Second consult with Jane Olver & follow up letter

I'm feeling frustrated as though I saw Jane Olver last Weds 16th Nov 05, the letters she had promised me are today, Mon 21st Nov, still not forthcoming and her assistant advised that no letter has as yet been typed, that she was only an appts secretary and Jane's usual secretary only works on Thursday and Jane was out from Weds, which means they will not touch base with each other this week; and my surgery is scheduled for 10 days from now.

I persisted in receiving at least some sort of confirmation of what surgeries are going to be performed on me as I hadn't a clue. Jane had rambled (for use of a word) off a list of procedures at my consult last week and I didn't understand half of them, which I told her.

After a fair amount of discussion, Jane's secretary finally towards the later part of the afternoon, faxed me a copy of a letter Jane's usual assistant had typed last week, which wasn't really relevant as we had updated it since (letter of which is still in the dictating machine).

Jane's admin secretary did however say that she'd spoken to Jane today who confirmed that the surgeries she was recommending me are a trans blepharoplasty incision type Y to V endoscopic brow lift with endotine with bilateral upper eyelid reconstruction and ptosis repair. This would be carried out under general anaesthesia with one night's stay in hospital.

Now I have no clue what endotines are, and was looking through some old posts at the Make Me Heal Brow Forum and voila ... one link is:
http://www.coaptsystems.com/docs/patientbrochure.pdf
and shares information about endotines. I'm not too sure at this stage, upon reading it, whether I want something foreign in my forehead that will dissolve in time. Jane knows my thoughts on foreign objects in myself eg Restylane or Botox and I'm surprised she's even considered offering me endotines. The link above describes that some people find it so discomforting that they have surgery to remove the endotines before they are fully dissolved.

I'm continuing to do some further research to find out more information; otherwise it'll be a full endo brow lift with bilateral upper eyelid reconstruction and ptosis repair at a cost of some £6,201 which is more money than I can afford right now and way over budget for me. I'm very confused and scared right now.

Endoscopic Forehead / Brow Lift Journey (from Dec 2005)

My original surgery which consisted of upper/lower bleph & right eye ptosis repair on 9th December 2004 and revision surgery on 7th July 2005 is at http://indianaeyesheal.blogspot.com. You may wish to read that first to understand my healing journey more in depth. I am 41 years of age.

I decided to create a separate journal for my reconstruction journey to repair the inconsistencies performed by my original surgeon. Jane Olver, FRSC, FRCOphth, Consultant Ophthalmic, Plastic and Orbital Surgeon at http://www.oculoplastics.co.uk is performing my reconstruction journey which will consist of 3 separate surgeries over the next few months.

My first surgery will be a Y-V brow lift, bilateral upper eyelid reconstruction, left upper eyelash ptosis repair and right upper eyelid ptosis repair. This will be in 2 weeks time on 5th December 2005, almost a year since my original bleph journey.

A photo album summary of my original bleph can be found on my eyeblog above and/or at http://www.makemeheal.com/pictures/viewAlbum.php?albumid=45

I've been doing some research and found the following site with a fair amount of before and after endoscopic forehead/brow lift photos:
http://www.locateadoc.com/gallery.cfm/Action/List/ProcedureID/73

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Weds 17th Nov 2005
I went for a second consultation with Jane Olver today. She was running late, with 3 patients in front of me.

When I entered her consulting room at Harley Street, Jane apologised as she hadn't as yet had time to read my notes. She seemed unsure as to what I was there for (as she hadn't read my notes) and from her questioning, it seemed she was expecting me to tell her the procedures I wanted done. I had my letter from her with me and was reading from it as a lot of the procedures she had recommended were new to me, ie endoscopic forehead/brow lift etc. I advised her that I was totally in her capable hands as to what was needed for my healing journey and wasn't there to tell her the procedures I needed as I was confused by them all from her letter to me.

Jane seemingly sparked up on this, came over to sit next to me, and took measurements of my eyes, and photos and went on to discuss a little about the procedures I needed ie endoscopic forehead/brow lift etc. It was a little too much for me still to take in.

We made an attempt to discuss prices and which BUPA were prepared to pay; however there was a stumbling block in that there was a delay in Jane's dictating the notes to her secretary, as when I had called last week and Jane promised to dictate a note to BUPA that night, she hadn't, as there were no blank tapes around and she was not back in the office for a few more days after that. We roughly went over the price that her secretary had given me, which was £4,585.00 which included surgeon fees, hospital fees and general anaesthethic. Jane said it will probably be a bit more, perhaps another £500 on top of this, and that she'd need to get back to me to confirm it in writing once the dictating tape was typed out by the end of this week.

There was also confusion as to what BUPA were prepared to pay. I had discussed this with Jane over the phone last week, though she hadn't remembered who I was when I rang, which I guess is part and parcel of being a top surgeon, and she had taken notes. She took more notes for herself today and promised to get it in writing to send to BUPA so they can clarify what they are paying and what my excess was. For surgeon fees alone, it'd cost £1,750 for lower eyelid reconstruction and £1,200 for the Coleman fat transfer.

BUPA had commented to me that with lower eyelid and colemen fat transfer, they were prepared to pay £1,273.55 and without Coleman Fat transfer, they were prepared to pay £1,046.25. I didn't share these figures with Jane as the BUPA consultant I spoke with thought that BUPA were confused about the prices and asked me to arrange for Jane to clarify.

If BUPA aren't confused about the price, yikes, my excess will be £1,726.45 (with Coleman Fat Transfer), and this is just for the surgeon's fees, which would total £2,950 (with BUPA paying £1,273.55). BUPA will pay for all other hospital costs ie general anaesthethic etc. I will ask them to reclarify this as otherwise it'd be way beyond my means and I would need to reconsider which surgeries were important to me.

Eyeblog: http://indianaehesyeal.blogspot.com
Browblog : http://indianabrowhealing.blogspot.com
Brow pixs: http://www.makemeheal.com/pictures/viewAlbum.php?albumid=193
Make Me Heal Brow Thread: http://www.makemeheal.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=122