Dr. Lehman or Dr. s?

[Guest guest]

I know so many people here love Dr. Lehman. I've also been hearing

quite a bit about Dr. Mathews in Cincinatti.

We are abandoning our clueless local GI docs, but don't know where

to go. Both of these doctors are exactly the same distance from our

city. I was wondering if anyone here had seen both of them and had

a preference?

Also, Dr. s seems to be one of the ones doing the TP more

frequently, while I've not heard about Dr. Lehman with this

procedure...so does Dr. Lehman not do this, or just use it more

sparingly? Thank you for insight you can provide.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I just recently saw Dr Lehman for a second opinion. He is about

a seven hour drive from me so I was basically looking for some

expert advice that I could use to manage my care from my region.

I haven't seen the other Dr that you mentioned so I will limit my

comments to Dr L (obviously, I guess, duh on me).

First of all, if you are not a city person, driving and parking at the

hospital is a nightmare. And everything costs unbelievably

much......and everything costs (Had to pay for things that I wasn't

used to having to pay for). Leave time to get about as many of the

roads near the hospital are one way and have similar names

and are a little confusing. Other than that it was pretty easy to

find, and getting around in the hospital itself was easy.

The clinic areas are not fancy and modern - his is in the

basement near the radiology area. Very convenient for any

procedures that he requests. He seemed to be a very nice

person but fairly distracted. Maybe I caught him at the wrong time

but I never felt that he really heard a word I said as he kept

repeating the same questions to me over and over again and

never moved to the stuff that I wanted to talk about. Depending

on your specific situation he recommends basically three

options: 1). long term narcotics for pain control with enzyme

supplementation (if you are stable); 2). a course of sandostatin

(which is controversial and very expensive so many insurance

companies will not cover it); 3). a J-tube for a year to rest the

pancreas (obviously this is pretty radical but if there is a need it

is an option). He never mentioned at what point surgery will or if

ever be an option to me...but that can be because I have already

undergone a series of stenting. He then offered to do a CT scan

to see if there are anything obvious that could be causing my

problems that an ERCP with stents could fix. We did that on the

night of the appointment and I met with him briefly the next day to

learn the results. He basically said that there is nothing that he

could offer me and didn't follow through on my request for

guidance on managing the disease - what tests I should get at

what intervals, etc. (still waiting for the letter and it has been over

a month now). Basically he just advised to forget about it until /

unless an emergency situation should come - up and that things

could get better or worse or stay the same..that there is no way to

predict and .that I am fortunate because things could be worse. I

liked the guy overall, but felt that he wasn't really in the same

room with me and was a little rude to me during his

" interrogation " , never asked to look over the radiology films that I

brought with me and never bothered to consider my main

reasons for seeking his opinion,...that is, how did my surgery

from five years ago by a quack cause the damage to my

pancreas, what if anything can be done to fix this damage and

what should I do in the years left to me to minimize the effects

that this disease has on my life.

I hope nobody takes what I just wrote badly. I do not mean to

protray Dr L. poorly. I respect who he is and am very impressed

with his credentials and his research and his willingness to treat

a problem that alot of physicians do not believe exists. I think I

may have just seen him on one of his bad days. Disappointing

to me, but he is human after all.

Laurie

[Guest guest]

,

Yes, I know that they are completely different practices, but I was

wondering which one to go with.

Laurie, your experience with Dr. Lehman sounds horrible! I'm so

sorry that happened. It sounds like the situation with our local

doctors.

is doing very well. He doesn't have any pain. We eat a

relatively low fat diet, and he is taking lots of vitamin

suppliments. He also takes protonix and 2 lipram-ul 20 with meals,

1 with snacks.

He had one ERCP which showed narrowing of the main panc duct w/ a

small amount of inflamation around it. The doc wanted to do and

EUS, but we just didn't like him.

Most doctors seem to want to take the " let's just wait and see "

approach, but from what I can see from , and from all of the

experiences on this list.....it JUST GETS WORSE!