DS Surgeon for Follow-up

I have a friend who had DS surgery with Dr. David Greenbaum in NJ, but she lives in RI and is in desperate need bariatric follow-up near her.  I would venture to say that she could travel a couple hours from her home.  Greenbaum is simply too far for her. 

She is currently underweight and has not been terribly vitamin compliant and as such is in rather a desperate situation.  Please, no flaming. What's done is done. I am looking to help her find someone near her who can manage her.  

Any recommendations for a doctor?  It could even be one who isn't necessarily a Bariatric physician, but even a doctor who knows about the DS and understands the whole vitamin thing.

Maddie 

Surgeons don't know anything about vitamins. If you depend on them for your vitamin advice you're screwed. Have your friend actually take an interest in her health and study up on these boards and others to get advice from people who've been there and done that. Once she has some knowledge then find a primary doc who will order the tests necessary and then she can tweak her vites accordingly. 

I'm being 100% honest - surgeon, bariatric or not, is not going to do much for her except maybe reverse the DS. She needs to care enough about herself to actually take vitamins and Flintstones or a multi is not going to cut it. I take 20-25 vitamins a day.

I wholeheartedly agree, but at this point I believe she see the error of her ways and wants help.  I'd rather not push someone off the cliff when they are looking for help to be pulled back up.  

I am interested in knowing what vitamins you take...I am having DS on May 10, 2016.  I am fully committed to taking supplements forever and I would love your input.

I second the suggestion that the DS surgeon can offer no better than a reversal, and if your friend isn't responsible enough to care for herself, then perhaps it's a viable answer for her. I also agree that her PCP can help coordinate bloodwork and troubleshoot plans of attack.  There are curious PCP's out there that are willing to take it on, even if they haven't worked with DS.  As long as they understand the anatomy and how it all works together.

At this point a reversal is out of question because her health is so compromised.  While I am fairly sure that some of her medical issues are a direct result of her non compliance, some of her health issues may be either exacerbated by her non compliance or not.  It's hard to know. I'm not a physician.  

I can only offer what I have been told by her regarding followup management on her end.  I believe that there may be insurance difficulties regarding who she can or cannot see.  I only offer the facts as I received them.

In truth, I want to shake her and yell at her, but she is the one living with the consequences of her noncompliance.  Yelling and lecturing are counter to what she needs which at this point is direction and information in as much as providing her with links and information where to get her vitamins and what kind she should be taking.  My sincere hope is that she will take the advice and will follow through and begin to be compliant.  You can lead a horse to water............

Maddie

Surgeons are cutters and few have any great knowledge of our needs postop.

Your friend needs to get on a supplement regime immediately while looking for a decent PCP willing to run labs and help her regain her health.

One other thing. Have her immediately go to Vitalady.com and start following her DS vitamin regimen. It is a great place to start raising her levels until she gets a doc and blood work and can start tailoring her vitamins. At this point if she hasn't been taking them it will almost be like a new post op - she'll need to take vitamins for a couple of regular blood draws to see which way her numbers are heading and adjust accordingly. Just my .02

I gave her the link to VitaLady's vitamin schedule.  

Unfortunately her not taking supplements has impacted her heath in a very negative way.  Yelling at her and lecturing her is what I really want to do, but the logical side of me says she knows what she has done because she is having to live with the consequences.  Why yell.  All I can do is encourage her and try to help her as best as I can.  My fervent hope is that she will take to heart all the advice she has been given and use it and get her vitamin regime in order and to get her weight up.  

You can ask Dr. G if he would do a phone consultation. Talk with him, find out all the test he needs to evaluate her. Have her PCP order them and send the results to Dr. G. She may not be able to get there, but he is a valuable resource.