Finally!!

hodegard · November 4, 2003

I've finally got a surgery date! I'm so excited!

I actually ended up having to switch surgeons because the one I had was dragging his feet so badly. He's been a bariatric surgeon for a while, but this area of his practice is new. I was in the group of the first five patients that he was going to have, and he was planning on flying in a specialist from Australia to assist with those first five procedures. Well, he kept giving me the run-around about when we were going to do it (originally, he said mid-October, now he's saying that he might be ready to SCHEDULE it in early December...). I finally found out (after calling him and telling him that I was considering switching surgeons because he kept giving me time frames and then falling through on them) that the reason for the hold up is that the other four patients were paying cash, and he was giving them more time to save for it! I have researched this procedure so much (and so well, I might add!) that I am totally READY, and his constant run-around was driving me batty. Add to that the fact that my husband's insurance is changing a bit on Jan. 1st... The insurance will be the same, but our co-pays will go up, and the hospital co-pay will be going up six-fold!! Yikes!

So, anyway, I started researching other surgeons, and I found one that I really like. I called them today, and they actually scheduled my surgery for November 17th! Wow! I'm only two weeks away now! Can you tell that I'm excited?

quakergirl · November 4, 2003

I'm glad you were assertive and decided to switch. I can't imagine how frustrating the waiting must have been. You're better off going with a surgeon who has more experience anyway.

Good luck!

GeezerSue · November 4, 2003

I realize that we all have different emotional needs, and that somebody has to go first, and that you have to be an experienced laporoscopic surgeon before you even start doing LapBand, BUT I WOULD NOT PAY TO BE PART OF SOME SURGEON'S TRAINING EXPERIENCE. I feel that those first, few proctored patients should get a free ride!

The research shows that the overwhelming majority of complications occur within the surgeons' first fifty surgeries. The "problems" start to slow at about 30, and then level out after 50. That, of course, does not mean that every surgeon will have complications with every patient in the early surgeries...but it does mean that when those complications DO occur, they tend to be within the early surgeries.

So, I'm glad you wen't elsewhere! Now, it that surgeon experienced with LapBand?

hodegard · November 4, 2003

Actually, my husband and I really researched the previous surgeon, and then we spent quite a bit of time praying about it, and we felt at peace about going with him, even though he was new to the procedure. I had heard wonderful things about him, both surgically and as a caregiver, so a part of me was disappointed to switch. But I was just really tired of the run-around, not to mention that my insurance was going to be changing, and I didn't have much time left to be run around like that.

The surgeon that we are switching to is actually the Chief of Surgery at his hospital, and he has been doing these procedures for over a year. I'm feeling great about this switch!