Best of Luck to Our "Kat" Johanna....
 

Good Luck
 

Good Luck Johanna, Be sure and rest when its over!

Peggy

Hey Kit Kat ( I just made that up do people call you Kit kat? Plus I am craving choccy :D )

You will do great! I will be there for you, on the other side, only 2 blocks away. :p

:hug: So happy you are happy with your decision. :hug:

Good luck with your surgery, Johanna and I hope everything goes well for you and you have a speedy recovery.

tonns of support
 

All my wishes and support for a speedy recovery.
All my prayers are with you for uneventful surgery, doctors nips the problem and you are onto a great recovery!
Hugs
di:grouphug:

Me Too!! What everyone said!!:D

It sure is cool to have a cheering section !!!!
 

You guys are awesome, Thanks:Blush2:

I am actually really exicted. Off to my pre-op appt right now.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish the 'How I chose' thread tonight......if my pre-op appt being at home today isn't enough of a hint, I am not going to Denver after all.

I'm sure everything will go just fine with your surgery. Although, you're handling the "sooness" of it better than I would.:eek: I'd probably be freaking out that I was scheduled so soon but that's probably best because it would give me less time to think about it! Good luck!

Hope all goes well
 

Good Luck Johannakat!!! :)

Hi Johanna
 

Best wishes for a very successful, very (easy) :) surgery! Will be sending lots of positive vibes your way on Monday. (And Sunday too.)

Many hugs to you.

Stardust

Johanna, I hope things go well for you on Monday! Please take care of yourself, and get plenty of rest!

Best wishes, Donna

Very best wishes and a gentle post op hug from UK.

Hx:hug:

wow, just found out surgery is moved up from 2:30 to 9:30. That means sleepy sleepy in t minus 23hours and 10 minutes.

Fortunately it also means no hungry :Starvin: hungry morning of waiting to go to hospital.

Ah, the anxiety begins.

Thanks to everyone for your support and last minute advice ....I am taking every bit of it with me!!!!



Johanna

We'll be thinking of you tomorrow :)

It's a Good Thing
 

johanna,

i had to smile when i read that. my cousin, marilyn, who has been a nurse up in northern CA for many years, gave me one piece of advice when i was getting ready to have my L rib resection in nov. 2005 (the only other major surgery i'd ever had in my life having been an emergency C-section in 1974; i was freakin' out bigtime!):

"i don't care how good that surgeon is. try to get him early in the morning and early in the week; he's human and he gets tired."

(i had my surgery late on a fri. aft., with a very fatigued steve annest finishing up around 6 or 7pm. i don't follow directions so good...)

woo hoo to you!

about time things started going your way.

any further changes will have to be run by me, however.

thank you and good night, nurse.
alison

Good Luck tomorrow Jo- Hope things go well and please let us know how you are doing o.k. ?

Best wishes,

Dolfinz

Jo
 

You are a go-getter and very informative TOSer as many here.
Thanks to the forum we have all been well educated, don't you think?

I wish you so much luck tomorrow...
And excited to hear about your progress and post op care.

Thanx for ALL the info!
XXOO

O yeah...
 

I have on very good authority (many Toser's and doc's) that Dr. Ahn discriminates against W/C patients vs private pay.
I have a court order doc (AME) requesting I see him as a consult.
That was three years ago and the insurance company still has not followed the rules of the law.

J~
You are a lucky person that you have private insurance.
XXOO

Johanna
 

Oh, I hate the day before surgery....I know I'm going to be nervous too when my time comes.

So, tomorrow morning I'm going to stick a little candle in a cinnamon bun and do the traditional TOSers' sacrifice to the cinny bun gods in your (and Mark's) honor.:)

Best of luck, we're all rooting for you!

xox

Sending good thoughts your way tomorrow morning Johanna! :hug:

Johanna,
 

"You Go Girl"
Well be waiting to hear how everything went and ready to do the Happy Happy Joy Dance :Dancing-Chilli: :Dancing-Chilli:
Hugs and Good Vibes..
Dawn :hug:

Strong Feelings
 

i think it must be very hard not to have a lot of frustration tied up in being involved in a workers compensation case. i cannot imagine how that adds to the burden of being a TOS patient and so many of us carry multiple dx on top of that.

i made a statement earlier, maybe in this thread but perhaps 'twas in another, about historical bias towards top TOS surgeons in a certain part of the country on the part of this forum. I probably shouldn't have said that, and i'd like to apologize. i like to think we are moving away from that sort of thing.:o

as far as dr. ahn is concerned i can only say that, i am a medicare patient, and i have never ever felt discriminated against by him on that basis. he also never seemed to hold against me the fact that, despite the fact that it was he who dx'd me after many, many years of being misdiagnosed (and may i say not particularly well treated) by some of the finest physicians in los angeles - i was in fact on his surgery schedule for oct. of 2005 - i ultimately went to a rival surgeon in denver, CO for the first rib resection in nov. of that year (based on the aftercare program offered by that surgeon if you're curious...).

when i wondered aloud about consulting ahn for a re-do, his colleague at UCLA, dr. larry khoo, a neurosurgeon, whom i gather to be a personal friend of his as well, told me on both of these points: "sam doesn't make his money off of patients like you" and "he's not like that," respectively. (i had been in to see khoo for cervical syndrome issues, for i am multi blessed don't you know...)

i've said privately to forum friends before and i think it bears repeating here: it is my personal belief that dr. ahn is misunderstood sometimes. does he have the warm and personable bedside manner of a dr. annest or a dr. sanders? maybe not, or not every day, at least, but then let's be honest here; few surgeons and even fewer geniuses...and i do believe we are talking about a genius here...do. moody is the word that comes to mind. non-communicative, you have to draw him out sometimes. the man lives in his head. acts like he's got someplace to be in precisely four minutes, and probably does!

he may seem arrogant (so am i). tempestuous. OK. i'll bet he doesn't like to do paperwork, who does? maybe he earned that reputation; i've sure met more than one dr. who seemed either utterly intimidated or thoroughly disgusted with the man.

but i, for one, would like for us as a forum to resist the urge to make statements that could be construed as defamatory, or at the very least hearsay, against any doctor, at least by name. and i think those of you who know me, know i struggle with a fair amount of doctor anger after what i've personally been through in my own TOS struggle! no, this is for our sake as much as anything that i say this.

dr. ahn is in private practice now, has been for over a year. what his behavior, or that of his office, has been in the past, is in the past. can we leave it there? do we really know it for a fact anyway? i am just not sure about any of it.

again, i am not a W/C case - i cannot imagine the heartache of those particular legal nightmares. at the risk of making enemies, i will say i also believe one of the reasons the system is just such a mess is because there are people who have filed false claims and lied or partially lied or their doctors have...none of which applies to legitimate TOS'ers mind you and i don't mean to imply that by any stretch. please don't misunderstand me. (i do come from a long, long line of republicans ---- doesn't make me one, though! don't shoot! don't shoot!)

not sure why i insist on talking about a subject i know really very little about - W/C being right up there with brain surgery and rocket science.

i just think it's wise to be careful. and better for the healing process.

for us all.

that's just what i think.

thanks for letting me get this out and i mean no disrespect to anyone.

alison