Well after my meeting with Dr. Dechet at the Huntsman on July 2, I had time to think about my situation over the holiday weekend. And I came to the decision that I wanted to explore seeing a Dr. Daneshmand at Keck / USC in California. Dr. Daneshmand performs RC w/ neobladder surgeries at a far higher rate then Dr. Dechet. While Dr. Dechet may perform 12 surgeries per year, I feel, Dr. Daneshmand will do over 10X that number. I realize that this does not make Dr. Dechet less skilled or qualified, but this goes to all the comments on BCAN saying find the most experienced surgeon. And I believe that Dr. Daneshmand is that surgeon.
So I spent all last week talking to Dr. Daneshmand's office and arranging schedules and questions concerning my insurance. Concerning my insurance, although Keck is out of network, I am covered and will only have to pay my max. out of network cost. Once that was settled, I was able to get an appointment on July 30. I still need to get all of my medical reports sent to Dr. Daneshmand. To be honest, I am not sure what to expect from this meeting. But I will have my questions ready to go. My biggest question is what happens when I get home from California and I have a complication? Who do I go to? There is no time to fly to California and I don't think the doctors at the Huntsman will take me back. I am not sure what the answers are.
On Monday, I made an appointment with a physical therapist who specializes in male pelvic floor muscle rehab. I was lucky to find one here in Logan. Do you know your Kegel exercises? Well that is part of the exercises that help strengthen the muscles of your pelvic floor. Why is this important? Because the muscles of my pelvic floor are what will help me control my neo bladder. They tell me that a strong pelvic floor will help prevent me from peeing my pants. So I want to build my pelvic floor muscles up before the surgery so I have more of a chance of keeping my Depends dry. And I am going to P.T., to make sure I am doing my exercises correctly and not over straining the muscles.
On Tuesday, I spoke with the Huntsman records department to get all my information shipped to Dr. Daneshmand's office. Colleen was very helpful and understanding. I am glad I did not have to call Dr. Dechet's office to get these files. So it looks like my appointment on the 30th is looking good.
It seems like there is so much to do to prepare for my surgery. Some things I can not talk about now. But by far, my biggest worry is do I want Dr. Dechet or Dr. Daneshmand to perform my surgery? I hope the 30th gets here soon so I can get some questions answered and make my decision. The question is how am I going to decide which doctor is going to operate on the rest of my life. This is by far the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I pray about it often.
Well, it's late now. I'm sorry I haven't wrote much lately. Sometimes I spend a lot of time thinking, but I don't feel like writing. The time for action is coming soon enough and I can't delay it. But for now I need to get my rest and build up my strength.
God's peace to you all - say a prayer for me. Good night
