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| - My parathyroid surgery with Dr. Van Lier Ribbink was the most disappointing, confusing and painful surgery of my life. After extensive, expensive, invasive testing which now appears to have been unnecessary, very limited information was shown regarding the location of my diseased parathyroid gland yet we proceeded to surgery. I was told he had this. I was confident going in, as I was led to believe Dr. VLR knew what he was doing and this would be successful. When I woke up with a limited voice, no right thyroid and my last normal parathyroid on the left side gone I was disappointed, confused and shocked. My previous surgery for the same thing had been a failure leaving me with only two parathyroid glands, one healthy, one not so this was a very important surgery. That surgery in Seattle, although a failure was a very simple recovery. This was horrible and recovery took months with many other doctors called in to assist. I usually rebound quickly. I saw Dr. VLR twice after that failed surgery, no phone calls, emails or concern. I felt like a throw away. I am now having voice therapy and not sure my voice will ever come back to the way it was. After extensive research, and seeking opinions of many specialists, I am going to Dr. Jim Norman, one of the top surgeons in this field in Tampa in April and am hopeful. I only wish I had gone to a parathyroid specialist in the beginning. I am facing many unknowns and highly recommend anyone who repeat parathyroid surgery to be very selective in your process. I would never want anyone to go through what I have gone thru as this should have been a relatively simple procedure.
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