It is very hard when you have a complex vascular condition to see multiple care providers and not see your main doctor/surgeon for over six months to a year.. not sure why you see the doctor more before you have surgery and less afterwards when your condition gets more complex.. not satisfied always with seeing just physician assistance and not the medical doctor/surgeon that you initially were initially seeking treatment from.. especially when you are having complications and problems continuously along the way.. it makes the patient feel as if once the surgery has been commissioned, that they are no longer a significant priority to the doctor/surgeon.. I think if this pattern of handing over the patients to nurse practitioners/physician assistance is a common practice for this position/surgeon, that they should make this clear and outline the specifics of this reduced access to the doctor to the patient to make sure that they are satisfied/OK with this model of care. it is not OK to find out something like this after the fact when you have already gone under the knife and head the surgery and often can't then transfer to another doctor, as most Doctor/surgeon do not prefer to take over another doctors cases once a process of surgery has begun to correct a medical condition.