"It took me seven months to get an initial appointment with Dr. Thirlby. I wanted to use him because a nurse friend of mine used to work for Virgina Mason and said he was fantastic. I live in Tacoma and many of my nurse friends had experiences taking care of Dr. Fox and Dr. OH's patients post op and said I should never concider using them they had many post op problems, and in there oppinions not good doctors. So I waited the seven months to see Dr. Thirlby. My first appointment was 7/1/2002 and I was very impressed with him, he made me feel very comfortable and that he was experienced and skilled. My mother was not totally sold on my having WLS until she met Dr. Thirlby, now she is behind me 100%.
I was very unhappy to find that after I had been approved for surgery Dr. Thirlbys scheduling staff informed me that he was booked until after the new year and that after that point they would start booking dates for 2003. She would not tell me how far down the 4 inch stack of "waiting to schedule" paitents I was and informed me the soonest I would know would be January, this was in august. She was very rude. I asked to be put on a list if anyone canceled to take there place and she said, "no one cancels once they have been approved!! we only schedule people who have been approved."
The office has redeamed it self a bit. They called and asked if I could have surgery October 22.... someone canceled. They had all my pre-op stuff scheduled for the week before. I meet with the nutritionist at 9, Dr. Thirlby at 10, and anesthesia at 12. I'll update after those appointments."
