Quote from: Cooper on March 23, 2014, 07:29:53 PM
My plan is to visit Pretoria in end of May with possibility for the surgery on June 4th. I will check the hospital facility, talk to current patients and meet most of the staff. As I mentioned before if I am not satisfied 100% than I will take train to Johannesburg and have fun for few days and fly back home.
Hey Cooper, I think this is a very sensible approach that should be advocated for consulting any Doctors
1) Having a Back Out Plan if you don't feel confident or comfortable after the consultation with the Doctor.
2) Having a Cooling Down Period of a few days after the consultation before committing to any final decision.
On the other hand, what should be avoided are the following scenarios.
- Patients who went ahead despite the red flags, because they had consultation the day before the surgery and did not have alternative plan to back out.
- Other patients would wired the surgery fee to a Doctor they never even met, out of desperation and naivety.
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HK made a good point earlier on about not choosing a Doctor solely base on what we read from the internet. Online information should only be used as a starting point, prior to checking Doctors out in person. Be ready to clarify any doubts with the Doctors in online or in person consultations.
Cooper Precise Femur Journey with Dr. Birkholtz (Incomplete)
I had a Skype consultation with Dr. B. Talked about an hour and asked plenty of questions. He answered each question thoroughly and to my satisfaction. He has done 6 Precise case to date, 1 tibia and rest are femurs. The lengthening ranges from 3 to 6cms on Precise. All in total he has performed about one thousand limb lengthening and bone generation procedure. Out of which 20% are femurs cases.
The hospital is privately owned by NETCARE UNITAS CARE and he practices at Walk a Mile. Safety is #1 priority for the doctor but he is will to go over 6cm if the flexibility and soft tissues are in favorable conditions. This depends on patient variant and is unpredictable. The patients can cancel 1 day prior to surgery with no hospital charge. The hotel might charge for the early cancellation fees.
I am trying to fit the surgery based on my work schedule. I have very tight and rough schedule not sympathetic to this kind of surgery. Not sure if I can be out for 75 days as I want to, still checking on that. Option #2 is to be there for 5-6 weeks and come back home with ERC device. Dr. B will check with Ellipse technology whether they let me travel with ERC to US.
As of now my date is June 4th but that might change. I may go around same time as Rising Shortly that will help to support each other and fight the loneliness and boredom. He is working on to post the hospital pictures...stay tune.
Word of advice - having company will make the process much, much easier and I strongly recommend it. The first month I was in South Korea there were about 10 other patients staying in the hospital and I actually *happy* there because of all the company I had and friends I made, it did wonders for making the procedure easier. Once patients left and new patients stopped coming in because Dr. Lee moved to a different hospital, the depression started kicking in.
Hey cooper will you be his first CLL patient?
Nope, he had done two externals CLL before.
Got a word from Dr. B that I can return home with ERC device after six weeks. Ellipse is ok with it. Was glad to receive the message, thought share to the forum.
Cooper how will Dr B monitor your progress if you are back home lengthening? It seems odd he'd agree to this
as he was all about safety, making sure people only lengthen within a certain range etc. There is no way he could
control how much you lengthen or deal with any problems if you are to return home during lengthening.
I will be sending x-rays every week should I return home. Most doctor allows patient to return home after 4-5 weeks post surgery. This in not the best way of doing LL but may be the only solutions for some patient. The recommendation was to stay in through out. Dr. B is hesitant and very reluctant about this but my situation is different.
Dr. B just posted the pictures of the hospital. How do you guys rate compare to India, China, Russia, Germany, US and other. I like to hear opinions. Please speak out with openness. Thanks!
Only the very best hospitals in the US and Germany look better. Far superior to anything in India
and China, I cant believe people who went to India were giving South Africa hospitals such a hard time.
Looks world class. I'm sold on it.
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