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Surgeon TestimonialCynthia Long M.D.I love Dr Long! So much so that I followed her to Baltimore and would probably want to continue aftercare with her no matter where she'd work! :)
My first impression was that she's very skilled & detailed. Her plan was easy to follow and she gave all new patients a binder that explained the process step by step She made things clear at surgery & right after, which assuaged some worries I had early on. I had no complications from my surgery. My positive opinion on Dr Long has not changed over time. However, I feel that she could have better staff at Sinai - they did not make for a smooth transition from her private practice to working at Sinai and I have had some problems in them relaying messages & communicating. Future patients should know that Dr Long is an employee of Sinai, which already had an established bariatric program. If a future patient does not feel comfortable with any aspect of Sinai's program, they need to weigh that carefully and discuss their concerns. For example, I decided to return to my original nutritionist instead of continuing aftercare with the nutritionist at Sinai; their plan did not coincide with what worked for my body, but it may work better for other people.
I've heard alot of stories of surgeons either having good competence but bad bedside manner - Dr Long has good skills on both, which is a hard find. One cannot base their success on a program or a surgeon, so it is important for potential patients to know the great majority of the work & success will be the patient's, but it is extremely important to have a supportive & understanding surgeon. I have nothing but good things to say about Dr Long! nfarris79's JourneyClick Here To View
Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.I had been overweight and obese for most of my childhood and all of my adult life. I had begun to consider weight loss surgery in my 20s but had neither the insurance coverage nor emotional resources to pursue the surgery at that time. I had been on diets since age 12, had struggled with binge eating, unhealthy eating concepts, and even a brief brush with bulimia until I failed my last diet (Weight Watchers) at age 30. I got married in a size 22 wedding dress, was profoundly unhappy with my body image, and had been a success in so many other areas of my life - except the one that was most visible and representative to others! |
NSVs, SVs, etc on September 25, 2012 5:45 pm
I had my 18 month follow up with my surgeon today and it was good to see her! She's training for a half-marathon in October too, so she was happy to hear about my training progress and hopefully will donate to our fundraising effort. Here's the victories from the office visit: I weighed, with clothes on and after breakfast, 122lbs! My body fat is down to 20% - originally was 54%! My waist circumference is 27 inches!!!! I just cannot belive that last one - I don't think I've been in the 20s in my adult life!
My surgeon was really impressed with the fitness progress and believes strongly that I'll be one of the long-term sucess stories if I can keep diet & exercise consistant - I hope I can do her proud for the years to come! Just gotta remember to contact the compounding pharmacy b/c my B6 is pretty high so they've gotta write up an order for all vits/min EXCEPT B6. I'll always be an odd one....
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1 year postop on April 10, 2012 9:30 am
Just got back from the surgeon's office & they were all thrilled to see me! The one nurse told me about her recent foray into PS - she had her arms, thighs and LBL done and was only out for 5 weeks. Hm... Ok, maybe if I win the lotto.
I'm low on D so will be trippling my intake for the next few months and then have labs redrawn around July to see if it's gone up. B12 is high, so will reduce my dosage on the Nascobal and talk to my primary in a month or so about getting injections done. Surgeon also ordered my alkalate phosphate level rechecked - it was high, which may indicate some bile duct or gallbladder issues, but hopefully it was just a fluke & will correct itself. So I'll get a few things rechecked in July and then see her at my next biannual visit in September. So, it's coming up on a year & all seems good so far!!!
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Took the fashion plunge... on April 9, 2012 1:54 pm
I bought new clothes! Not pre-owned, from Goodwill/SA, because I'd just be disposing of them in a month kind of clothes. Actual, brand new with tags, permanent clothes! As my weight has pretty much leveled off, I think that it's a safe bet that I'll be in this size (6) for a while and we made a little detour after Easter to the outlet mall outside of Philly.... I did a quick little marathon shopping in the NY & Co outlet, right before they closed! In 45 min, I managed to get 3 dresses, a pencil skirt, a pair of pants, a wide belt, and 2 tops. I got about $400 worth of clothes for $124! So I think that beats all records for time & value.... It also felt like a giant catharsis, as I've gone all Lent without buying any clothes. But yeah, as soon as Easter Sunday rolls around, BAM! Nicole has hit the mall!! Loove Philadelphia Premium Outlets.... I may need to budget a bit more time there when we next visit our Pottstown fam.
Proportionally I did have my priorities in order for the Sunday - spent 6 hours driving, 2 hrs with my aunt, 1.5hrs with my uncle, and 45 min shopping. Yeah, it was a busy day! But wonderful to see family, who all raved about how small I am. I was happy to report that I'm down to 128lbs and gonna try hard to stay there. Was even able to pass on some nutritional knowledge that I've absorbed over this journey!
I meet with my surgeon tomorrow, for my 1 year visit! I can't believe that it's been that long...Hopefully she won't fuss at me too much for the low D (24, ugh!) or high B12 values (1410). Gotta love the balance of supplimentations/deficiencies/etc.... I'm just glad nothing else was out of whack!
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Clean bill of health! on February 7, 2012 4:11 pm
I just got a letter from my surgeon's office saying my labs came back all normal! Wooo hooo! No deficiencies, no excesses.... apparently my hemeglobin is just a tad high but they didn't say to cut back on the iron so I'm not going to change up my vitamin routine. I hope LabCorp sends me a copy of my labs because I like to look at the numbers myself.
Also, my sleep dr left me a message to call him about the results of my sleep study this weekend... hopefully I'll hear "no more sleep apnea" from him. The sleep tech who did my observation said the results seemed to show my apnea is gone but when I hear it from the dr, it'll be official! Just ticking off another premorbid condition off my list!!!!
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Getting there... on September 26, 2011 7:58 am
So I just saw my PCP today and I'm inching closer to my goal of being off cholesterol meds! Our plan is to reduce from 10mg Crestor to 5mg, then revisit this after my next labs in November. Hopefully my total cholesterol will stay under 130 after this switch, then I'll be either able to reduce to 2.5mg or go completely off. Yippee! Also back down to 166.2 according to my home scale but apparently my jeans weigh 2 lbs. The nurses were impressed with my loss, aside from my dense clothes.
My BP was a little higher than it has been, at 138/80, but there was an understandable reason: I nearly ran over 2 abortion protesters on my way in. I'm all for freedom of speech but when I have to slam on my breaks because some crazy old lady without a uterus needs to express her judgment by repeatedly crossing the street with a sign bigger than her.... no, freedom of speech does NOT entail someone freedom from common sense! Seriously, people kept running into the street to prop up their gigantic signs on both sides of the road. Um, people? Maryland law gives pedestrians right of way when they're INSIDE A CROSSWALK, not running into the middle of the road against ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!! Morons. Just because there's one abortion provider in this huge complex of OTHER medical providers.... So it detracts from my experience seeing a lovely PCP and his awesome nurses. I wish I could find a time or day where these buttheads are not ticking me off but they ALWAYS seem to be there. Must be nice to have no life and nothing better to do.
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