Gratiot Bariatric Treatment Center Bariatric Center

I was extremely nervous about the surgery and took two years to decide to have it. My surgery has gone extremely well. I have not had any complications. However, I do follow my eating plan well and stay away from sugar and high fat. I have lost 185 lbs and my weigh has stabalized. I am now 2 years post op. I received excellent care and do not have any complaints. I would recommend this surgeon and hospital.

Thanks
Bonnie

I have not met with Dr. Cudjoe yet, but have heard good things about him. I will be able to see him on December 4th when I attend his lecture that all patients are required to attend. I will update again after the lecture. I am hopefully switching to Dr. Cudjoe because he is much closer to home and his hospital is in my "network" for insurance. So far I have only dealt with Cindy from his office but she was very kind and helpful. I am supposed to be receiving a packet of information to get my file started, so once I get that I will also update this.
November 19, 2003
Wow! They sure are thorough! My packet was more like a book. They want to know a LOT about you, but that's good. I have it all filled out and since I work in Alma I am going to drop it off at their office. I want my "file" started as soon as possible!! Will let you know more as I go along.
December 9, 2003
I haven't actually "met" Dr. Cudjoe but I was at his lecture on December 4th. I really liked him. He seemed really concerned about overweight people and what they have to go through. I have an appointment with him December 18th so I'll be able to tell you more after that.
December 28, 2003
I met with Dr. Cudjoe on the 18th and really like him! He is very pleasant and easy to work with. He seemed surprised at all that I had done already. The only thing he said that made me nervous was "you might have too much information." I hope not! It's taken me too long to get it together. As far as I know they sent all of my information to the insurance company so now it is up to them. As soon as they get an approval (which they'd better) Lori will contact me about the appointments for an endoscopy, stress test and also meet with the nutritionist. Everyone I have talked to said not to expect to hear anything until after the 1st of the year. They are probably right, but it is so hard for me to wait! But as soon as I hear anything, I will let you all know! I plan on making the website known to my doctor(s) so that maybe they can access it too. I know it has been a huge help to me!
February 8, 2005
I still like Dr. Cudjoe very much-he is very caring and compassionate and always willing to answer questions. I have found that the aftercare is mostly what YOU make it, not the doctor. They have you answer a questionnaire every time you come in and they refer to it, but I didn't find too much emphasis on aftercare in general. Both of his surgical competence and bedside manner are great-he really is a very caring man. I would definitely recommend him to other people.

Cudjoe is very nice seems to care about you.
His office staff is very helpfull.
Dr. Cudjoe has a very nice program before and after surgery with regular support groups and some that he attends himself.

I first attended a required seminar in October of 2003. I was impressed with Dr. Cudjoe's presentation and felt that I was very informed about the surgery.
I had my first appointment with him in December 2003, again he made sure that I understood the surgery.
I have had three appointments with him and have felt very relaxed with him and his staff, some of which have had the sugery also.

My first impression was he was a very nice man, very knowlageable and was always reassuring and helpful.At times in the office
He would be in a hurry.The office staff was usually very helpful.I have learned to follow his directions to a "T".
Aftercare is very important to him, He also thinks your family Dr. should be involved in your recovery.He offers a very structured and disciplined aftercare program and expects you to follow it. The one thing I liked least about him is sometimes it was hard to understand his accent.
The risks of surgery were explained very well,especially when I had to give signitures as far as beneficiaries. Overall, He was an excellent surgeon, I could not have asked for better. His surgical competence and bedside manner are equally as good.

I liked Dr. Cudjoe from the start. He was very informative in his orientation. I was very pleased with the care I received before durgery and after surgery. My stay at the hospital was short. Dr. Cudjoe came in two or three times a day. He is very pleasant. I liked how he asked me if I had any questions and then actually took the time to answer them. Not only was I pleased with him. But my husband and daughter were very pleased also. He talked to them a lot after the surgery and really explained everthing to them. My daughter 22, was very nervous and he made her relax by just being there and explaining everything so well after surgery. He even took time to answer all of her questions. He is very competent and has a very good bedside manner. I would recommend anyone to have him to do their surgery. I was pleased with his aftercare program also.

i met dr.cudjoe last year,i was very impressed with his style and presentation.so impressed that i moved to the town where his practice is located.i now attend support group meetings and have got to meet a few of the people there,some that have had surgery and some that havent.it is always fun and interesting,a great learning experience.dr. cudjoe is very professional but also caring and has a sense of humor.he understands our life style as obese and sympathizes with it.his heart is definately in the right place.i recently suffered a heart attack and that of course delays any plans of wls..i need to go to cardiac rehab to make my heart and lungs strong again.they also offer a weight loss plan and exercise with my own personal trainer,so if i lose the weight along the way to recovery that is fine with me..and that will leave a space open for someone else to have there wls a little sooner.if and when my time comes i would trust dr. cudjoe with my life in a heartbeat!the office help is not as nice as the dr. and you really have to keep after them in order to get anything done.i have kept a copy of all my test results and it's a good thing i did because i ended up faxing a copy of all i had to them,now every thing is going smoothly again.

My first impression of Dr.Cougoe was that he is a very freindly person very willing to listen to what you are saying interested in any questions...Just a very awesome person could trust him with anything...
Dr.Cougoe is very interested in your health top priority and wants you to know the risk...And is very patent...Covers alot of stuff I have had people tell me that I had
to have alot of test done befor my surgery..But im super happy he decided to do these because that was just to assure me getting the surgery and being healthy...
Dr Cougoe is a wonderful person...I will not ever have another surgery done by another surgion unless its something he cant do...However he is top on my list........
Thank you so much to Dr.Cougoe You have givin me a new look at life thank you soooo much for being here in ALMA....
Kristine

First, I had to go to an orientation where Dr. Cudjoe presented a very impressive powerpoint presentation. I had been to one other bariatric orientation before and it was not as well-prepared as Dr. Cudjoe's. A packet of information and instructions were given at the time of the orientation. This was all the information that I needed to start on the road. My impression still stands that Dr. Cudjoe and his staff are well-prepared and have their bases covered. I did have a mix up happen at the office as far as they put my chart in the wrong insurance category which cost me about 2 weeks in the whole process. I have a kind of odd-ball insurance, so this is totally forgivable. Whenever I had questions, I called or stopped by the office and got prompt service. I do not even have a surgery date at this point and already have 95% of the information that I need as far as what to do after surgery and the support group available. Dr. Cudjoe has gone over the risks of the surgery during the orientation and once personally with me at my first appointment. I hold off on rating Dr. Cudjoe until after the surgery. Right now, it seems that he is a no-nonsence, practical doctor and I am very happy with that.