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Tulsa Pro Experience, Mayo Clinic MN – July 2024
Gleason 7 (4+3). I was treated Wednesday July 17, 2024. I checked in at 7am, entered the MRI/Tulsa suite at 8:15, and woke up in the recovery room around 11:30am. Approximately 30% of my prostate was ablated. I woke up with no pain and catheter in. The first 5-6 hours of the catheter were a little tough as I felt an urgent need to pee, but you can’t because you have the catheter in. Was fine after that. I did take Oxybutynin for bladder spasms at night. At 12:30pm, I walked out of the hospital and 2 blocks to my car to be driven home to Minneapolis.
Over the course of the next 40 hours, I just needed to regularly empty the catheter bag and continued to have no pain. Didn’t even take a Tylenol. The morning after TULSA I took my normal 2 mile walk. Catheter was removed at 7:45 Friday morning and I was good to go home. Catheter removal was not bad and they had to ensure I could pee on my own before release. Urine stream is about half of normal but will improve as inflammation of urethra declines. No medication needed at this point.
I did a ton of research before deciding on TULSA Pro. I talked to 7 different doctors. 4 current and 3 retired (1 had RP and another had radiation). The technology and low risk of side effects made this an easy choice for me. I was also fortunate to have the cancer contained in a fairly small lesion.
I couldn’t be more pleased with the procedure and my care at Mayo.
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Where did you find the information on these doctors? I've been looking for this kind of info but my internet skills obviously aren't at your level. Thanks!
Not sure how many , but he has been doing them for about 18 months. However, he has been doing ablations of other things for many years. He spoke very highly of the precision the TULSA system gives him.
Also found this online before my TULSA. A few years old but still valid for experience:
Focal therapy for the prostate began in the late 1990s; however, there is a very limited number of providers who are trained and skilled enough to perform this procedure. These 5 doctors have the most experience and have performed the most Focal Laser Ablation procedures:
Myself — Eric Walser, MD of Wavelength Medical by UTMB (Galveston, TX)
Dan Sperling, MD of Sperling Prostate Center (Boca Raton, FL)
Jurgen Futterer, MD, PhD of Radboud (The Netherlands)
David Woodrum, MD, PhD of Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)
John Feller, MD of Desert Medical Imaging (Indian Wells, CA)
I have a phone consult with Dr. Woodrum next Thursday. I am scheduled for SBRT with 4 mos. ADT Mayo, MN early October. Hoping to avoid hormone treatment, thus TULSA. Anyone know how many TULSA procedures Dr. Woodrum has performed?? Hopefully he has a lot of experience with this procedure. My best.
Excellent! Waiting for the procedure was the toughest part for me 😉. Best of luck. Hope your experience will be as positive as mine has been.
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2 ReactionsI had a great video consult with Dr. Woodrum. I'm scheduled for the procedure on October 9. Hoping for the best possible results. Thanks much!
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1 ReactionI had the procedure on April 10, 2024 at Mayo Jax and had a follow up today by video. I am 79 and interested in bathroom and bedroom issues more than longevity given that I have two other cancers. Everything went well given my priorities with little pain and function issues. In reviewing my labs, the Dr did note that the PSA should have had a better result in that it went up a little rather than down. He has scheduled another MRI/PSA review in December.
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6 Reactions@jcf58 there are a number of different photon Radiation machine choices. I chose to have the Mridian machine. It has a built-in Mri so what you see is what you treat. The Electa is another machine that has similar capability. Having a built-in Mri is a big deal. Fused images transferred to a machine does not give the same accuracy. This is shown in the Mirage study. Equally important, the machine used 2 mm margins because of the accuracy while other types of radiation machines used 3 to 5 mm margins. The larger the margin, the more healthy tissue that is exposed and the greater the chance of side effects.
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2 ReactionsGood information. I am a good candidate for TULSA according to the DR. at OU Medical Center, three hours away. Since it isn't yet covered by insurance the Dr. has me on active surveillance and I go back Aug. 28. My local urologist never heard of TULSA so I found it with research. I'm hoping my numbers stay low until the procedure is covered by ins. but I'm willing to pay on my own to save my life. I'm looking for quality of life not just longevity and TULSA PRO looks to be the treatment for for that.
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2 ReactionsThere was a urologist listed in my treatment team, but I never talked with him. I also did a video meeting with Doctor Woodrum and then didn’t meet him until just before going into surgery. As for follow up, I can do all the bloodwork up here in Minneapolis, but they prefer I come down there for the MRIs.
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1 Reactionthank you! That is my thinking as well...............all other options still available should they be needed in the future. And since mine is anterior as well, Focal One/HIFU not an option, but TULSA-PRO I would think is. I talk with Dr. Woodrum by video on this coming Tuesday. A few days before I knew I could get to talk with him, I almost pulled the trigger on SBRT, but for some reason decided to wait a few more days. It's as if the Universe is trying to tell me something. I'd like to kill 3 birds with one stone.............reduce the size of my prostate, improve my urinary flow around my urethra, and treat the lesion. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. Who was the urologist involved in your procedure............or was it just Dr. Woodrum? Will you also now do all of your follow up in the years to come with Mayo?
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