David Rosenthal was no stranger to the Tallwood Urology & Kidney Institute. About 10 years ago, he’d been successfully treated for kidney cancer and returns for check-ups with his specialist, Steven Shichman, MD.
In his last visit, however, he learned just how broad the Tallwood team’s expertise is when the exam revealed his prostate had become so enlarged – despite medication – that tissue growth was impacting his ability to urinate.
“I had been on medication for about four years to help the problem, but it apparently stopped working,” says Rosenthal, a 61-year-old advertising salesperson for Comcast who lives in Southwick, Massachusetts.
He likened his experience having to go all the time with “everything you see in the commercials.”
“I was up all night, I’d be stopping on the road,” he says. “I’d tell anyone who wanted to ride with me that they needed to know if I had to stop, I had to stop.”
To address the problem, Dr. Shichman referred Rosenthal to his colleague Michael Siev, MD, a urologist specializing in an advanced laser procedure called holmium laser enucleation of the prostate, or HoLEP. In the minimally invasive procedure, Dr. Siev uses laser beams to cut away the extra tissue growing around the prostate, cutting it into small pieces for easy removal.
“Dr. Siev told me about the procedure and I said ‘Let’s do it!’” Rosenthal recalls. “After, he said there had even been a piece of prostate tissue that had grown into the urethra and it was blocking it, which made going to the bathroom a problem.”
However, within two weeks of the December 2022 procedure, the divorced father of four and grandfather of two was able to notice the difference in his bathroom routine and his body’s call to urinate.
“This stopped all the trips to the bathroom,” he says of HoLEP.
The change means he can again enjoy road trips and is free to explore new hobbies, like taking to the trails near his house with his pedal assist electric bike. He even joined a group of casual riders and regularly takes 20- to 25-mile two-wheeled jaunts without concern.
“Things are back to the way they were!” Rosenthal says happily.
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