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A Second Opinion – Finally!
I finally convinced my Dad to seek the opinion of a different urologist re: his bleeding problem that has been going on since last July! He is scheduled to see a Dr. Ganesh Raj at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on Tuesday, 4/8. Has anyone here had any experience with Dr. Raj or know anything about him?
My Dad has stuck by the original urologist who also performed his surgery last April (one year anniversary of cysto-prostatectomy coming up on 4/11) but when he had no answer as to what could be causing Dad’s bleeding after all this time and wanted to remove the urethra without doing a biopsy first, it was time to seek another set of eyes to examine the problem.
Dr. Raj looks good “on paper” and I plan to accompany Dad to his appointment to check things out for myself. Hopefully, we will get the answers to our questions and a solution to Dad’s problem. I’m just thankful that Dad finally agreed to this second opinion.
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3 Replies
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Harleygirl..having been with you from the beginning you were always the advocate to get your Dad somewhere else…As i remember Dad would not budge. I am so happy that you found someone to put your faith in and now your Father sees the difference. Hopefully the damage mr uro who did the surgery without using GoLytely and all the ensuing complications will be a thing of the past. Dr. Raj is correct…the newest thinking on lymph node removal is at least 36 and on up.
Please keep us posted….glad you’re both sighing a sigh of relief and hope.
Pat -
We saw Dr. Raj today at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. I must say, I’m impressed! Today was scheduled as a “consult” but he ended up performing a scope on Dad and finding what he referred to as a “polyp” growing in the urethra. Dad compared this scope experience with previous scopes and marveled at the difference. Today, they gave him an antibiotic before the scope, prepped him with what was most likely Betadine and used a numbing agent. He said he didn’t feel a thing and was able to watch the screen as Dr. Raj performed the cystoscope. A saline-wash cytology was also done.
As soon as there is an opening in Dr. Raj’s schedule, Dad will go in to have the polyp removed. It will be under general anesthesia and, according to Dr. Raj’s estimate, will take about an hour to remove the polyp. The plan is that Dad will go home the same day. Of course, due to his age (81), he has to have a cardiologist approval before the operation (which shouldn’t be a problem.) Dr. Raj feels relatively sure that removing this growth will stop the bleeding problem Dad has had since last July. Of course, the growth will go to pathology and decisions will be made based on what the tissue is.
Dr. Raj told us he performs about 80 radical cystectomies a year and also “fixes” problems that other uro/surgeons cause. If only we had gone to him a year earlier and had him as Dad’s surgeon…. I have to stop thinking like that because we can’t go back. We just have to move forward and I think we may have found the doctor with whom to do this. He told Dad that he wanted to do the “simplest” things first to alleviate the problem, only removing the urethra as a last resort. He was also concerned about the number of lymph nodes Dad’s uro/surgeon removed (we don’t know how many that was) as he says the minimum number he removes is 36 and has removed up to 85 nodes! In his opinion, the more nodes removed, the better. I can practically guarantee that Dad’s uro/surgeon did not remove anywhere near that number of nodes. Dr. Raj is going to request the pathology reports from Dad’s surgery. We only had the discharge summaries with us along with CDs of scans and MRIs.
When we left Dr. Raj’s office, Dad was visibly relieved. At last someone had found something that could be causing his problem and had a plan to fix it! Now we just have to hope and pray that the “polyp” is benign and put this chapter behind us. After today, I am amazed at how much faith I have in this new doctor compared to how little I had in the uro who actually removed Dad’s bladder and prostate. This just hammers it home to me that, if you need a cystectomy, how important it is to find a doctor who does this operation a LOT. A lesson learned too late by me!
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You must live in Texas and so if surgery is needed there is a great Uro Oncologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who is considered one of the best around. His name is Dr. Seth Lerner and he did my surgery and neo-bladder last December.
Dale – Houston
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