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My husband had Da Vinci surgery in April of this year. His surgeon told us he would not remove any lymph nodes as he felt his diagnosis was in the early stages. When we questioned him on this subject he added that in some cases removing healthy lymph nodes can do more harm than good. We trusted his experience and judgement on this.
Best wishes to the both of you for a quick recovery.
Thanks everyone for your input! This is such a great site, especially for those of us that are new to this. I have been reading the site daily since the end of June when my husband was diagnosed. We actually talked to the doctor again today and he basically said what all of you had told me. He will look at them and if there is any doubt, he will biopsy, but feels the stage is early enough that it isn't a concern and as Lesli said, this can be some harm in doing too much. Thanks again!
Hi,
When I was first diagnosed last year at 52, (PSA of 19.9, Gleason 4+3=7), I was told that I had an 11% chance it was outside the prostate. Now 11%, if I were a betting man, is low....Because we were looking at HIFU as a treatment, we needed to know for sure that the PC had not gone out of the prostate. Afterall, $30k dollars is a lot to spend and not know.
So, I had my nodes removed and biopsied. It ended up being in the 89% side....Very devastating.
We started Casodex and Lupron, had 25 tomotherapy treatments and then an HDR.
I can tell you now, that I am having some effects from having my nodes removed. I have lymphedema. My feet and hands swell and my feet just plain hurt all the time. I will have another PSA done on September 3rd. My prayer is that it is still where it was in May, .05
May God bless you all.
Fred
I too would like any additional comments on the subject.
I am having Da Vinci Surgery on Aug 29th.
The form I signed stated removal of the Seminal Vesicles, Prostrate and Lymph Nodes in the Pelvic area.
The partin tables below are for my Diag (GS 3+4) PSA 6.88, T2C:
Organ confined: 32 (26-38)
Extraprostatic extension: 41 (33-49)
Seminal Vesicle Invasion: 20 (13-28)
Lymph Node Invasion: 6 (3-11).
I am also concerned that I really didn't want the Lymph nodes removed if I didn't need to. But a biopsy would be nice to check if it had spread since the Organ confined figure is 32% and CAT scans may not show anything till a few years down the road or the PSA rises for recurrance.
I guess I will have to discuss this in more detail with the surgeon.
Randy
