Message for R.M. Regarding your post to RW about Dr's

Hey RM - I just wanted to post a comment that feeds off the request from RW for information on Dr Danner. I do want to let you know, your dr can 'FIRE' you as a patient for being uncompliant or treating people without proper respect. I was 'fired' by my gastro because I refused to have an expensive test I felt I one, couldn't afford and two that I didn't think I needed. He felt otherwise and sent me a letter discharging me from his practice. I'm sure you get the drift. I just wanted to point out, this surgery, while it being life saving, isn't a life saving procedure. Any critical surgery to save your life wouldn't wait. This weight loss surgery will change your health but it will not save your life. If you are in a life threatening condition your PCP would get you into the right surgeon and get things moving for emergency surgery to save your life. When I met Dr B he quickly clarified this is elective surgery, not required. These surgeons take our insurance and wait on payments, thus they are bound by the industry to meet the standards and do what is necessary to guarentte payment. In this day and age, our insurance companies rule our lives, I have had good insurance due to my job, but it costs me thousands of dollars from my paycheck each year. Some dr's are only certified by some insurances, this is where it get's a little lean. I know each case is different, but if your insurance only cover's one dr then you have to wait. I don't know anyone on here who went in and was deemed life threatening and got surgery asap. We all go through the same process, each and everyone. One thing is the demand vs supply, which your aware of. There are approx 5 dr's and the demand for WLS is growing by the day. I won't apologize for coming off rude or insenitive, but it's hard to listen to you complain about these people, who are just like us and should be treated with respect. May dr's will stick up for the staff way before they'd stick up for a patient. You have to learn to be patient while your a patient. As for the diabetes, if your's is so out of control, this will further delay your surgery because one cannot take the risk of a patient dying on the table or having horrible complications. My suggestion is to take the energy you have and get your diabetes under control so you can have your surgery. Good Luck - Jennifer

I think there might not be any room for the truth in regards to a less than positive experience from a Doctors office. In posting my experiences I am now being warned that I could get "fired" by my surgeon. In retrospect it was stupid of me to post that. My goal is to have WLS, and posting about my experience served no purpose in that regard. Because of that I have to agree with you and even thank you for pointing it out. I have treated everyone with respect. I feel however that I must call a spade a spade. When a document is faxed to you and I call you to tell you to expect it and to let me know if there are any problems and then 2 months later you get around to telling me that you never got it, THAT'S A PROBLEM!!! If it just happens once I can overlook it, but when it happens once through the nutritionist, once again through the exercise physiologist, and twice more through my primary care physician, then I have to say something about it, especially when without fail these people can produce fax receipts that prove the documents were faxed. In pointing these FACTS out to them I was always respectful. I have worked in the medical field before and if I lost someone's paperwork, believe me I would have been chewed out, first by the patient and then by my boss. In truth I have completed every requirement posed by my surgeon, most out of my own pocket because to arrange it through my insurance would have taken much longer. While I certainly don't like to wait, I am perfectly capable of waiting on "the system" i.e. insurance requirements, etc. I have gone out of my way to make sure that I have done everything I could do to not be a cause for having to wait. What I don't have patience for is when a delay is caused not my me, or insurance but by lost paperwork. This is the last time I will mention this. I'm sure you know that diabetes works many different ways. Some people have diabetes because they don't produce enough insulin, some because their bodies don't recognize the insulin their body produces and other because their livers are stuck in overdrive producing glucose. I am the latter. My diabetes is a major problem for me. I wish I could say that it is under control but it is not. I am going to diabetes awareness classes. I keep a detailed journal of what I eat, my blood glucose readings, exercise, stress levels, etc. My problem is my liver produces glucose constantly, especially when I am under stress. I don't have to eat many carbs at all and my liver will still produce enough glucose to raise my blood glucose to high levels. This type of diabetes runs in my family, especially in the men. Diabetes has struck six members of my family in the past 10 years and only two of them are still alive. In every case it has resulted in progressive relatively rapid deterioration of kidney function, eventually leading to a choice of dialysis or death. That's on my mother's side of the family. My father died of complications of diabetes, including kidney failure also so I have it on both sides of my family. When my uncle's kidneys shut down on him last year he basically committed suicide rather than be forced to live tied to a dialysis machine. Incidentally gastric bypass surgery has a 96% cure rate for all types of diabetes, including mine (I made sure and asked). I know in the insurance jargon this is still an elective procedure but it is not for me. The resection of my stomach will force me to eat smaller meals, and thereby force my liver to slow down producing glucose. Yes I am obese but I am doing this because I want to live period. As far as being "fired" by my surgeon, I guess in retrospect that is a possibility. In the future I will keep my opinions and experiences to myself. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

You do bring up a good point... I use to work for an insurance co for a few years and every once in a while we would have somebody call in going *crazy* because their Dr said they are no longer welcome back in the office. The last year I worked at insurance co I worked on the provider line so I have a soft spot for them. Not only do they have to deal with patients but also insurance companies denying their claims, sending their checks to who knows where and making them jump thru hoops to get information. Its always good to remember, no matter what, a Drs office is still a business and they are still just regular ole people like you and me working there. It can be extremely frustrating when you are trying to work on something and they lost or never received a fax... but on the same hand the fax machine goes non stop all day for numerous patients and sometimes Drs. The only way an insurance company deems something "life threatening" is if you are literally sitting there dieing and without this procedure you will die. A good example is having a heart attach and needing those little shock paddle thingies. Otherwise, you are just a plain ole request like everybody else