needing some answers

During the past week I've been pretty much consumed with the pain and recovery of my surgery. I've not been able to share many details about the surgery itself, or the fact that I was in surgery for 10 hours instead of the 5.5 that it was supposed to take.

I was told the surgery would be about 5.5 hours. The surgery started about 8:30 a.m. and I was expected to be ready to be picked up to go home around 3:00 p.m. I'm not sure how many calls my parents received about when to pick me up, but I was not awake until 6:30 pm. Apparently the surgeon wanted to do additional contouring, blah, blah, blah. I never really got the full answer as to WHY it took so much longer.

All I do know is that I'm WAY more sore, more bruised, more swollen than I should be.

Today I checked my bank account for something completely unrelated, and guess what? My account was $1,020 overdrawn due to another charge from the anesthesiologist. I already paid $1,680 which was to cover the surgery.

I just got off the phone with her and she said since the surgery was 4.5 hours longer,  that was my additional cost. WHAT?!? So, I'm lying there unconscious on a surgical table, with no control over how long the surgery is taking, and now my cost has almost doubled?? And no one bothers to tell me so I can even make sure I have the funds to cover it?!

I asked the anesthesiologist (who is a total sweetheart, BTW) why the surgery took so much longer. She said I needed to ask Dr. Stephens that. Huh. Ok.

So I'm really feeling like there is something they aren't telling me now. And I'm not too happy about it.

I've placed a call to Dr. Stephen's office. Of course this is a surgical day, so I'm guessing I won't get a call back anytime soon.

At least the anesthesiologist is refunding me the money so I can pay the bill at a later time.