" Getting to my weight loss surgeon started off with an abdominal pain (turned out to be gallstones) that wouldn't go away and some shoving by a different doctor to have a WLS or they wouldn't take out my gallbladder.
I found Doctor Olsen after being ignored by the office staff of that other bariatric surgeon when my insurance denied my first request for weight loss surgury. Pam Davis, the program director for Centennial Center for the Treatment of Obesity gave me confidence that it would be the place for me (and at first I was just thinking for my gallbladder, how wrong I was). Doctor Olsen seemed at first a little too direct for me, but since then I've come to understand he really needs to be to get across that weight loss surgury is permanent and to ensure this is what you really want. He not only figured out that the majority of my pain wasn't the gallstones, but laid out a simple treatment and I'm relatively pain free now from that issue. From everything I've seen Dr. Olsen does genuinely care about his patients and has even called my wife (who had a RNY by him as well) personally to check up on her.
The office staff and aftercare program provided by his program I would have to say seem second to none by providing psychologist led support groups (which they want you to go to), an exercise physiologist, and nutritionists at no cost after your surgery. They really know that the surgery is only half the battle, the rest of it is getting the patient to use the tool they've been given to the best of thier ability.
During my consult (which was the second one I'd seen because I was there for my wife's) he not only carefully went over the risks and benefits of the surgery but explained the different types of RNY. He was very upfront in saying that weight would be lost with the surgery no matter what, but how much would depend on how well I followed the diet laid out by him and the dietician. He was also very upfront in saying that at my weight I would very likely be on the stricter diet longer due to all the extra weight I have to get off and that if I wasn't willing to make the lifestyle changes then I really shouldn't have surgery.
Overall what people need to know about Dr. Olsen is that he operates in a great center that will always be there for you in your journey, that you need to give him a chance even if he is too direct for you because it's for your own good, and finally that he's one of the best surgeons in the state and country (the center and all the doctors in it are Circle of Excellence providers)"
