"Dr. Poplawski is at the Bariatric Treatment Center in Michigan. I have only had one consultation with him, but he seems to be very nice. The office staff at the BTC are wonderful. They perform the surgery in their own hospital, where this is the only surgery that is performed. Therefore, the gowns are bigger, the tables are bigger, etc...And you do not have to worry about the staff being insensitive, or downright rude. They have a very good support system, including nutritionists to discuss dietary issues before and after the surgery, psychological counseling, outside support groups, follow-up appointments that eventually fall once a year for the rest of your life to ensure your good health.
Dr. Poplawski turned out to be a wonderful surgeon! He was much more personable after the actual procedure. My incision looks good- for an incision anyway :). My overall all opinion of the BTC, however, is not as positive. They have their own hospital and they claim that this makes the surgery better because everything is bigger. This is not true. I couldn't even fit in the restroom in the room, I had to go down the hall to the handicapped restroom. The nursing staff was pretty bad in general. There were a couple of nurses that were very competent and nice, but most of the nurses there were agency nurses. They were not helpful, one actually lied on my chart. My pnuemonia went untreated for several days because the nurses would not listen. Even once medication was prescribed, they neglected to give it to me. There were numerous other "incidences" with these nurses. The respiratory staff were excellent. The lab was horrible as well. They did not listen and damaged several veins to the point that my regular lab could not draw me a week after the surgery. I will not let the BTC labs draw me again! The BTC is very informative, but they did leave out important information before the surgery. It would have been nice to know that I can no longer take anti inflammatory meds since I have severe arthritis, but I wasn't informed of this until after the procedure. The dietary department is helpful and they provide clear instructions for eating after the surgery.
At my six week checkup Dr. Poplawski shared with me the difference between thin and fat people: thin people only eat 1 cookie and fat people eat the whole bag. He made a couple of other comments that were 'off.' I have decided to find a local surgeon for any necessary follow up. One that is more knowledgeable about the causes of obesity. My surgeon also did not remember whether or not he took out my gallbladder and didn't even seem to remember me at all. The surgeons at BTC perform 4 surgeries a day. You're in and out. He also made sure to remind me on several occassions that I was 'large' even by their standards. He has offered no positive feedback regarding my progress (I had lost 15% of my excess body weight as scheduled by my 6 week check up)."
