"After researching the sleeve and seeing all of the youtube videos of Dr. Alvarez, including the video of an actual sleeve surgery, I was very impressed. I had already been seeing a local surgeon who was head of bariatrics at our major hospital. I called to find out how many sleeves he'd performed and his nurse said 100. One hundred? THAT'S IT? Dr. Alvarez has done thousands! I don't care if my surgeon was a US Dr, I wanted someone with the most experience doing my surgery! It's only through experience that the art of surgery is perfected and I wasn't going to take chances on an inexperienced sleeve surgeon.
I found the online chat through the endobariatrics website and whomever I was chatting with put me in touch with Susan and we started emailing the following day. I found out all the details (like they do ALL the driving and all we had to do was fly to San Antonio and they handle the rest!) and started asking my questions. I quickly felt confident that I wanted Dr Alvarez to be my surgeon so we got our passports expedited and booked our flights. That was the most work I had to do because the rest just flowed like clockwork. The shuttle from the airport to the hotel was perfect and Rosy was waiting for us at the hotel when we got there. The drive down was uneventful and the border crossing the following morning was no big deal at all. A couple minutes after crossing the border we were at the hospital and meeting Dr A and his staff. He is kind, attentive, and answered any questions my husband or myself had.
We were given a nice room and Jessica (she's a sweetheart!) took me to get labs and xray done and after meeting with the anesthesiologist, it was off to surgery. I didn't really even have any fear because I'd done my homework on Dr A and felt so confident that all would be fine and it was.
I woke up from surgery and felt nauseated and threw up a few times. I was given medication and felt better. I never had another complication (not that nausea is a complication but I'm sure you know what I mean). Jessica took care of making sure my husband had meals and was doing well. She checked on me often and took care of anything we needed. The non-English speaking nurses were also sweet but we didn't really deal with them much because Dr. A has his own staff.
I must admit that before making my decision of using Dr A I was concerned about having surgery across the border. Once I learned all of his qualifications and read prior reviews about him I really didn't worry about it any more. He has so many good reviews that I was worried he was too good to be true but he really is just that good and here I am adding to those five star reviews!
My PCP does all my aftercare labs and follow ups so I don't have any trouble with that. I do miss the fact that I can't go to a local surgeons aftercare support group but the OH site can be used for support in place of that. And an aftercare support group isn't worth the $9,000 MORE I would have paid to use my local surgeon.
I would definitely recommend Dr. Alvarez for your sleeve surgery and I may even be going back with other family members in the near future. The hospital was clean and safe, his staff is kind and caring, and Dr A was wonderful! It was SO EASY to set up and plan my surgery with Susan and I don't regret a second of it! I'm only a month out and I've lost 25 lbs and two clothing sizes. I feel happy and content with the smaller portions of food because I'm not hungry and I get full on small amounts. I don't feel deprived at all!
On a sidenote, my incisions are amazing! I have seen some that are big, ugly and look like they'll be eyesores for a long time but mine are the tiniest little slits that healed so beautifully that one of them isn't even noticeable and I'm not even finished healing! Bonus!
Seriously, look up all his videos, watch the surgical procedure. You'll be confident and not worry about leaks when you see how he over~sews the staple line (this was very important to me). Go with Dr. A and don't look back!"
"Dr Schlesinger's office staff is really nice. They are nice in person, nice on the phone but when calling for something simple like lab results my 5 or 6 calls just weren't enough to get an answer or call back. Finally had my PCP get the results for me! Having said that, they still do not deserve to be yelled at and humiliated by Dr S in FRONT of an office full of patients. He was mad that they scheduled two more patients in his day when he apparently didn't want to see any more. He threw a childish hissy fit right there in the reception area yelling at the girl who made appointments saying, "I'm so SICK OF THIS!!! You schedulers aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing!" He went on for about 3 minutes, throwing his folder on the desk and basically looking like he was going to have a heart attack. His next appointment (as I was leaving) was standing there sort of shocked and said, "do you want me to just come back another time Dr.?" He said no politely to her and then ranted some more about the girls up front. It was seriously the most immature, unprofessional thing I've seen in my life. If there was an issue it should be taken up privately with the staff. It made everyone there feel uncomfortable and honestly if you are paying money to someone for a service they should act professionally in your presence, at LEAST. I don't want to employ anyone that is so arrogant he has no problem treating others in such a disgraceful manner. Also, I'm glad I'm not that poor patient that had to see him next for her appt knowing he just had such a cow about not wanting another appt. WOW.
I also don't like that he tries to pressure people into having the gastric bypass and totally poo poos the sleeve surgery. He claims it's not covered by insurance (many DO cover it) and says it's not proven (it's actually coming back with numbers as good as the bypass with none of those extra risks/side effects that are common with the bypass). He seems to REALLY like doing the bypass, NOT liking to do the DS or VSG. So if you are looking for either of the two he doesn't care for then you should probably consider another Dr. He will do them, but he sure makes it clear he doesn't want to.
Another negative, he's only done around 100 sleeves so far, likely because he convinces people to go with other surgeries and that's not enough experience for me to feel comfortable with him doing it on me. I found a surgeon that has done nearly three thousand and has had NO leaks so I decided to switch after witnessing his temper tantrum that day in the office. I just figure if he treats his staff that way, how is he going to treat me if I say or do something he doesn't like? Not waiting around to find out, I'll tell you that!
He was forthright about risks involved and patient compliance. He didn't want to answer any specific questions I had about one of the surgeries, rather he told me to go back to another seminar. In the time he took to tell me that "Now isn't the time to answer specific questions" he could have answered the two simple questions I had but whatever. Also, he was trying to flip to the next page in my chart at one point during our very quick visit and he couldn't get the page up to turn. He was getting so mad and frustrated about it that I really think he has an anger problem. His reaction to things is very over the top.
He does emphasize after care and from what he says, he accepts other surgeons patients when most dr's wont.
All in all, I don't need a surgeon to be my best friend or even a "nice guy" but i do expect him to have a level of class and professionalism and Dr Schlesinger doesn't have that.
On a positive note, the customer advocate they have for their patients is really cool. Also, the psychologist that comes into their office a couple times per month was really great!
Of course this is just my experience and I've read plenty of reviews of people that liked him. I am actually going across the border to have my surgery with a surgeon that has done this procedure THOUSANDS of times and is kind to the patients and his staff."
