traving for surgery

Has anyone travled out of town for surgery? I live in knoxville and if i can i would go to nashville for the surgery because i can not afford the 3 thousand dollars the two drs here in town charge. Right now that is all that is really standing in my way. so if i was to go Nashville i wonder who would do a follow up for me would i have to travel to nash each time? Or has anyone had a good dr close to knoxville that does not require the 3000.00 that dr boyce does? thanks for any help Michelle

Yes, you pretty much will have to come to Nashville for follow ups too! I know that sounds kind of out of the way but most surgeons will not second guess a fellow surgeon's work. Here in Nashville you have several opportunities to get the WLS. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Centennial Medical Center, Southern Hills Medical Center and Baptist Hospital. Vanderbilt will require you to use their clinic for test purposes but that is nice because they know exactly what you will need and can arrange everything pretty much turnkey for you. Vanderbilt and Centennial require you to use their psychologist - which happens to be pretty much the same person. And both require you to attend their dietician/nutritionist sessions. I am not sure about the others. The pre-payment you doctor in Knoxvegas is requiring does not sound unreasonable when you look at the trouble you will be placing yourself in by having to come to Nashville for every little thing. Suggest you negotiate your payment with the surgeon in Knoxville.

I am traveling aproximately 3 hrs to have surgery. I live in Chattanooga but the closest surgeon I could find that would A take me with the BMI I have and B accept my insurance is in Clarksville. For the most part I will be having to travel to Clarksville several times during the first yr after surgery for those appointments. Im sure though that after the inital yr or even possibly before then it would be possible to see another surgeon that is more local. I mean most ppl even if they did have their surgery done local are not going to spend the rest of their lives in the same place so it would make sense to have to be able to find a surgeon to take you on after the inital post op appointments that are required.

One more thing: make sure your surgeon knows or is provided the name and address of your primary care physician (PCP). That also goes for every test you have run too! It is very important your PCP knows everything he/she can about your surgery. Your PCP will be the one seeing you three, four or five years plus after surgery, so he needs to know what happened and your recovery progress. When I underwent a heart stress test for my surgery I insisted that Vanderbilt Page-Campbell Heart Institute copy my PCP with the results. He deserves to know what is going on with my overall health!