Not a Finish Line in Sight

When we showed up for our appointments we talked to the receptionist again about making an appointment to see the surgeon but she was insistent that the nurse wanted to see us. The receptionist told us that the surgeon was going to be on vacation for the next month anyway, and when we asked when he was getting back she said she didn’t know and that we should talk to the nurse.

Ally was supposed to see her Nurse first while I saw my Dietitian, then after we would do the opposite with Ally seeing her Dietitian and me seeing her nurse (mine was out). We were surprised when Ally`s nurse Darla came out and asked us both to follow her. She told us there had been a change and that we would both be seeing her. As they had not phoned and told us of a change we were confused.

She sat us down together and said “at this time we are dismissing you from the program.” To say we were shocked is an understatement. We asked her why and she gave us this whole spiel about it being a team decision and how we never should have had our scopes, all without actually giving us an answer. If we should not have had our scopes then they subjected us to unnecessary medical procedures and with Ally’s issues with sedation that was extremely dangerous and potentially life threatening, which made all of this that much worse. When asked how this had happened in between the surgeon asking to see us and now, she said that it was a team decision and when they got together they decided that now wasn’t the best time for us.

With every appointment we had and every person we say they had nothing but positive things to say, about how well we were doing and what good candidates we were. To go from that to this just floored us. She said that there was nothing that she could tell us, that we could have been told this over the phone. We didn’t understand why we had not heard any mention of this before, why no one had told us there was a problem. Ally asked if we could make an appointment with someone who could tell us more about this decision and she said that we would no longer be allowed to make appointments to see anyone and they would send our Doctor a report detailing out dismissal from the program/clinic. At one point she said that we were not ready for surgery and when we asked about the report from Dr. Singh, she said that she didn’t have the report and that it wasn’t just his findings that they went off of (obviously he was in favor of us having the surgery just like he told us). If they aren’t going to listen to their own experts then what are they doing?

At the end Darla told us that we could be submitted back to the program in a year and a half, but that we would have to go thru the entire process all over again which includes the waiting list, orientation, Dr. Singh and another scope. The last thing we asked is if there was anything we had to do before we could come back and she said no. If there was nothing for us to work on before being readmitted to the program then why have we been kick out?

When we left we were really depressed and couldn’t even talk about it right then. We don’t know what happened. Everything they asked us to do we did, all of the appointments (which cost money to get to all the way out in Red Deer, not to mention parking), we lost our 10%, did the scope and put a lot of effort into making sure that we were ready and prepared for the changes that were to come, and all of it for nothing.

XOXO, Evie & Ally