So what doctor do you pick if you are self pay???

Hi Everyone,

I know for so many of you insurance is not going to pay for your WLS.  I have been down the road, and when my doctor said they will not pay for you to have surgery and I was 100 pounds overweight--I thought to myself are they nuts when they said I wasn't fat enough--what an awful thing to tell a fat person.

So I had to do some thinking.   I went back and forth about should I have weight loss surgery or just try to diet again.  I thought I had failed at so many other diets, what made me think this was going to work?  I was lucky enough that a good friends of mine during the summer who had weight loss surgery and when I saw her, I asked her like I always asked people who had lost weight--what are you doing?  She told me and at first I didn't say much--I know I was in shock--go to Mexico and let them cut you open.  Then I started asking her questions--she knew I was interested by what I was asking.  She gave me her doctors information.  I did a lot of my own research about WLS and where I could go, and I knew then this was going to be my answer--I knew where I wanted to have my surgery.

I refused to bargain shop for the best price for WLS--there was a lot of places that had lower prices for WLS.  I knew that wasn't the way to find the right doctor.  So many people look for the best price--SO WRONG. You NEVER want to do that when it comes to your health. 

Dr. Aceves was the name I came up with over and over and that is who my friend had gone to.  I asked a million question from the patients that had already gone to Dr. Aceves about their results and what kind of surgery did they have the lapband or the sleeve.  It didn't take me long at all to figure out the the sleeve was the way to go.

I can't express to you enough how wonderful my experience was going to Mexicali, Mexico in Oct 2008 and having Dr. Aceves do my surgery.  He is so highly thought of in the US as the Premier weight loss surgeon.  He has so many wonderful qualities when it comes to the care he gives his patients. His staff are all fabulous and take excellent care of you.  If you ask any of his patients what they thought about their experience at his hospital they will all tell you the same.

So, if you are a self pay patient and you want the best for yourself, please consider giving yourself the gift a a healthy, and better life.  He told me once, "I only gave you the tool Suzanne, you took the tool and made your own success."  He is right I did all the hard work and lost 105 pounds, but his skill got me going on the right road.  He is my hero and I will always be grateful for his help.

I want to be able to answer and help you with questions that you might have about my journey, how I did things, what worked and didn't work for me.  So ask away.

Take care,

Thats so great to read.  I know a lot of people on here who went to him and they all say the same thing you said,  they love him  :o) Jeani

I wholeheartedly agree!

 My experience was second to none.Dr Aceves is the man!!!!!!


Biggie B

Fantastic experience with Dr, Aceves.  Would do it again.  What a talented doctor.

Pattie

Totally agree.  Two things that Aceves had going for him, compared to other surgeons in Mexico, that I liked:

Outcomes - long experience in doing successful sleeves, and a low complication rate.  Before I went, I couldn't find any info online about any Aceves patients who developed a leak.  (Since then, I have read about one person who did.) 

Venue - Aceves operates out of a hospital, whereas some surgeons work out of a clinic and have their patients recover in a hotel.  This is major surgery; if anything DOES go south, a hospital is equipped with lifesaving tools and resources.

Aceves was not the lowest price, but that was never a consideration for me - I was having WLS for my health, why on earth would I put health considerations second over price when choosing a surgeon?

That's great that, for lack of a better word, Dr. Aceves's patients advertise (a few are probably asked to spread the word) for him. 

However, I was cash pay and love Dr. Terry Scarborough in Houston, TX.  No liquid diet before surgery required.  He is flexible on minimum starting weight.  A top doc in the country.  A Center of Excellence surgeon. You can Google "Center of Excellence" for standards.  Offers affordable insurance for any complications after surgery.  His complication rate is nearly zero / none.  Zero mortality.

A different doctor, Dr. Marvin in Houston, TX, only charges $11,000 for EVERYTHING, including pre-op and follow-up visits and uses the same luxurious hospital, University General Hospital (UGH).  Google it.  :-)  Ask every doc for mortality and complication rates.  Hopefully, they will fully disclose all stats instead of a selected number of surgeries.  5 out of 5 successful surgeries is a 100% success rate, even if you actually did 10.  ;)

I've never been asked to say anything about Dr. Aceves here or any other forum. I tell people because I am motivated to share what a good experience I had with him and his team and the hospital he uses. He also does not have a liquid diet before surgery. Dr. Aceves charges NOTHING for complications post-op,  and if you can get back to see him for follow-up, the only charges are for actual tests and not his time.

I think adding in your surgeon's name as a consideration for those who are self (cash) pay could have been done without the backhanded insult to Dr. Aceves and his patients. There are a lot of great surgeons in the US who will work with self (cash) pay patients, but there's no need to insinuate that other doctors' patients are simply shilling for them.

I didn't "insinuate" anything. I clearly and unequivocally said patients are probably asked to share, advertise, publicize, or whatever you want to call it, their experience or testimonial. But maybe not. It is not an insult to wonder and express my thought that some of Dr. Aceves's patients were asked to share a testimony about him. A lot of patients of many doctors are. And because you were not, does not rule out that others were. I don't know. That's not an insult.

You Tube videos are posted by doctors and patients of doctors by the doctor's offices worldwide. The word "advertise" means to praise a service or product in a public medium and hope that others will try it. Doesn't necessary mean you are paid to advertise or make a public announcement about him. But could be.

No need to be insulted or bitter. :) And that's my final thoughts on this matter.

I think that what happens is that patients who have a great experience want to share it with others, especially with wls because as a community I think we like to help each other here. (I truly love OH and the people I meet here are so awesome and helpful and can help you keep going even when things get tough).

So If someone has a great experience/no complications/great results they want others to get that same great experience with their surgery. From what I have seen there are many many satisfied Aceves patients. I chose my dr because of the good reviews, personal accounts from people I talked to and the research I did on him. I feel confident in my choice but since I am still pre-op I am waiting to see how everything goes before posting any reviews of him.

On the flip side people still post about bad experiences too and those are equally as helpful (usually).

I don't think most of us are getting anything for praising our surgeons (I know I am not lol) . I like that this community does provide a lot of feedback  both good and bad. There does generally tend to be lots of happy self-pay aceves patients though and maybe they are just more active (vocal) than others.