Words cannot even begin to express my gratitude towards Dr. Bui and the incredible care he gave me since first being diagnosed with prostate cancer. All my Doctors told me he was the best prior to meeting him. His calm demeanor and zen like approach instills confidence in any patient faced with the knowledge they have cancer and imminent surgery.
I met Dr. Bui at his Tower Urology office at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and was immediately impressed. He was calm, caring, and told me I wouldn’t die from this. In fact, he said I would live several more decades. I even asked him the chances of me dying during the surgery. He said he’d operated on more than 2000 patients, and had never lost one. That was beyond reassuring! My best option was to have surgery to remove the prostate, because the cancer was self contained. The other option was radiation treatment. He told me radiation wasn’t as effective. The biggest question mark was the mass was so close to escaping the prostate and up against my nerves that control my erections. Was it self contained? Dr. Bui believed it was, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he operated.
The operation took place May 14th. This was my first major surgery. The nurses got me ready in a pre op room. I met Dr. Bui’s anesthesiologist who was quite pleasant and pretty funny. Then Dr. Bui popped his head in the room, greeted me, and the last thing I remember was him walking away, and the words to the operating team “OK, let’s rock and roll!”. The next second I was in the recovery room on the phone with my girlfriend and brother. The surgery took four and a half hours. It was like ten seconds in my mind. I was told when wheeled into the operating room in anesthesia la la land that I was impressed with his Da Vinci precision robot he controlled performing the surgery.
Recovery was remarkably pain free. My incisions were so small. I was only in the hospital one night. A week afterwards, Dr. Bui had me back in his office announcing “You had the best possible result. You’re cancer free, and we spared your nerves! Now go celebrate!” Additionally, I heard stories of some people getting prostate removal surgery from other doctors having to wear adult diapers for months due to urine leakage. I didn’t have to wear them even one day. I’m now 18 days beyond my surgery and walking more than seven miles a day. I return to work tomorrow full of energy, feeling surprisingly, for the most part, back to normal!
Thank you Dr. Bui for taking care of me and a wonderful surgery! I can’t even begin to express the gratitude I feel towards you saving my life! This entire experience has changed me for the better. …Enjoy living, every precious moment.
Patient J.T.