Question:
Should I or shouldn't I?

I had my one on one with the surgeon today. The first consultation was with the nurse and a group of possible patients, which was a month ago.. I was really excited about today and had my questions all ready for the DR. He was extremely nice and I do like him...HOWEVER, I thought today's appointment would have been much better. I figured he would go over the surgery much more than he did. I felt so rushed and even tho he stayed and talked to me for about a half an hour, I felt there was so much missing. Before I knew it, he was walking out of the room. I asked the nurse who was still in the room with me, what happens next...She seemed to want to get out of there and kept edging towards the door lol Overall, I liked the DR. but I felt dissappointed with the consultation. He had emergency surgery and was running two hours behind so hopefully that is why I felt rushed. All I know is that I left there with the same questions I went with. I have no idea about the surgery or aftercare. I was planning on making my decision today, whether I wanted DR. Miles to be my surgeon. Helen, the nurse said that she would try to get my paperwork sent to my ins company...she told me to attend the second nutrition class on Jan. 18th and said she would call me and let me know what is going on????????? I was able to ask her if she could give me an idea as to when my surgery would be and she said either Jan. 20, 27th or first of Febuary. I FEEL LIKE BEING HONEST AND WRITING THE HELEN, THE NURSE AND EXPLAINING MY FEELINGS AND ASK THE QUESTIONS I PLANNED TO ASK TODAY...SUCH AS IF HE TRANSECT THE STOMACH...BUT DON'T KNOW IF THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA...WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK??? My questions were going to help me to determine whether I wanted him to do my wls. Thanks guys and hope all of you are having a great weekend! Josii*    — meltedbuttr (posted on December 13, 2002)

December 13, 2002
Absolutely ask! Call the office, and tell them you still have questions. If you don't get a call-back within a reasonable amount of time (I would say 2 days max), better go elsewhere, as to me, this would be indicative of their response should there be a problem.
   — Leslie F.

December 14, 2002
I certainly do think you should ask your questions... there is no turning back, and you want to make a well informed decision, and to have those questions answered would give you the peace at mind you need. I think you need to ask. It's their job to answer your questions... and the insurance company is giving them a lot of money so they need to do their job, running behind or not. I will keep you in my prayers...hopefully you can go into this sure and confident!! I am counting on you to assert yourself...
   — MF

December 14, 2002
You absolutely must get the answers to your questions! Start by calling the office and tell them that due to the doctor being behind you were not able to get all the information you need and ask if he was a bariatric nurse that could call you and fill in the holes. If he does then most likely the nurse will be able to answer everything and if she/he can't then the nurse can ask the doctor to call you.<p>I also had lots of questions. My doctor does a process similar to what you describe - orientation first, however the doctor did the majority of the orientation. His nurse did some and an insurance person from his clinic finished up. I have called his nurse 2 times to get additional information and she was very nice and helpful.<p>I actually was in a great hurry to get this process going as I want/need surgery late January because of a trip I have booked later in the year. So I pushed until the doctor agreed to see me, which I did at the end of Nov. The first orientation I could get into was January 3rd, which was way to late to get started in my book. Their normal process is if you want to go ahead with surgery after hearing the orientation then you need to get the psych eval done and have it sent to the surgeon. Once they have that then they submit for approval. I could not imagine authorizing them to submit for approval without having discussed my case with the surgeon, that is why I pushed for the appointment. Granted I had to pay for it since the insurance I have till the end of the year won't cover any kind of WLS, but it was worth the $110. Earlier this week I called his nurse and asked if I could crash the orientation yesterday (friday) because there were a lot of basic questions/procedural things that I needed to understand and really wanted to know before January 3rd. I did not ask the doctor them as I knew they would be addressed in the orientation. She told me to come to this weeks session. I was so happy because I now feel like I have 98% of everything answered. The rest will come over the next 6 weeks I'm sure.
   — zoedogcbr