angie790
New Member
Hi all,
Haven't been on for a few days, busy busy busy at work but the date for my pre-op finally arrived yesterday & I thought I'd post how it went, for anyone interested who might be attending the Musgrove at Taunton.
Appt went ok, although somewhat bizarre!!!! I arrived about 40 mins before my appt time, so checked in with the admin staff & was going to go off & have a coffee but they advised me to stay put as they were trying to get people in a quickly as possible. As it was I didn’t get seen until about my appt time anyway!
Saw the bariatric surgery nurse first, who ran through a load of stuff that had been covered in a previous group ‘education session’ & she gave me a huge form to fill in & a load of requests for bloods. Once I had finished with her, she told me to go & get my bloods done, but before I could head off there, I got hollered at & hauled back by another nurse (aka Nurse Hilter, who I later found out was co-ordinating all the appts) who then sent off to have a peak-flow test, oxygen sats, MRSA swab & ECG (had to take all upper clothes off & they were slinging my boobs everywhere to stick on the sticky things…..traumatised or what).
I was sent off for my bloods again, but got dragged back again by Nurse Hilter & sent into see the dietician.
After her I finally got sent for my bloods by Nurse Hilter, but she followed me down after a couple of minutes to ask the phlebotomist to do me next as they were waiting for me to see other people. So, I jumped a massive queue to get them done (had 7 vials drawn & have a really sore arm this morning!!!), but was chatting to the lady. She was lovely & was telling me the bariatric team were trying this new system to try & see as many people as possible, but it obviously wasn’t working very well!
I was then dragged straight in to see the pre-op assessment nurse and then shunted to the anaesthetist (who was rather yummy). He got me to open my mouth & looked at my neck, to assess tube access.
Finally, saw the head surgeon Mr Welbourn who was a small, really rather strange man. He went through everything again, but spoke so quickly & quietly it was quite hard to understand him! Asked him a few questions which he totally misunderstood & went off on one talking about something totally different! Asked me about what I was doing in my PhD, so I told him…to which he replied: ‘Sounds all very interesting but I have no idea what you are talking about!!!!!’. I had to lay down so he could feel my tummy & told me I only need to do 1 week liver shrinking diet, then before I had even realised what had happened, he sort of got me in an arm lock & wrenched me into an upright position (totally bizarre, fat as I am, I can sit up from a lying down position with no problem, but as OH later pointed out, possibly alot of the people he sees probably can’t). Anyway, still reeling from being wrestled, he finished off by offering me biopsy tissue if I needed any in collaborative work with the hospital!!!!!!!!
I was trying to be really serious etc, but was completely thrown & was dying with laughter inside….not every day one gets offered human tissue samples!!!!!
Anyway, after all that, he says no problem at all with going ahead with the op, so I now go on the waiting list…I have to be done within 18 weeks, which if I have to wait the full 18 weeks, is by the last week in November.
Dammit, going to be eating baby food over Xmas, but I suppose at least it means I won’t put on the obligatory half a stone by stuffing my fat face over the Xmas hols!
If I don’t hear anything from them within 2 weeks, I am going to ring & start chasing them up for a date, as I'll need plenty of notice for OH & my work. So, there we go….totally weird experience, but one step closer!
Haven't been on for a few days, busy busy busy at work but the date for my pre-op finally arrived yesterday & I thought I'd post how it went, for anyone interested who might be attending the Musgrove at Taunton.
Appt went ok, although somewhat bizarre!!!! I arrived about 40 mins before my appt time, so checked in with the admin staff & was going to go off & have a coffee but they advised me to stay put as they were trying to get people in a quickly as possible. As it was I didn’t get seen until about my appt time anyway!
Saw the bariatric surgery nurse first, who ran through a load of stuff that had been covered in a previous group ‘education session’ & she gave me a huge form to fill in & a load of requests for bloods. Once I had finished with her, she told me to go & get my bloods done, but before I could head off there, I got hollered at & hauled back by another nurse (aka Nurse Hilter, who I later found out was co-ordinating all the appts) who then sent off to have a peak-flow test, oxygen sats, MRSA swab & ECG (had to take all upper clothes off & they were slinging my boobs everywhere to stick on the sticky things…..traumatised or what).
I was sent off for my bloods again, but got dragged back again by Nurse Hilter & sent into see the dietician.
After her I finally got sent for my bloods by Nurse Hilter, but she followed me down after a couple of minutes to ask the phlebotomist to do me next as they were waiting for me to see other people. So, I jumped a massive queue to get them done (had 7 vials drawn & have a really sore arm this morning!!!), but was chatting to the lady. She was lovely & was telling me the bariatric team were trying this new system to try & see as many people as possible, but it obviously wasn’t working very well!
I was then dragged straight in to see the pre-op assessment nurse and then shunted to the anaesthetist (who was rather yummy). He got me to open my mouth & looked at my neck, to assess tube access.
Finally, saw the head surgeon Mr Welbourn who was a small, really rather strange man. He went through everything again, but spoke so quickly & quietly it was quite hard to understand him! Asked him a few questions which he totally misunderstood & went off on one talking about something totally different! Asked me about what I was doing in my PhD, so I told him…to which he replied: ‘Sounds all very interesting but I have no idea what you are talking about!!!!!’. I had to lay down so he could feel my tummy & told me I only need to do 1 week liver shrinking diet, then before I had even realised what had happened, he sort of got me in an arm lock & wrenched me into an upright position (totally bizarre, fat as I am, I can sit up from a lying down position with no problem, but as OH later pointed out, possibly alot of the people he sees probably can’t). Anyway, still reeling from being wrestled, he finished off by offering me biopsy tissue if I needed any in collaborative work with the hospital!!!!!!!!
I was trying to be really serious etc, but was completely thrown & was dying with laughter inside….not every day one gets offered human tissue samples!!!!!
Anyway, after all that, he says no problem at all with going ahead with the op, so I now go on the waiting list…I have to be done within 18 weeks, which if I have to wait the full 18 weeks, is by the last week in November.
Dammit, going to be eating baby food over Xmas, but I suppose at least it means I won’t put on the obligatory half a stone by stuffing my fat face over the Xmas hols!
If I don’t hear anything from them within 2 weeks, I am going to ring & start chasing them up for a date, as I'll need plenty of notice for OH & my work. So, there we go….totally weird experience, but one step closer!
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Your doc sounds like a right one 
