Suggestions for questions of surgeon following RARP

There really isn’t much to discuss besides the biopsy report.

Plans for the future testing. PSA how soon and often.

Any drugs, you should be taking?

How did the doctor feel the surgery went? Were there any surprises or anything he feels you should know are issues.

I'd suggest checking the patient portal of whatever lab did the prostate pathology. Your report might be available to you there. Mine was. Ditto for the surgeons report/notes of the operation.
As far as questions for the meeting, here's a few you might want to consider:
-- if you don't then have copies, ask for copies of the pathology report and the surgeons notes/report
-- if he was able to spare the nerves
-- ask about penile rehab. Pills, vacuum device, shots; what does he recommend. Or does he have a referral to a good sexual health doctor for post-proctectomy penile rehab.
-- Sloan Memorial has free access to their database that'll give you some statistics on the likelihood of reoccurrence based on a few questions. You might want to look at the questions (there's only a few) and make sure you get the data so you can answer the questions. Then you can see some hard data on the likelihood of reoccurrence of people with post-surgery pathology similar to yours. Here's the link: https://www.mskcc.org/nomograms/prostate/post_op
Best wishes.

Yes, the main questions should be about the pathology report and after that about incontinence and ED if applicable. Ask for referral for a good PT and for sexual health therapist IF he does not offer any direction or help in that regard.

Our hospital offers PT but my husband did not find it very useful. Luckily his incontinence is improving nicely with exercises that he does at home. Urologist also prescribed Cialis and recommended a pump as well as a pharmacy that sells pumps, so no complaints there.

Wishing you great pathology report with super clean margins, zero EPE or SV issues 🍀🍀🍀 !!! All the rest will be corrected in time "this or that way" 😉.

BEST OF LUCK and keep us posted 👍😊🌺

Thanks all of you for your suggestions!
Yes, I do already have. an appointment scheduled with a urological PT, who I previously met prior to the surgery.
Thanks for that nomogram link! Hopefully after tomorrow I'll have the data to plug. into it.

Ah well, here's hoping...!
Good night / morning!

Hi, sorry about this late message.
The meeting went quite well, with the surgeon saying that all the margins were clean, and he was able to spare the nerves, as well as the (sole, remaining, "girly") urinary sphincter!
He didn't really go into detail, e.g. what the final Gleason scores were, but perhaps that's irrelevant if it's all gone. Perhaps detailed lab results will appear on the online portal, as is usually the case.
He says I will get a PSA check in three months, and he put in a Cialis prescription. He says to expect my incontinence to start improving within a month!
So I'm very pleased, and my wife and I celebrated with a brunch at a French bakery/restaurant.

Recovery really hasn't been too terrible. I only needed to take the fairly high-dose acetaminophen they gave me (skipping the oxycodone), plus some anti-spasmodic pills for when my catheterized bladder was acting up, but only during the last three days of having it in. I was quite constipated and had little appetite the first two days (surgery is an unfamiliar "adventure" for me).
Haven't taken any special meds for that last five days, as my belly seems to be healing up just fine, not sore.
I think I made the right choice, in part because I'm not so old as to have been on the fragile side for such a major surgery.
I see the uro/gyno PT in two weeks, but will continue with Kegels in the meantime.
I'm feeling rather relieved, as well as truly fortunate!
Can't wait to be able to bicycle again!

@sandguy

Ha ha, you are my husband's lost twin , I guess ! That is his thinking also 😆👍- "it is all gone and who cares what was inside" and "why am I stressed about something that was yanked out and is now somewhere in a hospital basement stored in paraffin" ??? 😅.
How I wish I have that way of thinking and what is the funniest part is that he might be correct at the end 🧿 as he usually is 😆.

Yes - celebrate life by all means 🥂🍾💃🕺 and may you be cancer free forever :).
Cheers to that !!!

Hi @sandguy -- glad the post surgery meeting went well with the surgeon and he had good things to say. After my surgery my surgeon had immediately called my wife. and told her how the operation had gone. Since it had gone well, I (personally) didn't actually talk to my surgeon again until the 9 month checkup. All the other checkups were with FNP associates. Nor did anyone go over the pathology report with me in detail (although I already had gotten a copy and studied it myself), but rather they tended to generalize and just say things like "with the clean margins and no extension, you have very low risk of reoccurrence". So I guess I'm saying my meetings were much like yours; very general and positive. I took it as a great sign they didn't feel compelled to dive into the details because there was bad stuff we needed to talk about. One thing I would caution however. Even though I had a great recovery that exceeded my expectations, I did have perineal pain (if I sat on a small seat like a bench at the gym or a bicycle seat) for much longer than the 2 month normal recovery period. I don't remember how long, but it took loooong time for that area to get back to normal if I sat on something narrow. I'm not a medical professional so I don't really know if what I did was necessary, but I really avoided anything that caused that pain for a long time (at least 5 months). It did go away, but it took a while. If you have that perineal pain like I did when sitting on anything narrow and you really wanna get back on the bike, I'd talk to the doctor first and make sure he thinks it's a good idea. Better safe than sorry. Best wishes.

I did mine almost two years ago so far so good I done more than six PSA tests after the surgery all had came back undetectable so far. Never had a bladder problem so be positive you will be ok wish luck

@sandguy
Thanks for sharing the good news! Very happy for you!

@sandguy
It’s very important to see the final results of the prostate biopsy. Things could be in there that are an issue even though there are clean margins. You need to carefully review exactly what it says.

Hopefully he didn’t get into the Gleason Score because it didn’t change, and nothing else was found.