United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Im Beth from Georgia, My daughter Hannah will be having the triangle tilt surgery on November 1 2007...of all the surgeries performed by Dr.Nath this is the one i know the least about..i need more info : where will he go in at?, bones graphs etc..thanks

This has nothing to do with your question, but... my name's also Beth and I have also have a Hannah with OBPI and she is also having surgery on November 1st! We'll be thinking of you on the first and wishing you the best.

To both Beths... okay, that is so freaky!!!

To Beth Richter: if Dr. Nath did not answer your questions, why did you schedule the surgery? You need to ask him all of your questions and make sure that he gives you the answers you need. This is true for all of the doctors you take your daughter to. Just saying "your daughter needs "X" surgery" and walking out of the room isn't good enough.

Call or email him with all of your questions.

And if you haven't gone for a few other opinions, you might want to. I have learned so much from the doctors that we didn't have to do work on Juliana. We had her scheduled for surgery two years ago and two doctors agreed on the surgery. I called a doctor in California and talked to him for a while, and then decided to go out there. It cost a lot... but he disagreed with the other two docs and made some incredible points. I went back to the doc who was going to do the surgery and talked to him about it. His view: that the third doctor was right. And we didn't do the surgery. It would have been Juliana's 4th surgery.

I just think that multiple opinions are really important.

good luck,
claudia

this is to Beth..will you be having surgery in houston as well?

i scheduled the surgery with Dr. Nath because is is the best in this field... we needed no other opinions..i am simply unsure how she will recover and what to expect from the triangle tilt

Beth,
No. (Now that would be incredible weird!) We will be at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles for her first surgery to try to repair the nerves as best as possible. It's so stressful for us, as I'm sure it is for you also. Hope your experience goes as well as possible!

I don't even think Dr. Nath would agree with you about not needing another opinion. Most very good doctors may even encourage you to ask for some one else's opinion. They know they are not infallible. Dr. Waters sent us to Dr. Kozin for a second opinion. Dr. Kozin agreed with Dr. Waters, but we didn't feel it was a wasted trip. We were able to proceed with Lexi's treatment plan with even greater confidence that she was in the care of a wise and experienced doctor.

Perhaps this mom would just like other parents’ input - she didn't say that Dr. Nath didn't answer her questions. I'm certain she is intelligent enought to know that she can ask her doctor questions.
I think it's important for parents who post here to know that not everyone spends multiple hours asking their doctor tons of questions, followed by follow-up visits around the country for more of the same with every known BPI surgeon. Not everyone has that kind of time and energy, not to mention financial resources.

I relate to this mom. I didn’t know a heck of a lot about the surgery my child had but that didn’t mean my doctor wouldn’t have answered me in minute detail had I asked about it. He answered every question I asked, but I didn’t feel the need to go into exquisite detail. I read about the surgery, and I got the general idea, talked to other moms whose kids had it, and they all said that it was a beneficial surgery. That was the extent of my research.Call me a bad mother,but there was no second opinion. My child had the surgery. It worked. I just don’t see that the moms who endlessly question doctors and go to for multiple second opinions necessarily get better outcomes than the ones who don’t. I don’t see that correlation.

....except for the fact that my daughter had already had two painful surgeries with absolutely no success. I was thrilled that the second opinion was not to do the third yet. Your daughter's surgery worked, mine didn't. When a couple of surgeries do nothing, yes, you start to ask some questions. And I think the input we gave was exactly what this mother may have been looking for. And if not, it may be of help to someone. I, for one, have enjoyed the polite banter on this website. I have learned more here than anywhere else. If everyone had the same opinion, there would be nothing to talk about. Sorry, but I feel your post was rather rude.

My intent was not to be rude, if it was so construed I do apologize. Of course in your situation, with failed surgeries, one would be foolish not to seek another opinion when considering yet another surgery. I'm sorry if my comments hit a sore spot. It's just that sometimes new posters tend to be barraged with the advice to get multiple opinions, and while I'm sure that many people do just that, there are others who either are unable to do that for a variety of reasons or they just don't want to. I can't believe that I'm the only person here who has not sought multiple opinions. I wonder sometimes if people start to feel inadequate when they come here. There are a good number of people who post here who have gone to many different doctors and have armed themselves with a great deal of information. I'm not proud to say it, but I will admit that my knowledge of anatomy and the intricacies of the injury are quite limited. I have chosen to educate myself to a point, and leave the rest to the doctor and therapists that I trust. I PERSONALLY haven't felt the need to go any further than that by seeing a wide variety of doctors.
I hope that the other parents who read this board and have taken the same route are also comfortable with that and don't feel as though they are somehow lacking as parents because they haven't seen many different specialists. Different strokes for different folks. I was just trying to provide another point of view.