Odd Christmas Gift

Hi Folks,

Anyone else getting weird gifts?  I have a co-worker *****cently had a VSG.  She had intended to go RNY but when they went in, they found a bunch of adhesions and strictures from a previous abdominal surgery and decided to go with the VSG instead.  Anyway, this person was a miserable person before surgery and is a miserable person after surgery.  She eats candy like it is going out of style and wonders why her weight loss has stopped. 

She knows all about my RNY.  I got a card with a $15 gift card from her.  Guess where it was from?  Coldstone Creamery, a kind of high-end ice cream shop.  I didn't know whether to be insulted, amused, or bewildered! 

Well, I wouldn't assume bad (or even "dumb blonde") intentions ..  Perhaps the Creamery has some kind of ice cream that you can eat (low or no-added sugar?)  or sherbert I guess if you're lactose intolerant after surgery ...   

  If it IS dumbness, maybe she really thinks RNYers can eat ice cream O.K. (maybe she has you guys mixed up with us DSers?)   After all, if she thinks she can get away with eating sweets, maybe she thinks ALL WLSers should be able to ..   (?)   

  As for her situation, I'd be talking to an atty ..  If she went in for an RNY and woke up with a VSG and was not given a choice beforehand I'd be PISSED and looking for one very quickly    (and if her insurance paid, they might too, for a case of ins. fraud on the surgeon!  ).  There is a vast difference between the two surgeries, not the least of which is diet and total amount of weight loss!   

She's a smart woman.  We're both nurse practitioners.  She is well aware of the physiology of all the procedures, which is why I'm a bit bewildered by her choice in gifts. 

Ironically, ice cream was my downfall pre-op.  Had to have it every day!  I haven't had a bite of it since surgery as I know it is one of my trigger foods.  Oh well, I will just thank her kindly and pass it along to someone who will enjoy it :) .

As far as her procedure, she paid cash.  I had encouraged her to go to a Center of Excellence for bariatric surgery and discussed all of the benefits (i.e. not just the surgery itself but all the follow-up, support groups, subspecialty support, etc.), but she chose to have it done locally.  I don't know - maybe her pre-op consent included the option of other procedures.  I know mine didn't, but it did include the option of changing from lap to open if conditions were found intraoperatively to be unfavorable for the lap procedure. 

Turns out her surgeon, who had just recently moved to the area, was working under someone else's license and couldn't even get licensed in Texas.  He has since moved.  She didn't get even a single follow-up appointment with him.  I don't even think she's had any labs, etc. 

 Wow no labs = NOT good ..  


   We had a gal post a few weeks ago on the main forum how she thought she could get by w/o supplements or labs after 2 or so years out of her RNY  ..    WRONG ..  She began developing all kinds of  strange neurological symptoms over the next year or two  ..  At first she was checked for M.S., Lupus, and other similar types of disorders ...  Eventually the light bulb apparently went on   and she finally had her level checks done, only to discover how badly tanked some of her vitamin levels were.   Unfortunately by then, some major irreversible nerve damage had been done, and she posted her sad lament as a warning to others on OH.  

   btw, glad to see more male nurses on OH, Tim  ..  and esp. an N.P.      I've been looking at nursing school (RN) for next fall (change of careers after law burn-out after 15+ years) and finding Texas is one of the hardest states to get into ..     Where are you located, and do you advise any other states that the competition is not so stiff (or even foreign schools)?      Having already a behavioral science B.S. degree (s.c.l. no less) it seems I should get cut some slack at some schools for entrance!      Eventually I'd like to be a patient coordinator for a WLS sugeon to "pay it forward" ..  

I'm in the Texas Panhandle about an hour North of Amarillo.  I commute to Amarillo to work.  I did my undergrad at West Texas A&M and then moved to Houston for my MSN at UT-Houston.  I went to my undergrad program because it was so close and was a fairly good school.  Then I wrote to every MSN nurse practitioner  program in my specialty in the US (at that time there were only about 40ish) and found out it is INCREDIBLY expensive to go out of state and especially if they are private schools.  There were only 2 in TX at the time (UT-Houston and UTMB in Galveston), both of which would require a move, and I ended up picking Houston. 

Unfortunately, as the shortage of RN's goes, so does the shortage of nursing school instructors.  So there can be long waits for entrance into school.  But, the way most schools get by is they require students to have all their prerequisites (sciences, humanities, math, polysci, etc.) completed before the accept a student into a clinical slot.  Actually that's not a bad deal because with school, clinicals, and working to pay for it all, your time can be pretty slim for other niceties like family or sleeping :).  It's nice to just have to worry about the nursing classes.

If I were you, I'd get a copy of your closest BSN program's degree requirements and compare what you already have from your JD career and if there are any extra prerequisites, go ahead and take those.  If you are finished with your prerequisites, go ahead and find out who the undergraduate nursing program director is and request a face-to-face interview.  That way they can directly see your dedication rather than just trying to pick someone from a stack of  applications.  Actually, most nursing programs really like second career people or even people who are older and heading back for a first scholastic career because they tend to be driven, goal-oriented, and not afraid to put in the extra effort required to really succeed versus someone who is a recent HS grad who may or may not know if they are really cut out for healthcare. 

There is a good demand for RN/JD's in the malpractice field or even insurance litigation (pesky HMO's).  The good thing about an RN career is there are so many clinical, education, or research options available, and you are basically recession-proof since there are so many empty jobs.  You can pick your area from any number of specialties (med-surg, any of the ICU's, pediatrics, neonatal, surgical, etc.).  A lot of times the ICU's or clinics like you to have a good background in med-surg before they will hire you.  I was pretty goal-specific in that I was previously a respiratory therapist and went to nursing school as a means to an end to go to neonatal nurse practitioner school, and since I had lots of neonatal RT experience, I got hired into the NICU right out of nursing school.  The downside is the hours can be draining (nights, weekends, holidays, etc.).  But there are an awful lot of people out of work these days, so I'm happy to have my job.   

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 wow Tim  very helpful!  Thanks for the detailed response ..   

   Yes, they tell me the reason it is so hard to get into nursing school is b/c of the shortage of nursing teachers  --  apparently they can make a lot more $$s practicing than teaching ..  

  I've been told that PA is so desperate right now that if you have any kind off BS/BA they will get you your RN in one year ..   Another frend of mine in KY said they are pretty desperate too right now in that state ..    I've also heard that Baptist U. in San Antonio has a branch campus in Phoenix, that if you enroll in their RN program at the Phoenix campus they will waive tuition if you agree to work at their hospital in Phoenix for 3 years after graduation ..        I hate to move out of Texas for school, but will do so if it will be to my advantage ..  So I'll check all those options out soon ..  

  I am a bit worried about discrimination, since so few guys are nurses at present, but they tell me they are actually highly-respected (many are combat vets who were medics in the military) ..  and even some docs (male, apparently) actually seem to give deference to male nurses ...  I guess that might cause a little jealousy among the F nurses (?)   

  btw, my mom tried to become a RT ..   She attended vo-tech for it back when they were trying to cram two years into a one-year program ..  She had a rather "sadistic" teacher (and a bad alcoholic who would show up for class drunk sometimes, no less) from the sounds of it and many students washed out of his program ..   Although she got "B"s, she set standards so high for herself she felt that wasn't good enough to be an RT and eventually dropped out ..

Thank her and re-gift it,

yep...re-gift it....their NSA ice cream is TERRIBLE...

People are stupid.  The thing that is most miserable for me is to go out to eat and I regularly get gift cards for restaraunts.  Everyone around me knows how miserable I am after a meal much less in public.

A good friend that I let hunt on our family farm gives me a gift card every year for Applebies ( I have only eaten there when I use his card) and then addresses it to me and my Father in Law.  Bad enough I have to go out to eat at a place I don't like , just to use it up, but he also makes me take my Wife's Dad?  It's like torture, I think I will ban him from the farm.....  We regularly eat at a nice local restaraunt when we hunt, why on earth wouldn't he at least think to buy it at a place he knows I go to and like?

I would give the card away if only he wouldn't tell my Father in Law about it.  Really burns me up.

Back to your message... Give the card away.

Actually, Applebees has one very good WLS-friendly dish, but I think they took it off their menu someime back:    it was a GREAT steak salad ..   Thin strips of very lean, tender beef on top of romaine lettuce greens, grape tomatoes and onions  ...  I would ask for blue cheese chunks to put on it and blue cheese dressing (which is DS-friendly) ..  I guess RNYers and banders could ask for a low-cal or fat-free dressing ..   Yummmm ..  

  Last time I was at AB's though I didn't see it on the menu anymore, but the server said that if requested they would still serve it by chopping up an 8 oz. steak on top of a salad, basically ..   Hopefully they will still do that ..