Experiences with U of C wanted!!! Good, bad or ugly!!!

Hello All,

I am attempting to find a DS surgeon that is not ridiculously far away and my only options seem to be the U of C surgeons. I am hesitant for two reasons: another poster here on OH said that there was rumors of complications and leaks with some of their recent surgeries (not sure which type of surgery) and my second reason for being hesitant is they seem to REALLY be back logged. The first initial surgeon consult would be in late Jan for one surgeon and late Feb for another. I have also read stories (other boards)about people waiting 6 or 7 months AFTER insurance approval for surgery because of the U of C backlog or disorganization or general not giving a $%!t....SO...please share your experiences!!! Good, bad or ugly!! I tried to do a search on the board but all I keep getting is a VERY VERY few old threads about pre op insurance issues and a bunch of surgeon profiles and testimonials....So please all input us helpful!!!

Bradley, you might want to check with Randy777 as he had his surgery with Dr Vitello and I do believe at UIC.

Did you go to this portion of the IL board for the rating of UIC? http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/bariatric+hospital+ detail+University+of+Chicago+Hospitals+ctg.html

It has some posts that are a little earlier and some older.

Christine, she's asking about U OF C--University of Chicago, not UIC. Honestly, it IS confusing!

Nicolle

Bradley,

I looked back to an old post of mine, from about a year ago (so add a year to each person's description), and here are some DSers who went through the U of C program:

carmen 3823 (just had hers there in March/April)
biggeekgirl (had it a couple of years ago, just had baby a month ago)
scaryreader (had her DS a couple of years ago)
Sandra N. (and her hubby, Charlie had their DSes on the same day about 9 months ago)
Julia K. (had her DS a couple of years ago)
chickflickstyle (she and her hubby had their surgeies about 8 months ago)

All are doing well, to the best of my knowledge. I'm sure they wouldn't mind it if you PMed them, too.

A more recent one was Leslie from Wisconsin, and you can see her posting almost daily on the DS forum. She's the one who had rhabdo and is still recovering the use of her legs.

Ooh! I forgot Tonya75--she is coming up on her one-year anniversary.

You also have some options in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan:

Rossi (Peoria)
Inman (Indianapolis)
Engstrand (?, in Wisconsin)
Kemmeter (Grand Rapids, Mich)

And of course, I'd go (and I did) for the big gun, Rabkin in California.

You may want to ask your question on the DS forum, too.)

Nicolle

Of course everyone is different but I had surgery there 4yrs ago & all went well. I have heard that now there is a rather long waiting list.

Thanks to all *****sponded, especially you Nicolle. I will send out some PM's after I post this. I am sorry to come here and ask seemingly mundane questions, but this WLS game is kinda hard to play.These clinics should consider taking on additional staff because I get a LOT of voicemails when I call. Carmel St Vincents (Dr. Inman)  seems to close at approxiately 3:30pm  at least two days of the week. Thats REALLY early in my book. U of C needs about a 48hr turnaround time to get back to regular common inquiries beyond when the next orientation is. I Nicolle thank you because I had forgotten all about Peoria. I THINK I called them as well sometime last week. I got rather fixated on either Prachand or Inman, for what reasons Im not sure, probably just to avoid overwelming myself. But I am gonna shift gears towards Rossi or else I am about 3 seconds away from taking the stupid VSG and being done with it. The place that does VSG ALWAYS seems to be able to answer the phone and the waiting list doesn't seem too horrendous. I am half joking, half not when it comes to this. It's been almost 3 weeks since I started looking into this and I am NOWHERE near getting a surgical consult with a DS surgeon. 3 weeks is nothing compared to a lifetime of obesity yada yada yada, but sheesh, So far the timeline I can best imagine is that I can get into see Dr. Prachand at U of C on january 26th. over two months from now and wait god knows how long for the surgery......Bummer. Thanks so much for the input though!


Edit to add correct info

I had my DS done with Dr. Prachand back in March, my wife had RNY a year ago, again with Dr. Prachand.  I would be hard pressed to recommend anyone besides him to do my surgery.  We had some occasional problems with the office staff but that was when there was a layoff and they were short staffed.  When I went through I had less issues.  My experiences since then have been good.  The advice I would give is to call your insurance, find out what they want, especially as far as the nutritional counseling stuff, and start doing it.  If you call UC they can recommend nuts to work with if you need it, that way you have that much more done.  My timeframe was January for initial, I was approved on Feb 12, and had surgery on March 9.  I went quickly because I had started the nut counseling and knew what they wanted because of my wife and her experience.  You wouldn't regret dealing with Dr. Prachand, he is great.

Hi I had my DS with Dr. Prachand at Univ of Chicago. I will admit that you have to wait FOREVER at your appointments, so plan to take the whole day off. Yes, I’ve been frustrated with the staff because I felt like they were moving super slow, but now that I look back I’m not sure if they were moving slow or if I was very excited about starting my new life. Yeah I had a horrible time at the hospital after the surgery. I would say try to schedule your surgery for the beginning of the week because the weekend staff sucked!!!! I don’t know about how long it takes to get scheduled for surgery because I was approved in Oct 2009, but I didn’t want to have my surgery until Jan 2010. I don’t know if I could have done it any sooner, but I didn’t ask because I wanted to wait to use my FSA in the next benefit year.    Now to the good part…..I would do it all over again in a heart beat. The surgical staff was wonderful and Dr. Prachand is great and he really cares. Anytime I have a question I email the nurse or nutritionist and they get back to me really quick. They love email and will respond quicker. I had the lapband back in 2007 at a different hospital and I came to Dr. Prachand when it didn’t work well for me. He gave me another option, DS. He helped me to save my life. I can only say that all of the waiting, frustration, money I spent for parking (I hate paying for parking) was well worth it to me. I have my one year follow up next month and I cannot wait for him to see my progress. I might start crying. I’ve cried so many times because I’m so happy with my life. For once I wasn’t afraid to go for it. I’m now over 100 lbs lighter than I was this time last year. I’ve loss a person!
Good luck and you can feel free to ask me any questions.