Steve
Breyfogle and Barb live in Virginia, USA. He was 59 when he was diagnosed in February,
2008. His initial PSA was 6.4 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 3+3=6 and he was staged
T1a. His choice of treatment was Robotic RLP. Here is his story.
I was
diagnosed in Feb 08 with a moderately aggressive PCa and immediately decided upon
the Da Vinci robotic surgery. I wanted the cancer gone from my body. My surgery
lasted five hours and when I awakened, I had absolutely no pain. I never took
a pain pill other than at the hospital. I spent two nights because I was still
draining a bit. The day I went home, I walked a mile. I felt very good...almost
too good. I was a little too exuberant in my walking. The next two days the same...but
that last day, my urine was full of blood. Called the doc and they said to drink
lots of water and quit walking for the moment. Took their advice and the blood
went away immediately. I didn't like the leg bag at all, so I stuck with the large
"bed bag". Mainly didn't like to have to change between them, so I pretty much
stuck to the big one. Carried it around in a computer/attaché type bag and it
worked well. Unless someone was looking, they wouldn't even notice the catheter
. Even went to a couple movies with it. The great thing was I could drink all
the giant sodas I wanted and never had to get up and pee. Heavenly!
My
pathology report showed that my cancer was in both lobes of the prostate and involved
20% of the organ. They spared both nerve bundles but had to take part of one as
a precaution. It was confined to the prostate and there was no cancer in the vas
deferens. They didn't take my lymph nodes either.
I am now 32 days out
and doing extraordinarily well, in my opinion. For the first couple weeks, use
a pillow of some kind when you're sitting. You'll appreciate the softness, believe
me. Last night, I got back from a two week road trip from Virginia to Arizona.
Took four days each way for a total of about 5,000 miles. Went extremely well.
Just two days before we left, I was still having a lot of discomfort while sitting
for any period of time, so it had me concerned. But all of a sudden it was gone
and I had NO discomfort driving at all.
From the beginning, I have been
dry all night, but get up a couple of times. At the beginning, I wore a Depends
undergarment because I couldn't control my bladder. However, since then, I only
use one pad a day. Now, I notice that if I wait to long during the day to pee,
then I have a little "pain" down low...figure that's the bladder's suture telling
me it's under stress. But by and large, I am continent. EXCEPT when I cough, pass
gas or laugh too hard. So I'll be wearing the pads for awhile. I can see that.
But I find them very acceptable for now. I stay dry most of the day, except as
stated above. On our trip, I would make stops every 2-3 hours just to pee and
stretch my legs, but never had to change the pad. I just find this amazing. I
go back to work Monday but don't think I'll have a problem. Will take some pads
and wipes...incidentally, the unscented baby wipes work GREAT and leave you feeling
clean again.
As far as ED goes, I can have an orgasm, but "Bob" is still
like a flag without a breeze. Well, that's not totally so. He swells some, but
it's not quite enough for intercourse yet. I'm taking 10 mg Cialis every third
day for therapy right now. I am a type II diabetic and was having some ED problems
before the surgery anyway. But what I have noticed is that my orgasms are actually
more intense than before the surgery. So I'm very
hopeful right now that this
will all work out in time. I'm still anxious to get that first PSA test so I'll
feel a little more assured.
I would strongly recommend the robotic surgery.
Everyone I know is amazed at my recovery.
Please contact me if you have
any questions that I might help answer.
Steve's e-mail address is: barfinkl1@comcast.net
