This forum is outstanding as an information resource. Kudos to you long-time members for providing such valuable insights.
In choosing a surgeon to perform a prostatectomy, I agree: the more procedures the doc has done, the better. My surgeon told me he has performed more of this procedure than any other doc in central Ohio (I later confirmed independently), and that he does both robot and
open varieties. In my case he recommended
open, but told me that aside from the abdominal scar I would have no more long-term effects from
open surgery than from the robot. So far he seems to be right, as my recovery from
open surgery (done 4 weeks ago) I would call remarkable: nearly complete continence, can do pretty much everything physically except shovel snow (which I regard as a benefit!), and can sense some developing ability to get an erection. I was working on client projects within 3 days of surgery. So my outcome seems pretty exceptional, which I attribute in large part to having my surgery done by a highly experienced, superb surgeon.
Dx at age 56: Oct 09; PSA 5.8, followed up by 9.9 two weeks later (reproducibility of test - ?)
Biopsy ind cancer in 8/12 cores: Gleason 8 (4+4)
open radical retropubic prostatectomy Dec 4 09
Post-op pathology: 56 g weight, cancer in 21%, Gleason 7 (4+3, tert 5); margins clear, lymph node involvement 0/9, perineural invasion, T2c N0Mx (but showed clear from distant metastasis in pre-op bone scan and CT scan)
Continence data: 1 maxipad/day, with minor leakage when I get up from long seated position; ED pretty complete: some erection possible but current non-functional
Post Edited (MaxBuck) : 1/4/2010 4:07:52 PM (GMT-7)