You want me to have what test again?

[Pat99]

You would think I would be 100% happy since being assigned my surgery date. And I was, until I started getting phone calls from the hospital requesting that I schedule more testing. The problem is that I have already had the testing done. When I explain this to the person who called me I usually get a response like “Oh, maybe I should check the data base again to see if I can find it” or “Can I have the phone number of the specialist so I can request a copy of the report”. I think the problem is that they did in fact check the data base but were overwhelmed when they saw the volumes of paperwork and realized that they would actually have to read each page until they found the report they were looking for. It is much more convenient for them to have me come in to repeat the test, and pay the co-pay, and pay for parking and pay for gas and perhaps lunch, not to mention my time involved.

Has anyone else had to go through this? It’s becoming increasingly frustrating.

 

[reqwhit]

I've been through something similar with my surgeon. There doesn't seem to be one person that is monitoring everything. I was to have the gastric sleeve yesterday. On Monday, I had an endoscopy because my surgeon saw something in my swallow study that didn't look right. So, I go have the endoscopy, two places were biposied. I hear nothing from my surgeon to say, " Houston, we have a problem", in fact his office manager calls me the day before and says " Are you ready for the surgery tomorrow" ? Of course I answered "yes" and get on with packing my overnight bag for the surgery the next morning. Long story short - I go through all the surgical pre-op, get shots, get IV's put in, meet with the anesthesiologist and even have the ugly surgical hat on my head, when my surgeon appears and says " I can't do your surgery, due to the results from the endoscopy". Needless to say, I was floored and speechless. After the initial shock wore off, I broke down. I was hoping so bad for this surgery to begin my whole new life. He went on to say that the biopsy results were entered the day before, but he hadn't had a chance to read them until 5 minutes before surgery. Am I glad he made the smart choice and didn't do the surgery? Yes, but I feel like a bride left at the alter. Why didn't he read the biopsy results the day before and called me a home and told me then. I can't tell you how disappointed I am, Now the only procedure that he will do on me is RNY. It irks me that no one thought to look at the results before having me come to the hospital and get ready. I'm super frustrated and extremely disappointed.

 

[TwoMas]

Hi Regwhit, sounds like a tough time I feel for you, yet I cant imagine. It's too bad the surgons have no idea how we feel and the sacrafices we go through and the deep internal soul searching it has taken to make this decision, not to mention the fact of the cost of bringing a surgical team together when they didn't need to. I have the RnY it seems to be working for me, although I think there may be more involved with the RnY, the success rate seems the same. Will your insurance cover it, I certainly hope you don't have to go through the same prosseses again. Good luck, let us know what happens. Tom

 

[reqwhit]

Thanks for the encouraging words Twomas. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Feb 13th to discuss the RNY procedure. I want to have to the procedure as I see this surgery as my only alternative to starting this new life. I'm a self pay, so I don't even know at this point if he's going to charge me for fiasco on the 2nd or he'll just eat the cost of the pre-op work done. In all fairness, I think he should eat the cost and do the RNY for the money that I gave him. We'll just have to see. I will keep you posted on the upcoming events and Hopefully , I can go ahead with the RNY without any more problems.