I broke my face! Dr. Kachenmeister put me back together again!

Provider Review

• 12 Oct 2016

My first encounter with Dr. Kachenmeister was in the emergency room of a trauma center. I thank God that Dr. Kachenmeister was on call. I know that the posts here concern procedures/treatments/medications that make people more beautiful. I, on the other hand, needed a plastic/reconstructive surgeon for traumatic head, eye, and facial injuries. I fell. I literally fell on my face. I joked that "the cement broke my fall". But I broke my head, eye, and face. Blessedly there was no TBI, but I was dazed and confused for days. My concussion took weeks to heal. My "fall" resulted in multiple lacerations on my face, nerve damage, multiple fractures of bones supporting and surrounding my eye, small muscles were crushed, and my vision, memory, and speech were affected. I fractured my skull (bone was sticking out of my forehead) and my eye socket was fractured. The force from my fall caused one eyeball (from the fractured socket) to hit the lens of my glasses. My glasses cut my face, but had I not been wearing them, I would have lost my eye. My vision was initially pretty bad. I was having not just double vision, but saw multiples, I couldn't look upwards, and had a narrow field of vision. I saw shadows and my eyes weren't symmetrical. I had orbital rim and orbital floor fractures. Nerves were severed and damaged. My teeth felt "fat" and numb, like at a dentist's office where you've been injected with Novocaine. An ophthalmologist was called in to deal with the blurry and double vision. This specialist determined that I needed surgery to repair the broken bones. Dr. Kachenmeister performed surgery on my eye. He cleaned up and sutured my face, too. Dr. Kachenmeister had the foresight and experience to reconstruct my orbital fractures through one of my lacerations (it was that deep), rather than make a surgical incision, which would produce another scar and itself need to heal. I doubt that an opthomologic surgeon would have ever thought to go through a laceration. There wasn't anything ordinary or usual about my injuries or about my surgery. Dr. Kachenmeister removed bone fragments. He freed trapped eye muscles which helped to eliminate some of my double vision. He restored the normal architecture of my eye socket and repaired deformities of the eye rim that affected my appearance, and he used titanium mesh for orbital reconstruction. I healed much faster and much better than I'd hoped to. I look like me. On subsequent visits to Dr. Kachenmeister's office, I met his staff who are friendly yet professional. They run on time, yet I never felt rushed during my appointments. His office is lovely and private. In all my visits there, I think I only crossed paths with one other patient. Dr. Kachenmeister is thorough, and he explains things well. He patiently answers questions, and he let me know exactly what to expect. He even gave me "timelines" so I had an idea of how I was progressing. The timelines gave me something to look forward to. Although "All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again." Dr. Kachenmeister fixed me right up, unbelievably leaving just the tiniest scars, unnoticeable to those unaware that I'd had an accident. If any of you are researching doctors for cosmetic procedures, I highly recommend Dr. Kachenmeister. Dr. Kachenmeister literally restored my face and my sight. Elective procedures, particularly common cosmetic procedures, should be a breeze after performing emergency facial, including orbital, reconstruction. Most seeking cosmetic surgery wish to change something about themselves, whereas, I am so grateful that Dr. Kachenmeister gave back to me my face and eyesight. Dr. Kachenmeister is a gifted, brilliant surgeon.