Amazing human and awesome surgeon.

Provider Review

• 21 Apr 2018

Ready for a book? I want to give the whole story so you can see how amazing it was to have a PS who cared so much. I saw Dr Waldman in 2012 for a revision of my lift/BA. I had my original lift/BA in 2008 in Cairo, Egypt, where we were living before moving to NH. I found him on Real Self. He did an awesome job, he’s very sweet, and was very realistic with me. I had 325cc’c in my pre implant C cup breasts so I was then a 36DD when I saw him. I wanted a little bigger and another lift. I got 555cc Mentor Siltex silicone implants and another lift. I healed quickly, he took wonderful care of me and the surgery center was simply amazing to me (I’ve had a lot of surgeries, recovered quickly and went on with my life) and it was one of the best aftercare experiences I’ve had. He warned me before hand that these were heavy implants and I would eventually start to sag again because of the weight. I was young and didn’t listen... I’ve never had issues or pain or lumps in my breasts so I figured I’d be one of those who never had an issue and would just have them forever even tho I knew they weren’t a permanent thing. I’ve loved them up until last year. I found a lump in my breast that was causing pain. This lump was growing fast and HURT. Had a biopsy and it came back as b9. Had it taken out in August 2017 because it was painful. So glad I had that nagging feeling to take it out as the benign lump had pre-cancer inside of it. VERY rare phenomenon I’m told. The general surgeon who took out my lump was shocked by this pathology. This lumpectomy apparently set off a slow firestorm in my rt breast. Fast forward to this year in March. I had been having pain in my breast and pretty awful chest pains right in my sternum which I thought were from working out? Even after stopping the workouts and using heat and on and on nothing helped. I was due for my screening mammo since I have to have them every year now along with an ultrasound because I have very dense breasts and had the pre cancer last year. Mammo/US showed I have swollen axillary nodes on the left. They don’t see a reason for the severe pain on my rt. I also have some lumps here and there that weren’t there b4. The lumps are sitting right on my implants. They can’t find those, but they see that my nodes are growing and are twice the size they should be. So I go for a diagnostic mammo and another US. They don’t show anything more than what the first showed. So they then send me for a breast MRI since I have worsening pain in my rt breast and severe chest pains. So the MRI finds that a few very small areas of enhancement on the left that are too small to really know what they are yet, coincidental lesion on my sternum that is too small to be causing anything I’m told, and they “think” my left implant is ruptured and my nodes are full of silicone. I have three large nodes on the left and at that time I didn’t feel them. They wanted me to go in for a special implant breast mri. This is where they can see if there is silicone outside of my implant. They also do another ultrasound on this day and see that my nodes have grown another 50%, or 3+cm now, in two weeks. They can’t tell anything different from this MRI. 7k in the toilet now from this useless MRI.... Now the nodes are symptomatic, as is my left breast now. Frequently very achy and now my arm is achy a lot and driving any long length of time is painful. Sucks because I can’t take anti inflammatories due to stomach issues. Turns out my rt side nodes are enlarged as well but we don’t know why yet. They still can’t find an imaging reason for my rt side pain. Rt Implant looks fine in all imaging. This is where after they’ve bounced me around all over to different imaging modalities with no answers and no hope to ease my pain, I scheduled to see dr Waldman to see if he could just explant me and clean me out and do a small reduction since I’m at high risk for BC now. Until this point, I was so upset and very sad that I could not live my life due to such bad chest pain and breast pain. I have a farm and my husband and I are travelers. I feared I wouldn’t be able to do anything anymore. Dr Waldman immediately took charge of me and said he didn’t like how I’d been passed around and given no answers after so many tests. He right away, texted a specialist breast surgeon friend of his while I was sitting there, telling her I needed help ASAP, and could she squeeze me in. He listened, and hugged me and said we’d get to the bottom of it. He didn’t want to do a surgery until he could be reasonably assured that I didn’t have cancer lurking in there somewhere and make it a waste. 5 minutes within leaving his office he called me and said the breast surgeon was going to call that day. He has been so wonderful and kind to me. So I drive to Whole Foods about 15 minutes away to get some groceries and the new Breast Center calls me telling me they’ve already requested all of my imaging and testing be Fed Ex’d and it will be there Monday and could I come in Thursday (April 19) so they have some time to go over my films etc. Basically, this Onco surgeon said she doesn’t understand the confusion of the previous drs because my implant is VERY ruptured, my nodes are FULL of silicone and most of what is going on is due to scar tissue build up from the lumpectomy I had that set off inflammation, reaction to free silicone (there’s no ‘real evidence’ silicone causes this, only anecdotal evidence) , and inflammation. Not to mention, that my breasts are very large (36F/G ) and weigh a lot, combined with a lot of inflammation and that causes a lot of pain. She was wonderful, obviously brilliant, and made me feel important and cared for. She recommended immediate explant. She said she hoped I’d opt to not have implants anymore because now I am a high risk and implants make breast imaging very difficult in the best of situations, but I also have very dense breast tissue making it much more difficult. They couldn’t even see my lump on mammo last year that was 2cm+ because of my dense tissue. They had to find it on ultrasound. So I have an appt with Dr Waldman Wednesday for Im guessing a surgery plan, payment, and scheduling. My insurance website says they’ll pay for explant when there’s a rupture so hopefully they’ll pay for that and I’ll pay for a small reduction at the same time. Now because I’ve previously had two breast surgeries, I may not be able to save sensation in my areola/nipple. Honestly, at this point, I just want the pain to end. I drove a lot the last two days for appts and to get my son to the airport 90 minutes away and when I got home yesterday both of my armpits and left arm were on fire from the swollen nodes and my rt breast was slightly swollen and so painful I didn’t even want to move. I’m lucky that my primary dr who has also been wonderful believes my pain and gives me meds but it took half of the day to control the pain yesterday. This has really impacted my life. I’m a quilter and a farmer and I can’t do either of those right now. The Onco breast surgeon said we’ll evaluate my nodes again after surgery because messing with nodes is a whole other ballpark she said. Very painful and there can be long lasting side effects. Right now, I feel like I have a lime in my left armpit and I’m not sure I can go my whole life feeling that along with the aching. We’ll see how they are after surgery and decide then she said. There are a couple morals to this story. One- be your own advocate! Drs seem to always say if your breast hurts, that’s good because cancer doesn’t hurt. That’s BS. If I had left that painful pre cancerous lump in there who knows what would have happened. The ladies at breastcancer . Org did their own poll and 30-35% of women who had invasive breast cancer presented with pain and they were poopoo’d for awhile with drs saying that BC doesn’t hurt so it’s probably nothing. 2nd- a good dr/surgeon on your side is priceless and can make a world of difference, and 3rd- I wish that I had just been happy with myself to begin with. Would have saved me a lot of pain and money lol. We need to love ourselves more! I know this is a long review but Dr Waldman really stepped up and the breast surgeon I saw said she was so glad he sent me to her and she’s going to be my new breast dr for my every six month MRI’s and US. Between her and Dr Waldman I feel like I’m in awesome hands. I would recommend anyone looking for any cosmetic surgery to see Dr Waldman. My breasts are heavily tattooed but you can barely see the scars, I got excellent results, and he is just an awesome person.