symptoms were - he would certainly never talk to me about his wee! In the end he had a course of radiotherapy for the cancer, which was successful. That was over 2 years ago and he is still fine.

With older men, as hmb says, they are more likely to die with prostate cancer than to die of prostate cancer.

Thanks sparks and hmb. After a bit more searching I found something a bit worrying about bladder cancer which is much more likely to cause unexpected (and painless) blood in the urine. However, there's no point getting too upset until we hear what the results of the tests are, in couple of days.

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My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago. He had radiotherapy and seems fine now. None of his symptoms involved blood in the urine and I can find no mention of this in descriptions of such a cancer. I suspect that it is a severe bladder infection, so please don't worry too much. Easier said than done, I know.

I hope you get the results of the tests soon and that they put your mind at rest.

Hope that things go well today Moomin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Best of luck for your dad's op and results, Moomin. xxx

My dad is currently having treatment for prostate cancer and as far as I know has not had blood in his urine. My FIL has had blood in his urine and that truned out to be bladder cancer. The treatment for that was to cut parts of the bladder away, which he had to have done several times. However, there is a new treatment which he has also had, where they put chemicals into the bladder and since then has had the all clear - that was 5 years ago.

Hope it's all Ok for your dad though Moomin.

That's reassuring Furball. He still hasn't had the results of the tests and they've now said he can't have the op until the consultant can fit him in.
My dh is a theatre nurse who sometimes works with this consultant and knows for a fact he operates at the hosp my dad is in every Thurs. Unless someone cancels for this week it won't be for at least another week then. He's still got blood in his urine and clots are still forming but he said at least he can get it seen to straight away in hosp. I think he's scared of having to come home and it all happening again. Hosp is definitely the best place for him at the moment but it's dead boring. Thanks for your lovely thoughts. xx