Question:
Where do you start?
Hello everybody! I wanted to let you all know how very inspiring you are. I have been considering having this surgery done for a year now and I have been lurking here for about 2 weeks now. I have sooooooo many questions! To those of you who have had the surgery already, WHERE DO YOU START? I do have the approval from my family Doctor, and I am not too worried about insurance. But my family Doctor will not reccomend a Surgeon. I spent a few days going over alot of the information available here on this site and I picked a Doctor who I would have liked to perform my surgery, however he is no longer accepting new patients. The other Doctors lited who are in my area are not "Board certified", so I am not as enthusiastic about approaching the procedure with them. Any advice? Also, where would I find on of these "support groups" I keep reading about? Thank you all sosososo very much! XOXO — imtoni (posted on April 30, 2003)
April 30, 2003
Toni - Dr. Noel Williams and Dr. Steven Raper at the Hospital of the
University of Pennsylvania are two of the best bariatric surgeons around.
Dr. Raper (my surgeon) only does open RNY's while Dr. Williams (my wife's
surgeon - her RNY is next Tuesday) does lap RNY's. HUP has a
Yahoogroups.com mailing list with almost 180 members. Here's the URL for
HUP's Bariatric Program:
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/surgery/bariatric/main.html Please feel free to
look over my profile and e-mail me via the profile if you need any
additional information on Dr. Williams or Dr. Raper...JR (open RNY 07/17/02
-172 pounds)
— John Rushton
April 30, 2003
Dr.Curci in doylestown was my surgeon. Hes a great man, and we have a
support group every third tuesday of everymonth and every 1st sunday of
every month at the hospital in the cafe. Tuesday's start at 7 and sundays
start at 2....great support group! This support group is not only for
curci patients...everyone is welcome! I know curci has a long waiting list
but I felt it was worth it with him. Contact me if you have any questions!
— sandrac131
April 30, 2003
When you say they are not 'board certified' what do you mean? There is no
board certification for bariatric surgery. There is an association for
bariatric physicians, but they don't certify for bariatric surgery. There
are many good general surgeons who don't belong to the ASBS(American
Society for Bariatric Surgeons). One of the best things to do is look at
the Find A Doc (click at the top of this page) and then click on your
state. Look for doctors who are in your geographic area and then you can
contact some of their patients.
— garw
April 30, 2003
I offended my surgeon when I first met him because i asked if he was board
certified. Like you, I wanted one that was. He informed me that there is
no certification board for bariactric surgery. There is an association of
bariatric surgeons that they all belong to. None are "board
certified"
— Delores S.
April 30, 2003
My surgeon was Dr. Matthew Kirkland (Pennsylvania Hospital) _ He only does
open RNY, and I was VERY pleased with his work. He had a much shorter
waiting time for the surgery, and did not require a psych exam. I found
him very detailed and he answered all of my questions before the surgery -
I am 7 months post op and down 130 pounds !!! I feel GREAT !!
— GPoynor
April 30, 2003
Dr Williams and the program at HUP do come highly recomended but they have
a VERY LONG waiting list. I called last November and couldn't get an
appointment until June. I decided to go with Dr Gail Wynn in Wilmington,
DE. I was seen for the first time in a matter of months, I did have to
wait for the place her office does pre-surgical clearance with and then
when I got that done she had to go off and have a baby 3 weeks early but I
will be heading to the other side on July 1st. She does Lap-RNY and
LapBand.
— Beth E.
April 30, 2003
You need to start with your insurance, get a list of network surgeons that
do the gastric bypass, and if they do not have any on the list, call them
and ask them to give you names of surgeons that they will approve. Also,
make sure that your insurance approves this procedure, then get a letter of
medical necessity from your pcp or any doctors that you are seeing. It
helps if your pcp is in your insurance network. This is a great web site
for information, go to the library section, there are tons and tons of
answers to your questions.
— cindy
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