In 2008  Dr. DiNick did my panni and also the vertical.  I was so glad I chose him.  His follow up is awesome.  He kept my drain tubes in for 6 wks, because he wasnt comfortable with taking them out.  He will see you weekly until all tubes are gone and I believe after it was monthly to make sure the results were good.  My out of pocket was about $800.  I do have the anchor scar, but its so worth it.  He gave me that Hour glass mid section!

Did you see his commercial for his Brookside office?  I was surprised that he opened it already.  I would rather go thru Forest View (Barix) because the nursing staff was amazing and they were sooo familiar with the procedure and what we need post op.

I heard Dr. Hing is pretty good too.  He works out of Forest View but does his followup at St. Joes in AA.  I am not sure what his out of pocket is though.  You may want to make a separate post for him.

Good Luck!

boxermom

 I finally saw a 1 at the beginning of my weight yesterday, but got a bit de-railed when we went to a friend's house and had 3 glasses of wine (didn't feel it al all!) and ate some slider foods.  I didn't see that one 1 this morning!

Back on track today.  It's a little scary how easy it is to fall back into those habits.  I didn't feel much restriction, which is why I suppose they were "slider" foods! I also felt just fine.

On the flip side, the world didn't end.  It was only one evening and I'm back on track today.

I have the same problem.  I am in Ionia, and have been told I would have to go to Lansing for a support group, or Grand Rapids...nothing near me.  I want to begin a support group for my area, but I was told I would need to be at least one year postop, and go through some training.  I have signed up for that this spring already.

I haven't had surgery yet so I'm not in the know of any Drs. for plastics yet... however... I just found out that my insurance will fully cover a panniculectomy (sp?). I researched that and found that a lot of people weren't very satisfied with it but if I only have to pay $1000 more to have the muscles tightend... I'd be willing to do that. That's good news. I saw on a post somewhere that some doctors don't do anything with the mons area. Did your surgeon? This is all a foreign language to me. I'm just trying to focus on my surgery first!

Hi Redheadjean,
I am relatively new to the site and only 5 days post op, so I am still stuck at home and having my liquid diet.  It sure has given me time to look around.  I have found some really neat things.  I have read a book written right here in the Mid-Michigan area called "The Real Skinny on Weight Loss Surgery".  It just shares the experiences of a couple of ladies who underwent a RNY and their journey along with information from other varied sources.
Then while getting bored with my shakes I found another site from a chef that underwent weight loss surgery and how he is now commited to writing a free newsletter on great food and recipes for those of us that crave breaking a flavor rut.  The link for him is:  http://www.chefdave.org.
So back to your original question, I'm trying to get more and more informed about everything I can dealing with weight loss surgery.  I studied it for years in advance and thought I was pretty well informed.  Now I realize I only scratched the surface. 
Have fun this weekend though!
God Bless,