One of the toughest things a patient battling their health has to face is finding the right doctor – ideally, a team of doctors.
It’s a question I get asked quite often – who are my doctors?!
So it’s about time I did a series of posts on all those who help to keep me going.
If you would like to watch a video version of this blog post, then you can right here:
I begin this series with my endometriosis and adenomyosis specialists – a couple of doctors from two different parts of the world – India and the USA.
Endometriosis and adenomyosis are not taken as seriously as we’d like. Those with female reproductive organs have to wait an average of 7 years before they’re believed and receive a diagnosis of endometriosis and or adenomyosis.
To know more about both these conditions, I have quite a detailed resource on this website explaining almost all my experiences with endo and adeno so far.
Now onto the doctors that help me the most:
Mumbai, India
Doctor Prashant & Abhishek Mangeshikar
I first met Dr. Prashant Mangeshikar after reading someone’s endometriosis related experience with him. I was really happy to know that there was someone specifically working on endometriosis other than the regular gynaecologists I had visited over the years who preferred to tell me to just have children and life would be fine.
Dr Prashant was a refreshing change.
He took my history in detail and carried out the required scans. Since I already was a known case of endometriosis (I was diagnosed when I was 11 and later confirmed through a laparoscopy when I was 16) – he was receptive and helped to create a plan to help me.
When I was mentally and physically feeling like I needed surgery, my case had gotten too complicated by then. So he helped me to get opinions from various excision surgery specialists around the world. His support gave me a lot of strength and experience in how to communicate with endometriosis surgeons.
I eventually had surgery in 2019 in New York, in case you wish to know of my experiences there then here’s a series of blog posts that might help:
- Endometriosis Surgery: Ablation v Excision – Which is Better?
- How Much Does Laparoscopic Endometriosis Excision Surgery Cost?
- My Guide: How To Prepare For Endometriosis Laparoscopic Excision Surgery
- My Guide: What To Expect After Endometriosis Excision Surgery
- Six Months On: Endometriosis Laparoscopic Excision Surgery – Am I Better?
On my return, I’ve had all my follow-up appointments and online communications with Dr Prashant’s son, Dr Abhishek Mangeshikar. He too is greatly involved in treating endometriosis and adenomyosis. He’s an endometriosis excision surgery specialist (which is great if I ever need to get the surgery done again) – O’ an added bonus is that he’s kind and understanding.
He currently treats me for my adenomyosis too and helps me to keep a check on my endometriosis post surgery.
Together, this father and son duo run Mangeshikar’s Magic in South Mumbai. They have also founded the Indian Centre for Endometriosis (I.C.E.). If you’d like to get in touch with them then here’s their website:
https://www.endometriosis-india.com/
Physiotherapist Vaibhav Daga
As you may be aware, I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome for which I go through physiotherapy and taping. If you wish to know more about my taping (with video demonstration) then you can here:
So strengthening my back and lower abdomen is very important – especially through pelvic floor therapy. This is where my physiotherapist, Vaibhav Daga stepped in to help me prepare for my excision surgery.
Vaibhav Daga is the head of sports science and rehabilitation physiotherapy at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai. His expertise really helped me with my pre and post surgery.
A good physiotherapist is an essential. I’d definitely be in a worse off state if I didn’t have him and his team around so this is one expert in your team of doctors to not miss out on.
To know more about Vaibhav Daga and to see him, here are his details:
https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/professionals/vaibhavdaga.html
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Nutritionist Pooja Udeshi
I need to make smart food choices. My diet is gluten free and anti-inflammatory.
To know more about it, you can here:
This is where Pooja Udeshi, my nutritionist, comes in. She understands my needs, my medical conditions and any other constraints I may have. This is extremely essential and helpful for when we put my very realistic and doable diet together.
My diet makes me feel like I’m eating well and this just doesn’t help me physically but mentally too. Plus the knowledge gained about food arms us well while dealing with any chronic condition we may have.
What’s special about Pooja is that she goes out of her way to introduce me to food items/products that may help me further and make following my diet easier.
To know more about Pooja Udeshi and to see her – she too, like Vaibhav is at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai. Her details:
https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/professionals/poojaudeshi.html
New York, USA
Doctor Tamer Seckin
Choosing my endometriosis excision surgeon was a tough one. I was in touch with multiple doctors around the world over email. All of them made sense and made me feel comfortable. They all explained my situation to me quite thoroughly which I really appreciated.
But before I got in touch with these other excision specialists, I had met Dr. Seckin. At that time, my pain was really bad and preferably I would’ve loved for him to have carried out my surgery then, but his fees were quite high.
After understanding his charges, as a family we made a mental note of the expenses involved and four years later, in September 2019, he eventually did my excision surgery.
Dr Seckin can come across as straight-up and abrupt, but when you’re a known case of endometriosis (and he’s seen my case 4 years prior), and after exhausting all your other options with surgery as your last resort – there isn’t much to say other than for the procedure to be explained along with post operative care.
Dr Seckin and his team were very thorough in how they treated me, but as with any team of specialists, it’s always best to prepare yourself with questions. In case you need help with that, then I’ve listed them here:
Also, a very important point which I almost missed – Dr Seckin, has treated women who have both Ehler-Danlos syndrome and endometriosis before. When you have EDS, your tissue behaves differently (during surgery as well), you can be a slow healer and Dr Seckin was aware of this. This made him a more reliable doctor for my case. He happened to find a hiatal hernia which he repaired with my own tissue as well.
I found him apt for my case.
If you would like to get in touch with Dr Tamer Seckin, then you can here:
https://drseckin.com/
That’s it for my list of doctors and specialists who help treat both my endometriosis and adenomyosis. I hope this helps someone out there.
As usual if you have any questions then please feel free to drop them in the comments section below.
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I have a podcast too. You can check them out here along with their transcripts or if you don’t wanna read them then they’re available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts too.