After undergoing surgery for prostate cancer two years ago, Roland Jamison made a swift recovery
A Northern Ireland man who underwent a robotic prostatectomy after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer has said that he found the process “very impressive”.
Roland Jamison presented to his GP with a family history of prostate issues when he was eventually diagnosed with the disease himself. Speaking to Belfast Live, Roland described how he wasn’t apprehensive about being operated on by a robot.
“I had my surgery two years ago, and that was following a visit to the doctor, because my family history wasn’t good, and I asked him to do a PSA, and he said, well, we did it two years ago, and I said, yeah, I’ve got a family history and if he hadn’t have said yes, well it might not have been here,” Roland explained,
“I had another PSA, which was raised, and then I had a biopsy. From the biopsy, they were able to tell me that I have prostate cancer, but that it was localised within the prostate.
“When I was brought in, we had the discussion and I was given the option of which treatment I wanted, so I opted for a portatectomy.”
Roland told us that, after weighing up his options, he had no hesitation in deciding to go for surgery.
“I had no apprehension whatsoever about the robotics element of the surgery; in fact, I joked with the surgeon and asked if he was any good at playing the PlayStation. But I trusted these people; they are all experts.
“When it came to my recovery, I had been doing Pilates for 15 or 16 years, so my pelvic floor muscles were good, but I had done all my exercises, and my recovery rate was really quick. I did have a catheter in for a couple of weeks, but after that, my life went back to normal.
“Psychologically, I would have always been thinking what if it isn’t gone. But there are pros and cons to it. The con is that life changes, your sex life changes, although it is still rewarding, but it is different, and these are things you have to think about.”
The da Vinci System consists of a surgeon’s console that is typically in the same room as the patient, and a patient-side cart with three to four interactive robotic arms depending on the model, which are controlled from the console.
The arms hold objects used in surgery such as scalpels. The final arm controls the 3D cameras. The surgeon uses the controls of the console to manoeuvre the patient-side cart’s robotic arms and the system always requires a human operator.
Explaining the benefits of the technology for, Dr Ram Beekharry said that it allows for patients to be discharged quicker.
“As you can imagine, we used to traditionally do a big cut for say prostate or bladder removal. Now we can just use keyhole slits to remove them,” he said.
“For the patient, it’s been fantastic with better pain management, less blood loss, and a return to their normal activities. First of all, discharged from the hospital much sooner.
“They used to stay in the hospital for, you know, 7, 14 days, depending on what type of surgery. Now they go home after 1 or 2 nights back to their normal activities, back to their normal environment, where they can recover quicker with less strong painkillers.”
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