In late June, Brandon’s Keith Barr was camping in Riding Mountain National Park, lying under the stars—pain-free and cancer-free. Just three weeks earlier, though, he was lying on an operating room table at HSC, waiting for his cancerous prostate to be removed.
When Barr’s PSA (prostate-specific antigen) numbers rose to concerning levels in the spring, Dr. Jay Nayak—urologic surgeon and co-founder of Men’s Health Clinic Manitoba—offered a surgical option. Barr, a mostly-retired heavy equipment mechanic and millwright, said yes and started to do his research online and by talking to others who had been through the surgery.
“When you start to go through this, you’re pretty scared,” says Barr, 67. “I know people who have had their prostates removed. Sometimes the result isn’t too favourable and people have negative outcomes that they have to live with for the rest of their lives.”
Barr’s experience was very different, though, thanks to the da Vinci Xi surgical robot, funded by donors to the HSC Foundation’s Operation Excellence campaign. With remarkable precision, Dr. Nayak was able to remove the prostate and some surrounding tissue for testing.
“I had a good outcome in part because Dr. Nayak didn’t have to cut me open from the belly button all the way down,” says Barr. “Instead, I think I had six small incisions. The biggest one was maybe an inch long.”
Barr arrived at HSC early on a Monday morning, and was discharged the next afternoon. He had some shoulder pain for a day or two (caused by the carbon dioxide pumped into his abdomen to create more working space for the surgical team), but virtually no pain at the incision sites.
“The worst pain was on the ride back to the hotel,” he laughs. “My wife and I left the hospital and hailed a cab. All we could get was a really old Dodge Caravan. It was a bumpy ride!”
The drive home to Brandon the next day was uneventful, and the road has been smooth ever since. He used a catheter for two weeks and still monitors his PSA levels, but is feeling good. Aside from camping, Barr attended music and dance festivals over the summer, and continues to make himself available a day or two a month for maintenance jobs at the paper mill in The Pas where he worked for many years.
With conventional surgery and a big incision, Barr would likely have been in hospital for up to five days, and would have been looking at a recovery period of about eight weeks. The robot provided a much better outcome, and a much faster return to his normal routine.
“Dr. Nayak was great. I had plenty of opportunities to ask questions and I was confident throughout the process,” Barr says. “And I know that we only have the robot at HSC because of the generosity of donors. I’m really grateful for the people who contributed.”
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