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Posted 4/4/2010 4:47 AM (GMT 0)
Anyone out there have any personal experience with robotic prostatectomy? I would appreciate your story.

I want to thank everyone that responded.  You people are the best. This really helps.

How does the doctor get the prostate out with the robotic proceedure through the little holes?

Age:   65

PSA:  3/10   6.1

gleason  3/20   3+4=7

1 of 20 positve

Bone scan and ct scan negative

I am opting for robotic prostatectomy

 

Post Edited (ridgewalker) : 4/8/2010 6:17:59 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/4/2010 5:34 AM (GMT 0)
Hi ridgewalker and welcome to our little corner of the world that no one wants to be in. There must be a 1000 guys here that had the robotic surgery and I'm sure they'll chime in any minute now. You could also make a search on this forum and get several hits. I had the open surgery and can not competently comment on the robotic.

All the best to you and keep us informed on your journey.

Magaboo

Posted 4/4/2010 2:53 PM (GMT 0)
I had robotic surgery and it is truly a technical marvel. I was out of the hospital in two days, and frankly per scarring, you can barely tell I even had surgery. Catheter was out after 8 days. I was back at work in two weeks part time, and full after 3. Played golf two months after surgery.

The first two days, you do basically feel like you've been hit by a truck, but percacet takes care of that. Toughest part with any surgery there is that your abdominal wall is very tender and you simply have to be careful lifting anything for a number of weeks.

I elected for robotics for the precision, less invasiveness, lower blood loss, and I liked the ability for the surgeon to achieve maximum magnification, multiple 3 dimensional views and precise calibration.

That being said, each guy has to make his own call, and each guy's decision is the right one, whether it be open, DaVinci, or radiation.

Big key is the surgeon. Get to know how experienced they really are.
Posted 4/4/2010 3:15 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to HW, Ridge, I had open surgery, but the majority of men by far here that chose surgery has robotic, and they can probably answer any possible question you may have.

David in SC
Posted 4/4/2010 3:41 PM (GMT 0)
Lots of variability between guys / surgeons / hospitals and even catheters. Had mine on 2/10/10 at Henry Ford Vattikuti in Detroit. PSA 6.7, cancer a 3+4=7 with 2 of 12 positive biopsy cores posite. both nerve bundles saved and cancer was contained to the prostate. Robotic surgery was done Wednesday afternoon and I was home Thursday afternoon. Took a couple of Tylenol 3's. Catheters! Had one Penile, one across the abdomen to drain blood, and one PUBIC. The penile and blood drain were out the next day as I was released.
Posted 4/4/2010 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
Ridgewalker,
Without knowing your stats and prior to having an expert clinical staging it would be presumptive to assume you are a candidate for surgery.
JT
Posted 4/4/2010 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
Ridge, a little more information about your situation would be helpful. Many here including my husband had robotic surgery - that seems to be the trend.

Give us a bit more background - your age (if you don't mind), your PSA, biopsy results, etc. That will help us in understanding and answering your questions.
Posted 4/4/2010 5:08 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Ridgewalker,

Welcome to Healing well.
My date with DaVinci was July 21, 2009. From hospital check-in to check-out was 30 hours. Incredible. I have a couple of small scars on my abdomen so my nude modeling career is over. ;-)
Not sure what you are looking for but knowing a little more about you might help. I'm guessing there are hundreds or maybe thousands of guys here who had it done robotically. Most of us have put our stats in our signatures so you can browse and see the results.
There is lots of info on line that you can find by using a basic search. But there are not many places where guys are willing to talk about the treatment side effects or how their lives have changed. Have a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and look around here. Hopefully it will help you as much as it helped me.
Good Luck,
Jeff
Posted 4/4/2010 5:23 PM (GMT 0)
Ridgewalker,
I had the robotic surgery just over a year ago. I was in the hospital for one night. 2 days after being discharged I was walking one mile and after 10 days I was walking 3 miles. The only thing I discomfort that I can remember is having bladder spasm and gas the day after the surgery. I also had some soreness in my right testicle that lasted few weeks.
Posted 4/4/2010 6:07 PM (GMT 0)
Ridgewalker,
I had DaVinci (robotic) in October 09. My experience was a bit more complex that some. My biopsy led the surgeon to want to take more and wider margins, and that was a little harder on me. I got out a few days later than most, but it wasn't unexpected, and probably helped me a lot in recovery. I was told that the surgery was uneventful. I was back on solid food the next day, but had trouble walking far enough without nausea to meet the hospital's discharge criteria. I didn't have need for blood, and pain was controllable.

I chose the doctor from several interviewed, decided that the stats required surgery as opposed to radiation+HT, and he does only DaVinci. So in effect I did not chose between open and robotic. I did visit with other surgeons who only do open, but was not as comfortable with them.
My impotence is complete (the nerves were involved), so can't offer guidance there.
My incontinence continues as 1, sometimes 2 pads a day at +23 weeks for stress leakage, but depending on whose criteria you use, I may be doing great (can't say I agree 100%, but is was a lot worse at the start).
I am already booked for IGRT radiation (my final Gleason was 4+5, not contained), and that was a high probability in the pre-surgery discussions, so not a real surprise.

I was back to work (on-line) Tuesday after a Thursday surgery. Foley catheter was out at +7 days. It took several weeks to start driving, and the incontinence issues kept me away from the office for longer than most, more because I had an option.

I was out walking a half mile twice a day the week after (you don't want to be too ambitious while carrying a catheter bag), and now do 1+ miles twice to three times a day. It seems to help the incontinence.

Most of the other comments I would have are pretty common for surgery, regardless as to open vs. robotic (see English Alf's list of questions at the top of the forum).
Posted 4/4/2010 11:54 PM (GMT 0)
Ridge

You can see my info below. 

Its been about ten weeks since my surgery.  For me it was very easy almost a non event - I got wheeled in into the operating room; breathed into the mask  and woke up in recovery wondering if they had started yet.  Within 24 hours of the operation I was on my way home.  No real pain - catheter in for 6 days  was a nuisance but not painful. 

Incontinence a bit of a pain bit rapidly improved - down to one little pad or none

ED making good progress.

There are a lot of choices to consider.   Good luck

Dont hesitate to ask questions here = the folks are very kind and supportive

Ray

Posted 4/5/2010 12:28 AM (GMT 0)
Ridgewalker, Welcome. My prostatectomy was with the robot. Overall no complaints. You'll receive a lot of different opinions on the various treatment options from the guys here. However, most will agree that the experience of your surgeon is of most importance no matter if the prostatectomy is performed open or via the robot. There is a big learning curve for the robot. If you decide to go that route, make sure you select a doctor with a good number (300 +) of procedures under his / her belt. My surgeon had 1,000+ at the time of my procedure. Best of luck in your journey. You'll find this site to be full of information.
Posted 4/5/2010 1:21 AM (GMT 0)
I am now about a year past robotic surgery. Both my observation of this board and my reading of the medical literature suggests that there is very little difference in terms of outcomes that is attributable to type of surgery. This is major abdominal surgery no matter how big or small the incisions are and so ultimately recovery time is about the same.

The big difference is the experience of the surgeon
Posted 4/5/2010 9:17 PM (GMT 0)
Survivorny, welcome to the forum, thnaks for sharing your story with us. Glad you had an almost textbook surgery...
Posted 4/5/2010 10:02 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Survivorny...U were a bad boy not listening to your doctor about NO GAMES for a while! Have read quite a few reports here over the last few weeks and yours is (for me) as close to a 100% perfect outcome end of story! No doubt your youth helped everything work better then the average. nono
Posted 4/6/2010 12:51 AM (GMT 0)

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April of 2008.  I was not knowledgeable about Pca   but I learned rapidly.  My PSA was 4.4 and my Gleason was 3+4=7, too high to ignore.  I eliminated seeds and radiology because of the uncertainty with future correct PSA readings and salvage radiation if a recurrence came about.  I ruled out radical surgery because too many people I had talked had exaggerated problems after surgery.  My urologist was a radical surgeon but steered me to a robotic specialist in another town.   I checked him out and found that he taught robotics to other surgeons and did many other doctors personal surgeries.  Fast forward, surgery was performed as planned even with a trained radical surgeon on call if biopsies showed more cancer than planned.  Surprisingly was graced with an erection 8 hours after surgery.  Released from hospital on the morning of third day and was able to spend an hour a day at work within a week.  I put in a 40hour week 2-weeks after surgery.  I am continent but am subject to dribbles if I don’t mentally prepare myself to lift or stand suddenly.  Sex is fine and even better with the help of All Day Chemist and I am 23 months cancer free after my last checkup.  Yes I would do the same thing again and I would have the same surgeon.  But, everyone is different and we are dealing with cancer and cancer has no rules.  It would be nice to compare processes but we only get one shot, choose well.  Twenty years from now I hope all of us can announce that we are still members of the zero club and our insurance companies are happy to sell us insurance.

Age 61 at diagnosis

PSA Jan 2006 2.8, PSA Jan 2007 3.7, PSA Jan 2008 4.4

DRE Normal, Biopsy positive 1 core in 10,

Clinical T1C, Pre surgery Gleason 3+4=7

Bone scan Normal, Cat Scan Normal

da Vinci robotic Surgery April 30, 2008, Fremont Nebraska

Post surgery Gleason 3+4=7, Pathological P2C

Lymph nodes clear, Margins clear

Hospital stay 2-days, Catheter out 10 days

1-pad a day for 3 weeks

Back at work 7-days after surgery, desk job

Both Nerves spared

Post 3 month PSA-undetectable, Post 9 month PSA-undetectable, Post 15 month PSA-undetectable

Post 22 month PSA-undetectible

 

 

Posted 4/6/2010 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyboy, survivorny here again.  I just wanted to add to my previous post.  I wanted to let you all know that in 2 post op PSA checks, my PSA has been 0.02 both times.  Before surgery it was 6.1.  Again, my hero, my savior, was Dr David Samadi.  Any of you who are looking for help with prostate cancer, his web site is www.roboticoncology.com.  Thank you, and good luck to everyone.:-)
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