Scheduled Surgery

I have now had my consultation and surgery scheduled for 12/28/2007. This is two months away and worries me some as I want this thing gone from my body yesterday. I have lost four siblings and two parents from cancer of various types, none being from the prostate.

My surgery is at Vanderbilt Medical Center with Dr. Duke Herrell. It is my understanding that he has 400 surgeries under his belt but most of those were laprascopic. I really do not know the number of Robotic surgeries he has performed but it looks like I should have asked. It appears the prefered doctor at Vanderbilt is Joseph Smith but there is a a six month back log waiting for him. I do not believe I can take waiting that long so I schedule with Dr. Herrell. I do not know of anyone that has used Dr. Herrell so if any of you do know of someone please let me know maybe I can get more information. He appears to be very knowledgable and caring and he is the Director of Robotic surgery for VMC so I guess he can't be too bad.

His statement that I had good paramaters with a 6 gleason and low PSA made me feel better about waiting the two months but when I read some of these post on this forum it is apparent that the scores given to you on the initial biopsy really don't seem to mean much since many of your scores were elevated post operation.

Again if anyone knows or have use Dr. Herrell I would appreciate the information.

Educator

Hi Educator . . . boy can we relate to "wanting this gone yesterday" and I think the one thing we come to learn and eventually accept when we get tossed these events to deal with is the WAITING. . . . never easy but you get used to it.

Two months is not very long from diagnosis with your numbers, so take a deep breath, stay with us for support; you will be on the other side of this before you know it.

We don't know your doctor, but judging by his "Director of Robotic Surgery" title, he is most likely teaching the procedure as well as doing it and if you have a good feeling when you are talking with him, that's half the battle.

Our own personal opinion has always been that although a doctor may have a lower number of these under his belt, he's perhaps still in the very cautious and careful stage which is important too. When we were at the pre op session for our doctor, the nurse at the hospital was looking up the time of our surgery, her comment was that he was booking less time for the procedure now as in the beginning and we left feeling like we were in cautious hands. Again . . .only our opinion as to numbers performed.

Good luck to you and please keep us posted.

;o) Linda & Bob

Just because one surgeon is more experienced than the other doesn’t always mean you’re in less capable hands. There were two surgeons who did the DaVinci at my urologist’s office. One had over 1,000 and the other had over 300. I’m probably in the minority but after doing my research I chose the one who had over 300 since I knew of him beforehand through a friend, his impressive medical school and medical background, and the successful outcome of surgery that a couple of guys had who had him do their surgery. Additionally, he goes around the Southeast training other surgeons in the DaVinci procedure. I know opinions vary as to the number of surgeries involved during the “learning curve,” but I figured 300 was sufficient, and maybe even less. It all depends on the skill of the surgeon. Some pick it up faster than others.

Looking back, I could not have asked for a more successful outcome, and, after speaking with a few guys who had the more experienced surgeon, fared far better than them. I was in surgery for only an hour and forty-five minutes, was up and walking that afternoon, went home the next day, had absolutely no bloating or gas pain, negative margins, capsular penetration and seminal vesicles, was out of the pads at five weeks, had erections at six weeks, and am fully continent six months post-op. Another benefit of having the surgery done were I did was that both doctors work as a team and were in the operating room. My surgeon was at the controls and the other surgeon was at my side assisting. I felt very comfortable knowing that if complications arose during surgery I had two experienced surgeons there.

Bottom line, it all depends on the skill of the surgeon, and not necessarily the number of surgeries, although it is an important factor to take into consideration. I know I would never pick a surgeon who had only done, say, 50.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. You guys have a way of making a person feel better. I think my choice is a good one.

I am new at this and can't really offer any advice to anyone but if I had some to give I would sure give it to you.

Thanks again

Educator