New PCP

heartfire · May 9, 2008

Well, it looks like I finally get to meet my new PCP on Monday.

Kind of a long story but the gist of it is that my old PCP transferred departments right after referring me to the nut and psych. Sort of left me hanging.

In Kaiser (at least here, I'm finding almost every area of Kaiser is doing something a little different, even within my own region!) my PCP has to refer you to the seminar, then to the nut and psych. Once you are starting the nutrition and weight management classes that the seminar allows you access to, and you've done your appts with the nut and psych, your PCP then sends an "application" on the the surgeon in your area. Once I see this surgeon (they only do OPEN bypass near me), he will then (hopefully!) refer me to the LB surgeon.

Sooo, my PCP left at the end of March. I've since been going to weekly classes and have done my nut and psych appts. In the meantime, I've been waiting for the new guy to start. He just started today! A full 2 weeks later than when I was told he was starting. My DD had her well-baby check today so I talked to the receptionist about it and she is the one that told me he started today and made an appt for me to talk to him on Monday. She's so funny (great office BTW) when I told her that I'd have to bring DD with me b/c DH is back to work Monday, she said, "no problem, we'll watch her!" with a big smile on her face! DD will be 2 at the end of the month and so she's seen her growing up and just absolutely loves her. Cracks me up.

Anyway, back to the new PCP. I'm really hoping that he cooperates and doesn't make me jump through more hoops. My old PCP I'd had for YEARS and we've discussed my weight ad-nauseum and he was behind me on this as a last resort for me. I don't want to be going in Monday and keep saying, well former PCP ... yadda, yadda, yadda." How sucky is that? I've been in jobs where that's happened to me as the new person and it sucks. I'm also sure that he'll hear that from others so I don't want to be one too.

I'm really trying to go in with an open mind and heart. I WANT to like this guy. I KNOW he's not Crogan. Doesn't make him any better or worse than him. Just different and I have to remember that. I just hate changing doctors anyway and then it happened in the middle of this. :smile:

On a positive note, I lost 2.6 more pounds Thursday night, bring me to a 7.8 pound loss. (I need to lose 10% or 23 pounds for the class.) That was AFTER being out of town for 6 days!

So, that's were I'm at.

SherryW · May 11, 2008

Whew...lots of change. One thing to remember...if this new doc is taking over for your first PCP then wouldn't your new PCP have all the notes and records from your first PCP? IF that's the case....seems to me he'd have no reason to give you a hard time or make you jump through hoops :tt1: Just a thought. Good luck!

heartfire · May 11, 2008

Sherry,

Oh yes, EVERYTHING I've ever had done with/at Kaiser is on their handy-dandy computer. I'm really hoping he just looks at it all and says, "no problem" but my fear is he'll want to monitor me himself and I'll have to wait longer. It's already a HUGE wait to get to surgery day with Kaiser. I don't want him holding me up any longer than I already am. In our area, from what I'm hearing it's an 8 month waiting list for surgery dates. That puts me into the later 1st quarter of next year IF I got into the surgeon within the next month or so. Now that I've made the decision and have started the process, I just want to hurry up and have surgery! I have next to NO patience!! :tt1:

Thanks for responding. You made me feel less anxious by making me really think about it. My former PCP said I shouldn't have any problems with the new guy so maybe that means he left him a note too. It'd be nice if he did!

I probably should have just blogged this. I may cross-post it there too. I got to typing and just kept going. I try to keep my ramblings to my blog!

Thanks again!

SherryW · May 11, 2008

You're welcome and your surgery will come sooner than you think. Keep a positive outlook and I'm sure it's all going to work out. Sounds like the info is all there in the computer and records so I really don't see what the new PCP would do differently. He's going to want the patients to like him just like they did the PCP he took over for. Good luck! :tt1:

juliegeraci · May 11, 2008

I'm sure he will not start the process again. Typically at Kaiser it takes 5-6 months to get banded. Congrats on the weight loss to date. Keep going.

heartfire · May 12, 2008

Thanks! I'm a lot calmer now. My appt is tomorrow at 11:15 PST. I am, at this point, looking forward to meeting him.

Julie, I'm hearing they're so backed up it's taking almost a year from start to finish (that would put me at about April '09). I can't do self-pay, so it's their way or not at all for me. Unfortunately. We just don't have the money, not even for monthly payments. :smile2:

I just lost more hours with work (I do our church's books from home) so things just got tighter. I'm going to look into some type of transcribing work-from-home job to see if I can bring in some extra dollars.

Anyway, thanks for calming me down, both of you. I do feel better about things. I tend to start a wind-up and it's hard to settle down about things sometimes. I have gotten A LOT better over the years but, well, let's just say I'm a work in progress!

heartfire · May 12, 2008

Just wanted to say that everything went well this AM. I think I'm going to like him. Even with his accent, I can still mostly understand him. :wink2:

Seriously, I do think he's going to work at as my new PCP. I really liked my former PCP and I hate change so I just wasn't sure if this guy was going to work out or not. He seems to be pretty proactive.

He's not sure what he needs to do for me but he's right away, going to find out and get it taken care of so I can get on to meet with a surgeon. He'll get back to me and let me know what he finds out.

Also, since I've been so overly tired (exhausted really, both physically and mentally) he ordered blood-work done to check my liver, kidney and thyroid functions as well as some other stuff. So we'll see if something pops up with that. I'm really not wanting anything wrong but it'd be nice to have a reason for my exhaustion.

And since I'm overdue on my tetanus and I'm planning a surgery in the near future he suggested I get that taken care of today too. He seems really proactive and I like that.

Thanks again for the support!