Could anyone with stage T3b post here

Ronnie,
I had a nerve sparing RP.
SC

My doc was able to spare 1 nerve...which leads to a lot of jokes that this or that are on my last nerve...

Break60, did you have to request nerve-sparing surgey?

I asked my surgeon and he said the reason he was doing non-sparing was that it was "too close to the prostate". Obviously I'm not a doctor but I don't really know what he means by that, surely everyones nerves are close to the protate?

Thanks Jerry. The doctor did say "too close too the prostate" but maybe he meant too close to the tumor/cancer as appears to be your case.

Ronnie
I wanted DaVinci surgery. I spoke to one local surgeon who only did DaVinci and he said he would not spare the nerves. I was shocked. So I got a phone appointment with a surgeon at Johns Hopkins who said he would try to spare nerves. Then when i flew up to Baltimore the day before surgery and met with my surgeon he said he preferred to do open surgery because it gave him a better chance to spare nerves, because with open he could feel them to see if they had tumors. He also said that open was not much different from DaVinci in terms of recovery. He does both. So I agreed to have open. He spared both nerves and the recovery was uneventful. I flew back home the Tuesday after Saturday surgery after leaving the hospital on Monday. Cath was in for 13 days and I played 18 holes after 31 days. From my experience, there is no reason to fear open surgery by an excellent surgeon.
Bob

All the best!!