Surgeon interaction post surgery

I met my surgeon a week before surgery . Every day while in hospital and that was it. I was a nurse in recovery and as another poster stated surgeons typically don't have good bedside manners. But I had the best surgeon in the world !

I saw my surgeon 24 hours after my surgery and i was having horrible pain and he checked on my last pain med and talked to me some .. after that it is the " team" at the hospital. and they have been awesome. I don't really care to see him. he doesn't have much personality. My "team" a PA, a Nurse Practitioner and a nutritionist are accessible to me through email and their appointments with me are never rushed and always helpful.so have helped or answered questions. I guess through some of my reading I am very lucky in that way. I also had my surgery at a an Ivy league medical School and I think when we have access to medical schools , we get better care all around. But, that's just my opinion and my experience.

I have not seen my surgeon since the day after surgery. I am always amazed when I read of continuing surgeon relationships. My after care was passed on to PA and NUT team. Their level of knowledge regarding calorie, carb intake etc. seems minimal. I am so thankful for all the great info I get here!

My experience is kind of weird because I had so many other things going on health-wise preop. I needed a near-total gastrectomy and I needed it yesterday. Yes, I am that special snowflake, lol. I won't go into all of the detail because it's a long and boring story. But, I've had other surgeries as well so I feel I've probably run the gamut.

And the answer is they are all different. Dr. Srikanth was awesome. I talked to him on the phone in many instances; he actually called at night a few times preop. I really needed that at the time and he must have known somehow. I saw him in person before surgery day, on surgery day a few times, and a couple of times after before I went home from the hospital. I saw him for my one week follow up. And that was it. Every other follow up appointment was with his PA.

I would definitely still recommend him for WLS. I didn't need handholding afterward (or if I did I didn't know it) and I'd had several surgeries including a spinal fusion before Srikanth did all of the things he did while he was in there. Frankly I was so thrilled that I didn't need an open incision when I woke up that I really didn't pay much attention to how much time he spent with me. I paid him and he did what I paid him to do.

All surgeons are different though. The guy who did my bowel re-section in 2014 and then my hernia in 2015 had done an appendectomy on my daughter in the late 1990's and was awesome. I saw him once before surgery, MAYBE once on surgery day and discharge and then once post op. I saw my spine surgeon in the OR on surgery day and never again. I honestly don't expect much more.

BUT, if you are new to being in hospitals and/or new to surgeries it certainly could make a person feel kind of unimportant. They spend most time pre-op because they want to do the very best job cutting that they can do and to get to that point they need to ask lots of questions and get lots of history. That takes time. Once they're done and you haven't died on the table they move onto the next in line.

Personally I'd rather not see a surgeon at all and have them do a great job cutting. Someone who has a lot of time to spend on postop folks may have that extra time for a reason, KWIM?

Write your review based on your experience of course. I don't mean to insinuate that your feelings are not important because of course they are. But know that within a month or two this will all be forgotten and become a non-issue.

Best of luck on your journey.

The interesting thing also is that some people seem to have bariatric center support, or built in nutrition center services etc.

There is none of that either. Just whatever resources I can identify for myself. It's okay, but I'm glad there are online forums, because I would be really struggling in many ways without That!

I agree with what grim says. They are all different with different personalities. Our ultimate goal is to find with expertise in cutting. I just happened to hit the jackpot. My surgeon is AWESOME! He is at the top of his field and I always feel like he hears and weighs everything I say to him. With that being said I always go in with a list written of anything I want to know and he takes the time to answer all my questions. He is extremely busy so I am ready to fire those questions out. Even still I think he is careful and protective of all of his patients. I know other patients this dr. has and they feel the same way.

My surgeon stunk as well. The first appointment was great he was all smiles and super nice. Then after that I only saw his associates. The day of surgery the first and only time I seen him was in the OR 2 seconds before they put me out. For my one week visit I seen his associate and a few days later I had to go back in because one of my incisions opened up and was oozing. I seen his associate again. It's very upsetting. It really is a big business.