looking for friends in the upstate NY area...especially Arnot patients

Hi.  I cant seem to figure out how to search and find friends that are local around me.  I'd especially like to find people who are having their surgery at Arnot Ogden Medical and Dr. G.

Feel free to send me a message or a friend request.

Hi!   I'm not close, but in the Finger Lakes area, so near-by at least!  Dr. O'Malley in Rochester will be doing my surgery next month. 

I read your profile and almost cried!!!  Honey - you need to do more research into obesity!!!  You are not a failure or lazy, or undisciplined, or any of that!  You have a chronic, and ultimately terminal, disease called obesity!  Our genetic make up plus years and years of dieting is what gets us where we are, not lack of will power.  Every time we diet, our bodies interpret this as "starvation".  So the next time we give our bodies the slightest bit of extra food, it goes into "survival" mode and, thinking we've just come out of a famine period, converts it into fat to store up for the next time we hit a starvation period. Which is why our bodies drive us to "stray" from our diets, and why we regain everything we just lost and then some.  We are at constant war with our metabolism! This is a biological evolutionary-based survival process that worked really well for centuries and centuries, but doesn't work so well in modern times. 

Research has shown that only  5-10% of people who are severely morbidly obese are able to successfully lose and maintain even 50% of their excess weight through diet and exercise.  Those are pretty dismal statistics!  Of course it's only with obesity where the patient is made to feel like a failure and not the physicians.  The only successful way to lose and keep our weight off is through surgery. And this is why so many of the restrictive-only procedures (lapband and sleeve), have such high re-gain statistics. The surgeries with restrictive and malabsorptive components (RNY and DS) have less regain because they actually "rewire" our intestines to correct the metabolic process.  And the surgery with the highest success rate of initial and maintenance weight loss is the DS, as it has the highest levels of malabsorption (plus, people who have the DS are able to enjoy the most "normal" maintenance lifestyle once they reach goal weight).

Please research all your options before making a final decision and going under the knife!  It's a major decision that will affect you for the rest of your life!  And know that whatever you decide, you're making the right choice - WLS -  and that your weight is not your fault!

Best wishes!!! 

Laura

Hi Laura,

I'm new to the Forum ..... at least writing to it, but I to am having Dr. O'Malley at Highland Hosp.
do my revision surgery ( I Hope ). Have an appt. Fri. 12/11 for an upper endoscopy w/ Dr. Carl Weiss, which I have to have before I can meet with him .... O'Malley that is. Wish you the best on your surgery and will be watching the forums to see how you make out. Best of Luck.

Scott

Hi Scott - Nice to meet you!   What do you have now and what are you revising to?  Did O'Malley do your original surgery?  Hope to see you posting often! 

I had a VBG back in the 80's by Dr.Chung Oh in Auburn and am going to see Dr. O'Malley to get revised, hopefully to a DS.

Scott

Hey Scott - Has O'Malley's office said he can do this kind of revision? He is a brillant surgeon, but revisions can be very tricky.  I admit I'm not that familiar with a VBG to DS, but I know an RNY to DS should only be done by a very experienced revision surgeon, of which there's only a handful in the country and O'Malley's not on that short list.  But a VBG to DS might be easier since the stomach's basically still intact.

You do need to know that O'Malley is not a big advocate of the DS.  In fact he will pretty much say anything to try and talk a patient out of it and into a RNY.  He will do a DS if you can "prove" to him that you know what you're getting into and why. I basically told him I was either getting the DS or nothing, so I guess he figured he'd rather have me as a DS patient than go to another surgeon.

I haven't seen you on the DS board - are you lurking there and reading posts? It's a very supportive and knowledgeable bunch of folks, and quite a few revisions there too.

Let's stay in touch!

HI, I had my surgery at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca about a month ago.  I have been to Arnot hospital but we can be friends and take the journey together if you want!

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE HOME PAGE FOR NY STATE
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/NY/
ON TH ERIGTH HAND SIDE OF THE PAGE IS A BOX MEMBERS IN NEW YORK
CLICK ON FIND PEERS
 IT SHOWS PEOPLE IN THE STATE YOU THEN CAN CLICK ON THE TITLE OF CITY TO SORT BY CITY  HOPE THIS HELPS

Hi there,
    
      I also go to that Dr's office. I see Dr. Rahman. I probably wont have the surgery until February or March. I love this group and they do offer support groups. They meet once a month and then you can meet more people. Plus you can ask questions and learn about alot of things by people who have gone through it. I think you get the list of meetings at your4 hour intake appointment. I go to the one that meets every third Wednesday of the month at the Vestal library. Its a great group and its from 6:30 to 8:00pm. They have other locations as well.

Hang in there
 Tressa Ü

Hi, I live in Elmira, and having my RNY at Arnot Ogden MC on March 4th... I see that we are very close in our surgery dates!!! My doctor is Dr. Sadhasivam from Arnot Bariatriacs....
Please feel free to contact me at [email protected],
I am looking for someone (that is going through WLS surgery too!) that lives in or near Elmira.  Maybe we can hang out ???
Lena