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Your Tips on How to Get Off to the Best Start with a New Specialist
Visiting Mayo Clinic | Last Active: Nov 10, 2021 | Replies (231)Comment receiving replies
@artscaping
I had a nearly identical conversation with a Dr. on my local team while pursuing an experimental combined surgery/kidney transplant at Mayo. He was absolutely convinced I would come back as a cobbled together mess. Fortunately my instincts were right and my Mayo surgery was such a success that my cautious local doc is now referring other patients for the same surgery combo. I think he had seen a few bad cases come back to him and didn't want the same thing for me.
On the flip side I have struggled with my Mayo experience on the "back end" of transplant. The "team" approach lacks the ability for any one person to know you and your journey. I tried to get around the system and scheduled my visits with the same Dr. after transplant but succeeded for only a short while, now I get who ever has an opening on their schedule. The post transplant teams and nurses especially are overwhelmed with hundreds of patients cases and it's almost impossible for them to know you as a person.
Replies to "@artscaping I had a nearly identical conversation with a Dr. on my local team while pursuing..."
@jolinda. At MGH each transplant surgeon has their own team for Post-transplant. I always see my surgeon and the others whom I feel very familiar with. It works out very well there. I suppose if my surgeon left MGH I would be assigned to one of the other two surgeons who were also there for my surgery.
@artscaping I feel the same way at MGH, the doctors do not seem to have God-complexes. It’s so funny, people up here in southern NH think the doctors in Boston must be very impersonal but I see more of that with doctors up here!
JK
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@jolinda. Oh my, is this childish behavior still going on? Learning to be your own advocate, and giving up on the medical "Gods" is where we need to be. I am very interested in your back end Mayo experience. I remember that we were given a special # to call 7/24. They told us that no matter when, we would always speak with a member of the "team". And that is what happened.....on Sunday evening at about 9 pm with some edema showing up, we called and spoke to a physician who we had met previously. He was confident and we felt comfortable with his suggestions.
And then came the diagnosis of recurring cancer in a couple of years. So...off we went for 7 weeks of treatment in Rochester. That team was just amazing. We loved the Nurse Practitioners, the actual treatment team and our oncologist. My feeling was that during a team meeting at the beginning of the week, everyone was updated on their scheduled patient's journeys. We surmised this by the questions they asked us. We always saw a team member and it seemed to me that there was transparency and knowledgeable effort to give the best patient care. So, while there may still be work to do...Mayo has the right patient care map. My partner actually learned everyone's name and when he left he had cards of gratitude for everyone.
Six months later when we went back again, they greeted us by name. We also tried to figure out how many patients they must see in a day. It is mind-boggling. And how are they so cheery at 7:30 in the morning? My very best for a beautiful day. Chris