fat650

10-03-2019

Services Used: Outpatient

This practice is totally awesome! Both Dr Manders and Dr Markalov have been amazingly attentive. I had a bilat mastectomy for breast cancer after a lumpectomy that came back as an aggressive tumor, though still dcis there was quite a lot of it and the lumpectomy showed cancer cells all the way to the edges in 3 of the margins taken and the 4th margin was about 70% covered. I felt strongly for me that mastectomy was the best option to, hopefully, avoid the cancer returning some time down the road. For reconstruction I'd planned for a flap procedure but, upon follow-up with plastics surgeon's in a major metropolitan city. The first one came in the office, sat down and informed me that I wasn't a candidate for this procedure and he would only consent to implant surgery. He was incredibly rude and dismissive of all my questions giving me the impression that only he knew what was right for me. My poor husband had to comfort me while I cried. When I saw my surgeon after the double mastectomy the office nurse commiserated with me and cajoled me into seeing Dr Manders in the clinic. What marvelous sweet doctor he was! He patiently sat with us and explained all possible reconstruction options and answered all our questions. He told me that he didn't see any reason to limit my options and encouraged me to have an x-ray to determine if I had adequate blood vessels to do the job. And, yes, they were good. I initially decided after some thought that I would just stay flat and put reconstruction on the back burner for now. An interesting medical event occured about a year later when I finally determined, after a lot of research, that all of the the symptoms I'd had for the best part of 4 decades were because I had iron deficiency anemia. We rectified that problem and, after being on SSRI's for the better part of 21 years I was able to come off them. A strange thing happened. My sexual feelings came back! For 21 years I had 0 sexual feelings and had decided that was my lot in life though I did tell my husband that we could have sex but I just did not have those feelings anymore. He, being the wonderful husband that he is, told me he couldn't do this knowing my past sexual assault history. He felt it would be too much like raping me all over again and, in all honesty told me he didn't think he could perform knowing this. Fast forward, I started to look at reconstruction again to enhance my sexual appearance and I learned that implant could be placed above the pectoral muscles instead of underneath. This appealed to me so I made an appt with Dr Markalov and we discussed it at length and I agreed to the surgery. On follow up prior to surgery, he told me that, because I only wanted to go to a b cup, he felt I was a good candidate for fat grafting as opposed to implant surgery. He ,very nicely, told me to research it online (after all, most of us do this right?) and call with any questions. Of course, after doing my research, I did have some important question. I called the office and with out hesitation he immediately came on the line and answered all my questions and concerns. I was floored! Totally was not expecting this level of concern and compassion in a doctor. The medical profession is so over worked these days that I tend to not have great expectations but these 2 doctors absolutely blew me away with their caring and compassion. I recommend both of them highly!

• Date Visited 10-2019
• Overall Satisfaction
• Explanation of diagnosis and Treatment Plan
• Trust in Provider