My prostate story began when my primary care physician told me that the manual examination of my prostate didn’t feel quite right. We decided to monitor my PSA scores for a few months. When the PSA jumped from the mid-3s to 4.1 we scheduled a biopsy, which revealed extensive carcinoma and a Gleason score of 6. Several doctors told me that I could wait and see what happens, but I didn’t see any advantage in waiting—I wanted the cancer out of my body. I did research on the treatment options and on the doctors available to treat me. Dr. Matthew Bui was at the top of the list in a Propublica study that tracked complication rates among California patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy, so I gave him a call.
Dr. Bui and the staff at Tower Urology could not have been more accommodating or pleasant to deal with. I quickly had an appointment to see him, and when we met he was reassuring, patient, and extremely clear in his explanations about my condition and about the advantages of the Da Vinci robotic system for resolving it. He also described the alternative treatments that are available in a very even-handed and informative manner. I felt confirmed in my inclination to select surgery rather than radiation treatment, since radiation can be used following surgery if necessary, but surgery would no longer be an option following radiation. We set the appointment for my surgery during that first visit.
My experience following surgery was much better than I expected. I had very little pain—in fact, while I was in recovery the nurses repeatedly asked for my pain level on a scale of 1 – 10. They didn’t like it when I said I was basically pain-free, so I started telling them it was a “2.” I spent one night at Cedars-Sinai and went home the next day. The catheter was an annoyance, but I found it easy to manage, and it didn’t hurt when they removed it a week later.
As Dr. Bui predicted, I experienced some incontinence in the weeks after the catheter was removed, but as healing progressed and as I did my Kegel exercises, things got back to normal, and within six weeks I no longer had any worries about having an accident, daytime or nighttime.
I’m now nine months out from surgery and have had several follow-up appointments with Dr. Bui. My second post-surgery PSA test came back as “undetectable,” and I felt that Dr. Bui rejoiced in that news just as much as my wife and I did. With support from Cialis my sexual functioning is completely natural and satisfying, which I credit to Dr. Bui’s remarkable skill.
I am deeply grateful to Dr. Bui and the entire team at Tower Urology and Cedars-Sinai for the expert, sensitive care I received and continue to benefit from. I simply cannot imagine how they might have done a better job.
Patient D.D.