Posted by Captin Cannuck on April 22, 2008 at 19:09:43:In Reply to: Re: Seeking advice posted by bredren on April 22, 2008 at 07:44:22:
No. To tell you the truth, I saw Dr. K.L. in Palo Alto because I reasoned that it was a hoop to get through to convince the docs in Canada to operate on me. It is a long story, but I was living in Japan at the time. I was teaching there. I was diagnosed in Japan. Docs in Japan hadn't even heard of MMA. They told me that it was "preposterous" and strongly advised me not to do it. Nevertheless, I was suffering badly. I was extremely depressed and thought that I didn't have any future except for a future of suffering. I read a lot about MMA and wrote docs in Canada. I got replies that showed their attitude. Many Canadian surgeons were very strict in their criteria for operating. Much more strict than American doctors. Generally speaking, Canadian surgeons were willing to operate only if the patient had certain deformaties. For example one wrote me that "if you are lean and trim with an overbight like a bunny, then I would consider operating". When I wrote K.L., I asked him if MMA could be practised on everybodyo or only people with certain types of chins and facial structures. He wrote me back that in his experience MMA has been successfully used on people with all different types of chins. I reasoned thatif what Dr. L said was true, I would be a candn eligible candidate, and I would have hope. Dr. L. was key because he has authored over 100 articles on MMA in medical journals. He has travelled all over the world speaking on MMA and was one of the first doctors to pioneer that operation (see William Dement, The Promise of Sleep). His say-so would hold a lot of weight with any Canadian Oral and Maxilofacial Surgeon. With his credentials and experience, who would they be to question him? I also reasoned that if push came to shove, his professional opinion on paper would be very convincing in a court of law. I was prepared to use legal action to overturn a refusal if it came to that. The Canada Health Act states that a Canadian Citizen is entitled to "Whatever is medically necessary". I thought that if a lawyer acted on my behalf, with an expert like Dr. L. giving an opinion that it was necessary, then I would be in an excellent position to go to court. In fact, I thought that if it came to that, it would probably never even get to court.
I went to Toronto after going to Palo Alto. I had a short list of surgeons. Based on the criteria that I told you about, I narrowed my search down to two of them. I met another poster on this site named "Phooey". I communicated with this poster. He had also done a search and had selected Dr. T. upon the recommendation of a physician. He met with Dr. T.,and Dr. T. had shown him some mail/feedback in the form of thank-you letters from people who had positive results in MMAs that he had performed. What he said attracted my interest. I made an appointment to see Dr. T. and drove to Toronto (North York). As I said, when I met with him, I was not so impressed. I found him arrogant and I though that his evaluation of me was not very thorough. I wrote to Phooey some months after his MMA. He wrote me back that he was not happy with the result of his surgery and implied that he was not impressed with Dr. T. I had already made the decision to go with Dr. G. in Halifax when I got his input, but when I read what he had written, I felt reassured about my decision. This is not to say that Dr. T. is not a good surgeon etc. It is just that he wasn't right for me based on my criteria and my gut reaction was for Dr. G. In the end, it was a "gut" decision, if you know what I mean. It just felt right.
Best of luck.
BTW. If you ever want to ask me anything, go right ahead. I have been where you are right now. I know what you are going through.