poet_kelly

I came across this forum, and wanted to respond regarding Dr. George Kerlakian. I don't have lap band, I had gastric bypass. And Dr. Kerlakian didn't do, Dr. Dirk Rodriguez at Deaconess did it. But then he closed his practice and I had to find another doctor to do my follow up. Dr. Rodriguez referred me to Dr. Kerlakian. I have been very, very unhappy with the care I have received from Dr. Kerlakian and now plan to find a new doctor. I saw Dr. Kerlakian in July because I had been feeling nauseous for a couple weeks. He told me changing my diet would probably help. I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say, since he did not first ask me what I was eating. I asked him, change it how? He said I should eat a low fat diet. Well, I do. He said there might be a kink in my small intestine, caused by the way they reattached the intestine during my gastric bypass. He said he could order a CT scan to check for that. But he didn't want to do that yet. He said the nausea would probably go away by itself. That didn't really make sense to me. My intestine would unkink itself? I asked him if it could be my gall bladder, because gall stones are very common after a gastric bypass. In fact, some surgeons just take out the gall bladder when they do a gastric bypass, because gall stones are such a big problem later on. But Dr. Kerlakian told me it could not possibly be my gall bladder, because I was not having any pain, just nausea. Well, a few weeks went by, and the nausea did not get better. I was having trouble eating right and taking my Vitamins because I was so nauseous all the time. So I called him back and asked him to order the CT scan. I had the scan, and it was normal. I got the results of the CT scan from a nurse named Vickie on the phone. I asked her what the next step was. She said there was no next step, that the CT scan was normal so that meant there was nothing wrong physically. I said well, I'm stil nauseous all the time. She said it was probably my diet. I knew it wasn't. The nausea started in June but I did not make any changes to my diet in June. I felt nauseous all the time, it didn't matter what I ate. I woke up in the morning feeling nauseous when I hadn't eaten for hours. I asked Vickie if it could be my gall bladder. I had done some reading online and what I read, on multiple websites, said that you don't always have pain with gall stones. Pain is the most common symptom, but it's not the only one. Vickie insisted it could not be my gall bladder. I insisted that we had to do something. I could not just go around feeling sick forever. Finally she put me on hold and came back and said Dr. Kerlakian agreed to order an ultrasound of my gall bladder. I had the ultrasound, and what do you know? I had gall stones. Dr. Kerlakian advised removing my gall bladder, which I was glad to do. But this was six weeks after I had first gone to him with the problem. If he had not dismissed my question about gall stones at my first appointment, I would not have had to suffer for six weeks. Believe me, six weeks is a long, long time when you are constantly nauseous! There are a lot of other little things I am unhappy about, too. When he agreed to order the ultrasound, Vickie said she would fax me the order. Well, it took her two days to do that. When I had to have the CT scan, I had to drink this contrast stuff ahead of time, and I had to pick that up at the hospital the day before. Well, when I got there, Dr. Kerlakian's office had not faxed them the paperwork they needed in order to give me the stuff. So I had to sit and wait a while so they could call the office to get what they needed. The day I had my gall bladder taken out, I never did see Dr. Kerlakian. He didn't come talk to me before the surgery and he didn't come talk to me afterward. The nurses told me everything went fine so I gues it did, but it is customary for the surgeon to talk to the patient on the day of surgery. I intend to find a new doctor as soon as possible. Kelly