Tell me about your dr

I had Dr. Hunter at VMFW. Very good rep, and I had a good outcome. I had few choices b/c of my insurance, but he was one of the 2 Dr. Lauter from Overlake reccommends. Great nutritionist, and it turned out my PCP and Dr Hunter had been interns together. I like him, and all the hospital staff at Virginia Mason told me what a great surgeon he was when I was checking in for surgery. I just couldn't deal with the chaos of his office and not really liking his assistant who handles all the pre and post-op consults, so switched back to Dr. Lauter before 3 months had passed. My 3 month check-up confirmed I had made the right choice. I had planned all along to go with Dr. Lauter because of his reputation, skill in lap surgery, and absolutely wonderful office staff. Not to mention Karen Baumann, the wonderful nurse who runs the bariatric program. You will get all the support you could desire and then some. The moral of the story: do what works best for you. The biggest hurdle is making the decision in the first place, and you did it. Don't walk a path which could potentially make you change your mind or robs you of inner peace.

5 years ago, my family doctor recommended I consider weight loss surgery to save my life.  Dr. Kelley recommended Dr. Shrikanth; however, he had badly hurt his leg, and was not taking on new patients.  Dr. Kelley did his research and finally recommended another doctor.  Well, I had this other doctor do my RNY on 12-30-04. 

He did an excellent job in the surgery room; but, lacked the incentive to follow up with his patients.  To this day, I wish I could have Dr. Shrinkath as my on-going physician.  It still remains shocking to me that here I am almost 5 years post-op and the doctor I was referred to because Dr. Shrikanth was not available, has never followed up with me, or had any concern about what I eat, what supplements I take, what blood work I should get etc.  Compound that with the fact I am now with Group Health and the bariatric physicians do their thing and the follow up for bariatric patients is with their primary care physicians who don't have backgrounds in knowing anything about our specialized needs.  Lordy!  Fortunately, Dr. Kelley recently joined Group Health and I finally have a primary care physician who cares about me and my health and is an fantastic primary care physician.   Know that I have Dr. Kelley, I no longer am thirsting to have Dr. Shrikanth on my team.  He's not with Group Health anyway.

Back to the  bariatric surgeon who did my surgery on 12-30-04.  In fact, I brought to him a copy of Dr. Shrikanth's recommendations in July 2007, and he didn't know what to make of them.  He works through Overlake Hospital.  He even attended one of my support group meetings and thought that the amount of protein consumed by anybody could be whatever that person wanted.  If you wll go to my website www.obesityhelp.com/group/BellevueWA you will read about protein and what makes for good protein and what doesn't and how much protein each person needs.

Over all these years, I've watched Dr. Shrikanth (surely hope I am spelling his name correctly) from afar, attended some of his lectures to gain knowledge, and remain completely enamored with his abilities to serve his patients to the best of their fluctuating needs.  My own daily regime of what supplements I take matches what he recommends to the shock and askance but grudging acceptance of my own physicians (who I have now fired, since I now have Dr. Kelley as my primary care physician) as my blood work continues to show I am consuming the right quantities of supplements for calcium citrate, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12, etc. 

You see, if my physicians had their way, my supplements would be marginal at best, my hair would be falling out, my skin would look like my age, old, and not vibrant, my fingernails would have ridges and striations, and my health would be in the tank.  Its not.  You see, he knows about the bioavailability of protein, the necessity of protein drinks for the rest of your life time, the importance of calcium citrate, the quantities, etc.  I remember that every day that I take 6 pre-natal vitamin pills and I am 72 not expecting a baby.

Hope this testimony helps you make a good decision.

He may be strict!  Excellent!  He knows what he is talking about.  Other doctors do not.  Do what he says and you will benefit.  Getting this surgery is not something to whine and wimper about.  It is a tool; but, you need to learn how to use this tool effectively.  Your health and life lie in the balance.

Now, with all this said, another excellent doctor is Dr. Oh.  I also attended some of his lectures and seems to practice similar to the way Dr. Shrikanth practices.

Blessings,

Christine

My surgeon was Dr. Oh, who saved me from obesity, and I recently had the "pleasure" of Dr. Srikanth removing a small bowel obstruction from me, thus saving my life a second time. Both doctors are excellent surgeons and quite strict in their patients' compliance. This benefits you, as a patient. Dr. Oh required a 5 week SFCL/protein shake diet pre-op for me and 4 weeks post-op. Pre-op was difficult, post-op was easy since I didn't want to eat anyway.

It would be best for you to talk to Dr. Srikanth about your problems with the diet and see if there's an alternative method for you to follow. It would be sad for you to throw out an excellent surgeon with the bath water over something that can be modified. Dr. Srikanth has an excellent bedside manner and genuinely cares about his patients.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I went to Dr. Chebli.  He is an amazing surgeon.  He requires a 5% pre op weight loss and 30 days of a very low carb diet to shrink the liver right before surgery.  Post op you are on liquids for one week, then pureed food for 7 weeks, soft food for 4 more weeks, then an unrestricted diet.  He practices at both Northwest Hospital in North Seattle and Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland.  He is from the East Coast so he can be a little blunt, but incredibly compassionate. 

Feel free to contact me for more info about my experience.  Good luck!

Val,

I too have Dr. Srikanth. I will be honest with you the clear liquid diet is hard on all of us. He had me rotating 10 days on 10 days off for six months. It took me almost the entire 6 months to be able to stick to the 10 days liquid. I truly felt horrible during the first few days then it passes and you feel better. This period was a great exercise for me. It gave me the oppertunity to "mourn" the foods I really enjoyed and if I fell of the wagon I wouldnt be get sick from dumping if I ate the wrong things. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Dr. S. He wants the best results for his patients and he will hold you accountabe when you gain weight... during the pre op stage I gained wieght over the Christmas holidays. I knew he wouldnt be happy... he scared me to death when he told me that I was sabatoging my chances to have surgery and my insurance carrier might deny me beacuse I couldnt stick with his diet. I left the office crying and a mess. But, that day I went home and trashed all the crap I had been eating that I shouldnt have been. It was the day I realized I was going to kill myself if I didnt make a HUGE change. THis surgery was my only chance to life the live I wanted to. And I wasnt going to throw my life away over food. I had Lap proximal RNY almost 7 months ago and I getting close to hitting goal wieght. I haven't really stalled and I avoid foods that are bad for us; I have had swayed and eaten a few things to test my system... dumping isn't fun. I haven't fully dumped yet but honestly I dont want too.

Talk to Dr. S and his staff. They really can't help you if they don't know whats going on. They know how hard it is. I wont lie it is hard work; but you are gaining control over your life thru this tool. The greatest struggles bring the greatest gain!!!

Best Wishes!

~MIchelle