Cross-Province Surgery and Post-Ops

[chopemoff]

Hi, I live in Alberta at the moment, however I am still covered by Sask. health care.

Assuming I have my surgery with Dr. Fielding (since he seems to be the almighty guru of booby surgery) does anyone have any comments on how necessary post-op checkups are?

If absolutely necessary, could I do my post-op with a different PS or just my family doctor?

Since I'd only really want to make maximum 2 trips to Ontario: 1 for consultation, 1 for surgery, any advice anyone has or if anyone has done it this way would be great.

I can't find enough info on any Alberta PS's to make a sound choice on such a big decision about my future with this problem. And Sask. health care doesn't allow private purchase PS.

Thanks for any help,

chop

[joeynobody]

hey man

i dont have an answer to ur questoin but ive got a questoin for u...i live in alberta and have alberta health care coverage...do u know if gynecomastia reduction is covered here? any good doctors?

[supaaman]

Hey Chop,

I want to do the same, only from Vancouver.  I think I read a story from a while back about a guy from Van who did just that - 2 trips.  My only concern would be the "hematoma" - where sometimes there is excessive bleeding/swelling, post-op,  and they sometimes have to draw out the dried blood to take down the swelling.

There is a guy on this site- brownman - who is going in for surgery on Mar 28 with a PS in Alberta - might be Edmonton?  It's under $500 too.  I also read about a guy who got it done free in Alberta.

I'm with you on wanting to use the guru in Toronto though, but might be interesting to see how it goes for Brownman.

Maybe send a personal message to Brownman and/or Grandpa Bambu (he seems to be the resident expert in Canada on gyne).  Let me know if you find out anything.

Cheers,

Sup

[chopemoff]

Well, I phoned Fielding's office and made a consult for May 15. That was the earliest they had. I wanted to go thru someone and pay a bit more because I didn't want to be on a "totally covered" waiting list for 18 months.

What Fielding's Nurse said was that it is up to your province's health care what is covered and what isn't. She said upon the consult most of it would be discussed and worked out depending on your case of gyno.

By that I assume she meant excision vs. lipo.

I used to live in Van as well. And I'm not keen on the $5000 tag that Haugrad in Calgary has, having not heard too many reports about him and his ability to deal with puffy nips (my worst problem).

The consult will be a fly in/fly out same day affair, so all yo need is one day off.

The surgery itself she said would most likely be available mid-summer (which I'll skip) or early fall (which is better timing). Don't wanna miss golfing season

The nurse was very helpful and willing to answer questions.

In some cases she said health Canada will even cover travel expenses, as long as you keep all your receipts.

As far as post-op checkups, she said many people have gone cross-province for the surgery and then got a local PS or their family doctor to do the post-op checkups. I think as long as you ask Fielding the right questions at the time of surgery about post-op procedure, you'd be just fine with this and not have to spend more on air-fare or extra time in T.O.

Hope this helps a bit.

Chop 'em off