Re: PORTLAND REPORT long but worth it :)

May 10, 2001

Wow, Sandy!

That post was really worth it! That sounds great, I'm definitely

impressed by the information on Dr. . Before it was so hard

to find any information on her, which is also one of the reasons I

focused on Rabkin, even though Portland's almost the same distance

for me as San Francisco.

Thanks for the update!

Anita

> Ok redundancy first. J Thank everyone who has supported me

financially and with prayers good thoughts and swingin good will!

The trip itself was a joy, flight couldn't have been smoother, and

the hotel was great. Elle is totally awesome! Angel (she prefers

crone) par excellence! By the way the hotel is the Red Lion

Coliseum. If you need to go to Portland book through the Portland

Visitors website for great discounts no matter where you choose to

stay.

>

> I had a wonderful automatic room upgrade to King deluxe instead of

economy Queen for the same price because of the Portland website.

Large shower, king bed, tv, microwave, refrigerator, coffeepot, hair

dryer, iron and board all in the room with two very comfortable

chairs and like a dining room table in addition to the large dresser

and normal night stands and huge closet. It's also overlooking the

river. Only stipulation is make sure you tell them you need a ground

floor room if you can't climb stairs. No elevator but there is an in

house restaurant and shuttle service to/from the airport twice an

hour. I can also recommend the Double Tree in downtown Portland

(somewhat higher rate) so those are my two best picks. J Silver

Cloud was spoken of but is on a freeway exit with no in house food.

However it is closer to Good Sam Hospital.

>

> Ok now for the report please read all of this because Dr.

does some things for our benefit that I've never heard

another Doc do. Dr. was great, she was so considerate I

couldn't believe it. My " precious " insurance company kept members of

her staff on hold for an hour and would NOT give confirmation to even

pay for the consult. They (insurance) made everyone wait for 3 hours

while they came up with some baloney form saying I had to pay for the

consult if they refused the surgery so obviously I missed my

appointment. I had to leave to keep the appointment with the

Dietitian. (Interesting the insurance paid for two pre op consults

with Welker but then Dr. Schrock wasn't saying he did the surgery

here then either.)

>

> Anyway Dr. went so far out of her way to accommodate me

it was amazing. She stayed late in the afternoon so I could come

back to make sure she saw me even with the insurance denial almost

certain. She is very professional and it's obvious that her staff

until now have been a bit overwhelmed with all the new clients thrown

her way. I found them friendly and working very hard to get up to

speed. Each one of them is trying very hard to keep up and they just

added another staffer to facilitate her patients. ly if I'm

right I think her group partners are letting her down a bit by not

understanding how dramatically her demand is skyrocketing now that

her name is known and she has a good surgery under her belt here.

(meeee next!! Number two has definitely tried harder!) She's got

staffers in training all the time though so one day soon I expect her

team to really gel into a what we refer to as a well oiled machine.

>

> When I finally got into the appointment I saw this very tiny very

attractive but very professional woman with a strong presence. She

is very very professional but there is a twinkle in her eye that

belies the soberness of her professionalism. Since I was so well

prepared and had my information and testing results sent over from

Dr. Welker that part of the consult went very quickly. She even made

joking comments about my " foot thick file " LOL! She has a droll

sense of humor but oh it's there!

>

> The consult was very similar to what Dr. Welker did but she

preferred my color diagram of the DS surgery to her own. (thank you

DS website) She went over exactly what she was going to do in minute

detail, which I appreciated. I'll tell you about the exact numbers

she uses at the end of this report.

>

> She did the physical exam in a very gentle precise manner and then

we discussed time frames. (also at the end of this report.) Her one

concern was that my ankles were swollen even with my water pills and

recommended that I bring that up to my local Doc.

>

> I will be the second DS that she does (hopefully!) since she's been

in the Pacific Northwest but she has done 25 others elsewhere in

addition to what she has done prior to that. There are 12 people in

process for the DS with her at this point. I wanna be next!!!!

>

> All in all I've found that Dr. is consummately

professional which may make her seem a bit hard but I don't believe

that for a minute. She has that twinkle in her eye that you can

catch from time to time when she's amused that belies the very real

professionalism that comes natural for her. Has she done 200

Switches? I don't know but that's ok with me too. She has the best

equipment at her fingertips and is building her career. That makes

her conservative and careful. She's not one whose going to build a

career on flamboyance which is fine by me. From my observation she

is a stickler for detail but not ridged to the point of making things

impossible. If she were I'd never have been accepted. I believe she

will be conservative in her treatment of me and precise in her

surgical techniques. Everything about her speaks this.

>

> I am observant of lots of things where Doctors are concerned that

can tip me off to how they deal with their practice. One is how the

office is decorated. That may sound funny but the way you dress your

home is a good indication of who you are and how you want people to

see you. In all honesty I found Dr. 's office to be very

patient friendly even homey. Her staff is a bit cramped but if her

group is like others I've seen she is allocated so much space and

that's that. The first thing that I saw was she doesn't make you

wait in the outer waiting room although it would give her staff more

space and she may have to do that later. Anyway she has a very homey

comfortable waiting area that opens into the rest of the office

spaces. You have eye contact with many staffers at any time you need

it. I found the staff to be very busy but also very aware that there

are people waiting. You won't be overlooked in her office.

>

> Dr. P didn't even know she has an Internet group. I told her about

it and told her I'd be sending her the mascot the animated Snoopy.

She smiled and said she'd love to see it.

>

> Dr. P also said of course they would appeal if my insurance turned

me down. Not one hint of hesitation! Whew! What a relief that is.

>

> Next thing to tackle is Schrock here in Spokane. I must prove he

doesn't do the DS but Judie Hensel is helping me tackle that

problem. Thanks Judie

>

> OK this is what surgery detail I learned.

>

> Dr. does her surgeries on Monday and likes you to come in

1-2 weeks prior to surgery to get things lined up if possible but is

aware of travel constraints. She also likes you to attend a support

group meeting at that time IF possible.

>

> She has her staff do a special test which my daughter got so

fascinated with she stopped taking notes... sorry. Anyway near as I

can remember it's special and again is for our good. I have reflux

and Dr. P is very interested in following up on that. She puts a

tube in my nose and down my throat. This tests something and I wear

something else for 24 hours. Sorry the details on this are so

sketchy. Anyway she says they've found that even though the reflux

seems to go away many times after surgery she wants a follow up test

in a year. They have found that in many cases the reflux is

continuing to do damage to the esophagus but we don't know it because

of not having so much acid any more. Now there's a Doc who knows her

stuff!!! You can bet I'll be in her office in a year! Just another

perk of being a Dr. patient if you have reflux.

>

> Dr. P expects you to be in the hospital for 3-4 days with 3-4 days

stay in the area after you are discharged from the hospital.

>

> She routinely does a 75 common channel length with 250 – 300

elementary limb (? sp)

>

> She does stapling for the suture line with sutures if there is a

weakness or leaking during surgery. She does the normal leak check

pretty much as everybody else does.

>

> She will write you a letter of medical necessity for your insurance

company if they cover the costs of hotel after surgery.

>

> Make sure you discuss all your current medications with her. She

is very knowledgeable about how they will affect your surgery.

>

> She asks that you contact her office by phone as Sandy (her

receptionist) is now taking all the questions over the phone. This

morning at 9:10 a.m. I had to call and ask a question about a letter

Dr. needs from my Doc here. She wants to make absolute

sure that I have someone caring for me here. I followed recommended

procedure and called Sandy asking for specifics to be sent to me by

email (probably not possible for them right now) or snail mail.

Instead at 10:00 a.m. my phone rang with my answer from Dr.

through Sandy! Yahoo that's an improvement! I met Sandy the other

day and she's a doll. In fact I met nearly all the staff I'd spoken

to over the past months.

>

> I asked Dr. what would happen if I got home and a problem

arose. She told me to go to the local emergency and give them her

number. Either she or one of her partners will handle the situation

personally. If necessary they will fly me back to Portland and take

care of me there! Wow! I didn't expect that. I expected to have to

set up an internist here and have them educated and ready to stand

by " just in case " . Not so, Dr. is a hands on Doc who is

obviously as interested in following up on my care as she is in doing

the surgery. She wants me to see her at 1 week and 3 weeks for

sure. As I said she will sign medical necessity letters if your

insurance will cover transport. It's sure something to check into.

She also knows that for some coming back will not be possible and to

keep me doubly covered wants to set up a line of communication with

my local Doc.

>

> Dr. P says it takes about a week and a half to prepare the

insurance reports and then the wait for the insurance to respond

varies. I think that is the timeframe, my notes are fuzzy on this

point so don't quote me on this average at two weeks. Of course

that's assuming that the insurance company cooperates! Oh in an

ideal world… lol

>

> Dr. s email is her personal email and I think working

through her staff is the best way to get answers. I have observed a

consistent upgrading in staff and the way inquiries are handled in

the now 5 months I've had contact with her office.

>

> All in all I was treated with dignity and respect by a

knowledgeable professional surgeon. Her staff is beginning to click

and I doubt that glitches made once will happen again. That's just

my impression from what I've experienced.

>

> I'm totally at ease with having this surgery at Dr. s

hands and expect to be DS poster person number two for her. J

Thanks to all those who have assisted me along the way and who are

continuing to support me. ONWARD!!!

>

> Blessings,

>

> Sandy G.

May 10, 2001