Has anyone used Dr. Barba?

Hello I am at the beginning of my journey right now, and I am attending one of Dr. Barba's informations sessions on September 11th. I understand that all off the pre op stuff takes a long time, but could anyone give me an idea about how long it took to find out if they were a good candidate for the surgery? Also, I have medicare and medicaid for insurance, so I expect that it may be difficut to get it approved. Has anyone else tried to get approval with medicare/medicaid? Thanks for your input!

Hi meagan, I am using Dr. Barba. My surgery will be on Wed, the 23rd. I began with a sept.5th 2002 informational seminar. It has taken until now for the surgery. I went to his office today to meet with the APRN for a pre-surgery educational class. She said that they are changing their procedures so the wait shouldn't be more than 6 months for his new patients. I have Health Net for insurance so I can't help you with your medicare/medicaid question. Good luck on your journey. Think positive thoughts and try to be patient through the long process.

Hi Meagan I had my open RYn on March 11th with Dr. Barba and he is wonderful. It took me almost 10 months with all of the doctors visits but I'm glad I had to go through it. This way, you will find out if your body will be able to handle the surgery. I flunked the Neuclear Stress test and had to have an angiogram, but it didn't show anything wrong. The results of the stress test were wrong and all of my arteries are normal. I can't say it was a piece of cake because I was part of the 10% of surgery patients that end up with a stricture of the new opening. At 6 weeks, all of a sudden nothing, including water, would go down. I called Dr. Barba and immediately he made an appointment to have the new opening stretched. They do this with an endoscopy proceedure, in the outpatient part of the hospital, and everything is great. It's now a little over 4 months and I'm down 72 pounds and feeling like a new person. I hope that I can loose another 60 pounds, but for the last month, I have not lost a pound. Dr Barba has reasured me that the weight loss will stop for a while, level off then start again. He told me to think of stairs. I'm waiting for the down part again! As far as a doctor goes, I think the world of him. He listens to you which is rare today. Don't be afraid to talk openly with him because if you have any doubts about the surgery, he will be able to help you. Good luck. Bruce A. Redmann Meriden, Ct.

Meagan, I started to use Doc Barba but, it was taking sooooooooooo long I got tired of waiting. This was last year about this time and I still have not had my surgery. I just got all my appt about a month ago.. I am switching to a doctor in Prov RI... God Bless and Good Luck Angela