Maryland or Michigan?? Reccomendations please...

Good evening all!

I have been researching WLS for years now and this is my first post.  I am finally at a point in my life where I feel I am ready.  I have read over DS Facts so much that I can pretty much recite it.  I have done my research and am coming up with a couple questions that I need opinions from experienced DSer's.  I am currenly living in Maryland, near DC but have a home in Michigan;  this is important because there is a well known Dr in Grand Rapids that I was considering, Paul Kemmeter, MD, FACS *.

I have an appointment in Baltimore with Dr. Nguyen, he has notoriaty for developing and mastering laproscopic techniques.  I haven't seen really any reviews on him though, even though he has been practicing bariatrics for many years.  I figured this would be a start.

There is also a Dr. in VA that is quite well known that I was considering, Hazem A. Elariny, MD, PhD, FACS *, but I don't understand the $2000 cash fee not coverable by insurance that is mentioned on his website.  My insurance will cover this procedure and I have an out of pocket maximum of $2000.  Does anyone know if I can submit that fee to count toward my out of pocket??

Can anyone advise if they have worked with Dr. Nguyen or the others and why you selected the doctor you did?

Thank you so much in advance!

Heather

I can say, that Grand Health Partners, where Dr. Kemmeter works, is wonderful. I have gone there since my first surgery in 2007..the VSG. I recently had the second stage done to complete the DS.
I could not be happier with the services provided by the entire staff.

Before choosing GHP, i went to several different seminars in Michigan... I found them all lacking in something...

I am grateful for the life changing procedure that I was able to have. I am looking forward to so much in my life...I wish you well in all of your endevours...

Thank you for your feedback!  I know if I were actively living in Michigan, I would go there without hesitation.  Honestly, the only thing preventing me is that I haven't been able to make it to one of their seminars during my trips "home".  I know that recovering will be fine in Michigan, it's just difficult getting the timing together for the pre stuff.

How many visits to the office did you have prior to your surgery and how far in between were they? 

Pre-op, there is about 4 or 5 visits. I had to see the physician assistant, then the doctor, then once approved, the nut, behaviorist, and the physical trainer...follow up is 2 week, 6 week, and the 3,6,12 month check ups...

I was lucky, the out of pocket for my original surgery was only about $250. This time it would have been $500 but didn't have to go to all of the nutritional, physical trainer, or the behaviorist because I had already been through it all before....so i only had to pay $125 this time around :)

The 2 week pre op diet and post op 2 week diet isnt bad, there are lots of products to choose from..you have to add in the cost of food to your expenses. I think for the month...i paid about $200. This is mandatory...the good thing...its not all liquid..you get to eat 6 times a day...so never felt too hungry...

I live in  Northwestern Indiana and could have chosen to go to either Chicago, Indianapolis, or Grand Rapids for surgery.  I have chosen Dr. Kemmeter in Grand Rapids.  He is very personable and totally believes in putting patient safety 1st.  Also, they are really great at post-op follow up care and understand the needs a post-oper has.  Dr. Kemmeter's practice has fees that equal $1000 for services not covered by insurance, but if you go to one of their seminars, there is a $250.00 coupon that you can use to bring the out of pocket costs down to $750.  Also, Dr. Kemmeter requires that you follow a high protein diet for 2 weeks before your surgery as well as an all liquid diet for 2 weeks after your surgery.  They are particular on what products you use, so they have you buy them there at their onsite store.  The parts of your pre-op requirements - appointment with their bariatric dr, ekg, appt with Dr. Kemmeter, etc, will be billed to your insurance so it will go toward your 2k deductible.  Also, the $750.0 can be paid out - $50.00 at the 1st appt, $200.00 for the 2nd appt, and $500.00 due at the final pre-op appt.  If you have co-pays for doctor appointments, you will pay those on top of the fee due at each appointment.  Really, they make it easy to pay it all out.  And they are so great to work with.

If you are really interested in working with Dr. Kemmeter, I would call the office and ask when/where the next seminar is that Dr. Kemmeter will be speaking at.  Good luck!!

I would stay away from Johns Hopkins they will try to talk you into having an RNY, sleeve or a 2 part DS. Dr Elariny is an awesome surgeon and has a good support network here but if your insurance will cover Dr K in Michigan, I would have him do the surgery and then come to Dr Elariny's support group. If you live here in NOVA and have trouble, you go to INOVA Fairfax or Fair Oaks hospital. Dr Elariny has hospital rights at those 2 and the ER staff are trained to handle WLS patients. Win-win! :)

--gina

Since you've been reading on dsfacts.com, I would hope you would see that Dr. Nguyen isn't mentioned as a DS surgeon. In over 6 years of reading on this website and others, I have never once seen him as anyone's DS surgeon. He may be excellent at whatever he does, but it isn't the DS.
     You won't go wrong with either Dr. Kemmeter or Dr. Elariny.

Larra

Thank you all for the great feedback.  This is exactly what I was looking for.  Regarding Dr. Nguyen not being listed on DS Facts, this is true, but doing additional research lead me to him.  I have since found a few reviews on the Maryland board, but he does infact do the DS in 2 parts.  I think the idea of Dr. K and using Dr. E's support group might be the direction I'll try.

If anyone else has additional info, I'd love to hear it.  I have nobody to bounce ideas around with.  My SO is so supportive I get "whatever you think is best, I'll support you" ... it's nice, but a little frustrating. ;)

There is occasionally a medical justification for doing the DS in two parts, but this is uncommon. I would be very worried about getting the second part done, either because the surgeon may decide you've done "well enough" with just the sleeve, or because your insurance won't pay for a second wls, esp if you no longer meet the NIH criteria for wls. You could be left with results that are not what you wanted.
    In addition, there seems to be a benefit to having both the restriction and the malabsorption at the same time, and you would lose this benefit. 
    And again, even after almost 7 years around here, I haven't heard of Dr. Nguyen doing the DS in 1, 2 or 10 parts. If he's doing it, it can't be very often. 

Larra
    

 Hi,
I'm working with Dr Kemmeter's office now. I had to watch my semiar on line they sent me a link and password. (no coupon for me I guess) They seem to be a very busy office but after playing phone tag for about a week I finally got to talk to them. They have all been great about working the entire surgery out long distance, between that and the insurance it hasnt been an easy process but they seem very use to it. Best of luck choosing.

Trish