Got my Surgeon Appointment

I had given them the wrong phone number, I am glad I called today and clarified the number. So my appointment is for May 15 at TWH with Dr. Jamie Serack surgeon I don’t think I spelled this right. I am excited and nervous all at once and it’s still a month away lol.  My questions are does he give options for surgery dates or is whatever they have at that time? How does it work? Sorry to bug.  What should I expect to when I go there? Now I have a ton of questions.

Hello BaseballGirlie!  I believe it is Dr. Jamie Cyriac.  Your appointment with him will be out of Toronto Western Hospital but he operates at Toronto East General Hospital.  His colleague, Dr. Mary-Ann Aarts did my surgery at TEGH on Feb 4th (and 6th) of this year.  You are in great hands.  They will show you the schedule of his available dates and you should be able to pick from there.  When you go to the surgeon's appointment you will get your PATTS documents (pre-admission testing papers) as well as sign the consent to do the surgery.  Dr. Cyriac will explain everything and ask you if you have any questions.  You will get weighed again, blood pressure taken and waist measurement done as well.  A week or so before your scheduled surgery date you will have to go to the pre-admission clinic at Toronto East General with your PATTS paperwork - Dr. Cyriac's assistant will call you with the date for this.  Good luck and let us know how it goes next month!  I am really excited for you.  It's over a month away but trust me, the time will fly by and before you know it you will be at your appointment.

Thank you so much Dreamy for all that info and I knew that I had spelled his name wrong. How is Toronto East General? I am excited and thank you for all the info. How was your recovery I think that what's making me the most nervous right now. Im excited to do this but nerves are always creeping up.

Hi again!

My recovery is going well.  I had a complication during surgery though.  On the day of surgery, February 4th, I had what they called a "P-E-A episode" (pulseless electrical activity) and my heart stopped.  They pushed epinephrine and continued but it happened again so they halted the surgery altogether.... so Dr. Aarts was only able to do the bowel part and not the stomach part.  I was in ICU and got a full cardio workup - angiogram, CT scan, echocardiogram, etc. and my heart was deemed fine.  So on February 6th, they went back in and were able to finish the surgery, this time with no complications thankfully.  So instead of just 2 days I was in the hospital for 5.  I was in ICU for the whole time.  I got great care - the nurses and ICU doctors were lovely as was Dr. Aarts and her residents who came to check on me too.  I had a surgery buddy Julie with whom I was supposed to meet up with but couldn't as I was in ICU.  Dr. Aarts came back on Friday the 6th of February in the late afternoon to finish the surgery when she normally doesn't do surgeries on Friday so I was extra thankful to her for that.

The only thing(s) that bothered me about TEGH were the fact that no one in ICU knew the bariatric protocol and they were trying to give me aspirin and other NSAIDs.  They also prescribed me chewing gum and kept bringing me water to drink with a straw.  I just gently reminded them of the bariatric protocol each time.  Also the recovery room nurse (the first time, when they weren't able to complete the surgery) told me just to "get my nutrition in order" and "not to worry about not getting the surgery finished".  I was a little insulted by that, but otherwise she was fantastic.  They also held me in recovery for 10 hours waiting for an ICU bed but that couldn't be helped.  It was also a little weird that they gave me a bariatric bed after the second surgery.  The bariatric bed is really big to accommodate us plus sized people and it was really nice, although I fit okay in the regular bed.

I took a full 6 weeks off work and was very tired when I came back to work.  It was hard to go a full 8 hours in a row without a nap haha as while I was off I napped quite a bit.  I was glad to have had the 6 weeks to perfect my eating/protein/vitamin/water routine and to get lots of sleep.

How long do you plan on being off from work for?

I have my preop at tegh tomorrow so thanus for all the info!