Anyone had trouble with Georgetown or Bluegrass Bariatrics?

Up until recently I had not been an avid reader of the boards.. but after reading several different boards I am curious about other people's experience with Georgetown or Bluegrass Bariatrics.  I have had an awful time.  I wrote about it on the VSG board and on my blog.. if you'd like to read it go here http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/ohemgee/uzone,blog/action, view/blog_id,253468/

I have been a patient of Dr Weiss' since June 2006.  I had my band in January 2007 and have been trying to have a revision since September 2008.  Please share your experiences with me!  I feel much better knowing I'm not alone in my battle.  : ) 

First off, Georgetown is not the same as BBSA.  People, myself included, thought that it was one in the same but it is not.   Dr. Sonnanstine is now over Georgetown's Bariatric program, no longer Dr. Weiss.  But he is also not just Georgetown, he is Central Ky something or another.  BBSA opened many different offices, I think like 8 throughout the state, but the main office is now in Lexington. 

I will be honest with you, I switched doctors to Dr. Sonnanstine because he follows his patients himself, and he cares about them.  Weiss did my surgery and his ARNP punctured my port and I had to have it repaired and yes, I had to pay for it.  Took them seven months to decide something was wrong too.  BBSA doctors are excellent surgeons, but I do not care a bit for their aftercare.  Contact Dr. Sonnanstine for a revision.  You will get a response and excellent care.  

But to be fair I will give you both groups phone number. 

BBSA 1-859-543-1593
Dr. Sonnanstine 1-502-867-3303

Jacqueline

I should have read your story before posting.  First off, BBSA left Gerogetown on August 8, 2008, the day after I had my lapband surgery.  Although they still do surgery there, the last I heard they do not work well with G-town.  They left on their own accord, yet they got upset when they hired someone else.  Dr. Sonnanstine is just the overseer of the program at G-town and they do his pre-op education, but he, like BBSA, has his own practice. 

What you went through is typical because G-town was without a doctor from August 2008 to April 2009.  I am not making excuses for them because they should have come out and told you that you needed to be dealing with CBH rather than them, but for a while they were still doing BBSA pre-op education for the patients that were going to have surgery at G-town.  At the same time I can't totally blame them because it appears to me they were left in the dark not knowing what to do, as were those of us that were patients of BBSA.  Truthfully, after I had my surgery I was lost because I didn't feel G-town wanted us nor did I feel CBH wanted us or BBSA.  It was kind of like we, those having surgery just prior to them moving from G-town, were left in the dark.   I remember I had a scare and I called G-town like I was told to do in my pre-op ed and was told I needed to call BBSA and I did and was told I needed to call G-town. 

I am very thankful I switched doctors due to all the confusion and now I don't have that to worry about.  I know Dr. Sonnanstine will take care of me and my needs.

Jacqueline

Up until early December I had never once dealt with CBH.  I was also told that Georgetown dumped BBSA but allowed them to continue doing surgeries there until CBH became a center of excellence.  This just happened about a month ago and now they don't do any surgeries at Georgetown.  One of the PAs told me I had a hole in my band.. then Dr Weiss said I didn't.. but he never looked at anything, he just assumed.  He could be right, I don't know.. he said he'd check at surgery when he removed it.  Does Sonnanstine do VSGs?

Yes, Dr. Sonnanstine does VSG and he is a wonderful and caring person.  Dr. Weiss said he would check at surgery when he removed it?  That makes no sense, if you are having problems it appears to me he would want to know before doing another surgery.  My gosh, that could be the reason you are not losing and having any luck with the band.  He told me just before he replaced my port that he didn't think it was leaking that he thought i was not eating right.  My tubing was leaking like a sprinkler they said, but he had me in tears and I swore I would not continue to see him after that. 

Georgetown did not dump them, but they do like to say that they did.  They had already had an office built prior to even notifying G-town that they were leaving.   The problem they had with G-town was that they wanted more office space and G-town apparently could not provide it.  Oh and you don't have to pay a program fee with Dr. Sonnanstine either and he hits the port on the first try and without probing around.  He also does not fly to every hospital around to do surgery.  He does teach some but he even has late office hours one day a week for those that work. 

Jacqueline

I recommend Sonnanstine for sure. Stay as far away from Weiss and Oldham as you can. The more I hear about them the more their type of practice scares me. they live in Lexington but go to at least 5 different cities. Mayfield, E-town, Louisville, Lexington and Hazard. They will fly their airplane to western KY do a few surgeries and then fly home. Same as Hazard. Someone told me they are even starting to go to another state. Bottomline is they are not there to take care of you and they do not see you after surgery. They leave all of the followup in the care of nurses. They are all about numbers like a surgery mill and money. I think they have a $500 fee that goes in the doctors pockets that gets you nothing. Imagine what would happen if you got sick and lived in western KY -- do you have to drive to Lexington to see them? I know they wont come to see you.

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about Dr. Sonnanstine.

Just my two cents,

Holly

I would not recommend Weiss and Oldham either. Yes they are excellent surgeons but there is no after care with them at all. I had my surgery on July 5 ,2006 and I never saw Oldham again after that. I do feel their business is a money racket and they don't really care about their patients. I had lapband and lost about 95 lbs. and have gained back about 20 lbs. I have thought about the vertical sleeve but I can't afford it right now. Good luck and maybe if we all started speaking up more they would be forced to provide the aftercare we require and deserve.
Melissa

I had a terrible experience with BBSA-I was going through the pre-op requirements & education classes at the same time that BBSA was splitting from Georgetown & I had to run back & forth between the two offices for appointments!  BBSA's office staff was unprofessional & rude to me everytime I was there!  When I finally completed all the pre-op requirements I got an email from Georgetown saying that I could choose to stay & have my surgery by Dr. Sonnanstine or I could have my paperwork officially moved over to BBSA.  I hadn't met any of the surgeons yet, but I stayed at the Georgetown office because their staff was so wonderful!  And I absolutely do not regret it for a minute!  Dr. Sonnanstine is amazing & the staff is like family to me.  

If a person lived out of state and was coming to Kentucky for VSG and used Oldham, would you recommend? thanks. I'm looking into different surgeons around my area that are excellent, yet reasonable. I am self-pay. I need a band to sleeve revision.

I could not recommend that group after what I went through with them.  I would recommend Dr. Sonnanstine in Georgetown though.  He is wonderful.  Dr. Weiss and Oldham are good surgeons but you will never see them again after your surgery unless you have problems and it has to be major problems then.  I did not see them when they replaced my port until the day of my surgery.  The PA decided my port needed replacing after I asked when should I go for a DS and give up on this band. 

Jacqueline