Best Docs Network Nashville November 10 2012

It's a call that's telling me I'm here to serve. It's a need to make a difference in the world. 24 hours day or night these healing hands will make it right. Looking in their eyes I know that I'm changing lives, changing lives, changing lives for the better, for the better, changing lives. He there everyone, Kandace Krueger along with Jim Knox and we’re back once again with another edition of the Best Docs Network featuring some of the best physicians in the Nashville area that are helping to change people’s lives. Exactly right. And there are a lot of people Kandace that are concerned about their teeth, of course their smile. Absolutely and you know dental pain can be one of the worst pains out there. But don’t worry there is one doctor on our program, Dr. Graham Locke that can help you with that. I was experiencing some difficulty with some pain in my tooth. It was just a feeling, it wasn’t really painful but it was just, I just knew it was there. When you look at the x-rays in Jean’s case, it looks pretty standard, a silver filling, not a lot of gross decay or anything along those lines. Constantly we have to monitor and test and diagnose exactly what’s going on because symptoms are coming from somewhere and x-rays are 2 dimensional and only one of the tests of many different tests that we use to determine whether a tooth is infected and needing a root canal. I’d never had a root canal before and I was you know a little nervous about it. So he explained to me about IV sedation and I decided that that was probably a really viable option for me. Some people just require the local anesthesia, some require the gas, some want oral sedation and some want IV sedation. We tailor the sedation, whatever it might be to that person’s needs. One of the benefits in this office you know was she never felt the injections in her mouth, she never felt claustrophobic under the rubber down and it allows us to do that more thoroughly as well as protect the airway. When I was given the IV I did feel the initial prick and that was the only thing that I felt from then on. Working under the microscope once we removed the silver filling, we found a crack and there was a slight vertical crack in her tooth that did not show up on the x-ray, so using the microscope you can see down the root canal system many times to the tip of the root internally. It’s almost as if you’re inside the tooth walking around and without that you don’t have that benefit, it’s a guess. The procedure was completed and afterwards I was awake, I was aware of what was going on around me. I was wheeled in the wheelchair into a privacy elevator towards the back of the office and taken downstairs and my husband was in the car waiting for me and I was helped into the car and we went home.  Lisa weighed over 300 pounds but look at her now. She credits Dr. Olsen in helping her change her life. To find out more about Lisa’s story and other life changing stories, logon to bestdocsnetwork.com. I was in the military. I was in aviation the majority of my time that I was in the military. I went through you know normal training exercises that I went through, crash landed a few times and the third one was the charm that really messed me up. I had fusion done because of that in my neck and then later on down the years arthritis and everything started setting in. I was you know really in a lot of pain, mood swings were bad. Mr. Costello was an amazing case. He had a myriad of really significant symptoms of pain throughout his neck and lower back. And upon his initial presentation to CPS we evaluated him which included a really thorough history and physical review of systems and we felt that at that time that he could receive excessive reduction in his pain from the elective epidural steroid injections. The ESI’s were explained to me by Dr. Arney that basically what they’re going to do is they’re going to inject medicine into my spinal cord and that should hopefully alleviate a lot of the pain that I was having which it did do that. Since that point in time we have since performed three separate epidural steroid injections in the lumbar region all of which he has received quite adequate to significantly superior relief of his pain. Prior to me going in there I was having a hard time sleeping at night, I’ve had fits to where I couldn’t sit for a while, I couldn’t stand. It basically was dragging me down. Since then since I’ve had the treatments and that, I’m not as edgy any more, able to walk farther. Basically it’s been a turnaround for me. I’m going up instead of down now. We’re just the tool that really helps these folks that are inflicted with back pain and I have been fortunate enough to meet individuals such as Mr. Costello and I’m really happy to report that he has seemingly really had a lot of success in relief of his pain. And the important part of that is that Mr. Costello now is in our opinion able to enjoy his life more which is really the ultimate objective. Pain relief is fantastic. Dr. Arney has a great bedside manner, he talks to you like a human being. He’s not happy unless you’re happy. I was 21 years old when I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and when you confront your own mortality you realize what am I going to leave behind? I’m never going to have children, I might not see my husband grow old, what have I done? I’m sitting here today with tumors in my liver, my lungs and my bones. But I’m sitting here with hope. My name is Bridget Spence. I am Susan G. Komen For The Cure. Help cure breast cancer and save women’s lives. You know your eyes go through a lot of changes over the years, but our next best doctor can help restore your sight. It’s ophthalmologist Dr. Daniel Bregman. I had cataracts and they got to the point where they were ready to be corrected. Made an appointment with Dr. Bregman, came up here to Nashville and first had a consult meeting and he explained what was going to happen and we had to choose what kind of lens you know he was going to implant because they destroy your lens when they take out the cataracts. Two of the things that we offer at Eye Health Partners are torque lenses, upgrades to a torque lens or something called a restore lens. Torque lenses correct astigmatism and astigmatism is when your eye is shaped like a football instead of a basketball and so a torque lens will correct the astigmatism so that the distance vision will be clearer. So if someone has astigmatism and they have just a standard implant put in their eye they will end up having to wear glasses for distance and up close for reading and computer and distance. And they’re a little bit more expensive for the restore lens which gives patients the option of being less dependent on glasses for distance, computer and reading. The restore of course, no glasses so we chose to get the restore lens. I had the procedure done. They do one eye, a few weeks or a couple of weeks later I think they did the other eye and you go through all the being careful and drops and your home free. Here’s the upside to restore lenses and I’ve put in hundreds of them. The satisfaction rate is close to 100 percent really. I’ve never had to remove a restore lens from a patient. That means that everybody I’ve put them in has done great and they’ve been happy with it. And the other upside to the lens of course is reducing the dependence on glasses after surgery. Nine out of ten patients don’t need glasses after they have restore lenses. One in ten does and that’s occasionally. Jim ended up with excellent vision. He was 20/20 near, he was 20/40 intermediate and he was 20/20 distance and he’s very happy about that. It’s like back to kid stage again. I don’t wear glasses except when I’m riding that motorcycle and that’s just to keep the wind out of them. It’s like night and day. What vaccines are important? Well, you should get vaccinated for the flu every year. The flu shot is very important and you can’t get the flu from it. A few people feel a little ill for a day or so but that’s not the flu. It’s important to get the flu shot every year. The pneumonia shot is important to get if you have diabetes, asthma or if you’re over age 60 and also if you have kidney or liver disease. Young people in their teen years should have the meningitis vaccine twice five years apart. Now the tetanus shot is a problem. A lot of people have the dT. That’s a small d and a big T. That protects you against tetanus. However everyone needs at least one TdaP. That’s big T, little d, little a, big P. That protects you against three diseases. That protects you against tetanus and pertussis which is the whooping cough as well as diphtheria which is a throat infection. You just need one of those and then you can go back to the little d big T every ten years. So get your shots up to date. They don’t hurt that bad. We’re big people now we can take shots without crying. I had my surgery at a very early age considering the time of which I had my surgery, I was 26 at the time. And I come from a family of obese individuals and have lots of complications, Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and I had tried every diet. I hit 200 pounds when I was 12 years old and I never left. The ideal candidate for bariatric surgery is a patient that has body mass index greater than 40, medical conditions related to morbid obesity, failure of medical treatment, dietary behavior modification. I had never had surgery before. This was my first experience ever having anesthesia or having surgery. I had a ton of support from other bariatric patients from the faculty here at Centennial and from my family as well. She continues not to follow up so much with the physicians office because she’s doing great in not having any medical conditions but she does continue to come to support group, meet with the dieticians and exercise physiology and group follow up. The after care support groups here are phenomenal. It really means a lot to the patients to be able to sit in a room with people who have been where I have been and people who have experienced the same things that I have. It’s also nice on the post op side to be able to come back and support those patients that are at an earlier stage in their journey and to be able to pay it forward to those other patients. Paula had great results with her gastric bypass and it was the best operation for her after we had had our initial consultation she’s had very good weight loss and I think Paula’s also had plastic surgery procedures to remove some of her excess weight. And so she has continued to you know keep her weight off. She has remained active and healthy and off many medications that she was taking prior to surgery. I went zip lining in Mexico and I looked at the sign and thought two years ago I would have exceeded that weight limit and would have to sit here while everybody else had fun so it has opened up a whole new world and a whole new life that I never would have known before. Don’t forget for more information on any of the outstanding doctors you’ve seen on today’s program, head to the website, bestdocsnetwork.com. And Kandace you have a story on an individual who was looking a little tired under the eyes. That’s right, until he met our next best doctor, Dr. Ronald Gilmer. In January of 07 I came to see Dr. Gilmer and had a procedure done at that time. After I recovered from that procedure, I knew when I initially came to Dr. Gilmer in the back of my mind there were some other things I wanted taken care of. The ideal patient for a facelift consists of a patient who has excess loose skin of the face whose jowls on their jawline are drooping down below their jaw. They feel much older. When I came to talk to Dr. Gilmer about what I wanted to have done we discussed the procedures. Those procedures were I wanted my upper eyelids taken care of, I wanted laser resurfacing done, I wanted a lower facelift and I wanted a breast lift. I was a little concerned that I was trying to do too much at one time. Dr. Gilmer told me not a problem. When we did her facelift we decided to add a little extra to get a little better appearance, smoother skin, tighter skin so I went ahead and added fraxel laser to her procedure. It just added tightness to the skin, getting rid of fine lines and wrinkles and any age spots that she’s developed over the last six or seven years. It took me about a week to start the swelling to go down. I had a drain tube. Once that was done I could start seeing the changes that Dr. Gilmer and I had talked about and it looked great and recovery time was minimal. I was back to work probably in about ten days. How we judge the results of the procedure mostly by is what the patient thinks. If the patient likes the procedure, if they think that it’s great then we’re happy. If the patient is not satisfied or if there’s something that they feel like needs a little bit touch up or whatever it needs, we work on trying to make that and correct that problem for them. Dr. Gilmer actually has changed my life a lot, have just made me become a lot more confident woman. Dana was in a great deal of pain until she met Dr. Kroll. To find out more about Dana’s story and other life changing stories, logon to bestdocsnetwork.com, that’s bestdocsnetwork.com. At Apex Endodontics we’re very quality centered. All of us are former general dentists and so we understand when a patient comes in not only the root canal aspect of the treatment for the patient but also restoration of the tooth so they are able to maintain a healthy smile and also be able to function properly and ultimately chew their food and receive nutrition. Having that on our resume it kind of we can better appreciate what the referring dentist might expect when it’s coming in. Sometimes it’s hard to express things to you or what they want but when we’re doing the restorative aspect of a root canal or we’re finished with the root canal or prior to doing the root canal we can kind of appreciate what the general dentist is probably looking for when we’re done. I was impressed with the fact that we do IV sedation. We have a wheelchair lift in the back office to accommodate the patients after the IV sedation. We also give oral sedation and Dr. Locke just kind of goes out of his way to really try to accommodate every personality that he can. At Apex Endodontics we focus on quality treatment for our patients. What that would mean to us is utilization of cutting edge technology whether it be microscopes in our treatment and diagnosis but also any and all techniques that have been researched and are on the cutting edge of endodontics as well. We’re all very up to date as far as techniques and also technologies that we utilize. A lot of the things that we do I don’t think that a lot of people can do. When patients come in a lot of times a tooth is a little bit further compromised than what we would like but we are able to get in there and isolate the area and a last ditch effort we are able to save the tooth of the patient. A lot of the restorative aspects I don’t think that a lot of the general dentists can do. We’re taking that variable out of the picture for them and we’re able to save teeth that otherwise probably couldn’t be saved. I chose to be an endodontist because ultimately we are able to maintain the person’s dentition and save teeth and also give them a healthier smile. When I was younger I was in a really bad car accident and I broke my back. I had fusions put in my back and rods and 2 ½ years after that they removed them. After 5 years the fusion broke off so I had to go under another surgery. The third surgery is when they removed part of the disc and they cleaned out scar tissue of the nerve ends. Now I’ve got bulging discs and it’s constant pain. Surgery will only take part of the pain away and I really don’t want to go through surgery again because it can paralyze me. Unfortunately patients who undergo surgical spine procedures often after surgery still suffer from pain in their back or what we call radicular pain into their arms or their legs. These patients through treatment and evaluations of the surgeons often find that there are no additional surgical answers for their conditions. When I came to see Dr. Kroll and he started talking about the stimulator. He wants to wait until it’s absolutely necessary so we’re trying to deal with my pain through medication only. Tamara now has been seen in our office I think for about two years now and we’ve treated her mostly with medication regimens. Over time, sometimes medications, their effectiveness may become less effective and patients medication regimens need to be changed. We’ve done that occasionally with her and are currently working with her to increase the effectiveness that we can with medications. Since I’ve been here I’ve been walking more, I’ve been getting out of the house more. Before I wasn’t able to travel and now recently I was able to go and see my sister in Virginia and we went on a tour with segways through Washington, DC. I’m able to do more things with my kids and my husband. Dr. Kroll is awesome. The Best Docs Network is about doctors helping change people’s lives. In our next story one lady’s life was changed dramatically due to Dr. Hugh Houston. Before I came to Centennial and Dr. Houston I was 335 pounds so I had a lot of trouble if I was out doing anything outside physically as far as being somebody that could go long distances or do things for the children. We went to Universal Studios and to Disney World and of course the big thing at Universal is the Harry Potter ride, the Harry Potter theme park and before surgery I could not ride that ride, I was too big. Well the first step is we like to see all patients come through our informational seminars. It really goes A-Z about bariatric surgery, what it entails, what the risk of the surgery are, what the outcomes are and what to expect long term. And then once they get through that process they come to our office and we spend an hour, hour and a half going through what their medical conditions are, what surgery might fit them best, try to mold one of the four surgeries in to their eating habits, their age, their medical problems and try to find which one you know suits them better and which one their more comfortable with. Once you make that decision to have the surgery, I mean it’s a permanent lifestyle change that you’ve got to embrace. We have wonderful dietitians on staff, exercise physiologists, we have support groups, we have psychological aftercare programs to help the patients deal with the emotional side of eating. Having that motivator with the surgery and knowing that by doing the extra exercises obviously going to increase and make your weight loss you know a success. You have the exercise physiologist here that you know works with you to make sure that you’re doing what you need to do. The nutritionist is certainly going to help to lay out a plan for you, what you can eat, things you need to avoid. And both of those things you have access to even if you’re not in an appointment you can call up here and talk to them, you can email them. If you need to stop by while you’re in Nashville, you can certainly make an appointment with them. That is a huge plus that you have here at Centennial. Six months out I’ve lost 145 pounds and I was telling my wife the other night who weighs less than that you know I said just to think that I used to carry you plus some around. I said you know now I struggle just to pick you up and hold you up in the air for thirty seconds you know and now whenever I hit my one year mark in October my wife and I both are going down for the surgiversary. That’s what I’m going to treat myself to is riding the Harry Potter ride. My name is Katy Epley and I’m with Musicians On Call and our mission is to bring live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients and healthcare facilities. We’re here tonight taking Ashley Gearing room to room to play music for patients. I’m volunteering tonight here with Musicians On Call. I sometimes may feel a little goofy walking into a room with a guitar by myself but then you see the reaction and you see their expression completely changes. Well the tuba augmentation is probably the latest technique for inserting breast implants either premuscular or submuscular. That means on top of the muscle or underneath the muscle and it’s going through the belly button or the embalacus and it’s called tuba which means transumbilical breast augmentation. And by going through the belly button the operation is quicker, its less painful, less complications, has no scars on the chest. I have been to Dr. Gilmer several times. I’ve had a tummy tuck. I have had liposuction. There was one thing missing. I had to get breast implants. I told him oh I wanted to be a small C – this is what I wanted. He looked at me and he said Keisha, you’re gonna need more than a small C because I had lost so much weight and had so much skin. He told me what I was gonna have, he told me what to expect so that it wasn’t such a shock to me when I woke up and here they were. And you go from having nothing to hello. If a patient wants a silicone implant inserted, you can’t put a silicone implant through the embalacus, it has to be a saline implant. And when we talk to the patient about it we tell them how we’re going to do it. By making an incision around the embalacus we will create a tunnel and then create a pocket either above the muscle or below the muscle to insert the implant. We put sizers in. And sizers are like implants that we put in, blow up, check out the pocket, make sure the pocket’s correct. We’ll remove the sizers and then the regular implant is deflated and we roll it up like a little taco and slide it into the pocket that we’ve developed into the larger pocket for the implant. And then we have an inflation valve. We inflate the implant to the size that we think’s appropriate. And then we pull the inflation valve out. After the surgery, I woke up, looked down, and of course there they were. The gift that he gave me and I thought it was the best thing ever. I am pleased with everything. He has really truly given me what I have dreamed of and what I thought I could never have. A typical candidate for Lasik surgery is somebody that wants to reduce their dependency on glasses or contact lenses. I went to see Dr. Bregman to free myself to actually not have to deal with glasses or contacts which I have both. It’s very important that everything gets triple and quadruple checked. The refraction and everything else on the chart. That we’re doing exactly what's supposed to be done to treat their eye. I was referred to Dr. Bregman from Dr. Beam and so my first meeting with him was a consult. You went in and kind of tested your vision and then briefly spoke about the procedure and about Lasik surgery, displayed the options that I had. A lot of people ask what happens the next day and I tell them that the vast majority are 20/40 or better the next day and usually go about their business. Most of them can even drive the next day. It’s very important to make sure that they’re counseled correctly. The biggest mistake any doctor can make is telling them I have 100% success rate, you can go throw your glasses out after you have this done. I always tell patients it’s a procedure to reduce your dependence on glasses or contact lenses, that not everyone can completely get rid of them but the majority of people do. Basically, again, no pain I’d say probably within about 2 or 3 days I had no longer any kind of blurriness or that fish bowl effect that he was talking about. I had to wait a week to ride my motorcycle and then come the following Friday I was on there and I was riding around and just enjoying everything just taking it all in. It was wonderful. There’s never a day that goes by where I don’t have a fulfilling day at work. I don’t know a whole lot of people who have jobs like that. Working doing eye surgery to me is just, even though it’s a lot of the same procedures, it never stops being interesting, there’s always something more to learn and you’re dealing with someone’s sense organ and it’s very important to people and I feel like I’m really making a difference in people’s lives. Life is just totally changed and I love Dr. Bregman for doing that for me. Well that’ll do it, that’ll wrap up another edition of the Best Docs Network featuring some of the most amazing physicians in the Nashville area that have helped change people’s lives. And this is much more than a television program because all the outstanding doctors you’ve seen on today’s show, you can head to the website and also find these doctors at bestdocsnetwork.com. That’s right and if you have a question or comment of if there’s a doctor that’s helped change your life, we’d sure love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@bestdocsnetwork.com. So long everyone, we’ll see you next week.