Surgery is coming fast! Whole process was less then 3 months total!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazed I got threw this whole process in less then 3 months from start to getting a surgery date....I LOVE YOU Toronto Western Hospital....anyone in here who is just starting I want to make sure I stress this to you....THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE OIL! Call ALL the time for cancelations. I will be having surgery with Dr. Aarts at Toronto East General...I meet her this Friday and I will get my date for surgery...I have all my opti already...bring it on RNY! Anyone have Dr. Aarts?! Is she good?

I may not know Dr. Aarts but I wanted to say GREAT job with being your own advocate and calling in to see if there's any cancelations!    For the record, you're not a squeaky wheel....you're WORTH IT!   Well done!!

Yay! Awesome work!

Holy cow, my process at TWH took 13 months and I even got a cancelation for surgery, but everyone's journey through the system is different.  I personally might not have been ready to have surgery in 3 months - it took me awhile to get my head screwed on right and to try out some post-op recipes, and get exercising.

I met Dr. Aarts at the 'meet your surgeon' appointment at TWH, only to find out that she & her colleague at TEGH, Dr. Jamie Cyriac, rotate that duty, so although I met her, I had Dr. Cyriac do my operation.  I met him 15 minutes before surgery.  He was very nice and allowed me time to ask any questions I might have had.

I liked Dr. Aarts too.  I asked her what percentage of laparoscopic RNYs she had to convert into open procedures and she said, "none", that "they'd never done one", so I assumed that she spoke both for herself and Dr. Cyriac.  They both sound like great surgeons.  She said that Dr. Cyriac has as much experience as she had, and he did a great job with my RNY and ensured I had excellent post-op pain control in the TEGH, as well as at home for the few days I needed anything).  You're definitely in good hands!

When the PATTs nurse asks you to fill out a form asking if you'd prefer a single or semi-private room at the TEGH, DON'T fill it out and sign it.  All their rooms are semi-private.  I asked for private, or semi thinking I could be on a ward) and although all they had was semi, I still got charged that $365+/day for semi!

Good luck with your surgery & I'm hoping you have as speedy and as uneventful a recovery as I did.

Jenn.  :)

That is great news. Calling for cancelations really does help. I met with DR Aarts and will be having surgery with DR CYRIAC as others have mentioned.

I dont know what their scheduling is like right now but when I met with DR Aarts in July the surgery date I received was for november! I was soooo disappointed since the secretary who booked the appointment with me told me that the DR was booking dates about 1 month away and others that day received dates in august. By the time the DR met with me that day, all she had left were November dates. I almost cried.

Like you, the rest of the journey had been relatively quick from orientation to meet the surgeon was 2.5 months. Then a 5 month wait for surgery

They do have a cancelation list though so if you end up with a long wait to surgery and are flexible it is possible that it could be bumped up.

Best of luck meeting DR aarts, she is lovely.

Dr. Aarts did my surgery. She was great!

Congratulations!  Good for you!

Cathy xo

Thank you all for the great feedback....I feel much more assured now that some others have good things to say about the surgeon. I wanted to ask tho, when you go for the surgeon app the desk clerk said we get our surgery date then...but I want to know why exactly is it a 2.5 hr surgeon app...what exactly do you do?

 

Jenn- You said you had to end up paying $365/day for the semi....didn't insurance cover that? Assuming you have insurance. Do they have private rooms? && how long were you there for?

 

Newpossibilities- Yeah my best friend also has her surgeon date this Friday 30 min after mine...she asked Rayann(desk clerk) when they are booking surgery for and she also told us the same...she said they are booking November, however she did say we could possibly get in for October and she will put us on the cancelation list which works good for me as I am off for a few months but for my friend not so much as she would need to let work know...me on the other hand can get a call for surgery tomorrow and I would be there LOL! That is one of the reasons why I did get threw the process a bit faster because any date for appointments were fine for me. 

For me, the surgeon appointment was only about 15 minutes.  I waited to meet the surgeon for about 2 hours, however.  

Good luck on Friday!   looking forward to hearing how it goes.