Operation Cancelled?
This entry was posted on 3/6/2007 6:40 PM and is filed under At the Hospital.
While taking measurements of my prostate the intern called for Dr. Uchida to come into the room. He moved the probe around and looked at the screen. From the expression on his face I could tell that something was wrong. Finally, he told me that my prostate volume 53.7 cc. not the 42.6 cc. that Dr. Brunnelle, my original urologist in Tampa, had told us.
50 cm. is the limit of what the latest version of the Sonablate HIFU is designed to treat.
Dr. Uchida sat silently for what seemed like a long time. I watched his face. I was afraid that he was going to say that he couldn’t proceed with the operation and that I needed to return home.
When he did finally speak he was clearly concerned. He said that the ultrasound beams may not be able to reach the upper 5% of my prostate. That meant that there was a 5 to 10% chance of not completely killing all the cancer cells. He said one option was to do a surgical procedure through the uretha called a TURP which is done to cut out some of the gland and therefore make it smaller. This would make all of the prostate accessible to the ultrasound beams. At least we were going forward.
After much questioning it was determined that he would see how deep into the prostate the ultrasound beams were reaching during the mapping portion. He would decide at that point whether to do the TURP.
I asked if my prostate could have grown that much since November. He said no. I asked if that meant that Dr. Brunnelle in Tampa measured it incorrectly. He said he was sure that my doctor did the best he could.
