Army Hospitals

So which of us had our surgeries performed in a post hospital? I did, at Madigan and it was an awesome experience. I thought about doing it at a local one, even threatened to which got me a surgery date after a 6 month wait on their 2 year long list. ~Tanja -142

I had mine at a MTF... mine was performed at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) here on Fort Campbell, KY. So far my expierence has been fairly good. There are some parts of the process that need to be fixed but otherwise it has been good. You can read my profile for all of the DRAMA....LOL! My surgeon was very nice, skilled and I could not have wanted for a better one! (Not to mention he is HOT! LOL!) My wait was over a year long and I think that is a bit much. Tricare should really start to route people off post after 8 months, you know?! I used to with them every week about moving me offpost once the wait went over 6 months but they insisted that if I wanted to be off post for my WLS I would have to move all of my care off post. Which would have been STUPID since I live on post! Not to mention my hubby is a flight paramedic so I typically bypass the hospital and clinics and see the docs he works with anyways! I don't know about you but our nutrition department SUCKS when it comes to bypass patients. Our "nutritional packet" is 6 pages long, full of crap you can get off the net on any Gastric Bypass 101 website! And a lot of the stuff contradicts itself too! It has been my expierence that the nutrition dept says "go by what your doc says because everyone is different." Well that is part of the problem, in the military we change docs so frequently! Not to mention most military surgeons don't want to mess with nutrition b/c that is one more thing on their plate! OYE! The one BIG thing I wish our hospital would fix is our support group. After the guys started deploying "back home" the Adult Behavioral Health Department dropped us like a bad habit. They claimed they needed to "focus on the soldier"... yeah well you can't just forget about the WLS patients either buddy.... we can kill ourselves if we don't deal with our eating issues! KWIM? So right now our meetings are being run solely by the patients and we get no support from the hospital (except a place to meet, but even then they give away our room sometimes)! How was your expierence? Where do you see room for improvment? Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. Weight- 257/234/146 BMI- 44.1/40.2/25 Height- 5' 4" Surgery Date: 1/19/05 No matter what size, we are all Goddesses inside!

Hello, I didn't have mine in a Military hospital. We are here in CA at the AirForce Base, even though my husband is Army. We just have a small clinic here so we go off post for major things. I had a great civilian doctor, well so far anyway. My neighbor had used him and she knew of others that had as well. That is why I went with him. So my experience is very different. I started my process in Oct. and had my surgery Jan. 25. This is when I first went to the doctor, on post, about Gastric Bypass. I had researched it for years before I came to this decision. Just giving my info! Thanks for listening, Becky P.

I had my surgery done at Womack Army Hospital at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The hospital and staff are awsome. I have no complaints at all. Great job done.

Hello all, I did not have mine at a military post, we were sationed at fort drum (NY) and i go to have a newwork doc that was 2 hours away..even tho there were others that did it closer, they had long wait list for even a consult... My surgen was younger than me but had great skills... take care and god bless 250/158/150? 140??

I went to Womack at Ft. Bragg for my preop and all my testing. I had my actual surgery done by a civilian here in Fayetteville. I am 10 months post-op, and I am seen both on and off post. I have had an awesome experience. Jill 288/170/150

How does the military work with tummy tucks if you want to have it done off base.. I was told that military just cuts the skin off when cilvilian will cut and tighten and remove fat...

It really is not a matter of military vs civilian docs it is a matter of if the surgeon you are going to is a general surgeon or a board certified plastic surgeon. A general surgeon can only remove the skin and repair any life threatening conditions (like a hernia). A board certified PS will remove the skin and can contour fat, they can tighten the muscles and put stitches between the subq tissue and the skin to tighten the layers as well as loose the extra skin. If you are just looking to loose the skin, stay on base, you won't have to fight tricare. If you are looking for a cosmetic appearance and loosing the extra skin then you are gonna have to go offbase (unless your MTF has a BCPS on staff, ours does not) and fight tricare. Just make sure that you really do your research hun... there are a lot of quaks out there feeding off of the self conscious military wife. (More than usual since the war started I have noticed.) Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. aka Lady Autumn Weight- 257/215/146 BMI- 44.1/36.9/25 Height- 5' 4" lbs lost: -42 Open RNY: 1/19/05 My WLS Journey Site: home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-LadyAutumnsWLSjourney No matter what size, we are all Goddesses inside!

I will be having my plastic surgery done by a civilain. Tricare actually referred me to UNC (we're stationed at Fort Bragg). They have a great staff of plastic and reconstructive surgeons there. Your first step is to go to your PCM and get a referral put into the system for plastic surgery.

We were stationed in Germany and had mine done in a German hospital. Great doctor and care, but they really do things differently there. Dreama -172