Has anyone gone to Dr. Gerald Kirshenbaum?

Hi everyone! My Mom had RNY with Dr. Snyder in 2004 and had really great results, so I was looking into going to him for a LAGB.  He charges around $14,000 for everything and his fills are around $285.  There is another doctor that only charges $9950 and fills only cost $15.00.   I am going to have to do self-pay and I really prefer the $9950 w/ $15 fill price.   I guess my question is has anyone gone to Dr. Gerald Kirshenbaum for LAGB?  I really like Dr. Snyder, but he is too spendy for me, plus on the Lab Band of the Rockies webpage www.lapbandrockies.com he has done a lot of laproscopic surgeries before and specializes in LAGB.  I am looking for the good and the bad so I can make a well informed decision about which surgeon I choose. Thanks for any help!!   

Hi Nicole, Dr. Kirchenbaum did my surgery on May 16, 2008. I would be willing to answer any questions that you have about the surgery and about him. The Good: Kirshenbaum is a nice guy and very experienced. He has very clear instructions to prepare for surgery. His fills are inexpensive. They offer a free support group once a month. The office hosts a clothing swap periodically. The office has normal sized people. It is about as "not" intimidating as you can get. I did lots of research on different doctors, programs, surgery versus non-surgery etc. before I decided on the lap-band. Dr. K was the first doc in Colorado to do the LapBand. He is the doctor who trains other surgeons in the LapBand technology. The Bad: There is only two ones to report - One - You will get little to no follow-up support with self pay. The office doesn't work with a psychologist or recommend one. If you live locally (which I do) and want support there isn't a lot. If having continued support following surgery is important, you may want to look at a different office. The Lap Band is a tool and being taught how to use it would be helpful instead of just figuring it out on your own. I have spent a lot of time in the last 6 weeks kinda figuring it out on my own. Two - He is an extremely popular doctor and his office is busy. Sometimes they schedule too many poeple for a certian length of time and you will end up waiting. I had an appointment at 4:00pm and waited until 5:00pm to be seen. Outside of those two negatives, I have had a really good experience with him, his office, the student docs, and my surgery went off without a hitch! If you still have more questions, you can email me [email protected]

Hi Shoshanna ... Just met with Dr. K. yesterday and will have surgery in August ... when you say, "little to no follow up support", what did you mean? ... having your questions answered or to check with him on some reactions/symptoms? ...  I  live in the Springs, so if I need a support group I will probably attend the one at Penrose Hospital ... Thanks, Julie

Hi Julie, Well first congratulations on making the decision to have the surgery in August!! What I meant was neither of those. I have needed more weekly support than offered really at any self pay. I would like to be meeting with a nutritionist post-op, meeting with a group more regularly than once a month, being weighed more than 1x a month when I get a fill etc. When Nicole asked for the Good and Bad, I wanted to just mention that follow-up support is not the focus of most self-pay docs. The focus is affordability so that anyone who needs and wants this surgery can have it which thank the Goddess that is the case otherwise I would not have been able to do it.  It is worth mentioning that Dr. K charges $15 per fill that is it. Further more - Dr. K is awesome. He has a funny, matter of fact, and has a honest yet professional bed side manner. It totally jived with me. That is the important part when you are comparing docs that you know have equal or close to equal experience and that have the same complication rates. Dr. K out of 500 surgeries has had only 2 complications. Those are pretty darn good odds I would say. If you have a support group to go to in Co Springs, I think you will be fine. For me I do need more support. Since writing that response, Dr. K's daughter Susan who is a Psychologist and runs the support group called me and had recommendations for one-on-one people I could meet. I hope that provided the information you wanted!! You are very welcome Shoshanna

Hi Shoshanna  ... Thanks for the reply ... your information was very helpful ... I, too, thought Dr. K. had a good sense of humor and I felt at ease with him ... I thought his staff was very warm and friendly, too ... looking forward to meeting with the nutritionist ... he said that she was voted #1 by her peers recently ... sounds like a good team to me! ... Julie

shosings ~ Thanks for the good and the bad!  That is what I need to know in order to make the right choice.  I am thinking that I am most likely going to go to Dr. K because you can't beat that price!  I am also a little off standish though becuase he doesn't do the pre-op testing.  I am only 25 though, so at the same time I figure that I will be ok as long as I go to my regular doctor and have her do blood tests and a physical.  Then at least my insurance will take care of that.  On that note, can I ask why he doesn't require any sort of pre-op testing?  Which surgery center did you have your procedure performed at?  Are they nice?  Also, how painful was the procedure?  I am sort of a baby and last year when I had laproscopic knee surgery I had to get the strong stuff.  That is the thing I am most worried about.  Just making sure that I will have as little of pain as poosible (although I am not sure who would want to have pain, but you get my drift).    I think that is all the questions I have for now.  Thanks for helping me, I really do apprecaite it.

Nicole, What Dr. K told me was that his patients have done tons of research before they ever end up at his office. As he said, self-pay patients for the most party don't have any other "serious" health issues besides obesity. Outside of my BMI, I have no other health issues. You will talk to the nutritionist and answer a ton of questions before you go in for the surgery. There are two surgery centers they work with. I went to one they use in Parker. The center was really nice and the staff very good! As you know then, surgery itself doesn't hurt. For me I dealt with horrible gas pains for 5+ days post op. It is different for every person, but in order to do abdominal surgery, they have to pump your tummy full of air. For some reason (which was told to me by Dr. K), it causes sharp pains in your shoulders. I was a little sore with the incision where the port was, but after 8 days, I felt really good. My soreness was almost entirely gone. Now 46 days later, I feel pretty good. The first fill didn't hurt, but felt a little weird. You are so welcome. Good to know what people's individual experiences are as well as asking tons of questions of your doc. When I went in for the consultation, I brought a list of questions. He gladly answered all of them. It was great.

Hi Nicole, I know just what you are going through as I was self pay as well and was torn between choosing Dr. Snyder who came highly recommended to me by neighbors who had him for their RNY as well, and the lower price of Dr. K.  Once I went to Dr. S's seminar I was sold.  He had so much more support and also, I was approaching 50 and he did a lot of pre op screenings to be sure surgery was safe (my insurance did pay for all of those except the psych).  I only talked on the phone with Dr. K's office, he doesn't do seminars, but if you call inquiring about a seminar they will waive give you a free consult in the office.  I cancelled my consult appt. the gal I spoke with was less than friendly.  I just felt that Dr. K's office was very assembly line-ish for surgery.  However, many folks love him, and when I said that on another website I got blasted for it, but that was my experience, obviously it's not everyone's.  Dr. S gives free fills for 3 mos. and then I was told they were $100 after that.  There is another dr. in town as well, Dr. Brown that is about the same price as Dr. K, he's at Presbreterian/St Lukes.  I went to that seminar and what put me off there was the dr. didn't come to the seminar.  But by the time I went to that one, I had my mind pretty made up.  Good luck in your choice.  Only you know what is right for you.  BTW, I just went to one of Dr. S's support groups last night and he does welcome patients from other dr.'s at the support groups.  There's another website:  www.lapbandtalk.com that has a lot of info and reviews on Dr.s as well.  check out the CO area and the Doctors & Hospital areas.  Dr. K has a huge thread there, just search both names.  Good luck. 

Thanks for the info.  I like the after care support you get from Dr. S, but I just can't foot that bill.  If my insurance covered it, then maybe I could cover whatever they didn't.  Oh well!  I think that Dr. K is good and a lot of people have been successful with him, I will just have to make sure I find a good support system for after.  Maybe even with Dr. S. 

Yes definitely check out all the support groups you can all over town til you find one that is the fit for you.  Good luck to you!!  I know people fly in from all over the country to see Dr. K.   I had to do self pay as well and that sucked, but am glad I did it.