Topic : 09/02 Ask The Doctors

I don't know a thing about the product mentioned on the show today but, I do know that there is something that can be used to stop a virus in it's tracks if it is used properly and the correct form is used. I wish the show would get Dr.s on that are open to alternative medicine. I feel Big Pharma dictates most of our doctors today. Big Pharma is a money machine that is out of control and doesn't give a hoot about the health of the American public. If anyone wants to ward off  a common cold get some Echinacea Angustifolia Tincture. It must be used in this form to work. It can be found in most healthfood stores but, be sure your getting real and organic products. I'm afraid to say more about it but would love to see the show finding good information to pass along to people.

Certainly, Kristin has made the right decision. She is young and no doubt, her asymmetry has psychological effects. Some women, who have had mastectomies, lumpectomies and other asymmetries, do not have the choice of surgical reconstruction. Some simply do not desire further surgeries or cannot medically tolerate implants. Custom-made breast prosthesis are a far cry from the 'gels' that Krisin was wearing. These handcrafted external breast forms, fitting the chest like a puzzle piece, truly give a woman back her physical and psycological well-being, which was achieved by Kristin's surgery. However, did you know, Dr. Phil, that even when this is deemed medically necessary, Medicare will often not pay for the upgrade to a custom prosthesis? The 'gels' are heavy and hot, yet, Medicare feels these are adequate to restore a woman to the way she was before the surgery.

We are organizing a grass-roots movement to raise awareness of this important issue with CMS.   If you would like to know more, please contact me. We have a new website in the works. Thank you for your time.

I watched the episode with Kristin.  She has the breast issue with them being different sizes. I could not believe that someone else in the world has the same problem I do. My breasts are different sizes and very, VERY noticeable. I have struggled with this my entire life. One is a D and one is close to a B I think. I always say one is two and a half handfuls and one is not even one handful. I have a son and the difference is so great that my son would not latch on to the smaller breast to breastfeed. My whole life I wanted to breastfeed my children and with this disability I cannot. I was wondering what to do about it and how to go about getting the help I need. I don't have the funds to pay for surgery I have a family to take care of. I could use some advice.

I watched your show today. August 8th 2008. You had a guest named Kristen that had different size breats. I two have suffered from the same problem since I gave birth to my first child.. I was always small breasted probably a   a cup. Then after I had  my second child my right breats grew but my left one didn't. My G.Y.N. told me it was because the milk ducts in my left breats didn't develope. So I can totally understand what   has dealt with.  To this day my right breast is a c-cup and my left breast is a a-cup.   It is very hard to buy a bra when you have two different size breast.  Just like Kristen my insurance will not pay to have my breats fixed.   

I originally sent the below concerns a few weeks back to "Be on the Show" about Bad Plastic Surgery ...The main concern is that I am still having severe pain in my left breast and am concerned that the Capsilar Constiction is getting worse in that breast...The doctors disregarded my pain and concern the last time I saw him, in 2006...My implants are Silicone and I feel thbe doctor just is refusing to deal with the problem since I'm in a 10 year study for Silicone Implants...Because of this disregard to the pain and my concerns on the uneven breasts, I am afraid to go back to the Breast Center...The insurance company viewed the last reconstruction surgery as cosmetic, refusing to pay for the claim, leaving a huge medical bills that has been taken from my taxes for the past 2 years...
My questions to the doctors:
1. How can I convince my Breast Surgeon to examine and take my concerns and pain seriously???
2. Why aren' the insurance companies adhering the the 1998 Federal law for Breast Cancer patients and their rights to reconstruction???

Here is the email I sent describing the history of my Breast Cancer and surgeries:

I'm a Breast Cancer Survivor...I was diagnosed with "pre" cancer in my left breast in January 2002, just 2 months after being widowed of a 17 yr marriage and 6 months after my last sibling passed away of lung cancer and Aids...Since Breast Cancer ran rampant in my mothers side of the family, I decided to do the best thing and have a Bilateral Mastectomy...Removal of both breasts "before" cancer set in...It was an extremely hard decision for me, yet I think I made the right choice...Catching the breast cancer is the "pre cancerous" stage, I did not have to go through Chemo or Radiation...I thought i was very lucky...However, the reconstruction became (and still is) a nightmare...The originally surgery went fine, implants were immediately put into my chest, under the muscle during that surgery...On the 2nd day in the hospital, the male nurse asked if I wished to take a bath...Since I'd had a sponge bath earlier that same morning by a female nurse, I declined...The male nurse insisted it would help me relax...He kept asking me so I gave in and said yes...When I was taken to the bath room with tub, in the hospitals burn unit where I was roomed, I asked the nurse what I was suppose to do with the drains in my chest...He told me, and I quote here, "Let them float"...I thought he was joking but he reassured me all would be ok if the drains floated while I bathed, it was after all, a hospital burn unit and he had just cleaned the tub thoroughly...The
nightmare began...I caught an Endococcus infection in the left breast because the tub was not cleaned properly...The implant had to be removed...The doctors replaced that implant 4 times, each time, I caught another infection in the left breast...One time, the sutures were not tight and the drains tubing slid inside the breast and wound up, leaving just a bit of tubing outside the breast...Another time, the fluid drained out of the tubing because the inside tube had a small hole in it...It was exhausting and scary to go through so many surgeries...The doctors finally had to settle on Silicone implants instead of the safer Saline because my left breast had been through so much trauma...Then came the surgery for removal of my inner thigh skin to graft onto my breast to replace the aureole areas...The nipples  were constructed of breast skin and was left far too long, it wouldn't shrink like the doctors told me it would...I had to literally tape them down for months on end...The skin underneath would blister due to the bandages...When the doctor aligned the aureola areas, I told him I thought they were uneven and the right one higher and angled out too much...He assured me it would heal evenly...It didn't...He also assured me the skin grafts would work out as he had intended them to...They didn't, they fell off, in patches...I had to be tattooed a number of times by a doctor who hadn't done nipple tattooing before...I had to tell her which colors would work and pick them out...I was tattooed a few times, it is now fading fast...MY left breast became painful, in 2004...I did online research and told the doctors I suspected "Capsular Constriction", where hard tissue grows around the breast implant and can cause a number of complaints, pain is just one of them...He said it looked ok, but would NOT check me further for Capsular Constriction...:I repeatedly told the doctor that I was having pain, the breasts were NOT even and he told me he might be able to raise the one nipple (another in depth surgery) to match the other...The left breast is larger than the other...The right nipple is angled out towards my arm...My left breast is extremely painful, and is hard to the touch...The last surgery was to remove the extra skin the doctors left under both my arms, since they had not done that in the initial surgeries...They failed to remove it all and I have puckers under each arm because of this...I had so much trouble getting our insurance company to pay for the last surgery, that I fell into debt that I still suffer from...There is a Federal Law for Breast Cancer survivors that guarantees them surgery to complete ALL the reconstruction needed for both breasts...My insurance company claimed it was "cosmetic surgery" even thought the referrals and doctors cited Breast Cancer reconstruction...I've spent countless hours on the phone with insurance company, the doctors office to make sure the insurance claim "codes" were properly in place on the claims, and still, the last surgery was not covered by Federal law...This made my liable for the hospital costs, surgery costs, anesthesiologist cost, etc, all went unpaid...I had to get a referral from my primary doctor for: the Breast surgeon, the hospital, the anesthesiologist, the Breast Center for follow ups, and the office visits prior to the last surgery...It's ridiculous...My state tax returns have been swallowed by the hospital to recover costs of the last surgery and are still being taken to pays for those costs...My left breast is getting more painful, is hard, the breasts are not the same size, the right nipple is off to the side, and there is extra skin under my arm that shouldn't be there...I have NOT been back to the doctor since the last surgery...He will NOT listen to the fact that Capsular Constriction IS in my left breast, and I'm afraid I'm going to be going through a number of surgeries that still won't fix the breasts as the reconstruction was to do...I don't even want to think about having to deal with the insurance company again, telling me NO, it's not covered, it's cosmetic surgery, even though there is a Federal Law that allows Breast Cancer patients reconstruction to be covered by their insurance companies...My husband has been wonderful throughout my surgeries...I met him online when all I had on my chest was scars...We married in a Cherokee Traditional Ceremony at his Methodist Church on Winter Solstice, 2004...He was been right beside me during most of  the reconstructive surgeries...I'd be lost without him...How do I get the proper reconstructive help and surgery I need to even my breasts, restore my confidence and end the physical pain when not only do the doctors here disregard the mistakes they've made, but the insurance companies refuse to allow the claims for Breast Reconstruction as guaranteed by Federal Law [1998]??? I will be celebrating my 6 year "Booberary" on August 23rd, and my 54th birthday on September 11th this year...Yet, why do I feel so incomplete as a woman???

There is a lady who is a young mother who forgets things and who has headaches.  I was the same way and it took about thirty years to dx me.  Listening to her story was like revisiting my own.  The headaches may be a big clue here!  It took a brain MRI to dx me and the right doctor.  Those reading the MRI did not have a clue as to what they were seeing.

 

I have a rare genetic disease called Cadasil.  It looks like MS on the brain.  It causes migraines that can do brain damage and mild strokes.  It can be dx'd also with a blood test, but takes about three months.

 

I am not attemting to dx this young lady, but since Cadasil is not even taught in the USA, it can be very difficult to find the cause of the symptoms and can lead to a long nightmare and I only wish to share what I have experienced.  I had the same symtoms and issues.  I once remembered what snow was and was proud of that, but didn't know how to get it off my car and had to think about it for fifteen minutes.  I decided then it was no longer safe to drive or many other things and it took over ten years after that to dx me.

 

I wish this young woman well and do not want her to have Cadasil... but she might want to look into it if other things don't prove to be the answer.  Be well...

 

Dipity

I just watched the episode with Kristin. What a brave girl for having the courage to go through that. I have been dealing with the same problem. My breasts are a little more than a cup size different but it is still something I have to deal with everyday. I cant wear certain shirts, I wear a lot of solid dark colors to hide it. My doctor said it was something that might even out after I have children. I have done some research on this and I think it is more common than the show made it sound and from the research I have done usually the left breast is the larger one. I guess the thing that is breaking my heart even more is I have a 16 year sister and she has developed the same issue. I wish there was a better solution. It is way to expensive to have the surgery and I doubt any insurance company would ever pay for it. Learning to deal.

There must be many reasons for severe, chronic memory and cognitive problems such as those experienced by the young mother on today's show. I do know that her symptoms sound precisely like the ones I experiences for several years--and still do today, only not quite as severely.

So I am wondering if that young woman has any of the medical problems that have contributed to my cognitive and memory problems--chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Cushing's syndrome/(or disease--although she doesn't look like she has Cushing's), Traumatic Brain Injury/TBI (from whiplash and concussions), severe depression and anxiety disorder (the latter two of which seem to stem from the others).

Our symptoms match so closely that I hope the doctors checked that young woman for all of those possible reasons for cognitive and memory problems, as well as others. Maybe then she will get a valid diagnosis in time to do something about it so she can have a normal life. 

For the first time in my life, I feel compelled to provide one viewer's opinion on today's show.  As a breast cancer survivor, I was totally insulted by your show's compassion for Kristen's feelings of being inadequate because she is 'un-even.'  She needed to be educated in what really matters in life, rather than rewarded with cosmetic surgery.  I am furious that she was considered worthy to be on the same show as the little girl who survived a car bombing in Iraq, and I am furious that it appears to be a terrible thing to be 'un-even.'  How would Kristen feel if she was in a wheelchair, disabled, had breast cancer, or worse yet, faced the horror of the real hero of your show, little Teba.