Seeking breast surgeon

oakland2

May 2, 2017 at 12:05pm Edited

Seeking breast surgeon recommendations. Hospital recommended the following:

Julie Digioa MD

Marc Mandel MD

Margaret Sacco MD

Would love feedback on these 3 and any others you can recommend. Preferably associated with Overlook. Must accept United Healthcare.

I can't say enough amazing things about Dr. Julie DiGioa. I absolutely LOVE her. She also practices alongside with her husband, Dr. Stephen Hall, who does breast reconstruction. Both are incredible. If there was a negative comment, I would say that she is not always on time with her appointments, but she will never rush you out and she is always thorough. The wait for her is worth it. I'm not sure of your story, but I had a double mastectomy with reconstruction in 2014. I woke up from surgery with hugs and kisses from Dr. DiGioa. To this day, when I go for my check ups, she takes her time and listens. Her staff is incredible as well, which when going through a rough time, makes it that much easier.

Good luck to you!

krnl

May 2, 2017 at 11:00pm Edited

It has been about 10 years since my breast surgery with Mandel. I'm alive. At the time I was very active and the ONLY concern I had was his experience with the potential surgical side effect of lymphedemia. He assured me that he had never experienced this with patients, unless "they were seriously overweight" (said with disgust) and that should not be a concern (I definetely wasn't overweight then). Fast forward to my recovery. Oops, I have lymphedemia. It limits my activity options and over the next ten years: weight gain due to being less active; ongoing monitoring to beclude serious infection; restricted activies.

Who knows whether this was preventable. What I do know is that he was dimissive of my concerns, his assistant was emphaticlly dismissive of my initial symptoms, and, for some reason, this surgeon thought I should follow up with annual visits for the rest of my life. ( Yes, you do need to have many follow-up visits with your oncologists, but why a surgeon would need them is beyond my understanding other than it potentially creates an future stream of income.)

ETA: Good luck as you go through this process. On the whole, the prognosis is for a good outcome is favorabvle. Don't rush into a decison on which surgeon to select.