Completely lost my patience

Some of you have heard how I've been waiting 4 yrs for a surgery date, to re-cap, I had my post op nutrition class on nov.20th. We were told we'd get a date for our surgeons appt in approx. 3 weeks. Well I broke down and called the hospital today (Dec 21) and was told I likely won't see the surgeon until the end of Feb. and surgery in April. I'm giving up. Why tell us anything if they don't know? My hopes and dreams snatched right out from under me AGAIN
oh well, Merry Christmas everyone.

Your right, they shouldn't guess because they have no idea how anxious you/we are.

But  file it away at least you can see the end/beginning is coming.

Have faith and enjoy your christmas anyway.

You will get the patience medal for sure.

I am going through Guelph too.  During the October Orientation they told us they were all caught up and waiting for the patients to get through the system.  It sounded like their operating rooms were sitting empty! Plus they are hiring a 4th surgeon too!   Sounds like a long wait....I will be lucky to get mine by the end of 2013! ....I am with you on this one!  It shouldn't take that long!  It is going to be a long winter!

Audrey told me today that they do 360 surgeries per year covered by OHIP. She said that they are booked for the fiscal year which runs through March. So nothing new will be scheduled before April. What's frustrating me are the people who had Orientation in September and are having surgery now. How do some move so fast and others...wait...and wait...I'm sitting here at work crying like a fool, they just look at you like, it's only 4 more months, what's the big deal?...might as well be a life time.

Can you afford to remortgage your house and pay for private surgery with Dr. Christou or Dr. Gagner in Montreal?  Only 4-6 weeks wait with Dr. Christou, don't know about Dr. Gagner as he is often out of country.....Google them...about $20,000, OHIP and tax refund comes to about $4000..

Tax refund???  I wasn't aware you could get that much money back through our taxes??

 

If you self pay then you can but when it's covered by OHIP, you can only deduct charges for travelling, parking, hotel rooms, etc.  I claimed my $16k surgery that I paid for and got a healthy refund back.  It didn't cover my $16k but it was still a nice deduction to have.

Thanks Tracey!!!  That's actually really good to know, since I'm now looking at self paying with Dr Gagner after Hamilton has started to refuse VSG for patients unless you qualify by OHIP standards.  They've basically stopped having a an open dialog with patients and have returned to the RNY is the best attitude.  The quote I got from Dr Gagner is a bit less than what you paid, and I was going to finance half of it, although knowing that I can likely get a nice refund in taxes then that will offset rest. 

 

There are tons of factors in play as to how much you would get back but the deduction is a large one and will help to reduce your payable by quite a bit.  I always overpay my income tax so I don't have to pay at the end of the year.  We used to be able to deduct the cost of plastic surgery too until a few years ago and then they said no cosmetic surgery is tax deductible.  I was happy I had my TT when it could still be claimed.

I was self-pay with Dr. Christou, and between my Public Service  health care plan which paid for some items ( went to them first with my total bill to see what they would refund, which was  a little bit )...Christou breaks down his invoice into various services so it easy to see what categories might be partially refunded , then to OHIP offices in Ottawa to see if I could get something back from them ( denied as RnY offered by OHIP), and then when I filed my taxes for CRA, I included all receipts as a "medical expense", stated what had been refunded,   and additionally claimed the travel, hotel and meals , and between the lot got back close to $4000 on my $18500 cost in those days...

 

Here's a link to CRA medical deductions for your income tax...

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns300-350/330/llwbl-eng.html