So I just heard the Dr Heidi Wittenberg will be leaving Brownstein and Crane on April 1st, and will be dedicating her San Francisco office to 100% SRS. Her office is currently scheduling consults, and will start scheduling surgeries April 1st.

Correct, I was her 33rd MTF vaginoplasty procedure (not counting the training time she put in working with Thomas Satterwhite) at Brownstein Crane (last April). As one of her patients I received a letter about this change about 3 weeks ago. She will be finishing out her scheduled procedures at B&C through the end of March '18 and then working solo in her existing uro-gyn practice in San Francisco.

Anyone wanting specific feedback (it will be all positive) on her can check out my threads or feel free to PM. Likewise my experiences with B&C.

Hi
She is great surgeon. She has great bedside manner.  I have a feeling she will fill up fast and have a waitlist just like other top surgeons. I do feel that it will be better for her going on her own. Brownstein and Crane office has alot of issues. I have had nothing but problems witht them Thats my opinion on them.

As someone that just had surgery with her. I will be able to answer questions in a few weeks.

Ashley

Ashley, I agree her patients will probably be better served in her SF practice, I am guessing she will be doing procedures at cpmc.

To be fair, b&c seems to be suffering with the difficulties of very fast growth and operating as they do using a surgery center which cannot by law hold a patient for more than 24 hours, their transfer of patients to a separate facility for 2 days of recovery has been reported as choppy. Also the suburban setting, 50 minutes from SF was logistically difficult for us.

Against that, my experience was all of their surgeons and medical staff are? A++++. The nurses who covered my recovery we're some of the best medical professionals I've ever encountered. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the practice and any Dr Thomas Satterwhite has trained.

So I just scheduled with her today. I was waitlisted until late summer 2019 elsewhere. I'm excited, well obviously, and would love feedback on all aspects of GCS performed by her. Aesthetically pleasing, easy to wrk with, recovery, time you had to be off estrogen or progesterone, anything you can think of. I'm super excited.

Quote from: JanelleMarisa on March 21, 2018, 07:01:44 PM
So I just scheduled with her today. I was waitlisted until late summer 2019 elsewhere. I'm excited, well obviously, and would love feedback on all aspects of GCS performed by her. Aesthetically pleasing, easy to wrk with, recovery, time you had to be off estrogen or progesterone, anything you can think of. I'm super excited.

As noted above, she did mine last April, I am / was happy with every aspect. If you want photos I will pm you in a few days with an email address I'll be glad to share them from. In short, everyone who's seen my vagina has said great things about my results. So far this includes 3 lovers (2 female), my gyn and my electrologist who in turn shared them at this year's First event. Also I've emailed images to a few friends from this site and there might be photos posted to my blog on Tumblr. I might also be incorporating a 3d construction into my glass sculpture work ;-).

See my GCS thread here for a pretty thorough account https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,218067.0.html, I think we get to my surgery date sometime around page 4. I was required to stop estrogen 4 weeks prior because I take it intramuscular, had I been on oral dosage it would have been 2 weeks.

Sadie, yes, please do PM me. As far as the stopping estrogen, the part of me that relies on it for a vastly improved outlook on life has to ask-Do you know if they did a pre-surgical check on your levels?
Thanks so much

They did not check levels (it takes longer than that to turn around lab work). I'm simply not capable of dissimulating to someone doing something that important for me. I did push back, asked if they'd be ok with my extremely low dosage.

I would also add that that time off estrogen didn't kill me and it sure did finalize my resolve that I was making the right choice. Of course it's your call.

I'll pm you first thing once I'm allowed to PM, it seems I was a bad girl :-(.

And when you see Heidi, please tell her Sadie said "hi", she'll remember me :-).

S

Thanks Sadie. I was mostly thinking of delaying going off Estrogen so that the chances of a blood clot are still low, but my sanity remains intact. I will definitely tell her. Just a month away 

I just wanted to throw in that everything in here is correct.  She is moving, and has mostly already moved   I had surgery with her 2/14/2018, and I can readily report she is absolutely fantastic.  Great bedside manner, caring attitude, analytical and smart as all get out.

Had a complication.  She helped patch it quickly.  Had an excellent turn around from it - she literally held my hand when I was going under for the follow up surgery for the complication.

I can't say anything but amazing things about her.

J.Raine, quoting myself from about a week post-op by way of context, I traveled to SF for this solo and knew I wouldn't see my GF for another 3 days so I felt very lonely:

QuoteI was having a wave of doubts even as the anesthesiologist was getting started, thinking

"Omg in twenty seconds I'll be under and will be surrendering any control and they're about to take my testicles etc out"

And then I felt a pair of hands holding my left hand, I knew before even looking over it was Heidi, she'd shook my hand when she had arrived.a and so I knew to expect cold hands.

That one little thing really put it over the top for me, the woman taking responsibility for such a big change in my life simply holding my hand as I went under made a huge difference in how it felt to be letting go of control.

Thanks for the feedback J. Did you use insurance for yours, and if so, what was it?

Sadie, now that is a good doctor who knows we are facing this often alone, and gives reassurance that most doctors never think about. My BFF and her wife plan to be there for me, but so few of us have much support from friends and family at this huge event in our life.

Janelle, welcome to Susan's!  And congratulations for having your GCS scheduled. 

Since these were your first posts I'll add information to help with navigation, and site guidelines.

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When you get a chance it would be great if you can introduce yourself in the Introductions Forum.  Really great to see you here!

Kendra

Quote from: JanelleMarisa on March 23, 2018, 10:24:18 AM
Thanks for the feedback J. Did you use insurance for yours, and if so, what was it?

Np

I did use insurance. I have UnitedHealth Care.  But I work for a a tech company and it's a very good plan.

That being said it was In-network.  That being said it was before she officially moved.

Thanks so much J

Kendra, homework completed. Thanks for the tips, rules of the road. I'll explore more now. Thanks so much

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