Hi.

I am one of the lucks one’s . I chose surgery over radiation + hormone therapy. The decision to have the surgery was quite difficult as you may all agree. The point that got me off the fence (surgery vs. radiation) was learning the side effects of hormone therapy. I have clinical depression which is under control. The thought of suffering a setback in my mental health which is a common side effect of hormone therapy pushed me into the surgery zone.

I was lucky. Great surgeon (trained at Mass. General and MD Anderson) and good hospital (Cleveland Clinic- Weston Florida.

Surgery was done on March 7 th of this year. The surgery took 6.5 hours and recovery was a “bear”. Today, about 4 months out my incontinence is limited to coughing and more frequent urination.

As far as ED, I would say I’m at 50% and moving in the right direction.

My labs from surgery were great as far as margins and no trace of cancer in thec51 lymph nodes removed. My PSA results 90 days post surgery was undetectable. My conservative surgeon told me that is would be highly unlikely for the cancer to return ( prior to these results the thinking was that there would be a 40% chance of recurrence.

Hope this helps!

RS