Re: NY/CT metro area surgeons-Tova

[Guest guest]

That does not sound like " super " care to me...

When I first met my surgeon, I told him I have a minor heart murmur

and that several docs had heard carotid bruits.

He immediately told me that he wasn't worried at all about the

murmur, because he'd have so much antibiotic in my system that the

surgery wouldn't cause any problems there. But he also told me that

the carotids worried him a lot, and that I must get clearance from my

cardiologist, and that he wanted a new ultrasound just before the

surgery, because he might have to turn my head one way or another and

didn't want to cut off the blood flow to my brain.

So I knew in plenty of time what to schedule. (EKG, chest x-ray, etc.)

The one thing he hadn't told me about until the night before surgery

was a pregnancy test. (I was 56, post-menopausal -- I told him if

they got a positive, we should all look for a star in the East.) He

said the hospital would insist, so he'd order it so they'd do it and

it wouldn't keep us waiting. Meantime, to let him know if I spotted

three kings coming with presents in a year or so!

And that your doc didn't tell you to get rid of the wisdom teeth long

enough before hand seems inexcusable to me.

Still, if you're happy with your results, that's the main thing! And

the rest of it is in the past.

C.

> I was originally told that my wisdom teeth would be pulled during

> surgery and I was also told that he could use rigid fixation and I

> would only be wired shut for a week. About a week before surgery, i

was

> told that because I still had my wisdom teeth, I would not be able

to

> have rigid fixation because my teeth would either be in the way of

the

> screws if they did not pull them, or there would be too much loose

> tissue around the site if they pulled the teeth for properly attach

the

> screws. In the end I woke of from surgery with both my wisdom teeth

and

> with the wire- not the screws. If I had known that the wisdom teeth

> might make it impossible to do rigid fixation, I would have had

them

> pulled a year ago. Yeah, the details of that whole situation were a

bit

> sketchy and did not seem very well thought out.

>

> oh, one more thing... I have a separate health issue with regards

to my

> pituitary gland. I told the surgeon about this from day one. and

> mentioned it every time I was asked about any possible medical

issue.

> A week before surgery, when I had my final consult, I mentioned it

> again and at that point was told I needed clearance from my

> endocrinologist in order for the anesthesiologist to put me under.

> No-one had ever, ever mentioned this to me. I had not even been to

the

> endocrinologist in almost a year, but co-incidentally, had an

> appointment scheduled for that week. She would not give me

clearance

> for the surgery without a bunch of blood tests & an MRI so the

thursday

> night before the monday morning surgery, I had to get an emergency

MRI,

> have all the paperwork and ferried all over the city and when I

checked

> into the hospital monday morning, some of the blood work was not

even

> back and I still did not have clearance... it came through at about

> 10AM. That was really irritating and I was annoyed that despite my

> thinking I was on the ball with everything, this came up at such a

> nerve wracking time. especially true because my absolute #1 fear

with

> the surgery was the anesthesia and that was also the thing that

could

> have gone wrong without all this last minute stuff. In all fairness

to

> the doctor, I sorta " disappeared " on him for about 9 months while I

> fought for coverage with the insurance company- I'm sure II wasn't

the

> first thing on his mind for all that time, but still.

>

> -Tova