Swedish Medical Center Bariatric Center

I met with the surgeon who will be performing my surgery on 3/27/03. I find his manners to be very respectful and he is such a nice person. He made me feel at ease, very comfortable with him from the get go. He never made me feel rushed and easily answered my questions. He was very up front about the risks and benefits. He made sure I realize this is a life long committment and that follow up care is a must! He emphasized that post-op visits are required for life, not just temporary.

I have only had one group visit with Dr. Schauer and his staff. Fortunately I have a health care background because scheduling all these test dates and consultations can be difficult.
I met all his office staff and all the surgeons in his group back in August and I know their practice is very busy.I am scheduled for my preop visit on Feb 14 and will update then.
It has been awhile since I updated. The week before my pre-op visit, I received a call from Dr. Schauer's office and the scheduler told me that he could not do my surgery on March 3 and I had 2 options: reschedule with him or take one of the other surgeons.

I was really torn at this point. I have been preparing both mentally and physically for this surgery and have arranged a leave from work. I opted to go with another surgeon in the group , Dr. Mattar. Since I chose to keep that date my pre-op visit went on as scheduled.

I spent 6 hours in the Minimally invasive surgery center first meeting with the RN who taught a group of us re: the pre-op and post -op surgical instructions. ( All of the nurses here have had the surgery) Then I was examined by Bill, a PA, who seemed to be the most competent and reassuring person in the entire office staff.

Dr. Mattar spent about 10 minutes with me and he brought up that my surgery may need to be done in 2 stages. I guess at UPMC they are starting to do some pts. with higher BMI's in 2 stages: first a sleeve gastrectomy in which they remove about 90% of your stomach permanently. Then after you lose 100 or so pounds they do the intestinal bypass part. I was totally shocked by this and can remember little of the meeting with Dr. Mattar except having these words go through my head over and over--I have to have 2 surgeries now???

After I left many questions went through my head like--how many of these had Dr. Mattar done? What was the success rate? So I called the office and was put through to Beth the nurse on call. She said that they have done about 20 people this way and that every one has gone well. I asked what caused them to try this procedure and she said and very snippily too, that people weren't losing all their weight and that they were upset by the results . She said that " not everyone who has this surgery can look like us nurses here- we work at out weight loss, follow our diets and exercise." I was really put off by her attitude! I was not questioning the procedure itself, but had specific questions which I felt were logical and necessary about this staged bypass. I feel that Beth has forgotten how it feels to be waiting to have this surgery and it also seems that she has forgotten how it feels to be fat in this country. I find it hard to believe that with her current attitude, she ever had a weight problem. By and large, my worst experience with any health care professional came from Beth who works every day in this Bariatric practice. She showed her true attitude about bariatric patients when she got frustrated with my questions- I will never attend any support group that she is involved with!

March 10, 2003
I had my surgery one week ago today, and I can say that it was a great success!I was able to have the procdure all at once and Dr. Mattar did a great job. I am starting on solid foods again today.

He met with me before the surgery and was quite supportive. I had been so shell-shocked prior to surgery about maybe having 2 stage surgery, by the day of surgery, I told him to do whatever was best.

I think at some point in the process, I was able to give up som control to Dr. Mattar and came to peace myself. As it was , everything went well and the staff at UPMC Presby was great! I had excellent care on 9 G and in the OR/REC room and preop area

Now the work begins for me--I've lost 8 lbs so far!