Did my orientation - But GRR!

So I did my orientation today and I actually enjoyed it.  I felt like I knew most of the information but it was just so exciting to be there - got to ask some of the questions that I wanted to ask and was happy to hear that there have been zero deaths in the TWH program.  Yay for that. 

I got my next two appointments....

Nurse Practitioner Florence on  July 26th
Social Worker Jairo on August 26th

But.........OF COURSE I'm on Vacation and out of the country the week of July 26th and wont' be able to make my Nurse appointment and now I need to rebook it on Monday with Patrice....grrr.  I hope this doesn't delay me too much!  I was so excited to get those darn appointments!!

 oooh, the no deaths info has raised my spirits considerably!  Does that include surgeries at St. Mike's, since they go through the TWH assessment centre..or just those surgeries that happen at TWH itself?  lol, this may be a bit too specfic of a question, but I think I will have my surgery at St. Mike's so I wanna hear that I'm not likely to die.
Glad to hear your process is started.  Bummer about the out of town timing...but maybe you will get an appointment sooner??? Well, at least you can always hope!

Ask if there are any cancellations and you may get in earlier.  That happened to me when I had to reschedule due to a family funeral.  It is the luck of the draw but you never know.  Good luck.

Elizabeth

Hi Pink Jelly Bean

I was just wondering if TWH still has the policy that if you miss/cancel 2 or more times you are out of the program?  This was told to us at our orientation over a year ago. . . .things probably have changed; but, I just wanted you to be aware if, by chance, it's still in affect.  I had never heard of anyone having problems in this regard so it was probably a scare tactic.  However, I know that I was pretty worried about it as I had a 7 hour drive and it was difficult to travel on any days other than a Monday or Friday.  I needed the weekends to make the trip a safe one otherwise I would be too tired driving home on the Northern roads.  I didn't want to cancel any appointments unless I was desperate.

Maybe one of the other TWH girls will chime in.  I know that the Nurse Practitioner and coordinator of the program, Linda Norsdorfer, told us this rule at the time.  She's not with TWH anymore so it's probably not in force.

Barb

just miss or cancel for no reason at all, or for valid reasons? i can see if you're a no show, why that would be, but i can't see them foisting you for rescheduling an appointment you had no say in making.

My best friend Sandi, going2Bthin, and I did the WLS process together.  We didn't ask to clarify the rule. . . . . .we just took it literally.  We were both scared as we needed appointments together and a few at a time since we were travelling such long distances (7 hours each way) and we had to work the next day.  Anyways, in the end Hema 'bent over backwards' to accomodate us.  I have great respect for TWH and the team so I imagine that they would be empathetic to cancellations due to valid reasons.  I know Linda, the Nurse Practitioner at the time, repeated this rule a couple of times at orientation so it scared the beejeebies out of us.  In hindsight, I can see it probably was to weed out the people who didn't take the appointments seriously.

I have my one year check up late next week, so I will ask one of the girls if the rule is still in affect and how it is enforced.

Barb

They told us at orientation that showing a lack of respect for the program or its professionals could be a reason to be removed. They gave the example of simply no-showing for multiple appointments, but said it was never a problem to call a few days ahead and rebook.

At HRRH they said if you are a "no show" or if you cancel with less than 48 hours notice they can "choose" to not continue rescheduling appointments.  That led me to believe that they wouldn't penalize you if there were extenuating cir****tances (funeral, bad weather for driving, etc.).

I would think if you call right away to let them know that there is a conflict it won't be a big deal.

I found orientation exciting too!  I think it was just knowing that the process is started...


Tracy

I spoke with Florence after the orientation session and she said that it wasn't a problem at all that I should just call on Monday and speak to Patrice and get a new appointment.

It was so funny because I one point during the session I turned to my husband and said "How much do you wanna bet one of my appointments is scheduled for when we are on vacation" and sure enough...ta-da!

I'm just a little worrried that everything will get pushed back now!  : (

I just gotta say - some of the questions that get asked at Orientation are both alarming and funny at the same time!  My husband afterward said "honey I think you've got this in the bag"  

I'm a little bit overwhelmed and having a hard time turning off my social work brain to answer the psycho-social billion paged questionnaire - as I was reading it I was able to understand their reasoning behind the questions and it's confusing to be the client and not the counsellor!  Heh.

Do you remember examples of some of the more outstnading questions?