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Surgeon TestimonialRobert Read, M.D.My first impression of Dr. Read was how warm & compassionate he was. Since this is an overweight issue, and we all know how folks feel about that, I was afraid he would be condescending. Well, he wasn't at all! He looked me straight in the eye, and I could feel his compassion and wanting to help. Wow, I was blown away. And my impression never changed. I am almost 3 months out, and he still greets me with a handshake and a direct look with that warmth there.
His staff is also great. They visited with me every day I was in the hospital and followed up with numerous phone calls in the weeks that followed. They really go out of their way to get all the paperwork done as fast as possible and have everything ready. I've seen them burn the midnight oil, and I've also seen them *really* work with folks & their insurance to get this surgery. And it's all with compassion, and caring. You can just tell they care. In fact, I had an appointment, and was feeling kind of low. Well, one of the staff called me a few days later and asked how I was doing. She called because (and I quote), "You just seemed so sad" and she wanted to help me to feel better. Wow, I was so, so touched.
What did I like least about my surgeon? Hmm, I don't really know how to answer that. I can't think of anything whatsoever. He is such a nice man that cares about his patients, and remembers their names. I have nothing but great respect for Dr. Read.
What should future patients know about him... Hmm, the only thing I can think of is just be honest. He responds very well to that.
Dr. Read has started up the Samaratin Bariatric Program. This includes numerous informational sessions, lots of reading, and a Support Group. They strongly emphasize going to support group. We are also told to call if there are *any* issues, and I've seen/heard of him dealing with issues at all hours of the day/night. His staff keeps in close contact, and encourages us to call if there is anything going on. They are *very* involved in after care, and making sure this surgery is as successful as it can be.
Yes, Dr. Read, and his staff, have went over the risks of surgery numerous times. It was scary, but we all needed to know and understand it.
I would rate Dr. Read and the whole Bariatric Program the highest rating there is. I have had no complications, and everyone has been on top of checking up on me.
Dr. Read has a phenomenal Bedside manner, and he is the chief (or head, or whatever) of thoracic surgery, so his skills are way up there as well.
Working with Dr. Read and Samaratin Bariatric has been such a positive experience. I feel blessed to have gone through this the way that I have. Member Interests
- Arts - Want to be more involved in the Arts. Theater, ballet, etc.
- Books & Literature - I LOVE sci-fi/fantasy. :-) But will read almost anything.
- Family & Friends - Gotta mention my DH & DS! Plus all my amazing, wonderful friends!
- Fitness & Exercise - Looking to being all over more healthy. Like the naturalpath stuff. Like Yoga...
- Scrapbooks - This is a new hobby that I'm LOVING
- Outdoor - Love the beach and the mountains and associated activities.
- Horses - Horses are my life and my passion!
- Renaissance Festivals - Used to love D&D - This brings all that to life for me. I really dig it!
- Rock - Heavy Metal is my fave! Been getting in to Karaoke, too.
- Rock Hunting - Mostly for gems. Raw or cut; I love 'em all! Gotta have my "Sparklies"
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11-16-06
posted on 11/16/06 12:00 am
I woke up at 2:00 this morning with a terrible pain in my gut. Right below where my pouch is, but above my belly button. Kind of right in the middle. I was able to sleep a bit, but it wasn't well and the pain was in my dreams. Anyway, I wake up early and decide to go to work early since I was up anyway. I figured the pain would lessen as I moved around. Well, you guessed it, it didn't. Now normally I would wait something like that out as it wasn't accompanied by much else in the way of symptoms but I was scared since it's gut pain and I've had the surgery. I am so freaking paranoid and scared about getting an obstruction. Anyway, I felt I had to go to work since my coworker took today & tomorrow off and I didn't want to let her down or have her feel like she couldn't depend on me. I used to work with someone who would call in sick every time (well, not *every* time obviously) I was on vacation. It got to the point where I felt like I couldn't take any time off! I don't want my coworker to feel that way *at all*. Especially since she has been so great to me. I know that nobody knows my job stuff (since this site isn't about that) but I recently moved to a new area and it's a *very* busy area. So it was cool that my coworker (who has been there for quite some time) was able to take off some much needed and well deserved time off. So I was worried that she would feel like she couldn't ever take time off if I called in the first time she was finally able to leave. Anyway, all that to say that yes, I did go to work and hoped to tough it out. Like I said, I didn't think it was an emergency since I had no other symptoms, but it was still scary to have that much pain. I finally call my bariatric center and ask them what I should try. I had to leave a message. Then I call back about an hour later and tell them that the pain is bad & what should I do? I don't know what I expected. Well, that's not exactly true. I was hoping they could either see me or have me describe what was going on with me and a light bulb would go off and they would say, "Yes, I know exactly what that is. Here is what you do to fix it. ______" Well that obviously didn't happen. ;-) I know, I know it was a pipe dream. :-) So they suggest I go to the emergency room where they have more leeway in what they can do to treat & diagnos me. I'm like, no way. It's not that bad and besides, do you know how expensive the emergency room is? Now if I was *truly* in jeopardy then I would haul ass there, but I didn't really think it was *that* bad. Just bad enough I wanted them to figure it out. So they suggest I call my PCP so I said I would do that. Unfortunately, she is out of the office until the 27th. So the on call Dr. has his nurse call me and get my symptoms & stuff. She talks to the Dr. who says I need to go to Urgent Care where they have more ability to diagnose & test & get the results faster than they do. So I decide to go there. I had to leave work early, but I was having trouble concentrating and focusing on anything except urgent stuff. So I left just a couple of hours early. I feel pretty good that I stuck it out that long. And my supervisor is way awesome. She was super, super supportive of whatever I decided to do. Of course she thinks I should have gone right away, but I wanted to try to do the right thing. Anyway, off I go. I work in a different town than I live in, so I decided to go to the Urgent Care in the town I live. My surgery was in the town I work in (the 2 towns are only about a 20 minute drive from each other) but I wanted to go home first and pick up DH. So off we go to Urgent Care. Once I check in they have a nurse come out and check me out real quick to make sure I was healthy enough to go through the hour-plus long wait. I thought that was pretty cool that they would do that. My temp was slightly elevated but other than that, I was fine (except for the pain of course). So we wait and get to the room where the Dr. starts checking me out. He palpated my abdomen and he did it *hard*! Ouch! The pain seemed to be too low for stomach/pouch issues, and too high for intestinal issues. Too much in the middle for appendicitis, and no pain in my kidneys for anything of that nature. I have been having normal bowel movements (sorry folks!) and it doesn't hurt to pee (I had to answer those 2 questions *so many* times today!). I'm not nauseous nor am I vomiting. So the Dr. is stumped. Oh, and all this time I am telling everybody and their dog that I have had Roux en Y Gastric Bypass surgery and who my surgeon is. So there was no question in *anyone's* mind about that. So the Dr. is stumped (darn it!) and he wants to do a CT scan. But he wanted to talk to my surgeon first to make sure they do all the right kinds of scans or whatever. But Dr. Read is in surgery so they can't get ahold of him. So, they take some blood & urine and send me on my way telling me they will call me as soon as they hear from Dr. Read. Now all this time I haven't really had hardly anything to eat and maybe 2 oz to drink. (There is a candy dish right next to me that I keep grabbing M&M's out of.) So that's all I've had. When I get home, I'm all depressed and feeling yucky so I have a few more M&M's and a couple of cashews. Well, DH is off getting my vicadin Rx (I forgot to have them give me a liquid) and sends me a text about something or other. Anyway, as soon as I get that text, my phone beeps that I have a VM. So I check it and I had gotten it about a half-hour before! Stupid freaking phone! :-( I was *not* happy about that! We have *terrible* service where I live. We think it's due to the big power lines that are right across the street. Our cells are our only phones now, so it sucks that we have crappy reception where we live. Anyway, sorry to get off on a rant there. So I get the VM and it's Urgent Care and they tell me to call them back right away. I call them back and they told me they heard from my surgeon and he wants me to get a CT scan. They ask me if I've had anything to eat. I'm like, yeah, I had a few M&M's and some cashews and they're like "No, you said you oculdn't eat anything!" I'm like, "I didn't know I wasn't *supposed* to eat. I was just kind of let go so I figured I was on my own..." So they're like you have to go to ER now to get the scan and I got all confused like if I hadn't eaten anything could I have had it somewhere else? It seems to me that the only one is in the ER. So with my phone having such sh**y reception, I am under the impression that I have to go to the ER to get it done because I had eaten some cashews? I'm still confused about all that. And I don't *want* to go to the ER because -like I said- it's expensive and I don't think this is that much of an emergency. So I'm kinda freaking about it a bit and scared that I did a big, bad NO-NO. Anyway, I had to wait for DH to get back with my Vicadin so I tell him the story and we pack up the family (who knows how long we'll be gone) and off we go again. By this time I was in my jammies and just kind of stayed in them. I figure I'll have to get undressed anyway. So we get to the ER & check in and I find out that their CT scanner is about to go down for maintenance. So they rush me through check in, I do the quick-change into their lovely gowns (completely NAKID which I hated. But the good news is the gowns are *big* on me now, WOO HOO!) and hop in the bed. They rush through everything to get me down there and just as we're about to leave, they get the call saying the machine is down. And everything just stops. Just like you see in the movies. It was actually kind of comical. Well, it would have been if it hadn't been happening to me. So the ER Dr. comes and talks to me and tells me the bad news and just kind of stands there for a second, not sure what to say. I think he was afraid to tell me that we could go home now. Anyway, he tells me that my bloodwork & Urinalysis all comes back normal, I'm not nauseated or vomiting (BTW, it's interesting that both the Urgent Care Dr. and the ER Dr. think that it's not possible for me to vomit. Weird, huh?) and all my stats are fine. My belly is not distended like there was a kink & air might be trapped or anything. All I'm having is the pain. So he felt okay letting me go home. Otherwise they would have sent me to another town to have it done. He suggests I do clear liquids for the rest of the evening and to drink peppermint tea. Apparently it's being proven the benefits of peppermint. I thought that was kinda neat. I *love* all that herbal healing stuff. :-) So, we pack back up and leave. I was there less than an hour. Probably close to half an hour! They really rushed to get me in there. They even mention as we're getting signed out that since they didn't get to do the scan that there was no charge. We were telling them that Urgent Care sent us there to get a CT scan, so I would have argued if they tried to charge. But it ended up being a moot point anyway. They did tell me that the scanner would be back up after 9:00 and if I was still having pain to come back and get the scan. After we got home, I actually started feeling better. I was afraid to trust it (I was hurting pretty good in the hospital) but I actually was hurting less. I made myself some tea and started drinking it and it was going down pretty well. So I drank more and more and I was hurting less and less. What a RELIEF!!! Of course now I'm feeling completey foolish for making such a big deal about it. But I never wanted it to get this out of hand. I just wanted some advice on how to help the pain! Anyway (yikes, I've completely overused *that* word today!) I start feeling better and better and we decide to go to bed early.
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