Finding the best surgeon/surgery site

Hello all, first off, let me say that I am a big 'fraidy cat when it comes to surgery. I have put off even minor procedures because I am irrationally terrified of going under anesthesia. But i know that if I don't have wls, I will die much younger than I otherwise would, so I have made up my mind that I must overcome my fears.

With that in mind, could those of you brave people that have had wls please advise me on how to go about finding the absolute best surgeon and surgery site possible? It is a bit overwhelming to me.

I live in the Chicago suburbs, and my first thought was to go to Northwestern. But my Mom suggested traveling to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota because my Stepdad had transplant surgery there, and she was so impressed with it. I also noted that the Mayo is listed as #1 for GI surgery in the country.

But obviously, it is not local to me, plus I can't seem to find much info on the bariatric surgeons there. Meanwhile, I have read some good reviews about Dr. Nagle at Northwestern.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? Anyone have any experience with either the Mayo or Northwestern? Or are there other, better surgeons/sites in the Chicago area?

Thank you SO much for any input, and I wish you all the best!

Kathy the scaredy Kat

Hi and Welcome to OH

I had my surgery with Dr. Nagle at Northwestern in 2004. I was 330 pounds and lost down to my lowest of 114. I maintained 14 years later in the 125-132 zone. He saved my life! I can't say enough good things about him and his staff. I went to 4 seminars for surgeons and he just clicked with me. I will never forget when I met him I told him I needed surgery ASAP as if I think about it I would chicken out. Should familiar? LOL He smiled and told me then his program was not for me. I was in tears. You need to get it right between our ears before re-arranging your plumbing and he was so right. I want through his program and 6 months later had surgery. I believe to this day that time and education is the reason why I hit below goal and have kept it off.

My suggestion is do what I did and go to several free seminars and when the surgeon speaks you will get a feel for which one clicks for you. If you need help with setting up the seminars let me know

Take care,

Kathy

Member Services

Hi Kathy,

I totally understand your fear. I was so convinced I would die on the table that I wrote "goodbye" letters to my family members and taped them to the fridge before we drove to the hospital for surgery day.

Before you go looking at hospitals, I would suggest calling your insurance company to find out which providers are considered "in network." I've heard great things about Mayo, but your insurance plan may not pay for a surgeon outside of Illinois.

Once you have a list of doctors/hospitals, I would suggest comparing them to the list of "Bariatric Centers of Excellence," which are selected after very thorough review. You can also check this list of accredited bariatric surgery centers; there are 28 in Illinois!

Kathy, thank you so much for your quick response, and congratulations on your amazing results!

I am going to call to schedule a spot at an information session at Northwestern for next week. I am nervous even thinking about going to that!

May I ask where else in the Chicago area you considered having your surgery? What was it that you liked about Dr Nagle? And do you happen to know how many bariatric procedures he has performed?

Thank you, again. Your response is very encouraging to me. ?

Kat

Hi Kat,

I am going to send you an email

Thank you, Sparklekitty, those are excellent resources! ?

this surgery has become so commonplace that there are a lot of excellent surgeons who do truckloads of these things. I'm sure there are some great ones at Northwestern - as well as many others in Chicago. I'd see who is in your insurance network and start there.

unlike I did with my plastic surgeon (where there truly aren't a lot of people who specialize in bariatric and other massive weight loss patients), for my WLS, I just found out who was in my network and went with a program that had a Center of Excellence designation. There are probably several of those in the Chicagoland area. No need to go to Mayo, although I'm sure they have great surgeons there as well.

Thank you, catwoman, I agree, I will most likely have my surgery here in Chicago. I really appreciate your input.

p.s. I just looked up Dr. Nagle. He specializes in GI surgery and he's on the surgery faculty at Northwestern. I'm sure he'll be fine!

University of Chicago has some excellent surgeons. I didn't end up using them but they are well regarded.