Cancelled reconstruction

[fauxgypsy]

I had planned on DIEP reconstruction with a surgeon in Memphis. I had arranged my fall schedule so that I would have a lighter teaching load than I usually do. I told them that I had to schedule the surgery so that I would be recovered before school started. Everything was set up but the date. When we scheduled it the earliest they could do it was going to put me late getting back to school. Seems he only did DIEP one day a week on Fridays. So I asked the nurse if we could schedule it in June instead of July and I would see if my academic dean could find someone else to teach my summer courses (would lose quite a bit of income but I would have tried.) At that point the nurse told me that they could schedule it in June but it would not be set in stone.

What did she mean, I asked. Well the doctor did facial reconstruction on one day, and something else on another day and if another surgeon needed him for immediate reconstruction I would get bumped. This was after months of talking with them First I had heard that. Couldn't I take some other time of the year. I am an instructor at a community college. No I couldn't. What an I supposed to do, tell my academic dean that sometime during the year when it is convenient for my surgeon, I will be out for at least six weeks. I can't do that to my students.

I cancelled the surgery and am not sure that I can get geared up for it again. On top of that he is the only surgeon near me that does the DIEP. He may be a great surgeon but I cried myself to sllep that night. I don't know if this is standard prorcedure but I cannot plan a surgery that has a five day hospital stay and six weeks recovery without being sure of the date.