Recent Dr. Marchesini or Dr. Rabkin experiences?

I am in love with these two surgeons after talking to their offices and reading a few (very old) posts.

I am sleeved, but due to my recent onset of crippling osteoarthritis, I am unable to exercise, and not near goal, so am getting my second half done, the switch.

I'm leaning towards Marchesini because I am self-pay, and I've already spoken with him directly a few times this weekend as well as reviewed all hs documents and he is somewhat affordable and very reputable.

Dr. Rabkini will be over $30k. That's about 2x more than I can afford, but he's in San Francisco where I will be living in a few weeks and I love his office and his support system and meetings.
Because I've been living abroad for a few years, I do not have American insurance, so I think if I did choose him I would have to wait about 5 or 6 more months to be able to afford the full self-pay. ugh.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out Friday morning, you are some amazing and informative cuties! Since then I've got the ball rolling bigtime, and was able to narrow the dsfacts.com list down a bit more based on much of the info I received here.
It's weird, one of my sleeve sisters popped on THE SAME DAY that I came back online and wow, we really have similar stories and was thinking to get resleeved. I reminded her about the DS (of course we already knew about it).

Can anyone link me to ANY surgury experiences / hospital experiences with Dr. Joao Marchesini  or Dr. John Rabkini experiences? (besides those few listed under the official OH Doctor's listings?) Or do you have any of your own?

goofy happy face for your time:


and possibly OT, anyone have experience with financing with any of these Medical Loan companies? I'll be financing about 5-8K of it. Or streetwalkin', haven't decided which, lol.

oops my sleeve was done by Dr. Rodriguez, not Dr. Acevez. Milling through the settings now to figure out where to change that... sorry for the confusion!

Merci encore!

You can't go wrong with either.  They are superior in every way.  If you have any questions, just ask

yay :) 
How long did you have to stay in the hospital and in brazil total?
and also, do you have a link to your experience there? i would love to read your story!

I spent 4 days in the hospital.  My procedure was open.  My care was exceptional.  No post describing experience, sorry, but I will answer any question as candidly as i can.  edited to add:
I stayed in Brazil for 3 weeks.

If it helps you to make your decision, I'm pretty sure you could arrange with Rabkin to do your follow up, and with only one exception that I know of (due to violation of confidentiality of the meetings), ANYONE can attend his support group meetings in SF or anywhere else - he pays for the rooms and opens the meetings to patients of ANY surgeon.

 Dr. Marchesini is pretty awesome, but the expenses with him are looking like they're about to run $20K and be far from home, so right now Dr. Rabikin is still in the running :)

It's really awesome to know that he opens his doors to everyone, thanks!

You also might want to check out Dr. Keshishian's prices. He's in Glendale.

Dr Rabkin was my surgeon and i love him and his staff. I must say that I have heard equally great things about Dr Marchesini and would have no qualms going to Brasil for surgery. If you are moving to the SF bay area, please come to one of Dr Rabkins support group meetings. Everyone is always welcomed. I still attend whenever I can. Good luck.

 i'll definately stop in to one of those meetings as soon as I land in the Bay Area. Ernesto said they're every other Wednesdays... and I have a bajillion questions. Most of which can be answered here, but every other surgery type I've met lots of ppl that had it. I've never met a DSer so being in a roomful should be quite encouraging!
Thanks Gail, hope to run into you one day soon :)

No, the "Big Meeting" with Rabkin in attendence is every second Wednesday of the month at St. Mary's Hospital cafeteria, from 6-8 PM.  From 6-7, Rabkin does a small group presentation for potential new patients - you MUST go to that.  Then everyone gets together for the second hour (the others have a separate meeting for the first hour).

There are other meetings with different formats.  I run (more or less) the San Jose DS meeting for Rabkin - it is the third Wednesday of every month at the Hoover Middle School auditorium across the street from the Rosicrucian Museum, also 6-8 PM.

Both meetings are potluck - because we EAT REAL FOOD, and like to show potential new patients how they can eat with the DS.