when it rains it pours

recieved a call from my surgeons office this a.m. to advise me that do to medical reasons my surgeon will no longer be performing surgry. It was obvious the nurse was upset when she was talking to me so I have vry little informatoin on what the medial problem is. I hope Dr. ALston will be ok and that it is nothing serious though it sounds like it might be. ALL that being said I must now find another surgeon , Dr. Alstons office said he was trying to get his already approved patients taken by some other doctors and to wait until we hear from them. Its not like my surgery was scheduled for tomorrow but I imagine it will be delayed even past iits current setting for october now. SO does anyone in Memphis have any great doctors to reccommend? I changed my insurance co just to get DR. Alston as I wanted the best. now i have no research on anyone else and will have to start over. I am just hoping my Insurance aproval is good for a different DOctor. but knowing BCBS I can just imagine the next shoe to fall will be them telling me that I will have to go back through the approval process. In the back of my mind is the little devil saying this is gods will and I should now reconsider the entire thing. I am currently pushing him away but I hve already had co workers suggesting the very same thing. so send me some encouragement.

Joe, my heart goes out to you. Let me know if I can be of any help. I will be hoping and praying for a quick resolution to your troubles. Hugs, Carol

Joe, I know how discouraging that must be about Dr. Alston, I can't imagine what has happened. I just wanted to say that Dr. McGrath-Weaver at St. Francis was my surgeon and I can not recommend her highly enough. She and her team work with you in any way they can and my wait to have surgery after starting the process was not long at all. You sound like the kind of person who does his homework, so check out her qualifications. I personally found her to be better qualified then any other physician here in Memphis. The whole experience for me was not unpleasant and I did not deal with anyone there that was unprofessional or did not go out of their way to be as nice as possible. I hope this helps. Rita

Thanks rita, I dont thnk St. francis is on my list of approved hospitals. but I will certainly check her out. did she do open rny or lap. DR. Alston only did open so I never considered anything else.

Joe, She did a Fellowship in Laproscopic Bariatric Surgery so she tried to do Laproscopic if at all possible. I can tell you that the recovery time is really short with the Laproscopic. I was back to work in two weeks. She tells you though before you go to sleep that there is always a change that when you awake that she may have had to do open but I haven't really heard to anyone that has happened to yet. She said she has even done the Laproscopic on a 71 BMI. I wanted to avoid the open if I could and I knew that Dr. Alston only did the open. I hope she is on your insurance. Rita

Joe I'm so sorry!! But all good things are worth waiting!! I bet it won't be any longer and I have BC/BS and they said my approval was good for one year so Hopefully yours is too !! Just have to let the office fix it, but you could call BC/BS and check about other doctors in your area. Their are always people around who want to bring you down and some people I think feel like they are required to say things like that! This wasn't anything to do with your approval your Doc got sick!Only you know what is in your heart so follow it. Keep your chin up!!! I'll keep you in my prayers. Best of all things Linda

Hi Joe - I'm in the exact same boat as you - i was scheduled for surgery with Dr. Alston on 9/22/04. I sure hope this doesn't derail us too bad! Good luck, and if you hear anything, let me know and I'll do the same for you. Tim

Joe, dear, i'm sooo sorry you're having to deal with this. It cant be easy. Memphis isnt that far from Nashville. As you can imagine, I highly recommend Dr. Houston. He has been wonderful to me. He's at Centennial along with Dr. Dyer and Dr. Olsen. My advice would be to call BCBS and ask them what other surgeons are approved with them, and start with that list. They shouldnt make you start all over with your approval process. Nothing changed except for the surgeons name. As long as its one they approve you should be ok. And while this is obviously a stumbling block, dont let it sway your decision. Everyone has something go wrong along the way. Use this incident to make you more determined. You can do it!!! I will definately keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Let me know if theres anything I can do to help. God bless! Keep that chin up. Melanie

Hmmmmmm sounds a little pessimistic of that devil ! Instead of listening to that little devil why don't you look for the little angel who says that since there was obviously some problems w/your surgeon that it's a good thing that he decided to stop doing surgeries before he got to yours & something went wrong in the OR. Good luck in your search for a new surgeon, I'm sure there are still some great ones out there. Candi

OKAY HERE IS MY THOUGHTS ON THIS....PRESIST! LET NO ROCK BE LEFT UNTURNED! THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WANT AND NEED FOR YOURSELF. YOU ARE WORTH ALL THE EXTRA EFFORT. WHATEVER IT TAKES..JUST DIVE IN AND FACE IT. I AM SORRY THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED TO YOU. I DO FEEL THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON SOMETIMES. BUT..DO NOT LET THIS STOP YOUR DREAM!!! PLEASE......I ENCOUNTERED MANY HURDELS MYSELF....AND I NEVER GAVE UP! PLEASE JOE..KEEP YOUR FAITH..KEEP YOUR CHIN UP AND DECLARE THIS WAR! GIVE THEM THE FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE...YOU ARE SOOO WORTH IT!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU..HUGS, PEGGY ALLEN