need a plastic surgeon

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

when a patient is ready to be discharged, he always says "____ is peeing and pooping normally." Slays me every time! I just find myself giggling like a little kid whenever I hear it! Peeing and pooping are such a great words...embrace them!

I want to get my finances ready before I schedule the surgery. My previous experience with surgeons and disability is "go back whenever you feel ready"...they don't seem to want to comit to a timeline. The last time I had surgery I went back way too soon and had complications, so would like to avoid that this time around.

Thanks to everyone who has replied, this is all good advice and info. I think I will plan for the worst at 6 weeks or so and hope for best at just a week or two. It certaily won't hurt to have some extra money saved.

I had a similar situation a few years ago. I paid and the ins. co. paid, dentist kept both payments. After 3 phone calls to the office, no money. So, I wrote a letter to the dentist, put PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL on the envelope, put a cc to the state dept of insurance at the bottom of the letter (dept of ins. scares them more than the AMA (if dealing with MDs) or American Dental Association).

my son to have his wisdom teeth removed. Charged us $75.00 for the consult. I didn't like the oral surgeon and his office staff were very standoffish can I did not make an appointment with him for surgery, but with another oral surgeon. I had to pay the $75.00 up front - no problem, but they filed the insurance with the money coming to them. It has been 5 weeks now since they received payment and I have called twice asking for a refund. They told me the insurance company had 90 days to come back and ask for the money, but I PAID upfront so what difference does that make, they aren't out anything and they have $52.00 of MY money on top of the $75.00. They said they would issue a check next week, but is what they told me 2 weeks ago. It isn't a lot of money, it is the principle of the thing.

Went to another oral surgeon and they didn't charge me anything for the consult and the amount I have to pay upfront is $300.00 less than what the other office quoted me.

who says what he REALLY thinks about the JCAHO. Funny, I found it on Google when I typed in JCAHO and q.i.d. since I wasn't sure what to do about q.i.d. ........

The Death Star of American Medicine

I wish I had written this (JCAHO Unplugged; registration required), because it gives voice to the feelings that I (and probably 99% of the physicians in this country) have about the Death Star of American medicine -- JCAHO. A few excerpts (emphasis is mine):

That is why it really upsets me to watch the JCAHO people walk through my hospital like they were navigating a toxic waste dump. What upsets me even more is the utter paralysis of normal activity that occurs months before their visit and the huge sums of money spent on mock drills and consultants to prepare for the JCAHO invasion. JCAHO (the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization) arouses more fear in hospitals than MRSA gone wild, and their "visit" has a greater institutional paralytic effect than circulating a neuromuscular depolarizing agent through the ventilation system.

A few unsigned verbal orders, or an anesthesiologist carrying a syringe of Anectine in his or her scrubs, or not locking up I.V. bottles of normal saline will result in conditional or provisional approval, and failure to take remedial action within 30 days may result in the death penalty, which for the hospital means bad PR, and more significantly, loss of all federal money. That's right, you can get the chair for parking tickets in the JCAHO world.

It doesn't matter that the hospital admits 50,000 patients a year, saves countless lives and performs daily miracles. Write q.i.d. twice and you can get your liver transplant someplace else.

A response by Russell Massaro, MD, FACP, Executive Vice President Accreditation and Certification Operations, JCAHO, follows Dr. Cossman's screed. The only thing I can say about it is that he makes clear that unannounced surveys will be forthcoming in 2006. Oh, joy!

A lot of the press in the past few days has been discussing issues such as oversight, accountability, and clearly expressed legal authority. JCAHO operates without any real semblence of these niceties, and does so with all the subtlety of a bureaucracy run by Darth Vader. Watching hospital administrators lose bowel and bladder control the minute a JCAHO inspection is brought up has always reminded me of Vader's underlings wilting in his presence --- and for good reason. Without the JCAHO seal of approval, they cannot operate an otherwise well-run, caring facility. The organization, as it was originally intended, was designed to ensure a basic level of safety for all hospitals. It has now become yet another "certifying" agency which must come up with new "critical" problems to fix in order to ensure its ongoing existence (those of you who have gone through the most recent mental masturbatory experience of banning QD and QID in orders know what I mean). What is most galling to me, however, is that hospitals must fork over a hefty sum for these frequent torture sessions, and the inspections are done not by practicing physicians or nurses, but by folks who long ago gave up the difficulties of actually caring for patients for the safety of a clipboard to hide behind.

Maybe I have my metaphors mixed up --- JCAHO comes in like the Death Star, but leaves no room for different institutions to solve problems in their own way. The JCAHO mantra can really be translated as "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" As a result, I suppose JCAHO is really The Borg.

http://www.comfortableshoes.com/crocks-shoes-croks-footwear-crocs-kroks-beach-metro-highland-nile.cfm

This is a link, but you can get them lots of places on-line and you can probably get them at a uniform shop.

get in and out. I do not use the lid. It has nice, high sides, room to turn around and I usually try to keep 3 inches of liter in it.

I have 2 other 'regular' size cats who use the standard liter boxes just fine but my big guy only uses his big, roomy custom box. I also replace it about every 5-6 months. I wish you and your kitty all the best!

The first time I did it I used a very sharp utility knife but had trouble making a U-shape and it ended up quite uneven across. I now drill holes at the bottom of the U (so to speak ....the bottom of the U is actually straight across now). It gives a cleaner 'stop'. I go to about 5-6 inches from the bottom so that I can easily keep 3 inches of litter in it. Whatever you use, it will be worth the work (and it WILL be work). I discard the lid cause my big boy prefers it open. Good luck!

They must sit in a warehouse or truck where the plastic packages get really hot because the outside berries look great but the inside ones are moldy or mushy. That's probably why they go on sale! LOL Open the plastic package in the store no matter how good they look and look at all the berries. Wash them when you get them home and stick them in the fridge in a paper towel lined bowl.

I buy the huge crates or half crates of berries in the little green plastic baskets. I cut most of them up, sprinkle with a small amount of sugar, let sit in the fridge overnight in plastic pint containers to "juice", then freeze.

I planted six dozen strawberry plants this spring, which your post reminded me that I need to go pick strawberries, zucchini, and green beans again. Time to go find some unlocked cars and leave vegetables on the front seats.

you are just going to be doing plastic surgery you might could get by with that and a drug book. I use an electronic version of Quick Look and I like that, not sure how different the book might be, but either Quick Look or Drake & Drake are good drug books.

The drug books are updated every year, though I only get a new one about every other year. I believe the plastic surgery book has been updated within the past year, so should be a good resource. You can check the classified board here and e-bay and you might be able to find books cheaper, just be sure you are getting the most current edition. You can go to Stedman's website to verify current edition if needed.

or can just use clear ones if you can't find green. I got a red bottle of stained glass paint that they sell just about anywhere they sell crafts (even Wal-Mart) and got one of the plastic boards that you use the paint with. I made green jello and put in the cups and then took marschiano cherries and punched down in the jello against the front of the cup for eyes. I made scars on the board with the paint and after they dried I pulled them off and put them on the cups. This stuff makes like a static cling thing. I then crushed plain chocolate cookies and put on top of the jello and this creates a Frankenstein. Smaller kids are probably the only ones who would appreciate this. It was fairly easy, though depending on the # of kids takes lots of jello.

Something else I did for a decoration - take a picnic table and turn it on end longways. Take a green plastic tablecloth and cover the table. Cut black plastic for hair and attach to the top of the table, either on top of the green cloth or just above it if your cloth isn't long enough. Take aluminum pie pans and then take a styrofoam ball and paint it and attach to the pans and attach for eyes. Use the above board and paint and make some really big scars and then attach those. Get some of those popcorn buckets from the movies, or sometimes you can find them in the stores, cover with aluminum foil and attach to the table on each side for the bolts. If it will be dark you can add glow-in-the-dark paint to the eyes and use a black light.

I did this a couple of years ago and everyone stopped to tell me how cute it was. I saw it in Family Fun magazine I believe so I can't take credit for it.