Meeting the surgeon?

[Snoopy]

    As I'd written on another thread, after asking several times when I could meet "my" surgeon to ask a couple of questions, I finally was brought in a few days before the surgery to meet the chair of the unit, who agreed only grudgingly to meet me, after I'd been waiting an hour or two.  As I heard him, from the next room, tell the secretary: "Why do I have to talk to him? I met him already". That's true, he did:  in July, 2010, when I first presented myself (after an e-mail the month before) as a non-directed donor candidate in search of a recipient.  Call me spoiled, but I had developed a question or two since then, and my transplant coordinator had told me repeatedly that I should raise those issues with the surgeon.
    As I'd posted earlier, at that meeting the chief did answer my questions nicely enough, and did reveal the names of the two surgeons who would do my surgery.  Actually, this meeting also included my recipient (we'd come to the hospital together for our pre-op meetings with the anaesthesiology department).
    And I finally did get to meet one of the two surgeons who actually performed my operation:  around the time I was placed on the operating table in the OR, he introduced himself to me.  As I'm sure you'll all agree, it seemed besides the point to use that opportunity to quiz him about how many such procedures he'd done.   (I also saw him one other time, when he popped in for a moment the morning after surgery to check on me.)
    Is any of this unusual? 
              Be well, Snoopy

[joshua_david]

I met my Surgeon (Dr. David Grant: Toronto General Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children) a couple of times before the transplant (my work up) and for the first couple of follow-up appointments following the surgery (then switched to my GI doc, now I just get bloodwork yearly until i'm 10 years out).  This was all scheduled (protocol).  I also have met Joshua's (the recipient and my son) surgeon several times too...His appointments and clinics currently involve his GI docs too (not his surgeon, although I have seen her the odd time during clinic and have just said hi). 

[joshua_david]

I met my Surgeon (Dr. David Grant: Toronto General Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children) a couple of times before the transplant (my work up) and for the first couple of follow-up appointments following the surgery (then switched to my GI doc, now I just get bloodwork yearly until i'm 10 years out).  This was all scheduled (protocol).  I also have met Joshua's (the recipient and my son) surgeon several times too...His appointments and clinics currently involve his GI docs too (not his surgeon, although I have seen her the odd time during clinic and have just said hi). 

Here is a little "blurb" about my surgeon:

http://generalsurgery.utoronto.ca/faculty/list/grant.htm

[Orchidlady]

I am shocked - how very rude to treat you that way!
Not sure if what you experienced is unusual, but far different from what I experienced. I met my surgeon as a final part of the testing process. In fact, he called me at home - on a Friday no less- at 7 at night to answer some questions that he wasn't able to answer at the appointment! In addition, he visited with me, along with his surgery partner, the night before the surgery (we had to check into the hospital the day before and spend the night). After the surgery, he was there every single day I was in the hospital, except for our discharge day of Saturday.
Not only a competent surgeon, but a bedside manner that should be bottled and passed out to every med student out there......

[bergstromtori]

I also met my surgeon several times.  Actually a one hour meeting with him was part of the two day psych, ct scan, nephrology and social worker eval.

[Jewels]

Speaking with and meeting my surgeon was very important to me. My donation was long distance and they had arranged for me to meet with a local transplant center for the CAT Scan, nuclear testing, social worker, nephrologist, but they would not have me meet with a surgeon since it was a different center and practices could be different.  Once I was approved my center arranged to have my surgeon call me on the phone.  We had a great conversation and I was very impressed that she called me back the next day to answer a question she couldn't answer at that time because she didn't have my CAT scan in front of her.  I meet her in person when I arrived in Detroit for my final work-up a few days before surgery.  The wrench came when she called me the day before surgery to tell me she broke her hand!!  The good news was the surgeon that took her place was the surgeon also doing my sisters transplant and she had met with him and filled me in (it was also a comfort that she really liked him.)  He did come and introduce himself while I was in pre-op.  Post-op they both followed up with me regularly so I felt like I got a little extra attention!

[Snoopy]

The good news was the surgeon that took her place was the surgeon also doing my sisters transplant

   Hi.  Thanks (to you and the other posters) for posting your experiences.  It seems I really am odd man out for not having had time to meet my surgeon (I mean, I'm not counting his OR introduction).
   But did I understand correctly that in the end your surgeon did both your surgery and your sister's? He harvested your kidney, than ran into the other OR to transplant it into your sister? I hope he had his coffee that day!
             Be well, Snoopy

[Jewels]

Yes - he went from my OR to hers!  There was another surgeon working with him on my sister's transplant who I think ended up being the lead.  We did question him that morning in pre-op to make sure he wouldn't be too tired!  The other good thing was he was actually much more experienced than my original surgeon (although she was also quite experienced) so in the end it kind of felt like an upgrade!

[Aries7]

I did not meet my surgeon until the morning of my surgery. My Husband did meet his surgeon prior to the surgery, so we knew who would be operating on him. We were originally scheduled to do the transplant on October 22, 2009, but then I recieved a phone call from my coordinator saying that there was another pair (donor and recipient) and that donor needed my original surgeon. (Who I also had never met and was not even told what that surgeon's name was) Apparently that donor had more complicated veins/blood vessles and the surgeon I was to have originally was very experienced for what was needed for the other donor/pair. My Husband really wanted the surgeon he was scheduled to have, as he was comfortable with her and we both really liked her. So, my coordinator and I worked on another day when she was available, ended up rescheduling our surgeries for October 8, 2009.

I was supposed to meet my surgeon at my pre-op appointment, but he ended up being in another surgery. So, I ended up meeting him the morning of the surgery. I will say, I really, really liked him and was very happy I ended up with him. He is a great surgeon and did a great job, as did my Husband's surgeon.

It was kind of funny, our kids told us that when the doctors came out to update them and the rest of our families as to how things went and how we were doing, they realized that my Husband and I both ended up with surgeons that matched our personalities. My Husband's surgeon was more matter of fact and to the point. My surgeon was more talkative. They were/are both excellent surgeon's and even though I didn't meet mine until the morning of the surgery, I am very happy with the way everything turned out. I will admit though, that I was a bit....curious about just who would be removing my kidney, and was so happy that I ended up being so comfortable with him.