Chris,
This doesn't answer your question but I went to Catalona for a second opinion and because he is an expert's expert, arguably the developer of the PSA test and had done over 5,000 surgeries. Wherever I turned here in Chicago his name came up. His office staff was great and he was very informative, as was his web site. I was a little underwhelmed with his personality and his knowledge of my records which were not up to date and which he obviously had not read before our visit. That said, after leaving his office I was convinced my decision to do the open versus robotic was the right choice for me. Dr. Catalona's expertise came across loud and clear during our meeting and both my wife and I were impressed. The only decision I had left after our meeting was whether I was going to use Dr. Catalona, who had done a good friend's surgery, or my urologist, Dr. Joel Cornfield out of Hinsdale Hospital.
I ended up choosing Dr. Cornfield because my wife worked with him for 10 years (she is a Nurse Anesthetist), knew his skill as a surgeon (800+ radical surgeries), had a great bedside manner and a very suportive office staff, AND I felt that I would get very personalized attention from him during the surgery and post-op. I would also get personalized attention from the Hinsdale staff, which I did. In fact, when we got down to surgery, I was surrounded by Doctors and Nurses because they all wanted to say hello to Betsy and offer her and me their support. With Dr. Catalona, and this is just my opinion, I felt that everything would be much more impersonal even though I might receive expert care and treatment. My friend confirmed this by telling me that whenever he goes back to see Dr. Catalona, Dr. Catalona doesn't really know who he is. That said, he is happy with his choice and I am with mine. I realize most people won't have the inside track into a hospital like I did, but I still liked the lower volume 'boutique' service versus the higher volume environment at Northwestern.
As for results, my friend wore a pad for about six months and is using .2ML of Trimix 2 years later to achieve an erection. He was 48 at the time of surgery. He also has a very mild form of MS.
I was continent the day the cathether was removed and I'll be testing the Trimix (which I used before because of the MS) with Betsy tonight or tomorrow night so I'll keep you posted:)
Mark