My Consultation With Prof. Tibet Erdogru

     I didn't have to wake up this morning, unfortunately, I never fell asleep during the night. Some how I felt fine, it must of been all the built up excitement of my appointment that kept me going. In fact, while I was up in the night on the laptop, I noticed I had a private message, I clicked on it and it was Prof. Erdogru making sure I had made it to Turkey, I'd like to think he was just as excited as me, but probably just more of  a very thoughtful person. Just for those of you who don't know, he is on Facebook's Pudendal Neuralgia Support Group and he keeps us up to date on his procedures it's very nice.

     Pervin explained the day before that breakfast was from 8:00-11:00, and that was included with our stay at the Memorial Guest House. We looked at our options, and there really wasn't much for options. The breakfast menu included only omelets, but not the typical omelets we have in the United States. I think there were five different kinds, plain, and others I quite didn't understand. I could tell they included meat, and on some multiple meats, I'm not much of meat eater so I ordered the plain and asked to add some veggies, my husband ordered a multi meat one, and some orange juice. We had the receptionist in the lobby, who spoke a little bit of English, help us get this ordered over the phone.

      My appointment with Prof. Erdogru was scheduled at 10:00 AM, Pervin asked us to meet her in the lobby at 9:00, she said explained he works at a different hospital. I was getting all my medical records in order when the phone rung, it was Pervin, she was already down in the hospital lobby waiting for us. I looked at the clock it was only 8:25, I explained we were still waiting on our breakfast to come, and as soon as we were done eating we would be right down. There was a knock on our door, it was a sweet lady holding this enormous breakfast tray, she carried it in and sat it on our dresser. Me and my husband got to looking at it and this was not what we had ordered. First of all the plates were identical which included large, thick slices of cheese, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, a bowl of olives, some rolled up meat slices, rolls with honey and jam and creme cheese or butter to use, and some tea in very little tea pot. We had barely finished examining what had just been brought to us when she was back at our door with what looked like the breakfast we had ordered. Our breakfast came on some very large plates, the omelet took up over half of it, on the other half was freshly sliced cucumber and tomatoes. We had just sat down and the phone started to ring, it was Pervin, she was reminding us that she was still down in the lobby waiting for us, I looked at the clock the time was now 8:40. We told her our breakfast just arrived and we would be down in 10 minutes. That's still ten minutes earlier than she had asked for on the day before. So we shovel the food in our mouths as fast as we can, I pick up the enormous trays of food that were brought to us first, and walk it out our door to give back to the girl, there was so much food, I hated to see it go to waste, and we had no where to store it.

     Pervin shows us to the parking garage where a car is waiting to take us, (she always has a driver,) and we leave for the Memorial Atasehir Hospital. A unique geographical fact about Istanbul Turkey is... it is the only city in the world that is divided by two continents, Europe and Asia. At the Memorial Guest House we were on the European side, and Pervin had just informed us that the hospital we were traveling to was on the Asian side of Istanbul. This meant we would be traveling on the Bosphorus Bridge and over the Bosphorus Straight, the channel of water that separates Istanbul into two continents. I had only looked at this on a map and now I was going to get the opportunity to see it first hand, I had no idea we were this close, and it made our 40 minute drive to the hospital very exciting.

     We arrived to the hospital 20 minutes before 10:00, unlike any other doctors appointments I have had in the past, there was no paperwork to fill out, none. We waited in the lobby for our turn with Prof. Erdogru. I think they called for us around 10:10 he greeted us in the hallway and showed us to his office. We got right to business, he started by asking how this all started, and then he wanted a detailed explanation of what doctors I had seen, what they said, and all of the test and procedures that I have had done. After all of that, he went through the diagnostic criteria for PNE or PN that is used in Nantes France and now by Prof Erdogru as well. I said yes to every symptom. It was undeniably clear that I suffer with the chronic and debilitating pain condition of PNE. He explained there was no need to do any further testing, or consultations with any more specialist. That was good news for two reasons, one, that freed up Monday for us, and two, that just saved us an additional $2000 dollars by not needing to repeat tests I had already done. He then moved onto explaining the surgery more in depth, but first started with the story of how he came to be one of the most sought after doctors for PNE. With my best attempt, I am going to share with you what we were told. As most people know he is a Urologist, and he has done thousands of surgeries, he prides himself on his work, but occasionally he would have a patient complaining of pain after what he thought should have been a successful surgery. He could not understand why? He knew he had done everything right but his patients were still suffering. He knew there was more to it. He remembers reading some literature about the pudendal nerve and it's branches while studying at the University, so he did a little more research and learned  more about the pudendal nerve. He wonders if decompressing this nerve is something he could attempt using the laparoscopic surgery that he already knew so well, testing his theory on a cadaver first, he learns he can in fact reach the pudendal nerve using laparoscopic instruments. He asks one of his patients in Turkey who was still suffering with pain, for permission to try, and she agrees. This was over two years ago, and she is still living pain free. Now, over the last couple of years he has pushed himself further and deeper into the pelvis along the pudendal nerve, he can now follow the nerve from the sacral roots all the way to the alcocks, and just a little bit beyond to the three nerve branches. He shared how one patient had underwent surgery and came out pain free, but six month's later her pain had returned due to scar tissue. He was explaining about this patient and her scar tissue problems to a group of surgeons at a conference at the beginning of this year. Another doctor suggested an omental flap (omentum is a special tissue/fat layer found only in our abdomen that protects our internal organs). He could use this tissue to protect the nerve from scar tissue by wrapping it around the nerve. He liked the idea, and this is now his technique. So far, he is very happy with the results. I loved that he shared his story, it showed how passionate he is about what he does, and how he is determined to have pain free patients. He went on to show us a video of the surgery on his laptop. He keeps a copy of all his surgeries stored for review later. While viewing the video he broke it down so we would have an idea of what this surgery entailed. We learned I will be his 31st patient to have this surgery, the second female, and third patient from the United States. He assured me that he takes his time in surgery as this is very delicate work, I know he will do all that he can for me. Prof. Erdogru suggested we get a hotel closer to the hospital to make post-op appointments more convenient, Pervin started working on that the minute we left his office.

     He then asked Pervin to take me to get my blood work done, and to go talk with the anesthesiologist for a brief history. Finally, our day at the hospital was over we could now head back to our hotel room. I was starting to get very sleepy, and on the ride back I fell asleep, according to my husband I missed one heck of an adventurous ride. (Maybe it was good I was asleep)

     My husband seen a Domino's pizza on the way to our hotel, he suggested we have some delivered to our hotel room. Okay, I could go for some pizza. (Ya, if we had only known.) For those of you that are familiar with Domino's Pizza we ordered the extravaganza, basically a combination pizza. This is when the line "Toto, I have a feeling were not in Kansas anymore" runs through my head. Turkey sure puts a whole new spin on Domino's Pizza, ready for this, I think it was sliced hot dogs or something similar and corn, along with some other things that looked familiar. I think it is going to be a long time before I order another Domino's Pizza. Yuck!