An Unrelated Surgeon Weighs In

I had another excellent conversation, this time with my friend and yoga student who is a pediatric heart surgeon. That's right people, he operates on walnut-sized, brand new hearts. Like these ones over here ->

Here's what he said:

In an ordinary, run-of-the-mill situation, like gallstones, you could go to a million different doctors and they would all say the same thing, remove the gallbladder, because it is the standard surgery. But when you get to a level of medicine that is this specialized, you will get multiple opinions, and you usually end up in the situation that I am in, where you have 3 different, all very competent doctors, recommending 2 different things.

It's important that you're not looking for a particular answer like "saw my leg off!" because if you go to enough doctors, eventually you'll find someone willing to do it. You also want to make sure that they're not recommending whatever they're recommending because of a study or something they're doing that doesn't have anything to do with your case. And to be aware that a lot of decisions are made in the OR as well once you're on the operating table.

So with all that in mind the most important thing is to really trust your doctor and feel comfortable that he is competent, which is how I feel about Dr. Buly. Once you have made that choice, you should then start creating a positive energy around the surgery, that he is the best surgeon for the job, everything's going to go well on the day, everything will heal well etc. He said the people that do that seem to have the best outcomes.

AND I spoke to a prior patient of Dr. Buly's and apparently when they all go off to the big conferences he's the one who's leading the master classes, that he is really the top of his field. I am so relieved at this point and I'm already starting to create that positive energy around him. Feel free to do the same.