munchkin392

As a nurse, even with an explanation as to why this doctor does fills, it still makes no sense whatsoever for a cardiologist to be doing fills. I think someone needs to make a car payment on his Lexus and this is a way to make a quick buck for him... It just does not seem appropriate that a cardiologist would do this. A surgeons office should do this, or, if another doctor is going to do it besides the surgeon, it would be more appropriate for a radiologist to do it under flouro, or even for an oncologist to do it, as they have far more experience with ports than a cardiologist does. All the cardiologists I work with wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole!!

Woofay, I'm coming in from Illinois...getting together with you guys would be soooo much more fun than sitting in my hotel room!

Did the doctor actually do a blood hepatitis test on you? He can't diagnose you as having hepatitis without a positive blood test.

Woofay, I get in Monday, December 3rd in the afternoon. I was wondering if you guys are doing RR that Tuesday? It would be great to meet everybody! Tied2BFit, You could have just driven your car through the front of the salon and then proceeded with your hair appointment as if nothing happened! (Did anyone see that news article? Actually happened in Alaska!)

My surgeon told me it would be fine to swallow mine. I am on the exact same dose as you twice daily.

Hello everyone, I really just need to vent. My husband is being so completely unsupportive about my preop liquid diet. I have been cheating by not drinking my Slimfast, but I have been following clear liquids for the most part and eating healthy foods when I don't eat clear liquids (yogurt,fruit,etc). My husband is completely riding me about cheating. He used to be an alcoholic and is comparing it to his drinking, which I think is completely unfair- yes, food is an addiction, but unlike alcohol, we need it to survive. It's not something you can just totally avoid. What does everyone else think? I need some words of wisdom. I am starting to doubt whether I should go through with this-he makes me feel as if I have no willpower and I am a failure. Please, someone help with my sanity and thanks for listening to me vent my frustrations! :help:

Happy Friday everyone!! I keep forgetting to ask Dr.K's office how much they charge for a fill after the 3 months of aftercare is up. I figured y'all would know! I can't find a local fill doc so I think I'm going to have to fly to Colorado for my fills.

eBay is a great place for deals also!

Ok, I have finally had it with my hospital and the surgeon here and have officially given up on them doing my procedure. But....the good news is I talked to Dr.K for my phone consultation today, and I really, really liked him. So I am set to have my surgery with him on December 5th!! I am flying in that Monday, are you guys meeting at RR Tuesday? I will need some company the night before surgery so I don't have jitters! I'm really excited and I have to say that I was very impressed with Dr.K. He seems very flexible, understanding, and caring. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

OMG! This is the funniest thread ever, I think I almost just wizzed in my panties! (My extra large butt granny panties...) I hold no hope that my rather large ass will go away with banding as I have always had it, even when I was skinny as a rail. My best friend refers to her stomach as her "front butt". I like that one too!

Ahh, good nursing, what a novel concept! (She thinks to herself sarcastically while thinking about how her hospital has treated her over the previous week...) Actually, I think that's part of what perked my managers ears up. The competitions bariatric center sent me all their information and included job openings for their ICU in the package....I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh my butt off when I opened the package. Not so subtle!! Not that I'm all that, but critical care nurses aren't that easy to come by in our neck of the woods, so I'm sure that is a consideration for my manager. Not to mention the hospital having to put another nurse through orientation, critical care classes, TNCC, PALS, and ACLS certifications...all things I'm sure they didn't take into consideration before treating me like poo. And let's face it, obviously all they care about is money, so they don't want to shell that kind of dough out if I quit over this! As far as having to make it right in the end, time will tell. Someone is going to have to step up to the plate and tell the truth and quit covering their a**es. My manager even said that it sounds like someone is lying and covering things up after she viewed my payment contract and the emails I have between myself, the bariatric center, and the director of surgery. I am putting my faith in her right now. Let's cross our fingers.

Want2bmeagain, I just wanted to tell you you're awesome! I love your posts! ShelbiCallie, I wanted to let you know that I just had a very lengthy talk with my nurse manager (who was out of town last week). She was MORE than interested in my story, very apologetic, and I think she may actually do something about this. And if not, at any rate, she ok'd my requested days off to fly out and have Dr.K do my surgery. I told her "Honestly, if you were in my shoes, would you really want to have your surgery here after what has happened? Do you really think you could entrust your life to these people?" It definantly made her stop and think.

Also, even with airfare, it will still be cheaper. But I do not have anyone to do aftercare yet, I have to call our competitor hospital and see if they will do fills or not. My hospital has already said they will not do fills on bands placed by anyone else. (Which is stupid, what if someone moves here from somewhere else?) Obviously, I would feel more comfortable at my own hospital where I know everyone, instead of flying to Colorado all by my lonesome, but I have heard wonderful things about Dr.K. It is a very hard decision that would be made much easier if some people would step up to the plate and do the right thing!

ShelbiCallie, That's a wonderful question as to why they can't just make it right. Life would be so much easier right now. I personally already know I will never WANT to work with the bariatric center coordinator again, so it would pretty much just be me and the surgeon. I DID talk to the director of nursing today, who seems to be a fairly nice woman, so we'll see what happens with that. The whole situation is just completely ridiculous isn't it? And how news travels through the hospital-I told her it would be a good idea to do damage control at this point, because the rest of the hospital has apparently already heard what happened, as nurses from other departments have called to ask me about it. Doesn't make the bariatric center look so good! I'll let everyone know what happens this week! I told the director of nursing at the VERY minimum I at least want an apology!!

That's a great idea! Thanks!

Thanks for all the helpful advice! I figured Dr.K would not be happy that I will be there alone, but I don't have much choice at this point. It is either that or swallow my pride after what the jerks at my hospital pulled and end up having the procedure here, which I really don't want to do. I am having my procedure at the Parker hospital Marilyn said, so thanks for the hotel, restaurant, and pharmacy info. I'm mostly worried about transportation as I will be in no shape to drive, so I guess I will call Marilyn and ask her about it. I found a great package for airfare and The Radisson, and they have a shuttle, so I thought maybe that was a possiblity. Does anyone local have any idea how close that Radisson is to the hospital? It didn't look to far on Mapquest, but...sometimes I don't trust Mapquest either! Or do you gals think I should just swallow my pride and have my procedure at my hospital, since I will have a whole hospital of friends to look over me? (They require a 23 hour stay after the procedure at my hospital.) The only thing is with my hospital is that I never want to see the twit that runs the bariatric center again, so that's not getting off to a good start right off the bat I figure! Oh, and to answer another question, I will be coming from Illinois.

Hello everyone, It's great to meet such a wonderful group. If you read my past posts, you will know that I have had a horrible experience with my local hospital (which I also work at sadly enough). Well, that was enough to make me decide I'm not going to give a dime to them. So, I started researching Dr.K and tentatively have my surgery scheduled for December 5th. My huge thing is I can't afford to fly my hubby out with me, so I was wondering if there is anyone local who can help with with tips for transportation, lodging, where to get prescriptions filled, etc. If anyone is kind enough to do this, please PM me. I look forward to meeting you all, you seem like such a fun group!

Ok, I have to vent. Anyone who saw my previous post regarding all of my preop fiascos will understand. I am supposed to have my surgery at 7:30 am tomorrow. A week ago, I emailed the bariatric center asking her when and where I needed to take my down payment as I am self pay. I never received a reply. I also called and left her a message and never received a return phone call. Since I work at the hospital doing my surgery, I just figured I would have my husband run the check to the cashier first thing in the morning while I was in surgery. Anyway, at 4:30 this afternoon my cell phone rings. It is the lady from the bariatric center who informs me that if they do not have my check tonight they will cancel my surgery. At 4:30 in the afternoon!! Are you kidding me???? I told her there was no way that could physically happen, as my husband and I were in two physically separate locations and I had his checkbook, and he needed to write the check, and the hospital closes at 5pm. She started to get really snotty with me, and I finally said "You know what, this has been a fiasco of miscommunications from the beginning, just cancel my surgery." At this point, (and I am speaking from a nurses point of view in addition to a patients point of view) she should have done anything she could have to smooth it over, as it is her job to be an advocate for the patient first and foremost. Instead, she said "Fine" and hung up on me. I immediately called the on call hospital administrator who happens to also be her boss and expressed my displeasure. She said she was going to try to fix it so we could proceed with my surgery tomorrow. The surgeons office manager just called and told me that they can't proceed because the hospital cancelled my OR slot. She said the surgeon is none to happy because they had reps from Inamed coming to assist with the surgery also. All I can think is WTF??? I told the hospital administrator that for the first time in 9 years I am actually ashamed to work for this organization, and I have always been proud of the hospital I work for. My grandpa is a retired surgeon, and I ran this all by him, and he said "Tell them to forget it and go to hell!" (Which I have NEVER heard him say...) What do you guys think of all this???????? I need some serious input!!

LOL!!! Point well taken Sunchickie!!

I agree, actually I think the Bariatric Center coordinator should lose her job, as all this mess stems back to her. I love my job but if they do not make this right I cannot justify working for a hospital that cares more about $7000 than their patients or their employees. My husband brought up a good point-I learned when I was trained to train new nurses that it costs approximately $25,000 to orient a new nurse once hired. So if I quit and they have to train a new nurse, it will actually cost them money. Dumb, dumb, dumb...all over being greedy.

Kaohinani, Normally at my hospital (at least in the ICU I work in) we bend over backwards for our patients also. I have always been very proud of the hospital I work at, and the job we do for our patients, especially in the ICU. I just cannot believe they are not adhering to their own mission statement that they constantly shove down our throat: Excellence, flexibility, integrity, responsiveness, service, and teamwork. Clearly they have demonstrated none of their own alleged values. Yes, I have already spoken with our competitor hospitals bariatric center, and I do not have to start over from the beginning, however I will have to go the route of insurance. Our insurance is notoriously hard to get bariatric surgeries approved with, so I am looking at upwards of 1 year probably before I can have my procedure (which is why I was going to self pay to begin with). I do know this- I will pay all the out of pocket costs my insurance does not pay for to go to our competitor hospital from now on- I will not give this hospital another dime of my money. So all of my preop dietician visits, etc, will be done there, because I no longer have any faith in my hospital!!! And one more thing I know with utter and complete certainty is that I could NEVER treat a patient this way, or allow a patient to be treated this way if they were my patient in the ICU, and live with myself. I think they should be ashamed of themselves. But like you said, maybe it wasn't meant to be.... Furthermore, I can't believe they pissed off the surgeon as much as they did and aren't having any repercussions from it?? Usually they bend over backwards to make the docs happy!!

Sorry about the misspellings....

Well, I guess now not only are they losing a patient but they are also losing an employee. I'm going to let them explain to my director why I am leaving after 9 years. My husband wants to seek legal advise, but I don't think we honestly have a case. We were just treated like crap. I just find it ironic that they are constantly beating their mission statement into the head of employees, but can't follow it themselves: flexibility, responsiveness, integrity, etc. What a joke. If anyone has any advise on what actions they think I should take, please feel free to chime in.

Unbelievable, after two days of wrangling with hospital administration, they have informed it that it is my fault because I didn't pay my bill (never mind I had the check and was dropping it at the cashiers the next morning). I am so incredibly insulted at being treated like this not only as an employee of 9 years, but as a patient. I am going to go work for our competitor hospital ASAP. I seriously cannot believe they would treat someone like this. I am so depressed and disappointed that it is not even funny.:cry

I'm glad to know I'm not crazy! I almost posted a thread the other day asking this very same question! Usually I'm dying from being hot, especially at work and when I sleep. Lately, I can't get enough blankets on when I sleep. Now tell me if this is wierd- I have noticed since I started the pre-op diet that my teeth have become EXTREMELY sensitive also, and I have never had this problem before. Anyone else with sensitive teeth in addition to freezing?