Endometriosis Support Group
Endometriosis is a common medical condition where the tissue lining the uterus is found outside of the uterus, typically affecting other organs in the pelvis. The condition can lead to serious health problems, primarily pain and infertility. A major symptom of endometriosis is pain, mostly in the lower abdomen, lower back, and pelvic area.
I had a lap done to be diagnosed last December. My doctor is an obgyn, but seemed to know a lot about endo. (At least she was the first dr to think that was my issue and correctly diagnosed me). The surgery was excision surgery and done doing the DaVinci robot. She recommended lupron and I refused. She put me on the pill continuously, and it didn't work. Now I'm just on the pill. Not many other options, except she says I'll need another surgery when I can't take it anymore.
I guess my concern lies in her surgical skills. She says she is a great surgeon and is probably skilled, since she is trained enough to use the DaVinci robot. She's obviously not a true endo specialist, and I guess I'm just second guessing my surgery results since my pain came back right away. I read about these true specialists, like Dr. Cook in California, and just wonder if my problem is that I didn't have a true specialist do the surgery. Even though I live in a large city, there don't seem to be any true endo specialists. And there's no way to really know a surgeon's skills.
What do you all think? How do you judge a doctor's skills?
I guess my concern lies in her surgical skills. She says she is a great surgeon and is probably skilled, since she is trained enough to use the DaVinci robot. She's obviously not a true endo specialist, and I guess I'm just second guessing my surgery results since my pain came back right away. I read about these true specialists, like Dr. Cook in California, and just wonder if my problem is that I didn't have a true specialist do the surgery. Even though I live in a large city, there don't seem to be any true endo specialists. And there's no way to really know a surgeon's skills.
What do you all think? How do you judge a doctor's skills?
At the end of the day, the specialists will still recommend what they think is the best treatment (surgery, BC, Lupron), and we have the right to refuse their treatment recommendation. Caring specialists will understand, but I don't know a lot of caring doctors.
As for surgeons, there are ratings of top surgeons. For example, Dr. MacKoul in DC has been ranked for almost a dozen years by Washingtonian as a "top doc" based on his surgery. Was he the best endo doc? That is still to be determined, it is to early for me to tell how much pain I have. But, the surgery was very well done, I can already tell.
If I had the chance, I would like to see some of the doctors at the annual endo conference in NYC. That would be pretty cool. Not that Dr. Masahide Kanayama, I hear he is a quack.
But a true specialist/endo surgeon Like Dr. Seckin, or Dr. Cook.
but until then, I continue to seek out the help of the local folks. No one is really awesome, but I have a decent team: fertility doc, surgeon, baby doctor. After baby time is done, I will move to endo specialists, and push the baby doc out of the mix.
Help? Or confusing?