Re: UW hospital

[Guest guest]

Hi Katy -

Thanks for the info - interesting that we are seeing the same

doctor. Great to compare notes.

> --

>

> I also see Dr. Gaumnitz. Yay! I'm so excited to have someone to

compare

> notes with! i go back and forth on what i think of him...i don't

think

> he has a great understanding of what it's like to live with this

disease.

I think you're right on there - he seems to have not much

understanding of actually living with this.

> just before my surgery i went in and he wieghed me, then was all

excited

> that my weight had plateaued. he was ready to send me home;

He does set a great stock in weight - if you're not losing weight big

time, in his mind you're not in danger and therefore don't need

treatment.

>meanwhile

> i'd been unable to get more than four consecutive hours of sleep for

> weeks (which i had told him). i went into complete hysterics when

he

> said the surgery wouldn't be necessary, which totally scared

him...he was

> quick to respond though, called the surgeon that day, called me

back at

> work to let me know that i was ok-ed for it.

I'm glad he listened to you on that. I'm not great at speaking my

mind in that kind of situation where I feel so powerless and things

are out of my control. Good for you.

> plus he looks kind of like Dr. Ramano from ER and it's hard to get

past

> that. <grin>

You know, I never thought of that - you're right. He does look a lot

like Dr Romano. His picture can be seen at

http://www.uwdoctors.org/doctors/bio/GaumnE1.htm

Perhaps he's trying to emulate the character in his bedside manner ;-)

> My surgery was done by a Dr. Starling, who apparently has a good

surgical

> reputation, but who has a pretty wierd bedside manner -- he's hard

to get

> complete answers out of; you have to do a lot of persistent asking

of

> questions because he doesn't volunteer a lot of info. i think he's

been

> doing this so long that he forgets that this is new to his

patients...i

> didn't end up dealing with him after the surgery as much as his

> underlings (the UW is a teaching hospital, as you know, so there are

> always interns and residents floating around).

>

> i was in the hospital for...let's see. day one was surgery in the

> morning and a day of sleeping, day two was a lot of walking up and

down

> the hall, had the catheter taken out (by the way, i was worried

about the

> catheter but i ended up loving it: i couldn't feel it AT ALL, in

fact i

> didn't even know it was in until the first day, and it was such a

relief

> not to have to get up to go to the bathroom or have a bedpan

issue). i

> was out around eleven am on day three. the hospital was ok; the

nurses

> were really nice, tho understaffed...i had a phone, a tv, my own

room

> with an adjoining bathroom. these things are standard at the UW,

and

> they just redid a lot of the rooms, so the new ones are even nicer

than

> that. i also had a nice big window and it looked like all of the

rooms

> did.

I was in UW Hospital last year for pneumonia and found the experience

awful - at the time said I would never go back. The nurses were nice

though. I did have a big window (with a blind that didn't close)

that looked across a void space into the rooms of a bunch of other

patients (UWHC is set up kind of like a beehive with rooms around a

void in some kind of hexogonal shape).

It was so noisy I couldn't get any sleep - that was the only reason I

had agreed to be admitted - because I hadn't been able to sleep at

home with the pneumonia - the doctor said I'd get IV antibiotics and

would be able to sleep at the hospital - I assumed they would give me

something. Anyway it was so noisy all night - I could hear other

patient's TVs sounding louder in my room than if I had them on in my

own, the nurses were in the next rooms shouting at the patients that

were hard of hearing - it was just terrible. Plus I thought the beds

were really uncomfortable.

> i also live in madison; i'm a student at the UW.

>

> email me directly and i'll give you my number if you want to talk

about

> this more.

Will do - its nice to have someone in town who shares in the

experience. I'm glad your experience went well!

>

> -katy

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