Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
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. Hi again everyone, Jim Knox along with Kandace Krueger and welcome
back to another edition of the Best Docs Network which features some of the best doctors in
the entire Houston area Kandace that help change people’s lives, like our first doctor.
That’s right Jim, it’s cardiologist Dr. Annie Varughese. Coronary disease is a type
of vascular disease where plaque coats the inside of the vessel to the point where there’s
a growth and that’s called stenosis. The number one problem with regard to formation
of plaque is cholesterol. So we have different types of cholesterol, LDL cholesterol. We
have HDL which is the good cholesterol, LDL being the bad. Triglycerides are another bad
cholesterol. So it’s very important to do advanced testing of the lipids. Back in 2000
I was working, had some pains in my chest, went to my general practitioner, he examined
me and said you need to go see the cardiologist today. Made an appointment for me with Dr.
Varughese and when she examined me she said, stay right there, you’re going to the hospital.
The case of Thomas is quite interesting. He came at the beginning of my practice years,
I’ve been practicing for 18 years now and Thomas came as a new patient and just complained
of intermittent chest pain. We proceeded to take care of him and he proceeded to die on
the table and had no heartbeat so we of course started resuscitative measures immediately
and quickly transported him to the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Found a servere
blockage in the right coronary artery and that’s why he had become hypotensive, his
blood pressure had dropped, his heart rate had slowed down to nothing and he had stopped.
So in the office I pounded his chest and started CPR and then we took him to the cath lab.
I was very lucky. I mean if you’re going to have it, If you’re going to have that
kind of thing happen, being in a cardiologists office is one of the better places to be.
The thing that’s most amazing I think about Dr. Varughese is her concern for her patients
and her constant drive, her constant searching for things to help them, not only when they’ve
had the heart attack but helping prevention of the heart attack. Her personality of her
patient care is phenomenal. Gina was looking for long term effective birth control and
Dr. Maurice Leibman’s Essure procedure was the perfect solution. To hear more about Gina’s
story and other life changing stories, logon to bestdocsnetwork.com. We are one million
strong. We are united behind a cure. There are over one million colorectal cancer survivors
in the United States. My name is Charles Kelley from Lady Antebellum and I’m in this fight
against colorectal cancer because it actually hits pretty close to my family. My father-in-law
was diagnosed with it and the thing about this disease is it is preventable. And so
I encourage everybody to go get screened, let’s beat this thing. Gosh I was young,
maybe about 6 years old and was tagging along with my older brother playing golf and I just
so happened to get too close to him when he was teeing off and got hit with a backswing
right in the nose and from then on that’s when the problem started. Joey came and see
me because he can’t breathe through his nose so he has to breathe through his mouth.
He doesn’t sleep well at night. He snores a lot and that makes him tired all the time.
You know you would sleep through the night but wake up and not feel rested, you know
even though you made it through a whole night and got a whole night of sleep, you just wake
and feel like gosh I really don’t even feel like I slept at all. When we examined Joey
we noticed that the wall in the middle of his nose, what we call a septum that separates
the left and the right side was crooked and in his case was crooked on the right side
you know causing him problems to breathe through his nose. And we agreed upon a treatment plan
that consists of first a surgery to correct his septum to straighten up his septum so
to improve the nasal airway. Very simple outpatient, you know everything was explained to me. Go
in in the morning. I actually took a little nap right before surgery because it was early
in the morning, woke up and that was it. So it was real simple, real easy. Joey’s quality
of life has improved tremendously. He breathes better, he sleeps better and he enjoys life
more. Well you know, you just don’t realize because I’ve had it for so many years, you
just get used to it. You’re thinking the way you’re breathing is normal and it’s
not. And then once it’s changed the way it is, you know I’m able to do things without
getting winded, you know because I’m not having to open my mouth to breathe now. I
mean, I can breathe clear through my nose. The number one reason that patients come and
see me is because they can’t breathe through their nose. In most of the cases, there’s
a solution for that. As a center of excellence for nose and sinus disease, I’m always in
the forefront of medical research to improve my patient outcome. Medicine has advanced
so much that there’s always a solution to breathe well and live well. Patients don’t
have to suffer any more. All of our doctors here at the Best Docs Network are committed
to changing people’s lives, like our next doctor, it’s plastic surgeon Dr. Lucien
Rivela. Cynthia came in before her wedding to lose areas that were difficult for her
to fit into her dress and for her honeymoon. She knew that the cool sculpting was something
that she could have permanent loss that was noticeable and that was not invasive. My procedure
was right before, well three months before my wedding and I really had been working out
hard trying to get into that wedding dress and look perfect. So, I needed little areas
around my back, my little back fat would not go away and so I asked that that be taken
care of. Most patients will have a noticeable permanent loss of fat. It reduces the fat
by freezing the fat cells, crystallizing them. Your body then takes it away with an inflammatory
response and over a several month period you’ll have noticeable effects. We wanted something
that didn’t have long lasting side effects and so that it had minimal downtime and so
people can do this on their lunch hour per se. In addition we wanted something that was
cost effective and it wouldn’t cost as much as a surgery as well. With the cool sculpting
what it helped for me is the fact that like it’s not painful, it’s non-invasive and
you really see results in two to three weeks. I mean I am a little impatient so it was one
of those things that I wasn’t really willing to wait for but I would for three months.
The thing is I saw results in two to three weeks and continue to see results three months
later. So, there’s that factor, and I mean the painless thing is very big so I like that.
Ultimately it’s something that if someone’s not looking for a large area for liposuction
per se, then this would be perfect for that. It doesn’t take the place of liposuction
by any means but it certainly can work with it in addition to after treatment or those
patients that just don’t want surgery. When he was able to do it and it was amazing, like
I mean just for my second to last fitting, there was a huge difference. They were able
to actually take it in around my bust line so it really was significant, so it was really
cool. Everyone should know what their BMI is. That’s your body mass index. It’s
a measure of obesity. You can calculate this through a very simple formula that you can
find on the internet. And what you’re looking for is a number under 25. 20 to 25 for your
BMI is normal. 25 to 30 is overweight. If you’re above 30, that’s obesity. If you
are in the obese range you want to bring it down into the overweight range, if you’re
in the overweight range you of course want to bring it down into the normal range. And
obesity and a high body mass index is a very important thing to know about because it can
affect your health. There’s 26 types of cancer that are affected by obesity as well
as things like arthritis of the knees, hypertension, diabetes, sleep disorders. There’s a whole
lot that can be improved by improving your body mass index. So, know what your BMI number
is, try to get that number down and shoot for a number under 25. Well I was having extremely
heavy periods that were just getting worse and worse, very painful. Just a lot of discomfort
so the only real option for me was hysterectomy or live with it until I go through menopause.
And I’m young enough that I thought it was disrupting my life. So I tell you when I started
in medicine a while ago, most hysterectomies were done abdominally. There was a large incision
made from hip bone to hip bone, the patient would be in the hospital for a week and her
recovery, a very painful recovery, six to eight weeks later. But what’s fantastic
is over the last few years women have choices. We have technology available that allows us
to do big surgeries through little incisions and it depends on the patient, depends on
what her symptoms are, depends on what her needs are and what her wishes are. Oh it was
so easy. I woke up in the recovery in a chair and within an hour and a half to two hours
I was up walking to the bathroom. No pain at all. I went home in the car and really
I was up and walking around within just that day I was up walking around on my own. It’s
a very new procedure and there are very few surgeons in the country that perform it. Aesthetically
it’s very pleasing to the patient because the surgeon uses one incision only, it’s
a very small incision, approximately two centimeters in length and we hide it in the folds around
the belly button. Well it was a whole lot easier than I expected it to be. I’d had
two C-Sections in the past and those were extremely painful procedures afterwards and
this hysterectomy, I went in in the morning, did the preparation and had the surgery and
I was home by 3 o’clock in the afternoon walking around fine, I was fine. I think most
young women especially those who exercise and take care of their bodies want the option
to be able to hide their scars, they don’t have to show them so with the less procedure
I’m able to give them that option. I’m able to allow her to treat her problem while
cosmetically achieving superior results. If you’ve had a doctor help change your life
we’d love to hear about it. Send us an email at info@bestdocsnetwork.com. I am a world
series champion. I am a husband. I am an advocate. I’m in the fight for colorectal cancer because
I lost both of my parents to this disease. Because of my friend who died 120 days after
his diagnosis. As a survivor I want to spread the word so everyone out there knows the importance
of early screening for colorectal cancer. One simple test could save your life or someone
you love. Get screened. Be a part of one million strong. We are one million strong. When you
talk about Ceci she’s talking about issues that pretty much any lady who has had several
children will talk about that they just feel that their stomach never quite went back to
the way it was before. I’ve been active all my life and in sports throughout high
school, my collegiate years ran track and field and competed in Ms. Fitness USA competitions
and had a flat stomach for pretty much most of my life. I have three beautiful girls but
with the pregnancies I had three C-sections also and so having the flat stomach before
and not able to achieve that afterward was kind of like you know a punch in the stomach,
you know so to speak and I wanted to do something about it. And you can do all the exercise
in the world, you can diet all you want and you will still find ladies that still say
I just bulge a little bit more than I remember. And why do they? It’s because that tissue,
that connective tissue there in the stomach has basically been kind of stretched out like
a balloon that’s been overinflated or a rubber band that’s been pulled too far and
it never will snap back to the way it was before. I need to start you know doing for
me now, you know just getting my body back to the way I wanted it to be and I really
didn’t think of plastic surgery but I did my research and I’m glad I did, I’m just
so happy that I did. You know, you see all the effort you’re putting in, you want to
see the results and that’s frustrating for any individual to do something and not see
the results from it and that’s where she was. But then after the surgery, once you
get that tightness back and fix the tissues that were stretched out by pregnancy then
it just adds that you know whole measure back to exercise that she wanted to have from before.
The flat stomach, it is there. We’ve gone on two cruises already and I’ve been in
my bikini. I haven’t been able to do that in a long time, since before my competition
so that was back in 1999 so I hadn’t been able to do that in a while. I’m full force
working out, doing ab exercises, working out with my husband and running, jogging, just
doing all the things that I used to do but now I can show it off and I can wear a half
tank top you know to work out in you know it’s like things I didn’t think I would
be able to do again. Thanks to Dr. Bancroft, yeah. As always for more information on any
of the doctors you’ve see on today’s show, just visit our website bestdocsnetwork.com.
All right, time to head to our next best doctor. He’s one of the best bariatric surgeons
in the entire Houston area, it’s Dr. Robert Marvin. To be honest I was kind of nervous
that morning, you know I was really nervous. I sat there and I didn’t really try to think
about what was going to happen because you know I knew that I was fixing to go in there
and have major life changing surgery. I had my surgery October 25, 2012, this is February
15, 2013 so ten days shy of exactly four months and during that time I’ve lost 93 pounds.
I think he’s doing okay, he’s in the normal range but he could probably be doing better
and I think most of it goes to the fact that he’s not putting in a whole lot of time
exercising. The biggest problem we have to overcome afterwards are some of the problems
that existed before the surgery. Some of the challenges are, some of the things that he
was telling us about, not eating throughout the day, skipping meals, relying on fast foods,
we’ve become so accustomed to doing those kinds of things and not planning what we’re
going to have and not thinking about eating. We kind of go until we get hungry and then
we want to go pick up something fast and have a quick fix but for bariatric patients that’s
just not as easy. As far as how I feel now, I feel better, I sleep better, I move better,
I get around a lot better. You know, I’m more active. There are three key elements
that people and anybody wanting to lose weight can use these also is eating frequently. To
eat frequently to allow your body to burn the calories all throughout the day instead
of loading everything on to the end of the day. Second is eating foods with protein.
And third, water, drinking plenty of water. Water helps our metabolism as well. You know
he’s a young man. I think it’s ideal to take care of this problem early in life. We
already know the risk is there when we look at the patient’s body mass index and their
other medical problems so there’s no real sense in waiting to take care of that problem.
It’s better to take care of it early in life before it develops into something worse.
It’s also better to take care of it early in life because they’re better surgical
candidates. They’re going to go through the operation much easier. My teeth needed
to all be extracted, they were crumbling, they were breaking, I couldn’t chew my food.
He’s a professional, an accountant and he’s certainly concerned about finances and how
to structure his budget and he was the guy that his lower teeth were worse off than the
uppers. And so that was an area that he decided to focus on. I guess this started in 2009
and this really happened in kind of in two settings so that in 2009 we did the lower
and in 2011 we did the upper. The bottom is all done and I’m in the midst of having
the prosthesis on the top done. And also with David his concern regarding his budget. We
were able to do this without grafting. Previously in the upper jaw because of the maxillary
sinuses we would have to graft those areas in the majority of cases that we were replacing
a full jaw worth of implants. But with the advent of cone beam CT we are able to look
at individuals from a 3 dimensional standpoint radio graphically ahead of time so as to know
where the bone is so that we can position implants within that bone and avoid the need
for sinus grafting and subsequently lower his overall cost significantly as well as
increase the predictability. No longer do I have to make sure that everything is in
place where it’s supposed to be in place. It’s, I have, I have a new chance at a brand
new set of teeth and they don’t hurt. It’s satisfying to see him come back smiling, see
him walking down the hallway standing upright with their chin up, smiling and being much
more confident so from a psychological standpoint outside of the health benefits that you see,
the mental health benefits are significant. I’m a CPA, I meet with clients and high
net worth clients. Appearance is important to me, it’s certainly not of the utmost
importance, but it’s important to me and I don’t want to be embarrassed by a crumbling
smile. It’s a wonderful, wonderful solution. For more information on any of the outstanding
doctors you see on today’s show, head to the website bestdocsnetwork.com. That’s
the place to go, bestdocsnetwork.com. Right now it’s time to head to our next best doctor.
One of the best radiologists in the Houston area, it’s Dr. Stephen Rose. We are the
Bobetta Lindig Breast Center at the Memorial, Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and we
provide all the psychosocial services to our patients newly diagnosed with cancer to assist
them through their journey. It’s a very, very special place and it’s a special place,
part because we were fortunate to have a benefactor to provide us a state of the art facility
with a state of the art equipment but it’s much more than that. Well in terms for our
patients who are coming in through our breast center, coming in for their screening, sometimes
coming in for diagnostic imaging if they have a breast lump, following through the process,
having a biopsy. They come in feeling well, feeling good, then all of a sudden they hear
those three words, you have cancer. That can be very scary, particularly when they were
not expecting this. So this is through our breast center, we have a complimentary service.
We have a breast oncology nurse navigator just to meet with you, to visit with you,
to be with you where you’re at, to educate you, to empower you with questions. A patient
comes in and they’re diagnosed with breast cancer, that’s a big shock because most
of our patients are very healthy, they don’t feel sick and so to get this diagnosis, it’s
a big trauma. Having someone who can navigate someone through this shock to get them through
this in a very healthy way and the reassurance that at the end of the day most of them are
going to do very well and they’re either going to be cured or they’re going to have
a very good result. So when patients coming in with a new diagnosis of cancer, we are
there to offer these comprehensive psychosocial services to assist them through this process
and journey. This is center sees more breast cancer than any other hospital in the city
of Houston including M.D. Anderson so it’s a little known fact but we have something
to be very proud of in both the ability to give the patients the state of the art care
as well as to handle a large number of patients in a I think in a very caring way. I am an
athlete. I am a world series champion. I’m a hockey player. I’m a football player.
I am strong. I am strong. I am strong. Fight colorectal cancer. Demand a cure for colon
and *** cancer. I am strong because I have lost a friend’s mother. Because I lost both
of my parents to this disease. I am strong because nobody should suffer. Let’s beat
this cancer. One simple test and you can save your life or someone you love. Get screening.
Be a part of one million strong. Guadalupe came to my office and she complained of a
short fourth toe. This is a congenital deformity. We call it brachymetatarsal and essentially
the fourth metatarsal stops growing and it’s not as long as the other metatarsals. That
causes a short fourth toe and a floppy toe. When I was 10 years old every time I used
slips or like shoes it bothered me a lot. Basically I couldn’t wear a lot of shoes
or tennis shoes because it would bother me. Cosmetically it’s disturbing as well as
it can cause problems physically, pain and other discomforts. I really didn’t thought
there was a possibility we can do that but when we came here the doctor actually told
me yes there is a possibility he can actually do it. The procedure is done in an outpatient
setting. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to do and then you know the patient
goes home. And outside of coming in for dressing changes, suture removals most of the work
is done at home and just involves turning a *** four times a day. It does require compliance
you know as far as not you know excessively weight bearing and really risking injuring
the site. It’s been eight months since the surgery and I’ve been able to run better,
I can walk faster. I can do a lot of stuff now since it’s over. The procedure itself
is not painful but it does take time. We can’t make bone grow overnight, so it can take two
to three months but in the end it’s really dramatic results which you can see from the
x-rays as well as the pictures. It’s better because I can run better. I can wear my shoes
more comfortably. I don’t have the feeling that oh I can’t wear my shoes because it
is going to hurt. It’s really better. I can do a lot more things than before. If you’ve
had a doctor help change your life we’d love to hear about it. Send us an email at
info@bestdocsnetwork.com. We finished the barbeque and I was cleaning the barbeque in
the backyard. My wife and my son were inside the house. By accident I guess I hit with
my arm of a very big leaf on a plant that we have in the backyard and I didn’t notice
that there was a wasp nest on the other side of this big leaf and then three wasps came
from the other side and came right on me and I remember having seen two wasps coming right
like airplanes into my face and I was looking at them but then there was another one that
hit me on my left arm and that was it. I mean within ten minutes basically I was all swollen
up. His biggest mistake when he was taken to the emergency room was that he stood up.
If you’re allergic to the bee or the wasp or the hornet, it will cause a release of
histamine into the system and other things that cause you to break out, swell up and
lose your blood pressure and it’s the losing of the blood pressure that’s the most life
threatening. My wife tells me that I was totally, totally like no strength in the muscles. Everything
was like drooping, that’s what she said. Everything, I just lost complete control of
everything, of every motion. Typically we’ll keep people on the allergy shots for a minimum
of five years and then we’ll re-evaluate where they are in terms of the usual blood
test is what we follow. The most important thing to me was that she explained to me,
she make me understand what’s happening and I think that all the knowledge and understanding
of what happened to me and that this thing can be improved basically in terms of my case
you know with therapy. It’s possible for a person even if they’re on the allergy
shots to have a reaction so we don’t want them to get too sure and until you’re really
built up to your maximum dose and having them once a month, we don’t really know what’s
going to happen. Hopefully they’re not getting stung but we always want them to be prepared
for if there’s multiple stings or if by some chance it didn’t work as well. I like
to understand things and I think that having that knowledge of what happened and the treatment
and there is a process definitely has given me and my family tremendous peace of mind.
That’ll do it, that’ll wrap up yet another edition of the Best Docs Network featuring
some of the best physicians in all of the Houston area that are changing people’s
lives. And for more information on any of these outstanding doctors in the Houston area,
head to the website, bestdocsnetwork.com. And if you have a question or comment we’d
sure love to hear from you, just send us an email at info@bestdocsnetwork.com. So long
everyone, we’ll see you next week.