St. Joe's Hamilton

Nov 12, 2010

Went to St. Joseph's yesterday. Wow, it was a day from hell. When I have to go back I'm going to have to make sure that my appointments are scheduled a bit better then they were. I left home at 5 in the morning. Had my first appointment at 8:30am, but didn't get in until about 8:45am. Was there until 9:30. I met with Dr. Pompaloni . He was okay with my choice of getting the vsg. I signed the consent form and made sure that it only said vsg. RNY is not an option for me. Apparently I was the first one to ask and sign for only one type of surgery. He did mention a few times that if I didn't lose all the weight that I wanted to, they could go back and do the second/lower half of the rny. I held my tongue about that one and just said 'okay'.  The dr also said that my thorax was quite large (is that good or bad?) and that my 'tummy wasn't that big, so maybe the vsg is a good option for me'. Dr. Anvari will probably be doing my surgery, I didn't meet him I just saw him as he was calling in another patient. Dr. Pompaloni  said he has to review the case with his boss and the other staff members but it shouldn't be a problem. My only concern is that he may want me to come back and talk to the psychiatrist. For what I don't know. Which is really frustrating on my part. Since I started this process in 2008 I've been cleared by a psychiatrist in Windsor. Then by family doctor in Windsor. Then by my family doctor in Sarnia. Then by the social workers at the Windsor Assessment centre. How much more "head" clearance do I need? I'm fine, if I was having problems I'd be the first one to say stop to the whole process. Maybe I'm worrying over nothing and in the next couple weeks I'll get my OR date. But, it doesn't keep me from worrying that this is just another unnecessary delay. I also got my prescription for optifast and for the meds were on after surgery.
I then had to wait all the way until 1:30pm for my surgical education class. Of course it was geared toward rny patients and it wasn't anything that I haven't heard before. That went on until about 3:20pm.
Next up was the gastroscopy. I had to be there at 3:30, to have my scope at 4:30. I got in at 4:40 but I still had to wait. I had the choice to not get sedated and I didn't. The whole procedure lasted less than 2 minutes. It was pretty bad and even more embarrassing but it just wasn't worth getting knocked out for such a minor thing. My throat is still sore this today. I gagged and heaved, drooled (all down the side of my face,my neck), belched, coughed. It was quiet the sight. They took a tissue sample because of my acid reflux. They also discovered a small hiatus hernia, which can be fixed during the wls. Back on the road by 5:20pm. I'm not thinking too much about the process, I'm just living my life. If I worry about time lines, and other people's progress I'll stress and that's the last thing I want. I just have to check these appointments off the ever shortening list.

0 Comments