"The hospital was well equiped for overweight patients. They even had a specialty bed that was very comfortable...no back pain. It was rather hot in that bed because of the material it was made of. I felt very safe at this hospital because I know it is a major trauma center equipped to handle anything that could happen. I felt the staff did its very best to meet all my needs. The large number of resident drs assigned to the hospital are a real plus, most of them check on you consistently through out the day and if a nurse is hard to get a hold of most of the residents do not mind helping out or getting someone. My pain was vey well controlled through the morphine pump...I never really had to ask staff for help w/that...as a matter of a fact they would come and ask me if I was remembering to use my pump. Parking accomodations are pretty adecuate and close to the hosp. Overall I would rate this hospital as far above average and excellent in some respects."
"I just found out about him. I talked to his secretary, Rollette, on the phone and scheduled my 1st consult for Sept 26th. She was extremely nice. I found out that he is a professor at the Univ Medical School and teaches surgery, but does consultations for this and other surgeries too.
9/26/01 I was not very impressed when I 1st got to the office. 1st of all I was told that my appt was for 3:00pm and I distinctly remember that on the phone they said 4:00. It was a very basic no frills appt. No videos or long talks. I filled out a 4 page questionaire that asked about medical history and gave a small psych eval. I was given a 10 page print copy of a report on Bariatric Surgery with a picture of the RNY procedure. I already knew much more than this report said through all my internet research. My 1st impression of Dr. Schwesinger is that he is a very busy man and he goes straight to the point. He reviewed my questionnaire and I gave him more details about some tummy problems that I have had because he said nothing about having an Upper GI or an Endoscopy. Nothing about a sleep study. Things I keep hearing other people say are required by their surgeons. He is not part of the main group of drs that do this surgery in SA so his routine is a bit different I am sure. He also does not have the 17 month waiting period that they have just to get in to see them.
10/8/01 I finally heard from Dr. Schwesingers office assistant, Debbie who takes care of referrals and follow ups. She said that he is away for a week but that she is handling my referrals through my PCP and will make sure that the good Dr. gets right on to writing my letter of necessity for the insurance when he gets back. She was very nice and sounded very compitent.
12/10/01 My insurance does not approve surgery until all the pre-op visits are done. Drs. Office did not explain that up front to me so I was guessing about approval for a long time. I just had what was suppose to be my final pre-op with Dr. Schwesinger and he now wants me to see a cardiologist and a pulmonary specialist because of my med history. I dont mind seeing them just wish he had told me to schedulde those visits a long time ago...like when he 1st met with me in Sept. So if you see this group of drs, point out things to them early like if you took phen/fen (cardiologist appt) or if you have a history of asthma/pneumonia (pulmonary specialist appt.) so that it doesn't cause you delays when you think you are almost ready to schedule surgery.
Oh yes, office visits still continue to take forever so take a good book with you. The nutritionist Dr. Dent and the 2nd Surgeon on staff that did my 2nd opinion, Dr. Strodell were great, very informative and very personable. FYI Dr. Strodell also does these surgeries at the Christus Santa Rosa Hospital NW not only at University Medical Center.
3/19/02 I am now post op and I have nothing but good things to say about Dr. Schwesinger, his staff and the University Hospital. All the residents that work with Dr. Schwesinger I am sure make his job so much easier. They are always there looking after you in the Hospital. FYI...my incision looks great a very nice thin line <smile>"
