New to the program

I was just clicking by to say hi to everyone out there and hoping to get some much needed information. I've been contemplating this surgery now for almost.... ok over three good years now. My Doctor seriously recommended the surgery for me over a year ago. He had all the paperwork filled out and my referral sent to me. All I had to do was make the appointment and show up. I got cold feet and didn't go through with any of it. I have, however, been on a diet for the entire year of backing out so that's a plus. I went back and my doctor was happy to hear that I was ready for another referral. So I got it! I've made my appointment with Dr. Fang's office for July 3rd. Super Happy! And I also have my psychological evaluation lined up for before the appointment. So I think I'm on the right track. My dilemma now is making all the right moves that need to be made. I need advice on anything and everything that anybody is willing to share about his or her visits, seminars, and schedules that they have had with Dr. Fang. I recently scheduled my seminar with what I thought was Dr. Fang, which would have been last night, but I missed it because I'm a total dip. It was just a frustrating mess last night. I've been talking with I guess two different departments. When I first started the process I thought that I was just supposed to show up for the one seminar with Dr. Fang. So when I called one department they instructed me to come in on a Tuesday night and all was well, until I called to confirm the date and was told that Dr. Fang was not holding any seminars on that date. So I rescheduled for another date. Once again I called to confirm and was told that Dr. Fang was again not holding a seminar on June 20th and that the seminar was actually on the 22nd at 12:30. This totally contradicted what the my first seminar person told me, "Dr. Fang only holds seminars on Tuesday evenings between 4:30 - 6:00." I disagreed and told the receptionist that I was sure that he was having a seminar on the 20th and she assured me that it was on the 22nd at 12:30, so I went with it and scheduled again for the 22nd. Okay, so I call again on the 20th to confirm and was told that the seminar was in fact that night at 4:30. I, however, was over three hours away and it was almost 1 in the afternoon. I understand that I was supposed to get a directions packet sent to me after I had scheduled the seminars but I have yet to recieve any. They have my address correct and everything. None of this would really bother me and I am the type of person to be calm and work things out but I was kind of booked up with summer classes. I have only one semester left before I start the RN program and I was trying to get things out of the way before I was bombarded with a 4-week anatomy class and another 19 credits starting in August. I really work well under presser but lately I have been honestly losing it! After all the frustration of my husbands Dr. Appointments my complete screw ups with my own crappy appointment making skills I gave up this afternoon and drove the 3.5 hours back home and decided to figure it all out later. I took a breather and called Kelly (the scheduler person of the 12:30 seminar) and was SUPER HAPPY to get a machine!!! The message gave me a web site to go to for more information. I have never in my life been so happy to get an answering machine! So here I am now checking out the web site and getting some helpful info. I just didn't understand the entire process of the seminars and everyone I've talked with has told me exactly opposite of what the previous person said. I guess I have one seminar with the RN to go over the ABC's and then another to actually meet Dr. Fang. I have now made my way back to the forums in hopes that someone will take pity on me and for God's sake point me in the right direction with any and all information. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I would be. thank you, Crazy-n-AZ Karen

Dr Fang was my surgeon, Hubby's surgeon & My sister in law's surgeon. We love him, he is awesome. Im sorry your having issues getting scheduled for the seminar. Im pretty sure he only does a seminar once a month, and it's always at 12.30pm. Unless changes have been made the last few months... the whole 4.30pm thing sounds like the ABC classes, they do those on Tuesdays... so maybe your getting the ABC classes and the seminar mixed up?? When I scheduled my seminar, they gave me a completely different ph# you had to call to book in. If you left a message for kelly Im sure she'll get stuff straightened out for you. Good luck, the first stages can sometimes be a bit frustrating, but if insurance is ok it can be a very quick process (@ months from seminar to surgery for me) Darlene

I rescheduled my seminar appointment online for August 10th at 12:30, and received an email confirmation. I had no idea that there were different classes/seminars to attend. When I would call one person would say a certain time and then another would give me a different time. They both represented them as being seminars so I took it for granted that it was the same seminar and just conflicting information. I'm afraid Kelly is going to think I'm a total fruit now. I was hoping to get everything together and have a surgery date in December of this year. With your experiences, is this date from starting now to the actual surgery a good time frame to go by? I was trying to plan everything around my college courses so that I would have at least a month to recuperate. This is all if my insurance goes through. I have everything needed. I even had a daily recording of my diet but my hard drive crashed right in the middle of my English class this past semester. BUMMER! I can go back and, by mostly memory, make up the entire recording again but it was a lot of stuff. If it would help I would do it no doubt. Thanks again, karen