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Post by JC on Apr 5, 2011 10:27:49 GMT -5
Calling all Washingtonians! There are a bunch of us from the DC/Maryland area that are new members!
tryingtosmile Lady Ouchie rustmyrtle stormyprincess amiwithrow
Welcome ladies! Get in contact with each other! ;D Maybe we can compare notes about good doctors in this area too!
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Post by tryingtosmile on Apr 5, 2011 11:57:25 GMT -5
Thanks, I say DC area as I'm one of those rare people who has lived here all my life. I'm in Frederick, MD however i have yet to find a GYN ready to work with my endo. My current GYN is in Arlington and she's great for my everyday needs but my endo isn't being treated the way i need. I found the Weinberg Center for Women's Health & Medicine in Baltimore through friends at work and have an appt on Tuesday to meet with a Doctor who specializes in Endo there. If you know of anyone closer to home that would be great as well.
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Post by JC on Apr 5, 2011 12:48:06 GMT -5
My OB is Dr. Luciano Belizan at Shady Grove Adventist. He's a great surgeon if you need a lap. Hopefully the other DC girls will chime in and give their doctor info.
And you are the rare kind that grew up here. Most of us are transplants. I am definitely a DC transplant.
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Post by KSA on Apr 5, 2011 21:52:21 GMT -5
The DC Endo Club...All of you should meet up and have a little support group face to face.
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Post by JC on Apr 6, 2011 7:20:36 GMT -5
LOL we can have a heat pad party.
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Post by 1234 on Apr 6, 2011 16:20:14 GMT -5
I'm also a transplant--native to southern VA, but came to DC from via Massachusetts, Dublin, and NYC.
I see Dr. Lii at the Women's Surgery Center. So far, I've loved them.
And I'm a downtown DCite. Well, I like to think of it as downtown. I live in an "improving" neighborhood in northeast.
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Post by Lady Tewlie :P on Apr 11, 2011 20:55:22 GMT -5
Holy cow! I went to the Women's Surgery Center, but I had the misfortune to have had an appointment with Dr. MacKoul. He's supposed to be one of the foremost doctors for endo, but he is a nightmare! I considered going back to the practice to see another doctor in the practice, but I didn't even want to go to the office again, especially if I could possibly see Dr. MacKoul again.
Basically he talked to me for like a minute before he started talking about a hysterectomy. I've never even had a diagnostic lap or anything before. He was talking without letting me get a word in edgewise, and any time I tried to stop him to ask a question or to clarify something, he seemed to get annoyed and was very condescending. He literally said that the uterus is just a muscle waiting to hold a baby. I asked him if there would be any side effects from his proposed partial (uterus only) hysterectomy and he replied, "there are none"!
At the end, because I was so vocally resistant to the hysterectomy, he recommended I get the lap now and see about the hysterectomy later, but honestly, it left me a little uneasy. He said he thought I should call right away - first thing in the a.m. to set up an appointment for the lap, and he reiterated it 2-3 times before giving me the bums rush with a lot of unanswered questions and uneasiness. He didn't examine me, and he didn't say anything about getting a pre-op physical to be cleared for surgery. It all left me feeling uncomfortable, and the more I thought about it and discussed it with my husband, the more I left like I didn't trust the doctor. (And in retrospect, the more I felt I wouldn't be surprised if I went in for the lap I'd wake up without a uterus and with him saying it was so bad in there they had to take it out.)
I went home and did a lot of research online and looked again to see what people had to say on various sites about Dr. MacKoul. I had checked them before and saw nothing negative. But this time I found one site that mentioned that he had sanctions against him. Long story short, he was reprimanded and fined for omitting on his license renewal app in MD that he had pending actions against him in DC. There was one from NC that cited the same issue. The website said not to use that as the sole means of evaluating a doctor, but it also said that sometimes doctors will change states to avoid having a license revoked and to start over with a sort of clean slate. I did more research on my own and found out that he had a number of state board reprimands in NC and DC, and it sounded like they were threatening not to renew his NC license should he try to apply.
One last place I looked really made me so glad I didn't let this guy do surgery on me. I went on the Maryland Judiciary Court records online (http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inquiry/inquiry-index.jsp) and found that he had several civil cases against him, one of which he lost and was ordered to pay over $900k! At least 2 others were settled. He also had 5 traffic citations for excessive speeding, one in which he caused an accident. For all of them, he was cited for failure to appear. He also had just as many traffic citations in VA. There may have been more, but VA requires you to check each county separately. I was convinced enough already that he is a consistently reckless person who has little regard for consequences and likely feels he is better and smarter than all the morons out there.
After the whole thing, a lot of stuff made sense in retrospect. I had called his office based on his supposed great professional reputation and the fact that the practice's website said he was known for his excellent bedside manner! It's even more ridiculous to say that and then have it be so inaccurate than just to say nothing at all. Also, I had decided that with all the disdain I got from the women doctors I'd been seeing, maybe a male doctor could be more clinically objective. I really think (and know, based on some responses I've received) that many women doctors hear you talk about all this period pain, and they think, "I get cramps, and it isn't that bad, so you must be weak, a hypochondriac, or just a head-case." So even though I called up and specifically requested that male doctor, the first thing they said was, "we have some really excellent female doctors in the practice as well." When I said I was ok with a male doctor, they still gave me a sales pitch about how good he was supposed to be.
I know this is long, but I wanted to get my story out, both to get it off my chest and to warn others about going to this guy. I hope it isn't against policy to post names of doctors, especially since I'm citing publicly-available records to support what I'm saying. More than anything, I wanted to share the court website and to warn everyone that there is plenty of stuff out there that your doctor could be pulling that isn't showing up on the websites that supposedly report that stuff.
Oh, and just for some perspective, I looked up all the other doctors I'd ever had in MD and could think of. One had a citation...for not clearing the snow off her sidewalk in a timely manner!
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Post by Lady Tewlie :P on Apr 11, 2011 21:21:11 GMT -5
BTW, I'm the now-former Lady Ouchie. I was "asked" to change my name because it was too close to someone else's, but I haven't thought of another good name, even after a good 20 mins of brain-storming. I figure this temporary "name" (the symbol translates into "The Member Formerly Known as Lady Ouchie") accurately reflects how I feel about having my complaints of pain and increasingly distressing symptoms dismissed, diminished and ignored by doctors for more than a decade. It's also my not-so-subtle protest of the name change pressure. I'll change it when I think of something else that I feel suits me and that I feel a silly personal connection to the way I did the Lady Ouchie name. I'm a dork, but at least I admit it. (rolling eyes at myself!)
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Post by pretty on Apr 12, 2011 10:55:23 GMT -5
Dear Welcome back! Wow you should be a private detective. Kudos for doing lots of searching and for trusting your instincts! This guy sounds like a real tool, glad you're looking for someone else! I'm super glad you posted! Will keep checking on you. I want to read the part where you find a new doctor who gets it and helps you out!
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Post by 1234 on Apr 18, 2011 12:01:36 GMT -5
Wow, Formerly Lady Ouchie! I had lost this thread and just refound it. That's an amazing amount of research to have done. Teh changing the license is pretty horrible.
I haven't seen that guy, just Dr. Lii. And I've only been to their Bethesda office--it's the only one that's really bikeable from DC, though it's a 28 mile roundtrip from my house!
I have liked Dr. Lii for the most part. She didn't start by telling me the pain was all in my head, she did a lap quickly and was able to get a bunch of implants and scar tissue adhesions. She also was pretty responsive afterwards when I was allergic to the chlorhexidine. Also, now that I have this mirena in and it is killing me, I called her on Friday to see if it was supposed to hurt this much. She called me back and gave me her personal cell phone; we ended up talking late Friday night (7:30). She asked me to try to stick it out for at least a cycle, but if I couldn't stand it, they'd work me in either the Saturday or next Tuesday to pull it out. I'm still trying to stand it, but it's horrible.
I also want to know when you find a new doctor. You seem to be an amazing researcher.
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Post by JC on Apr 18, 2011 12:26:55 GMT -5
WOW she gave you her cell phone number?? That's awesome! I hope you feel better soon. I hate that IUD. I had a bad time with it too.
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Post by Lady Tewlie :P on Apr 18, 2011 19:54:29 GMT -5
I had a doctor once who gave me his cell number for emergencies. Granted, he was a shrink, and I was seeing him for depression, not murderous homicidal fantasies. I never told him about those... ;D
Speaking of psychopaths...I learned to be such a great researcher after a psycho neighbor incident. It all turned out ok, mostly because we moved away from that place. Apparently he had been arrested and convicted for assaulting his wife and infant daughter and had been ordered to seek psychiatric (not psychological) counseling. That's the short version. Every time we've looked for a place to live since then, I've researched the immediate neighborhood as much as possible. It's frightening what you would never know about people that could put you in danger (psycho neighbors, psycho doctors...)
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Post by JC on Apr 19, 2011 4:13:21 GMT -5
Hey I like your new name! It's cute!
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Post by tryingtosmile on Apr 26, 2011 12:28:38 GMT -5
Hello, I hope everyone is doing well. I had my Lap on Thursday last week and since then I've had no pain. at times I find myself holding my breath afraid it will start again. I'm back to work already. I have desk job so other than being tired by the time i get home I'm feeling great.
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Post by Karen on Apr 26, 2011 13:04:35 GMT -5
Wow, that was fast! Hope you continue to feel well, but please take it easy as your body recovers!
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