"I am now one-week out from a gastric by-pass performed by Dr Antanavicius ("Dr. G"), who is associated with the ABMS Center of Excellence at Abington Hospital in Abington PA. Dr. G spoke very openly with me, and helped me choose the type of surgery that would be most appropriate for me. The indepth health analysis that he required is consistent with an ABMS Center of Excellence, and identified additional health issues that I have, and also that I had no issues in other areas! The practice has a good working relationship with important consultants such as cardiologists and pulmonologists who are very experienced working with bariatric patients, and helped me understand how to reduce risks of surgery. Dr G addressed questions about these and other my other issues that I already knew about, as well as all the surgery risks.
I am also very impressed with all the rest of the team at Abington IBMS. The nutritionist at the practice also was very practical and positive in our interactions, and provided workable ideas to improve my eating habits. I never thought I'd kick the diet coke habit before surgery! The nurse practioners took the time to answer all my questions from medication to diet to more mundane things like my doubts and fears. The scheduler was also very helpful to understand the insurance maze, and to help me make decisions that worked the best for me. Overall, nothing surprised me about the hospital experience, as that had been outlined and discussed many times.
On the day of surgery, Dr G was very focused. I really appreciated the attention to detail and all that I observed that showed me a focus on patient safety. I was very happy that he also took a close look at my hiatial hernia, and decided to fix it while doing the gastric bypass. He was great with my son who came to the hospital and including waking him up to tell him how the surgery went.
The nursing staff at the hospital was very professional. They would check in quickly to see what my concern was, and then prioritized it appropriately with everything they were doing. Issues with my IV etc, were handled immediately. To balance this review, I did find the hospital beds quite uncomfortable, and was glad to be able to sit up in the chair for a good deal of my stay.
To me, it is really amazing what can be done with hi-tech laproscopic surgery. I was surprised that I was able to go home within 36 hours of entering the hospital.
I highly recommend Dr G and the entire IMBS group at Abingtonm for a very positive experience with bariatric weight loss surgery.
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"Add some of this to vary the flavor of just about anything. I use it in water, plain yoghurt, or plain tea. My favorite flavors are berry pomegranate and mango peach. "
