Mirror, Mirror on the wall who's the best Endo surgeon of them all?

I am sure the title of this post caught your attention and that was my intent. 

There has been a lot of friction in the Endometriosis community when it comes to surgeons and who is the best. There are people that I have started calling "Surgeon Groupies" who follow certain surgeons and feed off everything they say. They often trash other surgeons theories and capabilities on-line for all to see or they promote them like they were marketing more surgeries for them.  

Then we have surgeons who actually think they are the best or the Gods of Endometriosis and this certainly doesn't help patients at all it just makes ones newly diagnosed confused on who and what to believe. 

This has become so frustrating being a person that talks/supports a lot of Endo patients around the world because the fact remains that every surgeon is human. Surgeons make mistakes, surgeons have victories, surgeons have feelings, surgeons have gone to school for years in order to do something they love doing, and some also have huge egos. We as patients forget this sometimes and it really doesn't help our cause. 

So how do we as patients know what to believe? Well that is a tough question to answer and I can only speak from what I have learned reading on-line, talking to other patient advocates and surgeons and from my own common sense. 

There is no cure for Endometriosis. Period. If there was we would also know why some women get Endometriosis and why some don't, and why some get it so severe and some that don't feel pain at all. With that being said there is no guarantee that with excision surgery you will be free from Endo. Yes, some will be pain free, some even never even think of Endo again, but then there will be others that just do not get relief and there are many reasons for that. 

I truly believe that you as a patient can't put all your faith in a surgeon to heal you from a disease that there is no cure for. Yes, you want the best one who has the skill and knows what to look for and be able to remove off multiple organs, but you also have to work on other areas of the body as well like doing pelvic floor therapy, meditation, maybe even psychotherapy to deal with the trauma of the disease, work on your diet, lifestyle as well as grieving for the life you once had before Endo took hold of it. There is a whole process that needs to be done and as exhausting as it is you really need to see the whole picture. Stand back and take it in and go forward. 

In closing I think we need to stop putting this huge expectation on these surgeons being miracle workers because this is a very complex disease and everyone of those surgeons may be good in their own way but not one of them is the best because if there was a "BEST" we would all be cured. 

If we want change, excellence centres and research done so that there can be a cure we need to stand together and stop bashing these doctors and band together. We need to attend awareness events, fundraisers and stop making excuses why you can't go. If you want change you need to be the change as well.