Dr. Cognetti is to hopefully call me tonight after he is done in surgery!!!
I tried to tell the nurse to just ask him if I should make an appointment, save the doctor's time and I will just come in (I am about 2 1/2 hours away in Maryland.)
She insisted he will call me. Is that a good sign? I have been waiting so long now I have myself worked up in to a tizzy!!
I am bummed b/c I would have had time to FedEx the great 3D CT images of my skull, spine and big styloids! He has the images from the CTA, showing the jugular compression and the report mentioning it.
Try to stay calm (ha... I know right?!) and have your questions ready!! Ask him about the other scans you have too. If he can't help you or you want a second opinion contact Dr. Samji in California. It will all work out for the best. You can do this!! :)
My CT images are so great. I didn't get my hands on them til later.
I wanted to send my images to Dr. Samji as well. Is he still reviewing them w/o an appointment?
I have been through several big surgeries and procedures, you'd think it would get easier dealing with all involved. It's just the not knowing if he can help me that does me in.
I am not sure about without an appt. I would contact his office and speak to his Nurse (she is so nice). He is a very compassionate Dr. and understands what we are all going through (like Cognetti).
I can't imagine it gets any easier! Hang in there. Let the excitement part get you through! Don't lose hope! :)
Good luck, Kitty. I hope you talk to him very soon. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at his knowledge, bedside manner and professionalism. After a lot of bad experiences with doctors who couldn't help me, I was pleasantly surprised by his phone call. :)
Definitely have your list of questions for Dr. Cognetti ready.
I have a symptom list ready. I won't ask my questions unless he says he may be able to help me. I am scared he'll call and say, nope, can't help, sorry. After so many bad experiences, a gal gets a little neurotic about this!!
Ha ha. I hear you. I remember being very surprised several times at the phone calls from Dr. Cognetti. He works long days at the office and in surgery, but he obviously really cares about his patients: he makes phone calls on weekends and late night (his time- it was a reasonable hour for me).
I waited and waited for the call from him. I wouldn’t even do a phone update for fear I’d miss the call! I decided one night after 10 PM eastern time I went ahead and did the phone update. I thought I’d be safe because it was so late for him. WRONG! I missed the call. He did call back about 4 days later. Point is…hang in there… He WILL call! I know it’s so hard because you suffer so much every minute. But he will call and if he says he can help you…I’m sure he will! I look forward to hearing your updates!
Once 10:30 has hit each night I have given up for that day.
One thing. I could have also sent my awesome 3D CT showing these stilletos by now and he could have looked at that as well as the CTA showing the jugular compression!!
He sees patients on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Surgeries are Mondays and Fridays. Not sure what Wednesdays are for him. He could have done my surgery within 1-2 weeks, but since I was traveling so far I needed a little more time to make arrangements. I booked each one of my surgeries out about a month for this reason.
I sent everything including CTs at the very beginning. So he did review all my records before he called me. I also had a “botched” surgery a year ago. (Surgeon did not have experience doing the surgery and couldn’t complete it.) It took Dr Cogentti about 3 weeks to call me and I was pestering his staff 2-3 times a week.
I hope he calls you soon. I totally understand your pain! I know it doesn’t help, but knowing someone else really gets it was a little comforting to me anyway!
