Florida surgeons

I am still trying to figure out what to do about my prostrate cancer. I have researched brachytherapy, IMRT, HDr and conventional (nerve sparring) surgery, daVinci surgery. I am looking closer at daVinci surgery. But am not sure how to find excellent surgeons in my area of Daytona, FL. Any one have any insight or worked with any DRs here?

I thought my signature would have posted.

Age 61
PSA 7.8
Gleason 6 (3+3)
Physical condition - ex
4 of 12 biopsys = cancer
Father had prostrate cancer

Yes; deciding is difficult especially when you read all the stories to try to get a handle on which procedure is the best. Some stories are good and some not so good. So I try to make a balance. No balance yet; but it will happen.

Dr Patel. Found this:
"Florida Hospital is proud to have Dr. Vipul Patel, MD on staff. An internationally respected leader in the field of minimally invasive robotic prostatectomy, here is a list of his recent achievements."

I was operated on by Dr Patel in October at Flordia Hospital in Orlando.  He has done thousands of these surgeries and has taught the procedure all over the world.  His staff and the hospital are great everyone is in a private room and my wife was able to spend the night at the hospital in my room.  I quickly recovered and feel great and was completly dry by 6 weeks.  Prior to that only had slight leakage one pad a day.  I also live in Fl but was willing to go where I could get the best treatment and Dr. Patel was recommended highly. 

Jerry  

Chris, on y computer your sig. is now a light blue and virtually unreadable?

I had the robotic surgery with Dr. Patel in Orlando, FL on January 6, 2009. He, his staff and hospital are wondeful. I felt like a guest at a 5 star resort. Dr. Patel is also known and respected internationally with many patients from outside the USA. I stayed at the Mona Lisa Hotel right on the hospital grounds and had a 1 bedroom appartment until the catheter came out. Its now 4.5 weeks since surgery and I feel great. I still leak, especially in the afternoon. I take the doctor prescribed viagra 3 times a week and for the past two weeks have had strong erections and orgasms. You will be very happy with Dr. Patel and his team. I'm 60 yo. 6'00", 176# and in excellent physical shape for my age. However, this message is not about me, its about the great Dr. Patel.

Sam

  

James C. said...
Chris, I see the same light blue/gray on 3 different computers. Ok, I'll give you the html gray, but its still a very light gray and still very hard to read......lol

Yes, I can read it also, but it is very light and hard to read.   

Paul

The Mona Lisa Hotel is located on the Hospital grounds about a two minute drive away. The hotel also runs a shuttle to the hospital. I have a post op exam on 2/20/09. The Patel rate is $129/day for February. The rooms are 1 or 2 bedroom appartments. We took the 1 bedroom. It includes a kitchen, living room, dining table, bedroom and nice bathroom. Two TV's, WiFi, outside patio overlooking a pool. Real luxurious.  (401-964-7000).

With respect to leakage, I'm leaking. Here in the forum it seems that the concensus is 2 to 3 months. I'd rather hear from actual peoples experiences rather than the Doctors statistics.

Sam

the catheter is a tube with a bulb on the end. It is inserted in the penis and the bulb end goes up inside the bladder. Once in place, the bulb is inflated with sterile water by filling the bulb, using a syringe. This line to the bulb is very small and seperate from the catheter itself. Once the bulb is inflated, it swells up and seals the bottom or neck of the bladder, keeping the catheter tube inside and preventing urine leakage outside. The bulb and end is inside the bladder maybe 3/4 to 1 inch and the bulb does an excellent job of keeping the catheter inside. Pulling, tugging and such will not dislodge an inflated catheter bulb. The danger of injury from the bulb is the act of pulling on the catheter and bulb to the extent that it breaks the stitches that are holding the bladder neck together for healing. I couldn't feel my catheter, except at the head of the penis. The line there did irritate and the penis would actually slide up and down on the tubing, which is why the tube there is kept lubricated with an antibiotic salve such as neosporin and such. There is no danger of anything being sucked up inside, the device is gravity driven and has no internal suction capability. Mobility can be a pain until you figure how to move with it. The act itself isn't a problem, hundreds of thousands of people live their daily life with them, it's just the newness to us the first time. Most of us will use the big bag especially the firsdt few days and while at home. This bag is carried around and causes little problems itself. The tubing and positioning is the problem with it, it seems. The smaller leg bag is attached to the leg, either the thigh or the calf, and allows for hidden use when outside and moving around. This bag holds 1/4 the urine the big bag does, but allows for much more mobility. Removal of the catheter is usually a non-event. The nurse or doctor will remove the sterile water in the bulb with a syringe and the catheter will usually just slide out on its own, with a 'funny' feeling", as described here many times. The whole thing slides out and is discarded, you pull up your pants, with a pad or diaper the first time, just to be safe and you are on your way. Here's a link to a diagram of the Foley Catheter system.

findlaw.doereport.com/generateexhibit.php?id=9259&ExhibitKeywordsRaw=&TL=4294967295&A=42409

I was written off as incurable by 3 fancy research urologists, 2 from Duke and one from MUSC. Dr Lotenfoe in Celebration FL instead looked at my chart and films and suggested a saturation biopsy. We now have good reason to believe that although my robotic surgery was a failure that I have been cured of the cancer.

Dr. Lotenfoe was the only Dr. out of many I saw who looked out of the box.

You can find a reference to him by searching online.

I recommend him without reservation.

Very best to you, Scott

Give you the short version, lol. First 31 days, by surgeons choice due to surgical complications. Cath came out, next day, blockage, new cath in. 2 weeks later, cath out, back in ER that night, blockage, cath 3 in place. Cath came out, cyclscope checked me out, noted "flap" blockage at bladder neck, scope out, cath 4 in place. Week later, surgery to correct flap blockage, cath 5 in place. On day 66, cath 5 out, been on my own since, that was January 19th.

It was my unique ordeal, confusion. The rest of my surgery and post surgery care and recovery was pretty well by the book, nothing unusual to report about. Staples out in 10 days, the incision healed very fast. Some classic "rear end" pain went away after about 6 weeks out.

OK, better? I sure wish the old posts would reflect updated sig's....

ups4 said...

James C. said...

Chris, I see the same light blue/gray on 3 different computers. Ok, I'll give you the html gray, but its still a very light gray and still very hard to read......lol [img]/community/emoticons/smilewinkgrin.gif[/img]

Yes, I can read it also, but it is very light and hard to read. [img]/community/emoticons/shocked.gif[/img]
Paul

and to think chris, you only had your's in for 2 weeks! that would have been paradise to me, lol. you will heal soon from the post catheter pain.