About Dr. Bergom
Dr. Bergom joined Lincoln Surgical Associates in October 2020 as a hybrid and breast surgeon. He works at Memorial Hospital Belleville, Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon.
Hybrid surgeons rotate between elective and surgicalist care a week at a time. As a breast surgeon, Dr. Bergom provides biopsies and surgical treatment to patients who may have breast cancer or other issues affecting the breasts.
Prior to joining Lincoln Surgical, Dr. Bergom was a general surgeon with Aurora Medical Group Wilkinson Clinic in Summit, Wisconsin. He has been practicing surgery for 14 years.
In His Own Words
Why did you go into medicine?
I always had an interest in science, and my dad was an internist so he would come home to the kitchen table every night and tell stories about medical problems that he had faced. So, I had a strong interest in medicine science from an early age. I knew I was going to do something in science and thought it probably would be doing something in medicine when I went to college. When I eventually applied to medical school, I thought I was going to do internal medicine. That was my focus. That's what my dad had done, and then I went on my surgery rotation, and it was just amazing to me how in surgery you would you would see the problem you're addressing and fix it right there in front of your eyes. And then, the patient got better, and that's what really drew me to surgery.
What do you want first-time patients to know going into their appointment?
I want them to know this is a partnership. I'm in this together with them from start to finish. A lot of times in general surgery we'll do quick procedures where maybe we'll take out an appendix or take out a gallbladder, and you see them and then it's finished. But other times, it's longer term issues like breast cancer where they may not have their surgery for three months as they're undergoing other treatments, and then they have their surgery with me, and I'll see them for three months, six months, a year, years down the line. I want them to know that it's a partnership. I'm here for them, and we'll get through it together.
What pain management options are available?
There are two different types of pain management. There's the initial postoperative, very acute pain, and then the longer term recovery-type pain that we deal with. In the initial postoperative pain, we do use injections at the time of surgery to kind of help with that initial few hours after surgery. Then, we talk about the longer term pain management encountering days after surgery to maybe a week or two. We do our best to avoid narcotics. There are a lot of other options out there now that we use that are anti-inflammatory type medications. We do our best to use those to manage pain, and a lot of times, quite honestly, it actually works a lot better than narcotic use.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Well, being from North Dakota, I like to snow and water ski...snow ski in the winter months and water ski in the summer months. I have three girls that also ski so they keep me busy. I also have a saxophone that's gathering a little bit of dust, but I try and get that out every now and then. Because the nights can be quite long in North Dakota, I got into astronomy, and so I have a couple telescopes that I'll drag out every now and then and look at the stars and look at the planets. It's just amazing to me. It kind of expands your mind to to what's out there.
What would you like your patients to know about you?
I would want them to know that I'm in this for them. It's a collaboration between me and the patient, and if they have any concerns or questions or worries about what the treatment is, they can always reach me.