overwhelmed and loving it!!!

I had a horrible day at work *but* I had a great day anyway.  I talked to Dr. Hoddinott's office today and found out that 1) He is accepting new patients!!! 2) He takes my insurance and 3) according to his nurse his preferred surgery is the DS!!! 4) my insurance requires 6 consecutive months of Dr monitored dieting (already had that ball rolling before I called Dr Hoddinott's office)

So this brings my next set of questions:
1: Has anyone heard of Dr. Hoddinott?  Currently he is located in Ocala, FL but is my understanding he used to have a practice in PA.
2: Is there a thread of 'standard' questions to make sure to ask the Dr during the first meeting?
3: Is there a thread/list of 'odd ball' questions that I might not think of asking?
4: I've looked here and haven't found much information about Dr Hoddinott, any suggestions on where/how to find more information about him?

Thank you all so much all the help!!!

In all of the time I have been posting here I have never seen a Hoddinott DS patient.  As to finding information about him -- there are the Florida Medical Licencing boards but since he used to practice in Pa that is the place I would look first. 

 Hi Fluxie,

I have not seen any active DS posters who list Hoddinott as their surgeon. I have been able to find the profiles of two patients who apparently had a DS with Dr. Hoddinott. Here is the first: www.obesityhelp.com/member/pat_hallam/ (looks like she had her DS with him back in 2002) and here is the second: secure.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/members/profile.php (looks like she had her DS with him in 2003).

If I were in your shoes, I would be concerned about why Hoddinott is not known as a DS surgeon around these parts, and why he is not on the vetted surgeons lists. Particularly if he has been doing the procedure since 2002. 

Here is an example of why it is SO important to go with a vetted surgeon:
 www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/4076530/Just-had-Surgery-Done -mixed-feelings-please-help/
That poor woman went in for a DS and woke up with an RNY. She went with a surgeon no one here has heard of as performing the DS, and he ran into an issue and seemed to say "oh, well!" and gave her the RNY.

I guess it could be possible that Dr. Hoddinott is actually quite experienced with the DS and has somehow managed to slip under the radar, but it would surprise me very much. 

In terms of questions to ask, there's a great list here: www.dsfacts.com/Questions-To-Ask-Your-Surgeon.html. Not that you are going to want to ask all those questions, but it's a good list to use as a starting point for what is important to you.

Jenna

a former coworker of mine had a rny with Dr H and was very happy,  I dont believe he was doing them at that time, this was 05,  dr was very well referenced then.

First, my surgeon is also not known around here as a vetted DS surgeon.  He has done hundreds of them, but is known as a vascular surgeon/family practitioner.  I would research him and be sure he truly does the DS, and maybe even go so far as having him draw you a diagram of what he does during the surgery.  I would also ask how many times he has not been able to do a full switch once the surgery was started. 

There is a list of questions to ask floating around here somewhere, I'm just not sure where it is.  Hopefully someone else will be able to help you.  Best of luck to you!

Here is the press release from the local hospital when Dr Hoddinott joined the facility.  The other Dr that Hoddinot works with is Dr Overcash and the hospital is a Bariatric Center of Excellence.

I can't tell you all how much I appreciate the information I'm getting!!! So glad I found this site and forum!!!

What you have to ask yourself is why do all of the Florida DSers travel hundreds even thousands of miles to have the DS?

Press releases are written by PR flacks. I know because I have written hundreds.

OH claims they do NOT do this, but most of us believe they censor any negative comments about surgeons, especially those who advertise here. You would be hard-pressed to find any negative comments about most of the surgeons on OH. You may want to join a few of the Yahoo groups about the DS and ask about your potential doc there. Someone may feel safer posting honest comments there about any of the DS docs.

The only thing that comes to mind about your doc's practice are some vague recollections of truly crappy comments here and on the other DS message boards about his partner, Overcash. Something about lawsuits in his old state. Maybe a search will turn them up. Here's one that I found easily. You may want to email her:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/mwhitney/

For other docs, check out the list at www.dsfacts.com.

Good luck to you!

Nicolle

I was only my surgeon's twelfth DS.   This made me a little nervous, but he told me he'd never perform a surgery on me that he wouldn't do on his own sister, and I had to place my faith in him.   He'd done hundreds of RNY's before me, and his pre-bariatric abdominal surgery experience was extensive.   Now, 3.5 years later, he's considered one of the "vetted" DS surgeons around here, and is very committed to the surgery and all of his post-ops are doing incredibly well.     I would make sure that you question closely his DS experience and why he had a gap in performing them.   My thoughts are that if his former practice in general did not support the DS, and perhaps this one does.    Perhaps he needed time to develop a more comprehensive post-up program to support a DS post-op.  Lots of reasons.  It's up to you to find them out!

Hoddinott is reported to have had some bad outcomes in PA. He relocated quite suddenly. His reputation is questionable. I wouldn't use him for anything.

I'm sure the folks with real information will be available via PM.