I distinctly remember my first visit with Dr. Dumanian. I was 6 months post-treatment for Inflammatory Breast Cancer, I felt emotionally and physically defeated and I was pretty sure there wasn’t much that could be done about the way I looked. I think normalcy was as much as I felt I could possibly hope for. However, Dr. Dumanian’s reconstructive expertise has far exceeded my expectations. I’m pretty sure I can now say I look better than I did before breast cancer! When I researched who I would choose as my plastic surgeon I noticed that Northwestern described him as having a “caring and attentive” bedside manner. I couldn’t agree more. During my initial exams I think I cried more than once and he always sat with me and always leaned in on what I was saying, like it mattered to him that I heal both physically and emotionally. I traveled to Chicago for my care and he has always made himself available for questions and concerns following surgery. I have three small children and they love to see the transformation of their mom. I remember after my last procedure when my daughter said “wow mom, you look pretty!” I never thought I’d hear that after breast cancer and here I am….and I believe it! I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate you Dr. Dumanian!
Sincerely,
Jen
I gave three presentations at the 33rd European hernia society meeting in Ghent, Belgium in May 2011. One was a panel debate on the proper treatment of the open abdomen. A second was a presentation on my results of 100 consecutive intraabdominal mesh cases. The third was on the overuse of bioprosthetic mesh. The presentations led to much discussion amongst the group of European general surgeons.
I participated with Dr. Alex Shin at the 2011 ASSH meeting in Las Vegas, and gave a course on management of symptomatic neuromas.
At the national plastic surgery meeting, I will help give a course on abdominal wall reconstruction with Dr. Chuck Butler and Dr. Gordan Lee. My topics are the use of prosthetic mesh, and the treatment of infected mesh. I have two paper presentations as well. One paper is on plastic surgeon “burn-out” and the factors related to it. The other is on my results of prosthetic mesh use in 100 consecutive patients.