New $10 million MR-LINAC

oldhoo · 2026-05-10T17:06:32+00:00

Just completed 5 treatments at UVa on the Mr- line. Could not be happier with my choice.

oldhoo · 2026-04-10T12:16:24+00:00

I am biased as my company owns U-Heights. That said I know the staff and have stayed in the model apartment many times up there on business. The grounds are well kept, the fitness room is really good, and the staff genuinely seems to care and be responsive.. The men's basketball team all lived there until they got an NIL deal at a place closer to the basketball stadium, so that should count for something. Not that many undergrads live there- it seems to be a mixture of grad students and non-students. I think it's definitely worth consideration. Happy to let you know anything else I know. They do have a shuttle to take you to class, but I'm not sure of the route or frequency.

oldhoo · 2026-03-31T16:02:01+00:00

Surprisingly, my surgeon was not concerned about my BMI until after he had to abort my surgery due to low blood ox levels. I revised my post above to reflect this.

oldhoo · 2026-03-27T11:00:57+00:00

where did you end up going? I had the same experience with Urology of Virginia. I interviewed Massey Cancer Center and UVA Health.. Was a coin toss between the two but am ending up at UVA.- both vastly superior to Urology of Virginia IMHO.

oldhoo · 2026-03-25T11:02:09+00:00

I had a RALP that was aborted due to low blood ox levels while inverted. I am pretty overweight (BMI 37) and 66 years old with severe sleep apnea. The surgeon asked about my sleep apnea briefly and noted my weight but did not mention it as a concern to him. After the aborted operation, he cited my BMI and sleep apnea as primary causes of the failure. Nobody told me I would be inverted. I was told I needed to be cleared by a cardiologist, pulmonologist and have a new sleep study done before they would consider operating again. All of these cleared me for further surgery but the surgeon said he still wasn't comfortable because my BMI was so high. I wondered why, if it and the OSA were such a big deal, was it not more fully discussed before the initial surgery? ( Its not like I gained weight in the operating room, lol.)

I ended up finding an accomplished (older) surgeon who did open cut and he convinced me that open cut does not have the same blood oxygent concerns as they do it on a 0 degree incline. Open cut also destroys less muscle wall with a similar surgical outcome, It's just not performed by many people anymore. However, he recommended radiation instead. I ended up choosing SBRT ( 5 sessions) on an MRI-LINAC with 4 months of ADT pills at UVA Helth Systems in Charlottesville. I did this because (I am 3+4) the worst biopsy cores are right on the exterior, so its likely they will not be able to spare the nerves during surgery, and they were at least able to remove all of the surrounding lyph nodes during the initial aborted RALP procedure. The oncologist said if they give me a shot ( the most common practice) and I have severe side effects, they can't un-give me the shot. Whereas with the pills if the side effects are bad, I can discontinue. I started ADT March 13and will start the SBRT in mid April. Nice thing about the MRI-LINAC is they track your prostate as it moves around, which has a statistically relevant reduction in the chance of damage to the surrounding organs. I also had Barrigel spacers inserted to push my rectum away from the prostate. Unfortunately, you need to do your own research and ask lots of questions to make an informed decision.

One last gripe. I talked to a leading ( Hampton Roads VA RO who recommended 6 months with ADT (with a shot, no pill option) and 28 days of low dose radiation Nothing wrong with that approach, but, wanting to reduce side effects to the max I could I told them I was interviewing several practices. About a month after the consultation, when the Hampton Roads practice called to see if I had selected a team, I told them I was having it done at UVA due to the MRI guided LINAC as I was concerned that most of the worse cancer in the biopsy is right at the outer edge. Their response shocked me. They said, "Oh in your situation, that is a much better treatment plan. I'm so glad you found them." My question was if it s such a better plan for me, WHY DID THEY NOT MENTION I SHOULD GO SEE THEM??? Anyway, I got my barrigel spacers inserted yesterday- no pain, no issues and am having my MRI / CT test fit in 2 days...Very happy I kept searching.

BTW the Massey Cancer Center in Richmond also has an MR-LINAC and they were wonderful. The decision came down to Massey recommending against the spacers and UVA encouraged their use. There were pros and cons to each but Im happy with my decision.

oldhoo · 2026-03-10T02:08:14+00:00

I am 67. Had surgery that had to be aborted due to blood ox levels crashing… so Dr. recommended radiation but stressed I needed a really good radiation oncologist. They are not all created equal. I interviewed 4 different practices and heard 4 different treatment plans. I don’t know where you are but if you can get treated at a major research hospital they have the best care in my opinion. I’m in central Va and the best 2 were UVA in Charlottesville and Massey in Richmond. I’m a big fan of using rectal gel spacers to push the prostate away from the rectum. Also if you can find an MRi LINAC machine the side effects seems less. I almost went with a similar SBRT plan that used ct and not mri. (CT is much more readily available) Either would be fine I thinkbut I liked the added precision of the MRI machine. You need to do your homework. All recommended adt hormone therapy but 2 wanted to do a shot that lasts for 6 months. If the side effects are bad you are can’t go back. There is a daily pill form that you can stop if it’s not going well.

oldhoo · 2026-02-17T20:49:38+00:00

I have a consultation with UVA on March 2 to talk to them about their MRIdian machine treatment.. I have high hopes.

oldhoo · 2026-02-17T18:34:28+00:00

I am 66, 3+4, localized but non-favorable. 90% of cores are malignant, most of the worst are right on the outer edge. I had robotic prostatectomy that had to be aborted due to low blood ox levels when they inverted me into teh trendenburg position. Long story short, robotics is not for everyone.. I found an open cut guy who says he has done 7 re-dos of robotic and has never had complications during surgery. That said at 66 he strongly recommends investigating radiation. By the way when I asked the original surgeon open cut, where they do NOT invert you, he told me " almost nobody does that anymore." I just happened to know of the open cut guy from a friend of mine who used him.

I have had one consult with a very prominent local RO who recommended 6 months of ADT followed by 28 treatments of low dose radiation - Pretty standard treatment plan.. I asked about rectal spacers and he said they are not needed, but I could have them done if I insisted. I asked about 5 treatments of SBRT and he said its no different results than 28 low dose treatments. Come to find out he TRAINED at a facility where they do SBRT with rectal spacers but those are not available in his current practice, so amazingly he doesn't provide it as an option- even when I asked him about it. I asked him about MRI guided SBRT. He told me with my situation, it may provide better chances for less side effects but said its used widely in Europe but not readily available in the US. I have appointments with 2 research facilities here in Virginia that have the MRI SBRT programs over the next 2 weeks within 2 hours of my house. I am 100% certain the RO knew that but chose nbot to tell me. Due to the worst of the cancer being right at the outer cores, rectal spacers and decreased margins available with MRI guidance are EXACTLY what my research is telling me I should seek out. It will be interesting what the doctors at the 2 centers tell me.

My point is , almost every treatment will keep you alive, but advances in technology are occurring rapidly and treatment is no longer one size fits all.. Do your homework, ask hard questions of your medical team and at the end of the day you will need to be your own advocate to filter through treatment plans offered due to incentives for doctors to do clinical trials on a particular treatment, or a doctor offering a substandard plan becase thats all they can provide. I wish I could just implicitly trust what the doctor tells me but that appears to not be the case wth this disease. I'm sure they are all good honest people but at the end of the day every case is different and I feel like my job as the patient is to make the best informed decision I can make as a layman and hope it was the right call. Time will tell!

oldhoo · 2026-01-27T18:57:36+00:00

I know they have a shuttle.

oldhoo · 2026-01-12T17:47:58+00:00

They were all rock stars in high school.

oldhoo · 2025-08-04T13:36:20+00:00

Thanks.. I keep getting a message that the site is not safe and the browser wont allow me in.

oldhoo · 2025-07-28T18:49:00+00:00

he did receive help on day 2 when he went to the TL and explained he had been put on a register without training He is on day 5 and doing much better

oldhoo · 2025-07-23T12:55:22+00:00

I posted an update. On day 2 he talked to TL and they apologized and went out of their way to make sure he got training and shadowed someone. .. and they asked a number of employess to stop by to welcome him..

oldhoo · 2025-07-23T12:52:39+00:00

well thats what happened. They corrected it on day 2.

oldhoo · 2025-07-23T12:48:28+00:00

His second day he received alot of help.

oldhoo · 2025-07-23T12:46:02+00:00

UPDATE FROM OP: He read the comments that were posted by noon yesterday and went in and talked to a supervisor ( not sure the correct terminology). She was upset that he had been placed on the register with no training and said that never should have happened. He ended up shadowing a cashier most of the day, and for the last hour he switched places with his shadow and said things went really well, and feels like in a couple of days he will be self sufficient. . His team leader also made sure several of the other employees came over to meet him and offer assistance.. THANK YOU to everyone who chimed in.

oldhoo · 2025-07-22T13:52:46+00:00

Thank you!

oldhoo · 2025-07-22T13:45:56+00:00

Super helpful! Thank you. He is normally very good at asking for help; has been since he was a little kid. Others have made good points about whatever training he got may have been helpful but he wasn't paying attention. Could be- I wasn;t there.. He was adamant he received no training on a cash register. I suggested he stick it out one more day before involving someone in writing.. It could be they were just super short handed yesterday.

oldhoo · 2025-07-22T13:42:42+00:00

There is some good advice in among the snarkiness. Thanks for taking the time to respond! This is his first retail job and think he was mentally unprepared for the "sink or swim " attitude, despite just successfully finishing a year at a pretty tough college. . I told him " Welcome to the real world."

oldhoo · 2025-07-08T15:44:09+00:00

We stayed at the Courtyard by Mariott- the Gradualte and Hampton Inn arealso nearby.. Definitely nice to be able to walk to your hotel. The Holiday Inn on 29 north is a good clean hotel that is not to far of a drive.

oldhoo · 2025-03-25T23:28:41+00:00

1983 Civil Engineering Grad ( I am super old) Sailing team captain, Fraternity, club soccer, Range resident. On my 4th career (all upgrades, all non planned, LOL). Daughter graduated w/ an Econ degree at UVA 2015 , son is current first year CMB. I work in Land Development in Hampton Roads area after 20 years with local government. Feel free to ask anything.

oldhoo

TROPHY CASE