He canceled another one!

Yeah, and he isn't really a scary fella ... just "serious".  He's the same way with the nurses.  Trust me, if he says we are to do something ... we believe he means it.  lol

I agree Nancy. It's a way for a doctor, who is putting their license on the line, to see just how dedicated a patient is to having surgery and it being long-term successful.  If somebody can't hang in there for 2, 3,4 weeks post-op or lose what the (professional) doctor says needs losing to be a SAFE surgery, I wouldn't blame him/her either. There are many who see WLS as a "quick fix," and we know that just isn't so.  My doc (MacDonald) told me flat out up front that he has closed folks up on the table w/out doing the procedure because it was obvious they didn't follow his orders to low carb it and clean/shrink their liver and it wasn't safe to operate and couldn't safely get to the stomach area to do the bypass.  That put the Fear of God in me right then and there!  Patients have to take some responsibility, no matter how tough it is.

You're right ... and it's a proven fact that those who are disciplined and follow "the rules" don't tend to have some of the complications that are definitely avoidable.  Not all complications are avoidable, of course, and have nothing to do with patient discipline or surgeon's skills.  But when they're taking the huge risk of operating on us to begin with, the least we can do is everything they tell us that's in our best interest.

I totally agree. The only puzzling piece for me, is do the patients not know they gained at their preop when they do it all, or is this gain after preop at the hospital.  I know Dr B and P mean business.  Your right that you are advertising for them with your outcome, good, bad or ugly.  Some risks should not be taken. I think because we recovery quickly and have magic hands working on us it's invincilble, but it's still major surgery. The nurses I had at NE hated him when I was there.  I love the new suits  they opened last year.