A double Doctor Wednesday
Hi hi. It’s us. This won’t be a long note, because we are going to bed pretty soon. There is a lot of information though because of the two appointments that we made today. The first meeting was to Dr. Albright’s – our general doctor at UIC at 10 am. She’s a very good doctor. Maybe a little too busy, but she has the kind of mind that can handle that kind of life. I think she’s a little down though. I worry about her and if she’s happy enough. I can’t even imagine all the people she must worry over.She seemed to get the best over me and she didn’t even crack a smile over it. After like four years of seeing her, I was finally concerned over something enough to let her do a Pap smear … what did she do in return? Slapped me with a mammogram too!
HMPF! That was pretty harsh! The thing I was concerned with turned out not to be a problem. There was another test for infections, but I passed that one YOOHOO! The pap will come through the mail. She gave me 3 lab tests … all that I’ve seen before. One is metabolic which much mean everything, but the kitchen sink. The lipid means she’s testing the cholesterol and triglycerides, which I haven’t been passing lately, and the third test is the one where it tells her how much I’ve been cheating on my diet for the last 3 months – AND, I can’t eat for 12 hours prior.
HMPF! If something happened to Dr. Albright I’d be severely terrified of not having her. She’s the only MD I’ve ever been able to count on.
I had really poor excuses to be a patient today. My feet need softening and they needed fungal crème … yes … you get the best stuff here directly! She did those tests where she touched something to my feet and I had to tell her when I felt something. I also need to work with ear cleaner stuff. Uh huh … really good stuff here. I think that was about all either of us could muster for one day and she just said come back in 3 months … so it was like … eh, ok. We did catch her up on what was going on with some of the other doctorin stuff especially connected to the surgery … I think she almost forgot she’d referred me and I think she remains put-off with Dr. Marvin for ordering my meds. But its much easier working with him, because I see him once a week for an entire hour and I see her once every 3 months.
Dr. Marvin is supposed to help me be getting pills ordered through the Walgreen Mail Order. I tried to ask a few more questions and she was like – oh the others can help you more … I felt like ok, be that way, but she DID refer me out! I think she needs Christmas It’s the order of the day. Oh one more thing – good nursing staff and extra effort on the receptionist part. That was nice.
I left the office feeling like I’d accomplished something important and I felt equally “grown-up” going back to the U after a little break. The second appointment was at 3:15. I got a chance to talk to one of my newer on-line friends through OH.
That was really neat. We share the same surgeon, or will after she meets her tomorrow. I know, she’ll love Dr. Ayloo. Dr. Berger’s appointment was almost great throughout there were two small staff problems. Most likely they couldn’t be avoided. The first was that I had to go in for my vitals and that had to be done with someone else in the room, and then I was sent back into the waiting room. I had to pickup my stuff, put it down, pick it up and put it down, and then as soon as I sat down, I was called in to the appointment, which meant picking up my stuff.
For a mobility impaired person … it’s draining. The other bad part was that I had to wait about 25 minutes after leaving my appointment before they could schedule me for an appointment 3 months away. That was trying. But, in general I was in a good mood – so, not too put out.
I met the next patient that was going in after me through her sister, and then after my appointment I met the patient herself. It didn’t take long to figure out that she was considering bariatric surgery too. I thought that was cool. I asked the sister if they were into computers and they were so I suggested the OH site. That was pretty cool … AND, I suggested it to Dr. Berger, that made me feel great that she sounded excited about checking it out. And, we told her about finding the surgery video’s on YouTube yesterday under gastric bypass. There were three that were 45 – 1 hour and you got to watch the whole procedure, or at least the majority of it. I was pretty impressed, but I’m too tired for all that tonight.
Dr. Berger came out and got me and I noted again her happy personality, which goes to show you there is consistency! WooHOO!!! She’s like Dr. Marvin in that concern. It seemed there was all kinds of things to say, since she’s involved in the surgery, I got to talk more about what was happening or some of the bothersome things that I worry about tediously. LIKE - not being able to stop thinking about this stuff, especially worrisome at work, and about gaining weight instead of losing it. I reviewed though some of the entries here before writing … I can see were into the candy bars again … so that now is no wonder. Dr. Berger helped me through the foods and drinks on a liquid diet. I had asked her about it as a means to get a grip on losing some weight. She gave me some good clues. She also suggested strongly that Rich come in next time (January 30) to talk to the nutritionalist because she would be talking about the foods I would be eating. I had told her of Rich shopping and cooking. I talked to Rich on the phone when I got home. He was grumbly and said … grrrrrrr it’ll have to go on my schedule. Annd, I said, “yes dear.” *giggle*
Dr. Berger was also very patient in that we went over the whole procedure for what would happen … I told her the problems I was having in recalling the order of events. I think mostly the parts are all excited and hearing it differently. But, we asked her to write it down so we KNOW it’s right! Oh, and she gave us a couple of choices … she says that we need to continue taking our multiple vitamin and take a supplement for Calcium citrate and Vitamin D (caltrate, citracal, or oscal) and we need to take something for B12 (500-2500 mcg daily sublingual – under tongue). She says though that we are way ahead of the game by already scheduling in the psychology appointments and the cardiac clearance. She also said that we wouldn’t need a sleep apnea at that time they are given, because we already know that we have it and we’re using the machine … WOOHOO!
OK, now for the directions.
The psychiatry is next week and the stress test is the week after that. We will continue seeing Dr. Berger and Andrea – Andrea in January, Dr. Berger in February, and Both in March. In March Dr. Berger will contact Mary Ann, Dr. Ayloo’s RN who will submit the insurance and schedule an appointment with Dr. Ayloo. The insurance will take approximately 1 month and Dr. Berger says that approximately 90+% of the people are accepted first time, and if we weren’t accepted just to tell her and she could get us in. After the approval came through – Mary Ann will call us to let us know, she will schedule the last of the labs, she will tell us to start the pre-op diet, and in about 2 weeks, we will have surgery. AND that is that! Dr. Berger also talked about Blue Cross now asking for 5 year history of weight loss … I told her that Dr. Marvin should verify some of it, but that Dr. Albright’s records should show it too. Dr. Berger said not to worry then over the 5 year history and that Mary Ann would get it from UIC’s records.
Ok … pretty good?! Wow! A lot covered today. Pretty beat though. This is Rich’s once a month card night, so we’re going to sneak into bed now … be taking care … and if Dr. Berger happens to stop by – thanks … your doin GREAT docterin!
posted by Ann Marie @ 12/06/2007 03:54:00 AM
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