Surgery got canceled

GOd, I can only imagine!  Still, you can handle this!  Buck up and  ride it out!

Maybe since you have at least two days until surgery, you can enjoy the day pretending the cancer is behind you for a few hours. Think of it as a vacation day for you and your wife courtesy of the di vinchi machine. And do something wonderful!

Sorry your wait has been extended but try to make  it into a positive. Remember the cancer feeds off negativity. Keep saying cancer is tough, but I'm tougher!

BLKJAK said:

Well that blows

I can only imagine getting yourself mentally prepared along with scheduling time off of work only to have the surgery postponed. Sorry. At least the equipment didn't fail while in the midst of your surgery.

Good point! 

How to be positive -  just imagine the scene:  Sorry, sorry, but wake up - the arm's fallen off the robot so we're abandoning your op until we get a replacement.  So wake up and hop out of bed because we need the bed for another patient! 

Rather be sure all is in order, but it doesn't make it any easier to take and we can all sympathise with Keith on that.  (I've just received the third re-appointment of my next oncology consultation, bringing it forward two weeks to this Friday, leaving no time for advance blood draws, so they're going to need to do it at the consultation - we have to hang loose in this game!)

icemantoo said:

Sequestration

Keith,

 

Glad to hear that your finally going to get this behind you. Was the delay in fixing the machine as a result of the sequestration?

 

Icemantoo

iceman, can you explain about this - is it about lawsuits against the Company based on allegations of irresponsibly hyped up marketing?  If so, does it relate specifically to hysterectomies, as opposed to renal laparoscopic ops?

icemantoo said:

Sequestration

Tex,

 

Sequestration is stupid across the board government cut backs to reduce spending. The budget is cut for all Federal Dapartments including the VA. There is deferred maintenance in the military and National Parks. Nothing to do with the di Vinci machine unless the necessary medical repairs was backed up. I do not think they have anything that stupid across the Pond where you are.

 

The question therefore is whether Sequestration is causeing delays in VA hospetals for necessary care.

Icemantoo

Thanks for that explanation, iceman.  Whenever you disceetly venture into comments that involve issues of governmental policyI find your views resonate strongly with me - I think we have very similar socio-political views and I regard what you say as a bit of a touchstone for me as one who has, obviously, distant and limited understanding of the scene over there. 

By the way, I'm not sure whether there was a vein of irony in your reference to the UK - I wish I could confirm that our approach is much more enlightened but I fear we are fighting much the same battles of economic retrenchment, with broadly similar accusations of cuts in the wrong places.  Our administration is understandably keen to be perceived to be ring-fencing our NHS to protect front-line services from damaging depradations.  Still, I'm fairly sure you're aware of all of that.

I'm grateful for the clarification about sequestration.  I did a big double-take on your succinct message.  I realised that you weren't talking about use of the da Vinci robot on 'sequestrated tissue' (where I gather it has considerable value) but I was unaware of the use of the term in the political context.  Consequently I jumped to the conclusion that you were using the term in a legal sense (I forgot the counsel of my erstwhile Senior Partner, who was wont to say 'As lawyers, we are not in the business of making assumptions!')  Probably you, like us, use the term sequestration for individual entities and liquidation/administrative receivership for corporate situations - I'm not sure about that since, despite being a Londoner, I practised in Scotland (Roman-Dutch, civilian law tradition, not Anglo-American).

I know that some of our legal brethren (perhaps of the less scrupled kind) are looking to make money out of class actions for the disgruntled patients who feel they were over-sold the merits of robotic surgery.   There seems to be real evidence of unsubstantiatedly extravagant claims for it and there are female patients, in particular, who feel they got a raw deal.  I believe the manufacturing company is in some difficulty as a consequence.  The result was that I assumed you to be referring to envisaged folding of the manufacture of da Vinci machines.   [I should have figured that you wouldn't have been so insensitive as to make such a suggestion to someone just about to undergo da Vinci surgery - that'll teach me not to jump to conclusions!]

Thanks, again, iceman, and let's hope Keith's op now goes on perfectly.

icemantoo said:

Sequestration

Tex,

 

Sequestration is stupid across the board government cut backs to reduce spending. The budget is cut for all Federal Dapartments including the VA. There is deferred maintenance in the military and National Parks. Nothing to do with the di Vinci machine unless the necessary medical repairs was backed up. I do not think they have anything that stupid across the Pond where you are.

 

The question therefore is whether Sequestration is causeing delays in VA hospetals for necessary care.

Icemantoo

And I thought it was just the way government spells castration...huh

what a pain in the perverbials!!!  ah god keith but at least it will be done this week and you won't be waiting too long.  thinking of you and no doubt we will be seeing you on here to hear how you got on.....

eims x

Eims said:

what a pain in the

what a pain in the perverbials!!!  ah god keith but at least it will be done this week and you won't be waiting too long.  thinking of you and no doubt we will be seeing you on here to hear how you got on.....

eims x

When are you off on your hols? Coming up soon isn't it?

Djinnie