No Surgeon or Bariatric Doctor

I have a concern. My surgeon left my insurance about a year ago. I did go to see him once and paid out of my own pocket. He has since moved out of the area, so I'm really without a bariatric doctor. My family doctor will run the bloodwork for me, but he really isn't looking for the same thing my bariatric surgeon looked for. Any suggestions as to what I should do? I checked my insurance and the closest surgeons are in Staten Island which is very difficult for me to get to. I was thinking of calling insurance and telling them that they approved the surgery, but now I'm unable to get follow-up care, and what would they suggest.... Hugs, Nancy

When I first had my surgery, my surgeon was only about 30 minutes from me - since then I moved, and so did he and now he's 1.5 -2 hours from me. While probably doable I suppose, not my preference so I have chosen to have my labs drawn through my primary care family doc. I give him a list of the labs I need done and he does them. I'm basically educating him on WLS post-ops and since most of it involves nutrition and supplementing and well, IMHO, most bariatric surgeons seem to fall short in this area as well - I can do just as well with my PCP as with my surgeon. The more important thing is to get those labs done - all of them, so you know what's going on. Any doctor can orders those. Take your supplements to keep those levels where they need to be. Some folks travel out of state to have their surgeries and all of their follow-up care is done through their PCP, so it is very possible for you to do this too.

Thanks Traci - that makes me feel a little better. I used to have a prescription that my surgeon had written with all of the tests I should have done, but I lost it. Do you have a list?

As a matter of fact, I DO have a list! Here ya go, this is what I have drawn every 6 months: Comprehensive metabolic profile (sodium, potassium, chloride, glucose, BUN, creatinine, calcium, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase) (Nc,K,C1,CO2,Glu,BUN,Cr,Ca,TP,Alb,Tbili,AP,AST,ALT) LIPID PROFILE (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, chol/HDL ratio) Tchol,Trig,HDL,Calc,LDL) GGT (* a liver function test not in a comp panel) LDH Prealbumin (tells you protein status recently) PHOSPHORUS - INORGANIC URIC ACID Copper CBC (HEMOGRAM/PLT/DIFF) B-12 & FOLATE, B-6 B1(Thiamine) IRON, TIBC, % SAT FERRITIN VITAMIN A Vitamin D (25-hydroxy), VITAMIN E VITAMIN K THYROID PANEL (T3, T4, TSH) ZINC MAGNESIUM SERUM INTACT PTH (PARATHYROID) Homocystine, MMA HGB A1C NOTE about having your labs drawn: you should go in FASTING, and you should stop taking any supplements about two days before you go in to have them drawn. Taking supplements within 2 days or so of having them done can skew the vitamin testing results (or so the lab tech informed me).

My WLS surgeon retired about 9 months after my surgery. He did see me at my one year anniversery but since then it has been my PCP. Like Traci I've done a lot of educating about WLS. You guys are lucky--all my doctors except my PCP are at least 1 1/2 hours away over the mountains. I have to truck through the snow in the winter to see my specialists. Wouldn't want to live any place else though. Monna