Surgery with Dr. Antolak???

[MichaelaZ]

Has anyone have a surgery with Dr. Antolak? What symptoms did you have pre-op and what was the outcome and recovary? Did he follow up with you? I gues id like to know what the whole experience with him was? Thank you!!

[paulette]

Send Ellie a PM. She had surgery from Dr. Antolak. I believe her tag is river 23 or maybe river33. Dr. Conway did my surgery using the TG method. He was trained by Dr. Antolak. Paulette

[MichaelaZ]

Send Ellie a PM. She had surgery from Dr. Antolak. I believe her tag is river 23 or maybe river33. Dr. Conway did my surgery using the TG method. He was trained by Dr. Antolak. Paulette

Thank you Paulette! When was your surgery? How are you feeling after? Hope you got some relief!

[REV800X]

I would be very interested in hearing about this as well as I am contemplating surgery with Dr. Antolak soon. Your comments are appreciated.

[paulette]

I am sorry about taking so long to answer your question. I forget where I have posted and neglect to check back. My surgery was Aug. 23. I think I can say I am finally getting better. It is mainly since I started PT. The deep tissue massage and cupping he is doing is eliminating some of the PN pain and the piriformis pain as well. The challenge is not to over do when I feel better. My only regret is that I waited 3 years to have the surgery. I think my chances of recovery would be much higher if the nerve had not been so damaged. I believe Dr. Conway did everything he could to "rescue" the pudendal nerve. But if i had gone to Dr. Martin instead, he could have decompressed any other nerves that were entrapped, such as the sciatic or the PFCN.

[Princesspokie]

Hello,

I am a patient of Dr. Antolak's! I have gone through the series of 3 PNI Injections and now the conversation about surgery has started. I do love him as a doctor, he is very knowledgible and seems to know everything about this horrible problem that we are to live with! Hare you had your surgery yet?

[konedog4]

Considering surgery:

As with any surgery, especially one that involves the pelvic nerves, make sure you do your own homework and ask to see Dr. Antolak's surgical results. Then compare his results with other PN surgical doctors. From what I have read, about 40% get "cured", about 30% feel better, (not cured), and 30% have no improvement or feel worse. I don't know about you, but i don't like the odds on surgery.

Bottom line: demand to see surgical statistical results before considering any surgery, and make sure you have tried everything else short of surgery. In my opinion, surgery should be the very last option. If we had a surgical technique that was standardized and predictable, I would be more comfortable with surgery. However, this is not the case with PN surgery. I wrote Dr. Ken Renney, (Houston surgical team), and he wrote back that the surgery is 100% unpredictable, meaning (I think), there are no guaranteed results.

Consider surgery very carefully.

kone

[Princesspokie]

Kone ~ Believe me I have tried I have gone through 5 injections that take my pain away for about 2 weeks and then it returns. I am young and would love to be able to enjoy my life with my husband and 3 wonderful children! Dr. Antolak has done between 800-900 of these surgeries. He has told me that the success rate he has is about 65-75% after 2 years. He also has stated that there is a chance that my nerve is damaged to the point where it might not be able to be saved. Dr. Antolak seems to be so caring and shows sympathy and empathy towards his patients. I can't live like this for the rest of my life, it isn't fare to myself or my family! At this point I am will to try anything to make this horrible problem go away!!

[Bathsheba]

I feel your pain and understand your frustration and desire to just get on with life and put this behind you. We all feel this way.

Do some research on Dr. Antolak by searching his name on this forum and TIPNA before you do anything. Learn others' experience with him and remember that bedside manner is worthless and having the surgery can create scarring which can further complicate the problem. The success rates for re-operating on failed PN surgeries are not good.

It's very frustrating that PN is not a medical problem like, say, colon cancer, which has an established diagnositic and treatment protocol based on thousands of cases. I told my MD that I'd rather have colon cancer (which runs in my family and killed my grandmother). PN is an "orphan" disease and there are simply not enough people with it. What's more, a lot of sufferers have very complicated pelvic floor and other involvements which means that everyone is different, so that treating people with this disorder is very "challenging" for MD's and hence not attractive.

Good luck and please do your research.

Bathsheba

[river133]

As I understand surgeries done by all of the drs doing pn decompression are only releasing part of the nerve.. I had pn surgery by dr.Antalok jan. 2011' I just kept getting worse. I had surgery in Ca. 6 weeks ago by a nuersugeon.Same dr. Paulette had. Dr.Isreal Chambi.-Dr.Chambi decompressed the pudendal_ cutenous .sciatic and peroneal nerves. Could be one I forgot. My piriformis muscle was removed because it was flattening and pressing the sciatic nerves against my pelvic bone.This was all because of an old injury to my piriformis muscle. There is so much more to this surgery that I ca not explain. Dr.Chambi said nerves need to be decompressed by a nuersegeon.--I try really hard-not-to be angry about the past 4 and a half years .I hate the opiates. A couple of weeks ago I just quit taking the opiates
because I hate them.I didn.t think they were working--I lasted 48 hours .The pain was undescribable. I had to give in. I know it was not real smart of me to stop the way I did. I am so looking forward to the day that I will be able to live without this intese pain... I would love to see the real success stories by Dr Antalok and all of the others. There are always more nerves involved . Not just the pudendal .love and peace to all with this horrible disease. Ellie