THR Feeling confused and very upset

[overthehill]

My appointment was for November 1, next Tuesday, and I just got a phone call saying they had to postpone it because the surgeon was sick. "Okay", I thought, then she said the next appointment was November 29!! I was shocked. I'm ready to go, house is set up, small bag is packed, drinking lots of water etc. That's 4 1/2 weeks away. OMG, I'm feeling totally lost now. And I don't understand why him being sick would bump me a whole month and 4 days. I'm so tired of limping, being in pain, being unable to exercise.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, or had to go through it? I have to redo the pre-op physical, the covid test. It took so much to get to this place----ready to go.

What do I do? I'm wondering if I was the only day he re-scheduled? If I was bumped a month wouldn't it make sense he bumped the whole month of patients and since I was the next in line I should be the first to go? Did he really bump a whole month of patients? What kind of lousy surgeon puts that many people in that situation? I'm so angry I could scream.

Should I start over somewhere else and try to get it done sooner? Can anyone advise me please. I really, really need some emotional support. My whole life is upside down now.

 

[djklaugh]

@overthehill I am so sorry your surgery had to be postponed! I know that is very frustrating and hard to understand. I guess a lot depends on how sick the surgeon is and how many days of his surgeries had to be rescheduled. Plus it's not just the surgeon but also the availability of operating rooms, nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. I would guess they reschedule things in order that they were cancelled - you don't know if he was sick all this past week ... or if it's expected that he will be out all next week. Nor do you know what he is sick with or how serious that illness is. You certainly would not want surgeon operating when he was not well! It actually seems to me that you are fortunate that your surgery could be reschedule so quickly ... there have been stories here of people having to wait months for a rescheduled procedure.

Hard as it is try not to fret about this bump in your path. You will get through this and will get your new hip!

 

[subie2021]

Oh gosh, how disappointing and frustrating!

I worked in surgical pathology and can tell you that the end of the year in surgery is insane. I've seen surgery schedules for hospitals, and they are jammed in November and December. Everyone is trying to get their surgeries done because of insurance issues, their out of pocket has been met for the year, etc.
If your surgeon is out for a week or more, all those patients need to get squeezed into slots that may not be there. Depending on how many he normally does in a week, it can be difficult to get every patient rescheduled as quickly as they'd like. Could be that instead of your surgeon working a full day in the OR, he only gets time for one or two ops. It wouldn't be fair to displace other surgeons' patients for all of his.

I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Gigirajah]

I didn’t even know about this. My surgeon scheduled me about a month ago. Had my surgery today. I’m home in bed. So glad it’s done!

 

[overthehill]

I think he put me back at the end of the line, I basically lost my place. I scheduled this 5 weeks ago. I think all the other people that scheduled after me (the whole month of Nov.) got to keep their place, I'm guessing. Because how does he know he's going to be sick for a month?
I feel I've gotten bad advice from the get-go and I should've gotten this done 1 year ago. I've already waited a very, very long time to get to this point. I don't think he rescheduled in order; just did what was easy, put people back at the end.
I'm just really, really struggling!! I quit my job (it was physical) I can't exercise, I'm depressed, blah blah blah. And now I feel soo cheated. With other stuff going on, I'm just lost and a mess.

Do I have the right to ask to be rescheduled fairly, like, I was the next one in line? Shouldn't I be the first to go when he supposedly gets well in a whole month...like I said how do you know how long you're going to be sick?

 

[LaJudes]

l am thinking that if they put all the surgeries scheduled while the dr was sick , next in line , they would have to reschedule all of the surgeries after that as well , to make room for them . That's a lot of reschedule work , plus a whole lot more people getting rescheduled than if they just reschedule the ones during his illness .

 

[subie2021]

@overthehill

Many of us can empathize with some of what you have gone through up to this point. We know the pain very well, the inability to do daily activities, let alone exercise for fitness. Some of us have waited much longer to be cleared for surgery. We've jumped through all kinds of hoops - insurance, work, physical therapy, endless imaging, conservative treatment that lasted for months or years. We understand the disappointment. For many being able to carry on at work was/is a problem too. So hopefully you will find Bonesmart a good place to vent.

To answer you concerns about how your OS knows how long he'll be sick, please consider that his staff used "sick" sort of generically as in "out on sick leave". It doesn't always mean something like an upset stomach or a positive covid test. Maybe your surgeon is having surgery himself, and needs recovery time, just as we hippies need it. Maybe he needs a course of treatment for something, that will make him feel ill and debilitated, like chemo. Maybe he's out on family leave because of an ill wife or child. We don't know what goes on in others' lives, and other people may not wish to share their personal situations.

I had a PCP who was an older guy. He was just wonderful and very popular, and really effective in treating certain chronic illnesses. Over the course of a year or so, he worked fewer and fewer days, but on his appointment days he was cheerful and seemed energetic. Neither he nor his staff ever mentioned a reason for his shrinking office hours. Then one day I called for a routine appointment, and found out that he had died of the heart failure that he'd been struggling with for a long time. So see, we just don't know sometimes, and what is an inconvenience to us may be caused by a big problem to the other person.

Peace to you...have faith that everything will work itself out.

 

[Jaycey]

@overthehill I know this is frustrating but please focus on the fact that you did get rescheduled and now have that date. Many of our members wait months/years for surgery. Even if you did try and find someone else to do the surgery I seriously doubt you would get a date any sooner.

Please note that the surgeon did not pick this date. Schedulers will rework the schedule taking into account what team the surgeon works with and their availability. Many surgeons specify their team.

 

[spaniel]

Technically speaking you "should" be put in as a priority, but as others have remarked,perhaps much depends on availability of the rest of the team and other factors. There may be other extenuating circumstances as well. This happened to me, but it was basically because the hospital stopped doing surgeries again because of a rise in covid cases. I knew they were not "making it up" as I know folks in the neighborhood! With that said, I was promised to be more or less first in line when the OR for electives opened up again. Here's an example of the "team" issue. My surgery was late in the day even though sceduled for about 8 am or so. By the time I was done, the entire PT staff had walked out. Never saw any. It was also time for the RNs (who were great) to go home... literally. But perhaps you could put a call into the scheduler... IDK... see if she may have overlooked something or see if you can be put on his cancellation list. By the way I did not have to redo physical or even labs. the only tricky thing was that i had to remember to not overdo any meds that would interfere with blood clotting... and then even remember to advise scheduler (and obviously the pre-op folks) if Ii had taken any.

 

[PolarIce]

I can totally understand the disappointment and frustratIon. It takes a lot of mental prep to get to the point of surgery and the days before surgery. My heart goes out to you. I have no doubt that the other patients also affected by this feel the same way.

We always want to remember that it’s important to have a top notch team working on you during a surgery, so it’s a blessing in disguise if something like this happens. You are better off waiting a little longer to have a healthy team, than risk work that isn’t quite as good as it could be if the Surgeon was not feeling well.

As previously posted, changing a date sometimes has to do with what is available in health care facilities when something needs to be rescheduled. I remember years ago, it also happened to me with a hip scope. When I got the call, they rescheduled me 2 weeks later(got lucky). I didn’t even get a reason for mine, they just told me it had to be rescheduled. Come to think of it, the video was actually turned into a news clip, so you’ll see my rear end on National TV(and YouTube LOL).

You’ve got this, 3 weeks to go and you will be good as new.