Dr. Patel called me today. He is now at about
1500+ da vinci surgeries and feels that his approach to nerve sparing is the best. I could have gotten an earlier surgery date, in April, but I have some big family events planned for early May and, since he said it is taking his patients 6-8 weeks to regain full continence, I thought I'd put it out until after some big milestones at work as well.
In the meantime, I'll send off my biopsy slides to Jonathan Epstein at Johns Hopkins, just to confirm the gleason, etc.
Overall, a relief to have the date set, and the surgeon selected. Talking with Dr. Patel was just great. He is a really great communicator and "right there" when I was talking to him.
Oh, one more comment, to put the comparitively late date in perspective is that he said he has never seen a gleason 6 (like mine) outside the prostate. He felt quite confident that it was a non-issue to wait until May for the surgery. Since I'm putting my life in his hands I'm comfortable with his counsel and opinion on this. Otherwise I would have kept looking for someone who could fit me in in March.
Markus