fatflyboy

Don't really know where else to turn to for advice on this matter, so here goes: I'm scheduled to have a VSG procedure done on Monday, and in the past 24 hours, it has come to light that I wasn't on the surgeon's schedule for Monday. Their office has scrambled to fix everything, but my surgery was supposed to have been on the books for over a month now. The only reason they caught it in time is because the facility was scheduled, and the facility called the surgeon after the facility called me to confirm everything. I then received no less than 4 panicked calls from different people in the surgeon's office basically asking me about what they had originally scheduled. I basically had to tell them my date and time, that I had completed all my preop appointments, and I was, in fact, on the preop liquid diet he ordered currently. Not only that, but I'm self pay, mailed payment well over a week ago, and they are claiming they haven't received it yet while the facility and anesthesiologist have! Needless to say, this has left me with a bit of an unsettled stomach even more than the liquid diet has! I really want/need this surgery to live a long, healthy life. I've got my finger on the button right now, and I'm in desperate need of some guidance. This is a major surgery, and the fact their office is a major clusterfuck doesn't exactly represent my surgeon very well. I have confidence in him, but that confidence has eroded fairly severely in the past 24 hours. Even this morning, more calls because they didn't schedule preoperative blood tests that I need to do ASAP. This has been a very long road leading up to next Monday, and it seems to all be unraveling at the last minute. I've asked to have the surgeon call me directly so I am absolutely sure we're both on the same page. Maybe he can talk me down from the ledge. His office seems to be in complete disarray, and I want to be very clear to him that's unsettling to me given the gravity of what I'm supposed to be having on Monday morning. I don't blame the surgeon for his office's blunders, but I believe the people a professional chooses to hire are a direct reflection of their work. I would have heads rolling if I was their boss. I'd love to hear a series of opinions on what you would do? Reschedule, cancel, find a new surgeon altogether, go ahead with it provided the surgeon calms my nerves a bit? My fiancée, while extremely supportive, is now trying to push me very hard to reconsider. She keeps telling me it's unnecessary, she's worried, etc. I just feel like I've been through the gauntlent and choosing the nuclear option right now would set me back quite a long time. TL;DR - surgeon's office is full of halfwits and it's causing me to reconsider everything at the last minute. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to reveal the surgeon's name now. Just hoping this all blows over into a big misunderstanding.

Just a quick update...surgery went well. Everything went smoothly. My surgeon did a great job, the facility was wonderful, and my recovery is crawling along. Still pretty weak and gassy, but I've come to expect I'm right about where I should be on day 5.

First - thank you everyone for your replies. Lots of great information here, but most of all, reassurance. I have researched my surgeon. I don't have any questions of his ability. I am very confident in his process, and the preoperative screening is a lot more intensive than the other docs I've researched and shopped. Have you researched the surgeon? When I first read your post I thought that there is no way I would go through with it but then I realized that once you are in the OR the cluster ____ you are experiencing right now doesn't matter. I did everything I could to research my surgeon including calling my State's licensing board to find out where I could go to research complaints and such. I wanted to know how many he has done, whether any of them had complications, where he went to school, is he board certified, did he do a fellowship or other specialized training bariatric surgery and everything else I could. I even managed to find his wedding pictures online....lol. By the time I was done I felt very confident in his abilities. I do not think I could go through with it without that confidence. Absolutely. If there was even a tinge of doubt, I would have moved on a long time ago. Do you have faith in your surgeon? It won't be his ding dong staff performing surgery, so if you like the surgeon, stick with him. This is exactly why I'm freaking out a bit. Yes, the front office staff are essentially the people that have bungled this whole thing. His nurses and medical staff have been great - no complaints there. But like I said, had they have been my employees, I would have heads rolling from here to Timbuktu. I think when dealing with major surgeries like this, a professional surgeon should have professionals top to bottom, front to back. There shouldn't be this many critical errors 4 days from surgery. This is a tough one. The surgical skill and comptence is hugely important, but once that is done.... it is the general staff who provides much of the ongoing support. I found it invaluable and loved being associated with a whole practice full of very competent people. This kind of error could happen anywhere, but i would want to feel good about the whole team. One of the reasons I chose this doctor and the specific facility was because the doctor does not schedule 15 surgeries in a day. I'm #1 on the docket at a facility he doesn't typically do surgeries at anymore. (The facility has become cost prohibitive for most.) I'm paying extra to go to this facility because I'm self pay and it's the facility I trust the most, but I know I'm going to be his only patient of the day there first thing in the morning.