Anna G.

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Preuit M. was kind enough to meet with me and my husband at a local restaurant this morning! It was so good to meet a DS'er face to face and learn from him. Live DS support groups are few and far between, and I think it's wonderful how those who have been through the surgery are willing to give newbies the benefit of their experience. I'm grateful to Preuit, to the fabulous LeaAnn, and everyone on the DS forum!!

I spoke with Dee, the new Bariatric Coordinator at Dr. Smith's office in Marietta this morning. She seemed very nice, and helped to give me a more realistic idea of the time table. It seems that it might not necessarily take 2 years to see the doc. It all depends on how diligent I am about completing all the steps toward that. So this sounds promising. She's sending me an informational DVD, and a questionnaire to complete.

I called an office in Huntsville several days ago and left a message saying that I was interested in surgery. No one ever called me back.

 Yesterday when I called to inquire about surgery, the woman I spoke with was extremely curt. She asked me all the basic questions, name, age, weight, height, social, one after the other, with nothing friendly in her voice, no personality whatsoever.  She just set me up for a consultation without even asking which doctor I was interested in. It was a very bad first impression.

Today, I called to ask how many DS surgeries the doc had done. Whoever I talked to (she didn't give me her name) acted as though I had asked her the concentration of nitrogen in the atmosphere of the moon. She said she was sure that information was on their web site. I explained that it was not. She gave me an exasperated sigh and said that well, she had no idea. I asked if there was someone else I could talk to. She said, OK, I'll ask around. She came back to the phone and said nobody knew. End of conversation, as far as she was concerned. When I asked her how I could find out this information since no one there knew, she said, "Well, we set up consultation appointments; maybe you could ask the doctor yourself.".

I am not getting a warm or fuzzy feeling about this place. Maybe I should travel to Marietta after all. That's just so scary...so far away if something went wrong. But it's not that much farther than Birmingham, so if I were going to travel to B-ham I think I would just go ahead and travel to Marietta for Dr. Smith. Except I hear rumours that his staff is extremely difficult to work with as well, and that there's a two year waiting list. :::sigh:::

I guess I just need to decide what I want and go for it, and just lower my expectations for how these people should behave toward patients.

I've spent the last week reading about the various surgeries, reading the forums, trying to come to a decision. I really want the duodenal switch because the results are more permanent, but I absolutely could not live with some of the more unpleasant possible side effects of DS, and the closest surgeon is several hours away. 

I started out thinking I would go with the Lap-Band, but now I'm leaning toward RNY. The results are better, and if I'm going to go through surgery and all that goes with it, I want the best results possible.

My husband suggested that we start going to counseling together. And after I saw the statistics on how many marriages end in divorce within a few years of WLS. I think he was very wise to think of that. I'm looking for a counselor now.

I made an appointment for an initial consultation with Dr. Facundus in Huntsville, for September 27. I decided to go with him because Huntsville is only an hour away and if I have complications I want to be as close as possible. He seems to have an excellent reputation. If he had done more than just a few duodenal switch surgeries I might still be considering it.