"On Thursday, January 10, 2003, my husband and I went to meet Dr. Alexander. We each came with a list of questions. My husband was running behind schedule, so when Dr. Alexander first came into the room, I was alone. I mentioned that my husband was on his way and the doctor suggested we wait for him. I was impressed. He didn't want to hurry through this important discussion and risk missing anything that was important to my spouse, my support system. He spent over 2 hours with us, explaining everything. Initially I thought we were getting quite a sales pitch, but by the end of our visit, we both felt that not only is he a qualified surgeon, he has a passion about this field of medicine. I have no doubts he's the surgeon for me.
We're waiting for insurance approval. I've spoken with my manager at work and she is so supportive as well. Several others have had the surgery over the last few years, so there's a support system built into my workplace. I'm hoping for surgery at the end of February.
UPDATE: I'm now 6 days post op and have a new appreciation for the skillful surgeon Dr. Alexander is. My gall bladder became very problematic during surgery, but he handled it and the rest of me with awesome care. My incision is longer than I would have liked, but I'd rather be sure there was nothing bad going on inside.
I also want to make a public post of how INCREDIBLE Dr. A's nurse, Denise Oakley is! She is actually on staff at HealthSouth so she visited me every day and was there for me to act as my advocate when I wasn't getting response from the hospital staff. She is a former patient of Dr. A's herself and is dedicated to the care of WLS patients. She is warm and friendly, knowledgeable and caring. Next to his surgical skill, Denise is Doctor Alexander's greatest asset! And you can quote me on that!
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"My biggest frustration with this place is that there just aren't enough staff nurses to handle the patient load. Like most hospitals, they call agency nurses in for peak times and they're not all familiar with the equipment and the philosophy of the hospital. My worst night/day there involved agency nurses and aids who didn't have a clue why my IV machine was beeping and it took them TOO long to figure out it was because my morphine pack was dry! On the other hand, there are some real TREASURES there - specifically Denise Oakley in Day Surgery, Roy who's an LVN and Robert who's an aid."
