Treatment
We were a little nervous meeting the surgeon who would do Jim's prostatectomy. Somehow you get a picture in your head of doctor's being larger than life or almost God-like. The instant the nurse brought us to his empty office, we were put at ease. On the wall was a shelf of different bottles of beer and on the counter next to the window were different things or a collection. Instantly my husband saw a small model of a V-Rod Harley Davidson, so we knew we were in the right place. Once we met with the doctor, he explained that his whole collection were items given to him by his patients. Each one had its own story.
The doctor walked in, shook our hands and sat down with us. He spoke with us on laymen's terms, not fancy words that we wouldn't understand. I am currently in school studying for my bachelor's degree in health care administration, so I do understand medical terminology. We discussed all the treatment options and still believed that having the prostate removed is the best thing for my husband. The doctor had performed over 380 surgeries using the Da Vinci robot. With the prostate being almost 100% cancer, the cancer being an agressive form and his Gleason score of 8-9, this was our only option. What impressed me was the doctor told us that he has three objectives, 1. to remove the cancer, 2. restore continence, 3. help with erectile disfuntion. He explained to us that those were his objectives, but those may not be the same order as others. For us, his objectives were the same at ours. My main focus was to help get Jim healthy. To do this, the cancer needed to come out. This was the only choice for us. Because of the agressiveness of the cancer, all the nerves and lymph nodes would also be taken out.
When leaving the doctor's office, we were relieved and confident that we were making the right decision. Now all we had to do was wait for them to call us with the date of the surgery.
The doctor walked in, shook our hands and sat down with us. He spoke with us on laymen's terms, not fancy words that we wouldn't understand. I am currently in school studying for my bachelor's degree in health care administration, so I do understand medical terminology. We discussed all the treatment options and still believed that having the prostate removed is the best thing for my husband. The doctor had performed over 380 surgeries using the Da Vinci robot. With the prostate being almost 100% cancer, the cancer being an agressive form and his Gleason score of 8-9, this was our only option. What impressed me was the doctor told us that he has three objectives, 1. to remove the cancer, 2. restore continence, 3. help with erectile disfuntion. He explained to us that those were his objectives, but those may not be the same order as others. For us, his objectives were the same at ours. My main focus was to help get Jim healthy. To do this, the cancer needed to come out. This was the only choice for us. Because of the agressiveness of the cancer, all the nerves and lymph nodes would also be taken out.
When leaving the doctor's office, we were relieved and confident that we were making the right decision. Now all we had to do was wait for them to call us with the date of the surgery.