2:00 AM - I got up to empty my catheter bag and checked my email. I had a note from Dr. Kramer with a link to a video of my procedure! This guy is amazing. I'm putting the LONG text of my email response here. Check out the video.
Jon,
Hopefully, by the time you read this, the catheter will be out. In the meantime, check out the edited version of your procedure- the thought of the theme and title just sort of came to me. Kind of corny, but I think it creates the message that I wanted to send. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4m3LFmqAIYAK
_____________________________________________________
Dr. Kramer,
This video just amazes me! I am waking up to empty the urine from my container and found your Email. I am a star! And, from what I can see you did it perfectly. I had to watch it with the sound off because everyone else is asleep right now, but looks like it went really well. I am so glad I came here for this procedure. Like I said earlier, I really do like my local Urologist, but as he described the process of getting an implant, he said I would lose an inch. My primary care physician tells me Dr. Rutter was one of a few in the region that was able to do some sort of robotic prostate surgery when it was first developed and that people came from miles around to see him.
But, I just had a strong feeling that I wanted to come here because of your reputation, not only as a refined specialist in your field but also a caring doctor with amazing relationships with your patients. It has always worried me a bit that I will have to tell him I went elsewhere, but I will just have to explain to him that I went to one of the top, if not the top, guys in the nation who has a high volume practice.
The comments about the brothers are touching. I emailed them that this year that they would need to get together without me because I was having surgery and wouldn't be up to traveling for six to eight weeks. Immediately David offered to drive from Orlando to Kentucky and take me to Baltimore. This sort of floored me, but he and his wife are used to driving long trips around the country for sometimes 30 days at a time, so I considered letting him do it instead of coming alone as I'd planned. I wasn't going to ask my wife to give up a week of special ed. teaching to come with me, plus she wouldn't have liked driving in this traffic..
So, after David offered, I got to thinking, "Why doesn't Richard come up to Bowling Green and we'll all ride together, making this our annual reunion?" He was agreeable but preferred we not drive since it is such a long trek. We all thought it was a good idea to fly rather than drive so Richard and I flew together out of Nashville and David out of Orlando. We worked out a common date and I set up the surgery.
Initially, Connie and Tikka were dubious because they'd had less than good results working with Anthem BC/BS, But I had this wonderful representative I'd been working with that, early on determined I met the criteria of medical necessity and then we discovered you were in-network! I was surprised and deligthed and got busy lining it all up. Here we are.
I love your comments on the Youtube link. I am a good pianist, but not quite "accomplished." I do consider myself a good musician and I have my masters degree in choral conducting which I did for 20 years prior to starting my own business. I also was a good singer until one October about 6 years ago when I lost my voice practically overnight due to "vocal bowing," a condition where the cords do not approximate correctly causing extreme hoarseness and a virtually unusable speaking voice.
Dr. Garrett, chair of the famous Vanderbilt Voice clinic took me as a new patient and said that although there is a procedure for this, the first line of treatment was speech therapy which I tried for a year and a half. Finally one day we looked at each other and said, "It's time for the procedure." It was a two-phase process. First, they would inject my cords with a substance that would temporarily "plump up" the vocal cords. If that worked, then we would later do a permanent procedure where they place implants in your neck that push the vocal cords together, allowing them to function again. I was wide awake for this three and a half hour procedure. I had a scope down my nose and could hear them talking and drilling holes in my neck. Pretty drastic but I had nothing to lose. The procedure worked and I can talk again. I can't sing anymore and my speaking voice is not strong, but it is good enough to carry on a normal conversation in a non-noisy atmosphere.
So, I now have two amazing implants put in place by wonderful doctors. I'm truly bionic. I don't know how I can thank you enough, but I will certainly continue spreading the word on franktalk.org and hopefully there will be others you can help. God bless you for what you do.
Jon.