4 Year Battle

I had surgery with Dr. Meilahn. I have no doubt that if he says he can do something, that he will do it successfully.  The follow-up however....not so much, but that's the trade up I guess.  He is an amazing surgeon and I wouldnt trust anyone else.  But Im not happy overall with the program at Temple.

Let me know if you have any other questions about there/him.

Hi Jill,
What parts of the Temple program are you not happy with? My husband had his surgery with Kowalski in 2006. I'm getting ready to have my WLS with Kowalski @ Jeanes. there are parts of Temples program that Gene was not happy with and was wondering if you and he had the same areas.
Ida

I just am not happy with the after care.  Every time I have an appointment, it's an extensive wait. Every time I've had bloodwrok, I've had to call to follow up. The 2 times that I had a complication, Dr. Meilahn was out of town and it took knowing someone personally in the Upper GI department to tell me there wass something wrong.

I'm just not happy with the program in general. But as I said, Dr. Meailahn is an amazing surgeon...and that's mostly what mattered when I was knocked out on the table.

Gene was also not happy with the after care, especially the support or lack of support group. He had his surgery at Temple Dr. Kowalski was still there at that time. Since Doc has moved up to Jeanes I know that the wait time for appointments is amazing. You go into the office and your taken in almost immediately. Gene also had some complications, the one time it was Dr. Mealihan that took care of stretching his stoma due to Kowalski being out of town.
I'm going through this at Jeanes and am hoping that the care there is different than we did experience at Temple while still going down there. So far my experience with the Jeanes office has been so much different and I'm hoping it stays that way. And like you said when knocked out on the table that is mostloy what mattered.

Thanks, Jen!  Honestly, I don't feel that I need much follow up (unless there's a problem, of course!) as I already know the drill. I  just have this darned mechanical failure! UGH!

I appreciate the information about Dr. Meilahn.  I'm going to have a second opinion appt. with Dr. Dallal then choose.  I'm also going to follow up on some of the other research advise here.

Thanks for your help!

Deb

look into Univ of Penn Hosp as well. I hear Dr. Noel Williams is just as good.

Thanks for the timely reply, Jen!  I just had a referral to him from a nurse friend of mine.  I'm going to call in the morning.

Thanks again!

Deb

Dr. Williams doesn't do revisions :(

Do you know anything about Dr. Steven Raper? Anyone?