Surgery with Duke WLSC??

Has anyone here had surgery with Duke Weight Loss Surgery Center?? The Dr's there are Dr. DeMaria, Dr. Pryor and Dr. Pointer(sp). I am wondering what Dr you had and if you liked them, if you had a good experience with Duke, etc.?? I am going through the process for RNY with them right now and don't know if I should choose a certain surgeon or just go with whoever is next in the rotation. Thanks for any help! Angie

I had surgery with Dr. Pryor on March 14th, 2007...She was great...they are all great in fact because I had the opportunity to met all of them....Dr. Pryor is sweet but she's not much of a talker...I loved Duke WLSC! I really had a great experience wth them.

Hi Angie, I had RNY surgery with Dr. Pryor in April 2006. I started out at 460lbs and I now weigh 224lbs. She is a very good surgeon as well as Dr. P. and Dr. DeMaria. You really can't pick a bad one. Duke's program has been great for me. I'm sure they will take good care of you but it does require a lot of testing and quite a bit of patience along the way. If you follow their rules and the program you'll do fine and be very successful. Good Luck, Tim

Angie, I had a better experience with Dr Mitchell in Pinehurst! I live in Durham about 10 minutes away from the Duke Center. For me the experiece with the front office was horrible. I found the insurance person to be rude and unhelpful. My insurance was Aetna and it was difficult. I spent almost $800 dollars there on the psychiatrist, other tests and the application fee. I never felt I got good care from that office. I ended up shopping around and I found Dr. Mitchell and the Baratric Center at Pinehurst. It is 90 minutes from Durham but it was worth it. I am just sharing my experience. I hope that your experience will be better. My surgery experiece was comforting, healing and I felt so taken care of. The insurance office was on top of everything and I felt like I was taken care of and I did not feel like I was floundering with this institution. Good luck to you. I do go to Duke hospital to see an endocronologists and it is actually in the same building. I find that Duke hospital is terrific, for me it was just that center. Again this was my experience. Good luck on this terrific big step that you are making in your life! Antoinette

Angie - My surgery is scheduled for June 5th, so I can't give you input on the surgery itself. I went to "several" of the Friday Information Seminars DukeWLS had. Of course, I only got the booklet, etc. the first time. This allowed me to meet a number of the staff members, not just the Dr.s, but the RNP's, Nutritionist, Psych, Front office folks; I also attended their support groups ... the one DukeWLS holds at Durham Regional that is generally informational instead of social and a local group of folks who have had surgery that is more socially interactive. I have to say that I have found all of the staff to be professional, curtious, and helpful. Sometimes I'd call several times a day because I was trying to clarify some insurance issues. They were always willing to talk with me, listen to my concerns, would let me know if they had an answer or if they needed to go get an answer. I expect that the rest of my experience will continue as smoothly. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other questions or concerns. Regards,

Barbara, I didn't know that you had a surgery date!!! That is so awesome! Congratulations!!! How are you feeling about it these days?

Angie: I had surgery with Dr. Portenier in March. I actually moved to south carolina two months before the surgery but was so confident with my decision to chose Duke that I drive four hours every time I have an appointment rather than switch WLS programs. I can't say enough about Dr. Portenier and the entire team. Please see my profile and surgeon comments for more...You have definatly made a good choice though. If you have any specific questions I would be glad to answer them either here or on the duke forum, my screename there is "bigmike" but I might need to change that soon!