My Dr's credentials

[Guest guest]

Hi Heidi, Firstly, Thank you for the good wishes and kind words. My Dr

is a Surgeon, Biliary Disease Specialist and Gastroenterologist.His

address and phone number are as follows:

Hebert, C MD - Fletcher Health Care

3 Timber Ln

South Burlington, VT 05403

I am so lucky to have met him, he has taken great care of me as

well as truly caring about my quality of life. He is affiliated with

the University of Vermont and works for Fletcher Healthcare. As

such, he is a teacher and has several interns working on his team at

all times. Him and I have taught quite a few future surgeons in our 7

years of hospital stays, operations, ER visits and CT Scans and MRI's

and ERCP's and GI's....I'm getting depressed just writing that

down...Only kidding. I know that I am getting the best care. My

insurance company made me go to Albany Medical Center for a second

opinion. He takes the time and explains things to me from Pancreatic

Necrosis to enzyme replacement and the like. I'm sure you all know the

drill..Wishing you all the best of health.Jim

[Guest guest]

Jim,

Thanks so much for the information about your physician. His

information has been entered into our Doctor's List in our Database

files. There are already over 90 doctors on this list, from all over

the country, and having a personal recommendation from one CP member

for another is invaluable.

You said your family is 350 miles away - where do they live? It must

be so hard to go through all the trials of this disease without having

family close by to help you out and cheer you up when the going gets

tough.

Yup, I know what it's like to be hospitalized in a teaching hospital

and have to deal with all those interns coming in, with their white

coats, noteboards and inquiring eyes. My knee transplant surgery was

" state of the art " when I had it done oh-so-very-many-years ago, and

my surgeon loved to bring in his interns, using me as a case study.

My GI now does the same in the office with his training Interns, he's

always trying to get the word out about chronic pancreatitis, since

there is so little study of it during their medical training.

I'm glad that you're doing well at the present time, and I'm sure that

there's a lot of information and advice that you can offer our other

members.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

www.pancassociation.org/anthology#Heidi.html

Bluffton, SC

SC State & SE Regional Representative

Pancreatitis Association, International

www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/pancreatitis/

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should

not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

[Guest guest]

Hi Heidi, You asked where my family lives. We are spread out pretty

good these days. My folks retired to Naples, Florida about the time of

my first case of acute pancreatitis. I grew up in Staten Island, New

York and moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1994. My two brothers live in

New Jersey and my sister lives in Connecticut. Believe it or not, my

dog helped me out during the bad times. She has to go out whether or

not I'm hurting and needs to run as she is a black lab, so there were

times I had to get out of the house for her sake and that helped

tremendously. Her name is Layla and she is 10 1/2 years old. My folks

also come up to Vermont every summer to visit and also when I had my

distal pancreatectomy in 1999. They also fly me to Florida during the

long and cold Vermont winters, so their help has been invaluable. I

plan on moving down to Florida as soon as I get approved for section

8. Should be during 2006 as the waiting list is real long for Sect 8.

I also had arthroscopic surgery on my knee back in the 80's when it

wasn't that well known. Jim