Appointment dates for Albany Community Care

[TFau]

I will be thinking about you and your wife, Bruce. Good look, and I hope that your wife finds some relief!

Theresa

[Trish317]

Brave, I hope you are feeling better soon. It seems that many people gain improvments over a period of a few months so be patient. Please keep us informed.

My wife and I leave tomorrow for Albany. Her procedure is on Wednesday. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Bruce.

Sending prayers and good thoughts to you and your wife....

[Bobbi]

Bruce .... Good luck to both of you as you travel to Albany. You will be in my thoughts on Wednesday.
Phyllis

[brave]

wishing you and your wife , good luck and safe trip to Albany.

brave

[SusiQ]

Bobbi My son was put on wait list July 12 and we are from Canada, Orillia but haven't heard anything re date. Is there any way we can contact Albany clinic to even get approximation within even a month of date as we have to go away and don't want to miss call.

[Bobbi]

SusiQ ... You can try to call the number for the centre 518-262-5119 or email ccsvi@communitycare.com to see if you can get an answer. I've not tried to contact them myself but others on this thread have and may be able to help you better. As for my self, I contacted them July 19th and have not received a call yet. It seems that the June Canadians are being called for December/January appointments.
I hope this helps my northern friend.
Keep watching this thread for updates. The next Canadian procedures, that I know of, are Bruce-Dec 1; Tfau-Dec 14; Guider- Dec 14; Athena- Dec 17.
Good luck to all!
Phyllis (Bobbi)

[lovebug]

I got my call back from Dr.Siskin`s office June 7,2010. Today I received my phone call for my appt. which would have been in Jan.2011. I had to decline since I have already had the CCSVI surgery done in California. I hope this gives the rest of the people who are waiting for their appts. a time frame.

[Dee13]

Hi Bobbi, Your informal list seems to be right on!! I called June 7 and got a call this morning at work and my appointment is set for Jan.4! What a great christmas present. They did tell me that at one point they were receiving 100 calls a day. One step closer for everyone.

[Bobbi]

Congratulations Dee ... I get so excited watching this list progress!!

Scotland;June;Nov15:
Bruce123;CAN;May26;Dec1:
Tfau(husband);CAN;May28;Dec14:
Guider(son);CAN;June1;Dec14:
Athena;CAN;June3;Dec17>Feb:
Dee13;CAN;June7;Jan4:
lovebug;CAN;June7;Jan;>Cal:
Jewelia;June7;Jan3:
Daniel;CAN;June21;TBA:
Redfern;CAN;June28;TBA:
LisaAnn;CAN;June14;TBA:
Blaze;CAN;June28;TBA:
NormB;CAN;July9;TBA:
Katta;CAN;July13;TBA:
SusiQ;CAN;July12;TBA;
Bobbi;CAN;July19;TBA:
Ingrid;CAN;July26;TBA:
ThornyRose;CAN;Julyend;TBA:
Issa;CAN;Oct22;TBA:
Nov30rssugg;US;Nov8: How are you doing?
Brave;US;June28;Nov24:
detneamber;US;July15;Dec 29:
Java Bean;US;?;Dec13:
longman111;US;?;Dec17:
MSHope;US;?;TBA?

Let me know if there is anyone to ADD!!
Bobbi

[jewelia]

Yes, this is getting exciting! You can add me to the list...

Jewelia;CAN;June 7;TBA

I'm from Toronto, Ontario.

[longman111]

My wife is still scheduled for 12/17 but a complication arose about 2 weeks ago. She is scheduled for the procedure at the Albany Medical Center because we have insurance. However our insurance denied coverage so now we are waiting on a call for what the cost will be. The Gal I am working with at community care said it should not be significantly more.

[jewelia]

Thank you all for giving your dates...it has helped me tremendously in dealing with the waiting. I received my call this morning offerering me a date - Jan.3/11 which I accepted. What a way to start off the New Year! I will be treated by Dr. Englander. I am full of gratitude and appreciation to you all. My initial call to them was June 7.

[bruce123]

We are back from Albany. The first thing I want to say is thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and kind words.

Everything went well. We drove form 8 hours and arrived the day before the appointment for the Doppler. The clinic is beautiful. It is in a huge modern medical building. The staff are wonderful and very caring.

My wife had her Doppler on Tuesday. It was very simple and took only 15 minutes. I was able to be with my wife during the scanning. The doctor was not available to review the Doppler so we didn't get any feedback.

The next day we arrived for the procedure. A lovely nurse practitioner explained everything to us and answered any questions we had. We finally met Dr. Englander and she also answered questions for us. She never reviewed the Doppler from the day before (more about that in another post) but she said it didn't matter because she used the venogram images for the procedure.

They gave my wife 2 Valium and away she went. I was able to wait outside the door of the operating room and I could hear all the conversation. It was very relaxed. My wife was awake throughout and said it was very easy. There was no pain and they explained everything that was happening. She said it was all very positive.

After the procedure they brought her out and she rested lying down of an hour and then another hour sitting up. We spoke to the doctor and found out what she did.

My wife had stenosis in both jugglers. Both were ballooned. They were not able to fully open one of them but the flow was much improved and the doctor was happy. The other was fully opened but it still had some reflux afterwards. I have never heard of this before. The azgos was fine.

So here's what everyone really wants to know. Are there any improvments. There were no major changes. Her walking was still difficult and she still had pain in her arm. Her hand was also still cold when the pain started. This was disappointing to say the least but at that time I was just happy that she came though everything OK. We went back to the hotel to rest.

That night she moved around as she slept which she hasn't done in years due to the arm pain that comes and goes. She slept much better than usual. The following day she had a number of bouts of arm pain but again last night she slept without pain!!! We will wait and see where this goes.

I have a few comments and observations on ultrasounds but I will leave those for another post.

Thank you all again for your support and I will update you soon.

Bruce.

[Cece]

The other was fully opened but it still had some reflux afterwards. I have never heard of this before.

We've had two reports of this just recently. Vivianne in the most recent page or two of the pklittle thread about disappointing results and someone in the Dr. Sclafani thread (belsadie, vivavie...someone with a pretty name...?).

Glad to hear that everything went well and that she is seeing some sleep and pain improvements. All the best.

[bruce123]

Here's something that I didn't know before we arrived at the clinic.

My wife and I had been thinking about stents for some time. The recent death of the Ontario man did not really influence our thinking. We had been following the increasing numbers of people reporting thrombosis and we had recently decided to not get a stent even if that meant the procedure was not going to work. We figured that the risk was too high and we would wait a couple of years to see what has been learned and we could always go back for a stent if we changed our mind.

When we told them of our decision they told us that we had to sign a document that gave them permission to use a stent if they had to. The problem is that there is the chance that they could damage the wall of the vein while doing the procedure and would need a stent to repair it. This made sense to us but we had not planned for it so it created one more thing to worry about. Dr. Englander understood that we didn't want a stent just to improve the flow. She told us she only uses them as a last resort.

I thought I'd mention this so others are not surprised like we were.

Bruce.