Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - North Mississippi - (Page 7)

Ladies First NMMC’s new surgical robot is helping women ﬁnd relief from pain M issie Barnett says she wanted to shout for joy when she woke up after surgery in January. “I went into surgery hurting and woke up without pain,” says the 43-year-old from Tupelo. Just before Christmas 2010, she began suffering from terrible pain in the lower left part of her abdomen that escalated for almost a year. “About once a month it was constant misery,” says Barnett, who had always suffered from heavy periods. Mark Ray, M.D., an Ob-Gyn on staff at North Mississippi Medical Center Women’s Hospital in Tupelo, did laparoscopic surgery in December 2010 to remove a large endometrioma, or endometrial tissue, that had engulfed her ovary and beyond. “The pain got some better, but it never went away,” she says. Because the endometrioma had become so large and entwined, Ray suggested doing a hysterectomy using the da Vinci surgical robot. With two teenagers at home, the Barnetts felt their family was complete and didn’t plan to have more children. “I trust Dr. Ray with my life, and I was so ready for this procedure,” she says. Barnett had her robotic hysterectomy Jan. 12. “I simply didn’t hurt anymore,” she says. “I never even took any pain medication. A few days later I was up and around, bending over and cutting fabric, helping my daughter make a quilt. “Obviously, a hysterectomy is your last resort. But if you get to that point, robotic surgery is the way to go.” MIS SIE BA RN ETT A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND NMMC acquired its ﬁrst da Vinci surgical robot in 2008 for prostate surgery and gynecologic procedures. Because of increased demand, the NMMC Women’s Hospital acquired the newest generation surgical robot, the da Vinci Si, this year. The robot’s instrumentation offers surgeons ﬂexibility beyond the limitations of their own hands. “We can go places and reach in spaces that the human hand can’t,” says Eric Webb, M.D., who was the ﬁrst to perform gynecologic procedures at NMMC using the robot. “The robot allows us to operate in spaces that we could not before.” For this reason, the laparoscopic surgery option is available to more women now than ever before. “Using the robot takes difﬁcult cases that otherwise would require a big incision and allows us to do them using a laparoscopic approach,” Ray says. “Nationwide, the number of robotic hysterectomies has already surpassed the number of vaginal and traditional laparoscopic hysterectomies combined.” Last year at NMMC-Tupelo, more than 75 percent of hysterectomies were done laparoscopically, leaving less than 25 percent to be done through traditional open surgery or vaginally. This percentage is even more impressive when compared with the national laparoscopic hysterectomy average of 47 percent. Neither Webb nor Ray are surprised that robotassisted procedures have taken off, because the Vim & Vigor · FAL L 2012 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - North Mississippi

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - North Mississippi
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Winning the Weight War
Ladies First
30 Days to Better Sleep
I Can's Ask My Doctor That!
He Said, She Said
Hold On to Your Health
Still a Screening Star
Your Joints: An Owner’s Manual
Weighing Your Options
No Greater Gift
Weather Alert
Virtual Health
Special Report
Catch the Spirit

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - North Mississippi