Attention Dr. Posner patients

I have my first appointment with him tomorrow, and I'm really worried about time constraints with this surgery. I made this appointment back in March, and I'm all set to do it. I've been doing diet and exercise (damn that elliptical machine) since September and have lost at least 50lbs. (another question- those scales that measure in Kg at the docs office, what is the highest they weigh to? b/c I've been too heavy for them for the last year or two and I was wondering if I was over 400lbs. b/c I thought that was what they went up to) anyway, I'm down to around 330 now so I think the fact that I've already been dieting will save me some time, plus the only real "health problem" I have is insulin resistance and I'm 21 so I don't think I will need a ton of tests. What I'm getting to is, I need to have the operation between dec 15th and jan 17th, thats UB's winter break, and I am not missing class, so I was wondering with everyone who went to Posner's office how long of a time frame b/t the initial appt. and your surgery date. Plus, I heard from someones friend who had it done out in Rochester, they were out of the hospital the next day, this is normal with the laproscopic gastric bypass right?

Hi Jennifer. I guess there isn't a lot of Dr. Posner patients out there. I have only received one response to my e-mail from last week regarding him, but it was a positive one. I just received my packet last Wednesday, and I am in the process of filling out the questionnaire and writing a letter to him regarding my weight-loss history. That is the hard part for me since I have 20 years experience in losing and gaining 80-100 lbs. I was wondering how long it took from the time you received your packet from his office and your initial appointment. Did you have your first appointment yet? Try to up date your profile as you go so I can keep an eye on you and how you are doing. E-mail any time. Take care and God Bless you. -Diana-

Well I just went thru my files and dug out all my paperwork from his office, My primary care physician sent out the initial referral to him on 11/03/03 (and it expired 5/03/03) haha, so my appointment is tomorrow, 11/10/04, and I have an expired referral, but I called and I think it's ok. So I must have made my first call to his office around last November then, (which is when they sent me the packet), and they said they would call me back after Posner had read my info packet and the letter I wrote. They finally called me back, I think in March or April, and scheduled my first appointment for Nov. 10th........ Yeah so the wait period is quite a long time, but I hear once you finally get past the first appointment things can speed up, I hope. I will have more info tomorrow. It's good that you were able to get in with him, I read on here that he isn't taking new patients now.

Wow I cannot believe how long you have waited. That is insane. I received my packet a few weeks ago and I am still waiting for my PCP to get me the documents that Dr.Posner is requesting. Gosh at this rate I will be lucky to see him in 2005. Boy is this disheartening!!!!!! Best of luck to you both!!! DonnaMarie

From what I have heard Dr. Posner is overwhelmingly busy with patients wanting this surgery and since he is the ONLY doctor in the area that Independent Health is approving right now the wait is very long. I am hoping that IH will start approving other surgeons soon. I know there are at least two that are waiting for IH to do site visits and approve them. It all comes down to money...they don't want to pay the cost of the surgeries so they are stalling on approving other doctors. Maybe all IH patients awaiting surgery need to get together and start pressuring IH...we are paying for insurance coverage yet we can't get the surgery because they won't cover anyone but Dr. Posner and his associate at this time....something is definitely WRONG with this picture!

Yep - it's all about the money and stuff in the end. I have not heard any bad things about Posner either. He and Caruana are both just back logged to the hilt because they are the only local surgeons. It will be time sell spent though. [wavvvvvvvves to Joan ~ Hi there neighbor lady!] The reason for the 3 day hospital stay is to make sure you don't "spring a leak" in the tiny tummy. With a one day stay, you *will* be going home with the drainage thingies stil attached, I imagine. I felt good enough to go home. Glad I waited though - Yall have a good day!

well I just got back, Posner is very nice- probably the best doc I've seen thus far, I also saw Becky the NP she was cool too. At first he was like, well I don't like to do surgery on people in their 20s b/c they are not "mentally mature", but then he said that the NP told him I was smart and did my homework and what not, she got a good "vibe" from me (plus they both liked my pcp). And then he basically gave me the whole "you can die" speech that scares the hell out of everyone. So now I've just got to get a psych eval, records sent from my endocrinologist, and a cardiac eval from my pcp, read south beach, and then one more appointment asap for me and I'm basically ready to go, so hopefully in a month or so I will get it......