Best Surgeon in Los Angeles

So funny..i remember Dr. Desai..he was on Dr. Gills team in 2003 when i had my surgery. Anyway i was in intensive care just a couple of hours...bowels kicked in on day 4..sent home on day 5. Actually i went to a nearby hotel on the campus and a nurse checked in on me daily to make sure i was taking care of my tubes correctly and that i was doing alright.
The first 24 hrs i thought maybe a Mac truck had run over me........but my morphine pump was twisted and i wasn't getting my meds! That was fun. They get you up right away and make you walk. Muscles in the abdomen very sore and hard to stand up straight but you do it anyway..keep walking.
By day 3 i was much better...by day 5 i was only taking some Tylenol. Appetite was not up to par...softer foods, soups, easy to eat and drink things for a while and smaller meals for sure. Went home after a week in the hotel..well 5 days...And i didn't have the energy i had prior to the surgery but i got along pretty well. Women do that you know. We can clean our own tubes which you have for about 3 weeks. I made my own breakfast as my husband, bless his soul, could not boil water...but by 6 weeks just a little sleep deprived from training my new bladder.
Its such a normal part of me now i don't even think about it.
Pat

Yes Dr. Gill did my surgery at The Cleveland Clinic and did take his staff with him. I can't say enough good things about him. He's exacting and nerve sparing and when its done laparoscopic there are 3 tiny incisions..l/2 " and one larger about 3" . I had no blood loss at all and you have the same 3D effect with laparascopic...everything is on a big screen magnified 10 times over which is great for getting those tricky lymph nodes.
I'm 8 yrs out now and just fine.
You should make an appt. and talk with him. You'll like him.
Pat

By the way, Pat, how long has it been since you had the surgery? How long were you in recovery? How long in the hospital? Any complications? How long did it take for you to be able to do things like sit at the computer, prepare dinner or just make a sandwich? When could you walk a block? Anything else you can think of that I didn't is also appreciated. This is very serious, and frightening for us both.

Thanks, Pat. We've spoken with Dr. Desai, who said he studied under Dr. Gill and that Gill was his mentor. Apparently, they were at Cleveland Clinic and Gill went to USC and brought his team with him. Desai says that so far he believes my husband is a candidate for laperscopic/robotic surgerical removal of the bladder and prostrate/nodes, unless the chemo he is currently taking adversely affects him to the contraire. The other doctor comes highly recommended, but he does the surgery without the robotics. I understand there is less bleeding and other complications with an increased recovery time with the robotics, so that's one of the reasons we're looking into it. My husband is 70 and has other issues as well, though they are not making him unable to have the surgery. Anyway, thanks so much. I wish you the best and will keep you in my prayers. If you have any other info or thoughts, let me know. Thanks again.

Hi Toms wife,
I had my cystectomy and reconstruction done laproscopically by the best in the world...he's known all over. He has taken over for Dr. Skinner at USC/Norris which is kind of the birthplace of cystectomy. I highly recommend his work. Dr. Inderbir Gill
www.doctorsofusc.com/doctor/bio/view/110738
and he's much cuter than his picture and a great personality.
He did my surgery in 4hrs 20mins.
pat

If anyone has had radical cystoprostatectomy at either UCLA or USC, please let me know your experience. We're trying to determine whether to with the regular surgery or the laperscopy/robotics, which is supposedly less invasive and has a faster recovery time. Thanks.