Ian Sanderson Bariatric Surgeon M.D., F.A.C.S.
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I have seen Dr. Sanderson only once and am awaiting my next appointment with him. I have seen the work up team and so I believe my next appointment will be setting a surgery date. I believe Dr. Sanderson to be a very compassionate and understanding. He is also brutally honest. Which for me is great. The staff is also wonderful. I will write more when I have my next appointment.
Dr. Sanderson is a great doctor. He is straight forward, tell's you the whole deal, no sugar coating. He is very interested in any and all concerns or questions you may have. He makes sure you are informed about aspect of the surgery, so you can make your decision. I was very impressed with him.
His receptionist is so nice. She has a pleasant manner and was very accomadating. I live in Windsor and have to travel 4 hours to get to Dr. Sanderson's office, so she scheduled all my tests on the same day so I waouldn't have to travel alot.
His "team" is the best. You see a Dietitian (Denise, she is so informative), Medical Social Worker (Susan, she was great. She included my husband in our session so we were both educated and prepared for the surgery), and then you see Dr. Sherkin, a sleep disorders dr & respirologist. He is great!!!! He has the best sense of humor, he keeps you laughing!!
Well I finally met Dr. Ian Sanderson after waiting over a year for my first consultation on November 19, 2001. I figured I'd be in for a long wait so I got to his office early and low and behold I was the only one there. I figured since I had to wait over a year the place would be packed.
What I found very amusing was that all the chairs were narrow with arms on them, lol. Well first off, he told me how addictive my personality was (like I didn't know) I smoke, I'm a binger, etc. He gave me heck. I told him I would quit smoking and he told me he didn't believe me. In the end he said quit at least a month ahead of the operation it will be easier on you. I haven't quit as yet but I've got my prescription filled for Zyban which helps you quit smoking and I ended up having an allergic reaction. I quit smoking for awhile (3-4 weeks) then started again due to stress at work. So I guess I'll quit the month before by using the nicotine patch if I can tolerate it. When I had approximately 8 major surguries I know how much it hurts when you cough (and I didn't even smoke then). Dr. Sanderson definitely scared me and mostly gave me negative vibes, whether it was to weed me out it's hard to say. He told it like it was. I didn't get to ask any of my questions he told me his secretary would schedule my appointments for bone density, social worker, doctor and dietician and that appointment is January 17, 2002. He told me we'd be looking at surgery in March 2002 which I was happy about. That info changed when I talked to his secretary she said I probably wouldn't be scheduled until June 2002. So down I went again.
I heard that Dr. Sanderson was the best surgeon so I thought I'd wait out the time. Lets just say Dr. Sanderson tells it like he sees it. Reality first!
Our second meeting on January 17th, 2002 I though I'd met a completely different doctor. Dr. Sanderson was fantastic with me, so I then knew he was screening the serious people from the frivolous. I signed all my papers and my post-op test for hospital is on May 7th. My date for surgery has been set for May 28th, 2002 but just recently was changed to May 21st. Whoppee! I can't wait to get to the other side like everyone else.
I though he was quite arrogant
I realized when I was in hospital that he does care and he's a little nutty (wears yellow rubbers in surgery)
His office staff are friendly
His attitude
He's a great surgeon. I told him that a seamstress couldn't have done a better job
They really stress aftercare and the importance of it
Yes he expects you to do what he says
He addressed the fact that the surgery was risky but all surgeries are
He's a great surgeon
I think both but not always possible
One of the questions Dr. Sanderson asked me was "are you good at doing what your told?" He continued "because you see, I get rather stroppy when my patients don't do what they are told...." I laughed and said "oh well, we wouldn't want you too stroppy now would we Dr. Sanderson!"
In my whole life I have never spoken with a doctor who talked about obesity as a disease. He spoke about it as an illness. He reminded me that as physicians they treat all sorts of addictions....to alcohol, narcotics, gambling, lying, and even to sex. Yet we look at an obese person and we say "bad lifestyle choices." He believes in treating obesity as an illness.
His office gal Mary Ellen is a gem. She knows how anxious the patients are.
Dr. Sanderson is HUGE on after care. I am told that I can expect to work closely with the nutrionist/dietician for at least a year following surgery. He is a thorough doctor and made sure I clearly understood all that is involved with the surgery.
My first impression of him was that he seemed really nice and very informative and quite capable of performing the surgery. He did explain that there could be complications and he described the surgery in detail to me using diagrams and props.
Over time he still discussed complications and how this was just a tool and that I would need to work at losing the weight (ie exercise and diet). He stressed the importance of the sugery only being a tool. The only thing that bothers me about him is that because I live 3 hours from Toronto he kept on talking about how far away that was and that he didn't like taking on patients that lived so far away. Well (as we all know) there aren't enough surgeons out there to cover all areas of Canada let alone Ontario.
His secretary Mary Ellen is just wonderful. She is very helpful especially since I am from out of town she would schedule my appointments on Mondays and all in the same day.
Rumour has that he had stopped taking on patients but now he will start up again but only with people that live within an hour of Toronto. But I would still try to get him as a doctor.
Word of warning though he doesn't have the best sense of humour which some people mind find a little intimidating. Other than that I think he's great.
Oh I almost forgot his office needs a little updating. I remember when I went for my one week follow up after surgery and he removed the final tube it was in this little dinky room in the office and he used paper towels instead of cotton which I thought was a little odd.
He didn't order any extra tests or make me wait any longer. My appointments were never canceled and they seemed quite reasonable timed. My first consultation with him was in Feb/01 and my surgery was Aug 14/01 which I think is great considering how long people are waiting now.
First impression? That he was thorough, gruff and not a touchy feely guy but really competant. He has trained a lot of the docs in Toronto and done many many of these operations. I have heard time and time again in the OSSG-Toronto support group when his name is mentioned negatively, it is never because of his medical technique or results, it's because of his bedside manner. But quite frankly I would rather have a great surgeon who is a bit gruff, than one that jokes around and leaves me full of holes.
He is extremely concerned that his patients understand exactly what they are up against - he does testing before you even get a date with a social worker, a dietician (who will follow up for a year after surgery and then is always available after that for consults), a respirologist/internist, and does a bone scan. And after surgery you have a visit one week after discharge and then one month after the surgery, then monthly for six months and then bi-montly for the rest of the year.
So far i would rate him highly - I never have minded a dry sense of humour and I really value his knowledge and experience.
Well I finally met Dr. Ian Sanderson after waiting a whole year (beginning of Dec. 2000) for the first time on November 19, 2001. I figured I'd be in for a long wait so I got to his office early and low and behold I was the only one there. I figured since I had to wait over a year the place would be packed. What I found very amusing was that all the chairs were narrow with arms on them, lol.
Well first off, he told me how addictive my personality was (like I didn't know) I smoke, I'm a binger, but my worst problem is that after having so many operations throughout the years I became addicted to opiates and am on the methadone program. He also gave me heck for that and told me I traded one addiction for another. I told him I would quit smoking and he told me he didn't believe me. In the end he said quit at least a month ahead of the operation it will be easier on you. I haven't quit as yet but I've got my prescription filled for Zyban which helps you quit smoking and I still have problems I'll use the patch for awhile. When I had approximately 8 major surguries I know how much it hurts when you cough (and I didn't even smoke then).
Dr. Sanderson definitely scared me and mostly gave me negative vibes, whether it was to weed me out it's hard to say. He told it like it was.
I didn't get to ask any of my questions he told me his secretary would schedule my appointments for bone density, social worker, doctor and dietician and that appointment is January 17, 2002. He told me we'd be looking at surgery in March 2002 which I was happy about. That info changed when I talked to his secretary she said I probably wouldn't be scheduled until June 2002. So down I went again.
I heard that Dr. Sanderson was the best surgeon so I thought I'd wait out the time but after reading all these nice things about Dr. Jaffe, Dr. Yau, etc. and I probably could have had my surgery by now.
I'll let you guys know how I make out after the 17th January/02.
Lets just say Dr. Sanderson tells it like he sees it. Reality first!
I met Dr. Sanderson on November 29, 2001 He was very friendly, understanding & caring, he listened well & answered all of our questions. He tells you the straight facts & you should prepare yourself for them. I feel he is very experienced & that's what you need. His secretary is nice & freindly as well. He has a team approach, which is excellent, each person is a specialist in their own feild. After care is critical, he wants to see you for follow up all the time, he stresses this to you, for success. So far I have all the confidence I need in him to go ahead with this surgery! He is very confident. That's a wonderful quality to have.