Travels around my prostate

Finally you can have radiation post surgery if there are complications, however as the radiation fries the prostate inside you surgery post radiation is much difficult. Remembering both the great words from Hamlet: We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come-the readiness is all and the one bit of advice I kept getting was don't mess around we decided to discard radiation..

So after a long discussion with the urologist we decided to do the operation ASAP particularly as I was flying out of Sydney to the USA on 26 May. You have two choices the robot (De Vinci) or open surgery. The public health service only offers open surgery as robotic is too expensive so that made up my mind, robotic it is. Here is a clip about the process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ_3GJNz4fg. However there was another glitch is that I had to see a cardiologist to see if I my heart would survive the operation. Fortunately I was given the go-ahead.

Some interesting observations/advice prior to the operation.

· If you are diagnosed with PC over 80 it is either radiation or they just let you die. Surgery is regarded as too dangerous.

· Make sure you have drunk all the good wines in your cellar.

· A dead man has no libido. Get treatment as soon as possible.

Kris Rasiah, my urologist managed to get a slot on the Robot machine at the SAN hospital in North West Sydney on 4 March so the date was set. Also I had been recommend to go to Stuart Baptist prior to the operation to learn how to Kegel exercises – improving your pelvic floor muscles. I saw him Friday 21 February and was very impressed. He also told me that Kris Rasiah trained under Phillip Stricker (the name in Sydney) for several years and was his assistant. When Rasiah decided to go out on his own Stricker was pulling his hair out to get as good a replacement. This was comforting.

Having now watched the DVD they give you about the operation and learned about more nerve sparing as part of the benefits I did call Kris and said how about sparing the nerves.

He first said that there were 3 objectives with a prostatectomy:

1. Removal of any cancer

2. Reducing the risk of incontinence

3. Reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction.