Anybody have Dr. Valin?

Hi,
Glad to see there are so many CT OH members! I am considering Dr. Valin as a surgeon but noticed most use other physicians. Any one know of Dr. Valin? What are your thoughts? Would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks.

Hello and welcome to our board!  First, let me tell you I had an RNY Lap with Dr. Bell in 2004.  That being said, I've also known friends and family who went to Dr. Valin, and they are ALL disappointed with him.  He does not follow his patients after surgery.  His wife meets with you (she is a nurse practitioner, I believe).  He did a VBG on my friend 1.5 yrs ago and has never seen her since.  When she complained to Deborah Valin about not being able to eat anything solid, Deborah told her to eat slowly.  My friend eats so slow it takes her 1.5 hrs to consume 1 oz of food and then she starts foaming. 

I would not recommend Dr. Valin.  I would; however, highly recommend Dr. Bell.  He follows his patients forever and is at almost every support group meeting.  I have emailed him from time to time, and he answers my emails within a couple of hrs.  When you go to his office to meet with him, he sits with you and explains everything.

There are also other doctors out there.  Before you take on Valin, I would investigate others.

Good luck!

JA

Thank you so much for your reply. My gut has been telling me to do some more research as far as surgeon. I have been sent direct emails echoing the same theme. I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I am glad to have this board for honest and open opinions.

 Please be sure you are comfortable with your choice. I wouldn't want a surgeon who I didn't see for after care. I used Dr. Raftopoulos at St. Francis and he is wonderful. He follows you for life and you see him at every visit, I was sick this past weekend and wasn't sure if it was a stomach flu or a problem and he called me every day to make sure I was okay. It is nice to know you have someone who cares and will be there for you.

Nancy

Hi and welcome to the OH board,
I am a patient of Dr. Valin and Debby.  And I must say, although I do not see Dr Valin on a regular basis, I feel I get great care and attention from his wife and staff. 

You do have to be comfortable with your surgeon, and you also have to make sure the surgery you choose is right for you.   When I met with Dr. Valin's staff initially, I was considering Lapband, after much discussion and information gathering, I ended up choosing VBG.  It was a better fit for my lifestyle and didn't require me to go back for regular visits.  

With VBG it is not only important that you eat slowly, but that you chew completely.   I do get sick once in a while, but it is because I don't chew completely, not because I don't see Dr Valin at every visit.  On average, I see him about every other visit for a few minutes.

Any WLS is a tool to help you lose weight and get to a healthy lifestyle.   It is not a cure.  Bad decisions still lead to bad results.   I am 10 1/2 months out from surgery and I cannot be happier with my decision to have the VBG and of course to use Dr. Valin. 

Without Dr V and Debby, I could not have had the success I have experienced.   In January of last year I weighed 350lbs.   Last weekend, I ran the Walt Disney World marathon in under 5 hours.  I now weigh about 190lbs. 

I have talked to people that like Dr. Bell's group as well.  A couple of my friends and relatives have used his group.   I believe he is associated with more doctors, where Dr. V is in a private practice alone.    I would guess that more Dr's means more time for patients visits as well as surgery.   

Hope this helps,

Ron

One factor for me (and I can post this without a bias because my surgeon is no longer operating in CT) was finding someone who is committed to performing the surgery laparoscopically and who had done enough to be fairly efficient when I was on the table. If you look through the other surgeon profiles on OH, you will find that 3 hours for an RNY is relatively long time for the procedure and might be a reason to look at some other programs.

Good points Steve.
I hope I was not out of line by mentioning the Dr.'s name on this post.  I was just looking for another perspective. Sometimes my mind is like a bad neighborhood that I should just get out of!!
Thanks,

I used Dr Valin in Dec of 05' for an open bypass and have been very happy with the staff there and the surgery.  If you want to meet with Dr.Valin for all your follow up visits, it's probably not going to happen.  I see Debbie every time and am happy with her. 

I will also say that I would see other practices and figure out who has the best of what you are looking for. 

I was happy with Dr. Valin.

Thank you  Scott for your reply. I have decided not to use Dr. Valin and have chosen another surgeon. After 4 visits to the office I have yet to meet Dr. Valin. For me having minimal contact with my surgeon is not something I am not comfortable with.  I am glad that thingshave worked out well for you.

 When I first was considering having WLS I read about as many things about surgeons performing these surgeries as I could. I read a lot of good things about Dr. Valin and his staff. I went to the seminar that they held and Dr. Valin was answering questions after wards. I went up to him to ask him about lap band and RNY( I was leaning heavily on having the lap band done and told him that.  ). It was kind of funny because at first he just looked me up and down and said to me "why are you scared"? Meaning was I scared to have the RNY. I just thought that was a  weird response. 

I found their office to be efficient and knowledgeable. It was hard to get through to them sometimes but they did always get back to me. They handled all of the paper work quickly. They were great at scheduling all of the pre op appointments...got almost all of them done on the same day. 

I told them up front that I wanted Lap RNY. Not until a few days before surgery when I met Dr. Valin did he tell me that he was going to do it open. ( I was floored ). I felt sick when I heard him say that. I corrected him and said I was going to do it Lap and he said that I carried my weight to high. I was 5'8" and about 300lbs...maybe less after the diet. Anyway....I was not able to go though with the surgery because of some medical complications. I'm really glad now that I did not....I did NOT want to have it open. When I went to a seminar in Danbury they  ( the surgeons ) said they did over 99% of the RNYs Lap. Not sure why Dr Valin wouldn't/couldn't do it that way. One more small thing....it was a very busy office and maybe they didn't need the business that much but it always seemed that they threatened not to do the surgery for some reason or another. Like if when you did the protein sparring diet...I don't know..a few other times.

I read great things about Dr Valin and I know a few people who had surgery preformed by him and swear by him. He also has a lot of positive feed back on the surgeons page and he has done a ton ( no pun intended) of these procedures.