So i have now met with both surgeons, Dr. Laudone and Dr. Tewari, and now trying to make up my mind on who to go with.
As stated on an earlier post I was very impressed with Dr. Laudone and the whole process at MSKCC. Everything there was very organized and ran like clock work from the minute I arrived until later that day when I got a call with all the details regarding my pre-op appointments for scans, blood work, clearance, etc. The PA I met with before meeting Dr. Laudone was very thorough in going through my medical history, giving me the pathology results and asking lots of questions about
me, family medical history, etc. She also took time to explain the procedure, talk about
Dr. Laudone, examined me and answered questions from my wife and I. Dr. Laudone came in next and we discussed my condition, different treatment options other than surgery, why he felt I was a good candidate for the surgery, his experience, ED treatment pre and post surgery, answered a number of questions and examined me as well. He was very engaging and easy to talk to, sat back on his chair as if he had all the time in the world to talk to us. After Dr. Laudone was done someone else came in and presented a packet with information about
next steps, details on how to prepare for the surgery, details about
the surgery itself and what to expect afterwards. She also gave me an appointment for a virtual patient education class and provided a prescript
ion for Viagra to start taking it 2 weeks before the surgery.
I have to say that I was not as impressed with my overall experience at Dr. Tewari's office. I suspect some of this may be due to the fact that he recently moved to Mt. Sinai and perhaps they are still going through a setup/transition phase. The first person that we met with, who I assume is a PA or RN but I do not recall her identifying herself, went through the test results I had provided (PSA, pathology report), my medical history and talked about
the procedure. She also took the time to answer whatever questions we had. However, overall I felt that she was not as thorough as Dr. Laudone's PA and the overall experience with her felt very ad hoc. Dr. Tewari joined us in the room after a while and introduced himself at that point. He is a very pleasant soft spoken man. We talked for a while about
my condition how I got there, etc., and he basically echoed what I had heard the prior week from Dr. Laudone about
me being a good candidate for the surgery and good recovery. Overall I felt that he was brief and didn't seem to take as much time as Dr. Laudone did when going over the procedure, his experience, etc. Perhaps this impression was in part due to the fact he was standing the whole time he was in the room because there was no chair for him to sit and also him taking a call on his cell phone towards the end of our conversation while his assistant was speaking to us. Lastly, he did not speak about
any pre-op ED treatment. My wife asked the question towards the end and the half joking response we got from his assistant was to have as much sex as possible. At that point Dr. Tewari jumped in and reinforced that this would be a good thing to. I realize this is actually a good recommendation and it would help but it was just the way it was delivered. After our conversation was over we were introduced to the surgical coordinator and she went through all the pre-op testing I needed to schedule before the surgery.
I've been struggling with the decision for the last couple of days of who to go with and I'm hoping to come to a conclusion before the week is out. Right now I'm scheduled for surgery on the 24th or the 30th of June depending on who I go with.
While my experience at Dr. Tewari's office was not the best I know based on the research I've done that he is one of the best when it comes to the robotic surgery. I even have someone in the family who was operated on by him and is doing great since his surgery two years ago. My wife's boss, who is an oncologist, recommended him and he also knows someone who had the surgery done by Dr. Tewari.
I like the fact that Dr Tewari has tissue analyzed during the course of the surgery and checked for margins to make sure everything is OK and nothing else needs to be removed. His assistant also mentioned something about
him using tissue from the bladder to wrap the area where the urethra is rejoined. She said this helps with better bladder control. I checked with Dr. Laudone's office and was told that he does not do either of these things. Basically, everything that is removed is sent to the pathologist and results come back in 7 to 10 days. One thing that I also like about
Dr. Laudone is that he only does 2 surgeries a day as opposed to Dr. Tewari who does 3, all back to back in the morning.
From an overall interpersonal experience and supporting network behind the surgeon my lean is towards Dr. Laudone but the fact that Dr. Tewari has a stellar reputation in the field and does the real-time tissue analysis keeps me from making a final decision. One has done over 4K surgeries vs. the other having done over 5K so my take on these stats is that they are both equally capable.
Now back to trying to decide...
