Hi Shelley, I do not know much more about Dr. Cirangle that Pat posted here. However, I do know about Dr Fowler and Castle's program. I choose the Castle program for me because my being obese is is a two fold problem. One half is overeating. I felt the band was a tool to help me with this. The other half is emotional. I choose Castle because of their extensive after care program and follow up services. I dont want to get banded and then be left on my own without structured follow up. After much prayer, I was lead to the Castle program and Dr Fowler. I need to correct something that Pat said. No, dr Fowler does not only do the lap band. He also performs the RNY. However, he does all his procedures laproscopically. As a nurse, I was aware of what a huge advantage this is. Some people may point to the newness of the program, and the low numbers of procedures that Dr Fowler has performed in comparision to Dr Cirangel. However, while the bariatric numbers are low, he assured me that he does mostly all of his other general surgery via laproscope, making him very confident in this type of procedure. Unfortunately, for medical reasons, I will not be having the procedure anytime soon. I am very, tearfully, disappointed. However, I did all the presurgical consults and am impressed with everyone involved, Dr laVette (psyche), Susan (PT/Exsercize) and Mary (nutritionalist). If you want to know any more, I encourage you to call the coordinator, Anna, as she will answer all your questions and send you a packet as well. Also, Dr fowler has an information meeting once a month which is very informative, and Anna can give you the date. I wish you the best in your search. Feel free to contact me with any questions etc. Darla

Hi Shelley!!! Welcome to the Hawaii Board!!!! It's nice to see more people posting. It's been awfully quiet recently. I had lap rny by Dr. Cirangle on January 10, 2005 at Pali Momi Hospital in Aiea. He is an awesome surgeon and I truly feel one of the best in his field. He also has 2 other doctors in his office, Dr. Jossart and Dr. Feng. I see him about every 3 months for followup visits at Pali Momi. He is very knowledgeable and really cares about his patients individual issues. Although he is not here he is always available 24/7 by his personal cell phone. I find that awesome, since in the beginning I did have to call him with some questions. I know that everyone is different, but I have not had any problems after my surgery. He is very straight forward and explains exactly what his program is and what you need to do to make this new tool successful. He also has monthly support group meetings at Pali Momi Hospital. I can highly recommend him to you. I do know that recently he has been having his Hawaii patients fly to San Francisco for their surgery, instead of performing it here in Hawaii. He told me that the plane fare and hotel stay is part of his fee. I noticed that you live in Kailua, I live in Kaneohe. If you are interested, maybe we could get together. Please let me know. I don't know much about Dr. Fowler, but I do know that he only does the lap band method. If given the choice I would not think twice about it and go with Dr. Cirangle. Just to let you know, I started at 261 pounds and currently weigh 130 pounds. I'm only 5 feet tall and feel that I should lose another 10-15 pounds, but Dr. Cirangle told me that this may just be where my body feels comfortable. I started out with high blood pressure, diabetes, joint problems, high cholestrol, sleep apnea and also had a BMI of 51. I currently no longer have any of these issues except for high blood pressure which Dr. Cirangle told me is most likely related to my gene makeup, since both of my parents had high blood pressure. I'm sorry if I was so long winded, but as you can tell, I feel so fortunate that I had Dr. Cirangle perform my surgery. Please let me know if you would like more information! E-mail me, or we could get together. If you like I will e-mail my phone number to you and we can talk. Have a great week!!! I look forward to hearing from you!! Hugs and aloha, Pat

Lol...my scale was off (but I dunno why..it's digital) but according to the doctors scale it was only 15 pounds I was so sad...lol...but I'm happy with 15 pounds. Are you going to the support group meeting tonight?

Sorry I can't help you, I had my surgery through Dr. Murayama at Queens. But I wanted to welcome you to the "quiet" Hawaii board.

19 pounds down since the 13th!!!