The beginning of uw's dumb and dumber

Hi, I have spent enough times with my husband, trying to get through the mirky maze of the external peripherals of UW Hospital to know when it's now my turn. I figured it was coming. I made the mistake of calling what I thought was my surgeon's office and they did indeed say it was,however, I think it was a call center of some kind. I wanted to know if my referral had arrived. I was passed from one person to another and one very surprised-sounding said "Oh! it just came in today!" I have a feeling that line has been well-rehearsed, along with the phony surprise. My husband translates it as "it's been here for .... and we just now noticed/found it." How much energy some of those people must expend just covering for themselves and each other. Then, before I could ask another question, I was transferred to someone else, who knows where, who informed me that this was being done all wrong. Like I'm supposed to fix it? Not wanting to be part of their web, I said that if there was a better way, I hoped she could figure it out. She said she would send my referral to the bariatric dpt (which I've never heard of.) I did not feel assured by this. I was hoping things would not go far astray from my surgeon's office. I wanted to talk to him, which I realized was impossible, and one of his nurses would have been okay, but by then, I had no confidence in the switch/switch/switch getting me to someone who would be of help. They sure have this tangled ensnarement down pat. I have had to be majorly assertive, in my husband's case, to get past it, to get real help, now I need to do it for myself. Oh yeah, who is Dr. O anyway? Seems like nearly everyone else around here has him. I wonder why? Thanks. Lauren

Laren, who is your Dr.? If you have gone through all the testing & are waiting for approval & scheduling, the person to call is Lynn @ 206-598-9429. She does the scheduling for bariatrics @ the UW hospital. I have Dr Flum and am scheduled for 1/8/04 Marj P.S. Hope that this helps.

Hi, No, I haven't even gotten that far. Dr. Dellinger had told me to call him in a week, which is what I had tried to do, but part of the problem is that I didn't go the status quo route; (I rarely go that route in anything) Now that I had met my surgeon, I had hoped we could keep it there through his office, but now my stuff is over in the mirky entrails of the UW unsupport staff. They tend to really mess thins up. Sorry if my cynicism bothers anyone; I've been through too much of it with my husband. Anyway, I was unable to talk to Dr. Dellinger, so he may be thinking I chickened out or something, but I could not get past the phone people. First, they didn't think they had a referral. Then when they did they said it was done improperly, therefore, I never got to talk to him or even one of his nurses. I'm just a preop. I haven't literally had my first consult; we had an extemporaneous partial consult when I went in about the umbilical hernia. It was important to me to meet the surgeon who is going to be cutting on me. The rest of them don't matter that much. I needed to meet him *first* not near the last of the whole thing. On another note, Jim and I attended the Stevens Hospital group tonight and I was able to ask some questions there and to meet some fairly recent postos who did not seem to be at death's door. This was important to me. I need to do whatever I can to calm down some of that worry about complications. Thanks. Lauren