W - Mt. Sinai

[Guest guest]

The nursing at Mt. Sinai is not good, particularly at night. You should

plan to have a private duty nurse or LPN with you the first night

(unless you are in ICU) and the second night. There is a night nurse

whose name I cannot remember - she has red hair (or at least she did in

August) who is wonderful and there is an aide, ie, who is an

angel. Everyone else is non-responsive and rude. You must arrange for

a private duty nurse through the hospital. I cannot recommend any

aides, but I used Gardenia, who is an RN. Her name was given to me by a

DSer who works at Mt. Sinai. Gardenia was absolutely wonderful. She

charges $50 per hour and you can have her for 8 or 12 hours.

The day shift and evening shifts are not quite as bad. During the day

shift, I hardly ever saw a nurse - but there is Joe , who is an

aide - he is a very sweet young man who you will find very helpful. On

evenings, the nursing is fine - try to get Jill or ?Sherrie? (an African

American woman in her 30's - very smart and professional) - they are

terrific.

Gretchen is the nurse manager for 10E, where you will be. She tries

very hard to take care of the WLS patients. Make sure you let her know

if there are any problems.

One more comment - when you come up to the floor, particularly if it is

at night, do not give in to any request by the nursing staff that you

move yourself to your bed from the stretcher. Insist that they get

however many people they need to help you. I had my father and brother

there specifically for that purpose, because I had been warned - and

with their help and the help of the two aides that brought me upstairs

from the recovery room, it was ok, I did not have to exert myself -

which would have been impossible. Same deal the next day when they take

you down for the swallow test - I made sure that my father and brother

were there to help with the moving.

Good luck to you.

Kathleen B.

land

Lap DS with Dr. Gagner on 8/7/00

CareFirst BCBS

Minus 77 lbs as of 11/15/00