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Post by HeatherG on Jan 4, 2007 13:14:30 GMT -5
I am new to these boards, but not new to endo. I am 35 y/o and have suffered pain since age 13. My pain was not recognized until I had infertility too. By 2003, my pain was so bad, I had to have surgery. Endo was found everywhere (cul de sac, bowel, bladder, rectum). It was called moderate. Unfortunately, I still was unable to conceive and I went through extensive fertility treatment (multiple IUI's and IVF's) before I had my son 8 months ago. The treatment caused the endo to spread and my pain has become unbearable. I breast feed for 8 plus months, but my supply is diminishing and honestly, my pain even with pg and breastfeeding was pretty bad.
I contacted the surgeon who did my first surgery (he is a board certified reproductive surgeon), but he is no longer doing surgery. I am located in the DC metro area and would be willing to go to an excellent surgeon here if I could find one, but there do not seem to be any. So, I am considering traveling to the Endometriosis Treatment Center in Atlanta or Dr. Redwine in Oregon. If you have experience with either of these places, I would greatly appreciate it if you would share them with me. If you went to ETC in Atlanta, which physician did you see?
While it is very inconvenient to travel with such a young child, I just want to do whatever is going to give me a shot at a pain free existence. Thank you for any advice.
Heather
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Post by ouchy on Jan 4, 2007 13:25:50 GMT -5
Hi, Heather. Welcome to the forum. If you are interested in Dr. Redwine, please post/view/retrieve info on this already existing link entitled "Dr. Redwine Excision." cjlevett.proboards33.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=surgery&thread=1160665646&page=1 The thread was started by someone who actually did have surgery by Dr. Redwine. Everyone else, please continue to post Dr. Redwine-related questions and info on the existing thread. Thanks.
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Post by HeatherG on Jan 4, 2007 16:09:02 GMT -5
Thank you, Ouchy. I appreciate your help.
Heather
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Post by mwilmot on Jan 4, 2007 16:26:50 GMT -5
Heather. I had two laps this year for endometriosis (and part of my bladder removed) with Dr. Nezhat. He is located in Palo Alto, CA (near San Francisco). He was excellent and his staff was excellent. He makes sure you are well informed on everything that will be done prior to surgery. He does everything laparascopically and robotically aided (the recovery is suppose to be better with the robot aided surgery). He sees clients only on Mondays and is in surgery the rest of the week. The problem is if you do not have the insurance he takes he is really expensive and the surgeries are done at Stanford which is also expensive (The first surgery was billed at $80,000 with everything and the second one was billed at $100,000 - I have stage IV endometriosis with bladder penetration). My insurance covered all but my maximum yearly out of pocket which is $3000. He is wonderful so I would highly recommend him but only if you have the insurance he takes. You can find out more about him and his insurance at www.nezhat.org . His brothers also have practices in Atlanta and New York and they area also suppose to be specialists in endometriosis but he is the only one I can remmend from experience. You can find out about his brothers at www.nezhat.com
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Post by HeatherG on Jan 4, 2007 21:10:46 GMT -5
Mwilmot,
Thank you for your reply. I actually have heard a lot about Dr. Nehzat, too. I think my insurance will work the same way as yours, but my max is 6,000 (yikes). I will check out his site.
Heather
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Post by mwilmot on Jan 5, 2007 11:55:36 GMT -5
I would even call his office to check about your insurance if it isn't listed on his site. Mine wasn't (Blue Cross) so I called and they took that insurance and just never put it on their website. You may not actually reach your maximum for insurance, I only did because I had 3 laps in 4 months (the first lap was at my local hospital with my gyn who couldn't do anything because my endo was so severe).
Definitely check him out as he is very good and thorough. I highly recommend him.
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Post by Rachel on Dec 23, 2007 12:22:39 GMT -5
For reasons I'm sure everyone can guess...I recently stumbled upon this website and message board.
I also live in the state of MD, and have begun researching good surgeons.
Unfortunately at this point I know very little about the severity of my disease (upcoming appt. to "discuss tx. options with an OBGYN)...but per my Ultra Sound results my L ovary is "very large" and there is evidence of cysts as well.
Does anyone know of a specialist in the area? The best I've found is NY TIA
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