The Dr. debate

[melanieleigh 1]

I am want to have the Plication surgery. I have contacted two different Drs. in TJ Mexico. Both women have sent me extensive e-mails about the procedure. One is Dr. Rodriquez and the other is Dr. Ortiz. Now I have read ALOT of you have gone to, or are going to Dr. Watkins? in Ohio. I see him posting and am very impressed with his level of commitment, most Drs. seem to stuck up to chat with us regular folks. However, I cannot afford to self pay in the U.S. soooo off to Mexico I go. I have heard some say Dr. Cavales? HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DR.!! Does anyone know who the first one to do the plication surgery was? Maybe that could indicate who is the best. I don’t want to pick the Dr. by which one has the best web site, that would be like voting for the most attractive politician. HELP!!

[Cknorte 7]

I went with Dr. Corvala at Angeles Hospital in TJ. I think he was one of the first ones and has taught the other Dr.'s in Mexico. I had a really good experience and it was the right choice for me.

Email Dr. Watkins, you may be surprised at the cost, I think it may be similar to the prices in Mex.

Dr. Corvala is a little pricier than Dr. Rodriguez.....but for me it was so worth it, the hospital and staff were great.

Good luck with your choice....

[melanieleigh 1]

Thank you, I have trust issues and I feel like I am someones commission or quota, going through this process I don't know if I am being led to a particular surgery because they make more money or if they truly care that it is the right one for me. I will check out Dr. W. I am VERY impressed at how frequently he communicates here. Very nice and good for business too I suppose, what ever the motive I like it. Thanks again.

I went with Dr. Corvala at Angeles Hospital in TJ. I think he was one of the first ones and has taught the other Dr.'s in Mexico. I had a really good experience and it was the right choice for me.

Email Dr. Watkins, you may be surprised at the cost, I think it may be similar to the prices in Mex.

Dr. Corvala is a little pricier than Dr. Rodriguez.....but for me it was so worth it, the hospital and staff were great.

Good luck with your choice....

[genepha 47]

I also suggest you contact the doctors you're interested in.

You can also look up each doctor thru YouTube and get a "feel"

for them. I think talking to their patients is also a great way to

learn more about them.

Good luck

genepha

[KarenKaren 0]

I'm going to shorten up my response here because I've already typed a long response twice, and lost them both in my loopy state of mind. I just had plication surgery yesterday.

I can speak about 2 of the surgeons you mentioned. I had lapband in 04 with Dr Ortiz, then had problems with the band no longer working, had plication along with band removal with Dr Watkins yesterday. I live 12 hours via car from Cinncinatti, (Watkins) and about 3-5hours via airplane to Tijuana. I can tell you both surgeons are excellent. I did as much research possible before making my descion, and here is why I chose the one I did this time:

1 Dr Watkins is in the US. When I was banded in MX,, and tried to get after care here in the states I had a really hard time finding anyone who would even see me. Also, it just seemed like thinks are a little more modern here in the States. Everything was super clean, and nice in MX, but just felt odd, and I had a hard time communicating with some of the nurses.

2 I liked that Dr Watkins takes care of other issues, like putting you on antibiotics and stuff to get rid of the ulcers (H pilori) and does a scope before surgery and takes care of any hiatal hernia problems he finds. (which he did find, so I'm hopeful that my stomach acid and such will be better now)

3 Dr Watkins price was very much competitive with MX prices.

You are doing the right thing by asking questions and doing your research, I know I did, and I'm very please with my decision, Dr Watkins did a great job, he is very caring, along with the rest of the staff I encountered

I would be happy to answer any questions, and could probly do better answering after my loopiness wears off Good luck in your search

PS, I expected this to be a tougher recover than the band, but its actually been easier so far

Karen

[Cknorte 7]

Thank you, I have trust issues and I feel like I am someones commission or quota, going through this process I don't know if I am being led to a particular surgery because they make more money or if they truly care that it is the right one for me. I will check out Dr. W. I am VERY impressed at how frequently he communicates here. Very nice and good for business too I suppose, what ever the motive I like it. Thanks again.

I can totally understand feeling like a quota....someone else posted on aftercare.....though I didn't have any real issues, and when I had random questions I called and got answers, I didn't get "real" after care. I never got a call to see how I was doing, if I didn't call to ask stuff I would have never heard from the surgical team or coordinator again.

I loved my surgeon, the facility and my results. I hadn't heard about Dr. Watkins before having surgery, I would have definitely have considered and talked to his office.

Take your time, don't let anyone push you one way or another....check them all out.

What I do know, is that I am glad I had plication vs. any other surgery. The recovery for me was easy, I am down 55lbs, I feel healthy and feel good (ok, have some heavy hair shedding, but it's just hair)....everyone tells me how much better I look. I feel better, I can sleep better at night and feel rested, I eat normal foods, just small portions (kind of like all those skinny Biotches we always looked at in restaurants), I've conquered my fear of restaurant booths, and have discovered thrift store treasure hunting.....

[sharold7 2]

I am want to have the Plication surgery. I have contacted two different Drs. in TJ Mexico. Both women have sent me extensive e-mails about the procedure. One is Dr. Rodriquez and the other is Dr. Ortiz. Now I have read ALOT of you have gone to, or are going to Dr. Watkins? in Ohio. I see him posting and am very impressed with his level of commitment, most Drs. seem to stuck up to chat with us regular folks. However, I cannot afford to self pay in the U.S. soooo off to Mexico I go. I have heard some say Dr. Cavales? HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DR.!! Does anyone know who the first one to do the plication surgery was? Maybe that could indicate who is the best. I don’t want to pick the Dr. by which one has the best web site, that would be like voting for the most attractive politician. HELP!!

My daughter went to Dr Corvala and she was very happy with him. He uses a very good modern hospital also and has probably had more plication experiance than most other doctors. His price was flexible also at the time she had the surgery.

[tkangel68 0]

I had Gastric Sleeve with the OCC , Dr. Ortiz. I think he is amazing. He and his staff are very friendly and the facilite was wonderful. I got better care when I was there than when I had some plastic surgery in US 5 years ago, they took great care of me. I would HIGHLY recommend the OCC.

T

[sharold7 2]

I am want to have the Plication surgery. I have contacted two different Drs. in TJ Mexico. Both women have sent me extensive e-mails about the procedure. One is Dr. Rodriquez and the other is Dr. Ortiz. Now I have read ALOT of you have gone to, or are going to Dr. Watkins? in Ohio. I see him posting and am very impressed with his level of commitment, most Drs. seem to stuck up to chat with us regular folks. However, I cannot afford to self pay in the U.S. soooo off to Mexico I go. I have heard some say Dr. Cavales? HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DR.!! Does anyone know who the first one to do the plication surgery was? Maybe that could indicate who is the best. I don’t want to pick the Dr. by which one has the best web site, that would be like voting for the most attractive politician. HELP!!

If you do go to a doctor other than Dr. Watkins, ask him if he could check to see if you have a hiatal hernia while you're in there and would he repair it if you do have one and if he will, is there an extra charge. I think that is a very important thing to take care of. Other surgeons do that too but I don't know which ones in Mexico but I'm sure they can do it easily.

[melanieleigh 1]

thank you all so very much, I can feel more comfortable now, getting advice from ppl who dont have anythig to gain from me is worth its weight in gold. Thanks again.

I'm going to shorten up my response here because I've already typed a long response twice, and lost them both in my loopy state of mind. I just had plication surgery yesterday.

I can speak about 2 of the surgeons you mentioned. I had lapband in 04 with Dr Ortiz, then had problems with the band no longer working, had plication along with band removal with Dr Watkins yesterday. I live 12 hours via car from Cinncinatti, (Watkins) and about 3-5hours via airplane to Tijuana. I can tell you both surgeons are excellent. I did as much research possible before making my descion, and here is why I chose the one I did this time:

1 Dr Watkins is in the US. When I was banded in MX,, and tried to get after care here in the states I had a really hard time finding anyone who would even see me. Also, it just seemed like thinks are a little more modern here in the States. Everything was super clean, and nice in MX, but just felt odd, and I had a hard time communicating with some of the nurses.

2 I liked that Dr Watkins takes care of other issues, like putting you on antibiotics and stuff to get rid of the ulcers (H pilori) and does a scope before surgery and takes care of any hiatal hernia problems he finds. (which he did find, so I'm hopeful that my stomach acid and such will be better now)

3 Dr Watkins price was very much competitive with MX prices.

You are doing the right thing by asking questions and doing your research, I know I did, and I'm very please with my decision, Dr Watkins did a great job, he is very caring, along with the rest of the staff I encountered

I would be happy to answer any questions, and could probly do better answering after my loopiness wears off Good luck in your search

PS, I expected this to be a tougher recover than the band, but its actually been easier so far

Karen

[NotSoLittleMermaid 14]

Hi Melanieleigh, congratulations search, you've come to the right place. This is a long, overdue story and I will also post it in “My Positive Experience w/Dr. Watkins Thread." This forum is awesome and I've been researching WLS HEAVILY since about June. I've read a lot on WLS. I struggled with the idea of partial stomach removal w/VSG, but knew that having a foreign object in my body would make me worried: slipping, rubbing, etc. - so I wasn't excited about lap band, but some have had great success with it.

When I read about GPS on this forum, I KNEW it felt right.

WHAT MAKES THE RIGHT DOCTOR?

Initially, in my mind, I was all set to go to someone locally, so that if I needed support or had issues they would be there for me. I have never had surgery of any kind so this was all new to me. I also thought that I would ONLY choose a doctor who has had some sort of WLS and would be understanding in the weight loss/surgery/food struggle. I attended a seminar from a Dr. who I think had done only 3 VSGs (yes, I know, they have to start somewhere and make a living, but in this case, I didn’t want it to be me) and I found out later that certain things he talked about were incorrect, (like shoulder pain cause being unknown and that could be permanent) is actually referred pain from the diaphragm -per Dr. Watkins.

RESEARCHING…

THANK GOODNESS I RESEARCHED MORE! According to one of the WLS books I read, complications go WAY DOWN (like 80%) when you use an EXPERIENCED surgeon. Of course, this GPS surgery is NEW, but it would stand to reason that it is still better to choose a doctor who had done a lot of surgeries, especially weight loss surgeries. Naturally, I researched Dr. Corvala in Mexico because I think has had done over 100 GPSs by now plus thousands of other weight loss surgeries. However, the book I read also cautioned that while some hospitals/Dr. were terrific in Mexico (just like US-there are good and bad hospitals/Drs.) it may be more challenging to find aftercare in the US. However, there are many people happy with their choice to leave the country and I probably would have been very happy with that route, but I am a worrier.

As I constantly read the forum and asked MANY, MANY questions of the patients and to a few doctors. Dr. Watkins was the most responsive doctor. I would ask him about the surgery details, what other patients experienced, emotional eating, what hunger felt like, hormones, genetic makeup, etc. my symptoms, how big the size of the sleeve, aftercare, etc. For awhile I thought I would try dieting and exercise one more time, and he directed me to the free YOU TUBE about weigh loss which again, shows that although he does run a business, he is really trying to help people. I came obvious conclusion that Dr. Watkins is EXTREMELY KNOWLEGABLE, DEDICATED and in always in COMMUNICATION when you need him, is ALWAYS helping on the forum (even if someone is not his patient) and isn’t pushy. I had a friend that wasn't sure about her GPS surgery, and he left it up to her - didn't pressure her. She had it and is doing fine. I researched him EVERYWHERE and found happy patients and a great track record. Like others have said, it is important that you have the hiatal hernia fixed when they are doing WLS surgery, and that was important to me that Dr. Watkins did that.

Yes, I love Cincy Weight Loss-NO I don't get any financial gain or have anything to gain, no discount for my writing all of this. I do not work in any way with Cincy/Dr. Watkins; I am just a happy patient.

WHEN ONLY THE BEST WILL DO..TOP NOTCH CARE- DR.WATKINS/CINCY WEIGHT LOSS & HOSPTIAL

This Dr. does the right thing.. he even denied me surgery because it was the right thing to do.. Here is my story: After asking A TON of questions and doing lots of research, I was scheduled for Plication surgery in the fall w/Dr. Watkins a couple months ago. Everything went great up to surgery, did well on the pre-op. Visited Cincy Weight Loss, it was a VERY NICE, NEW upscale area, the OFFICE was GREAT. EVERYONE there IS REALLY & TRULY INTERESTED their patients! They had a great book with lots of before & after pictures of real people and it was so exciting to see the success.

My husband and I chatted with Diane for almost 3 hours about the great things and weight loss challenges. We met the nurses and his lovely wife Pamela and they were ALL great! We made new friends and had a GREAT TIME. We met Dr. Watkins in person, and sat in his office. He truly is a NICE, SINCERE, DEDICATED & KNOWLEDGABLE PERSON. He is very humble, but it still made me feel good to see all of his certificates/accolades on the wall to know that I was getting a quality and knowledgeable doctor. Since they rarely talk about it, I’ve taken pictures so everyone can see HOW NICE & NEW, MODERN the hospital and his office are. Never once did we feel “rushed” or pressured, or cut off in conversation, they listened answered our questions thoroughly-my husband and I were REALLY impressed.

I was VERY scared, because I hadn’t ever had surgery or been put under other than my wisdom teeth. However, being put under and waking up was a breeze. HOSPTIAL was MODERN, NEW and I felt VERY confident with my surroundings. They even offered me a hospital gown with state of the art technology where warm air was blown in. I walked with the Dr. and staff into the OR, and laid down on the table. Everything was state of the art, clean new and I was out like light, felt NO pain (except for the initial IV). It felt odd when I woke up, like it had only been a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately for me, the surgery didn’t happen because I had surprise stomach polyps for no good reason. I was VERY disappointed and asked Dr. Watkins about 5 times if we could do surgery later on that week, but it was important to have some other tests & due diligence done. Even though he faced disappointing me, he did the right thing. Some surgeons don’t even do an endoscope, which can reveal polyps, ulcers, hiatal hernias, etc.

My family was also grateful for the level of care and professionalism from this Dr. Later on that day and few times over the weekend, he called us to see how I was doing with anesthesia recovery, and I didn’t even have the surgery! But he is that caring. After many tests, (gallbladder, H Pylori, blood test, gastric level tests, gastric emptying test and colonoscopy) it looks like I am fine. I have one more I am going to have done on Friday but I am SO happy that I SHOULD be having GPS surgery with Dr. Watkins in about a week! I am praying that there will be nothing from stopping the surgery and the new life..

Here are a final few words on what I’ve learned..1) It is NOT normal to have stomach pain/throat burning. I lived with this probably my whole adult life. The pain/burning I experienced feels the same as STARVING HUNGER-GOT-TO EAT-NOW was actually acid and was GREATLY reduced on the pre-op diet with the PPI/Prevacaid. Dr. Watkins and his staff have kindly and patiently helped me through this lengthily process of research and tests. Hopefully, no one will have any surprises like I did, but it only made me feel better about my decision. 2) Keep researching until feel comfortable w/your doctor.

If you research their website you’ll see they SUPPORTIVE & HAVE GREAT FOLLOWUP: http://www.cincyweightloss.com/

Here are my pictures..

       

Info from Cincy Weight Loss Site

Cincinnati Weight Loss Center is owned by Dr. Watkins, not a large corporation. This allows us to provide you with the kind of customer experience that family owned businesses like ours can provide. Most of our competitors focus on surgery. We focus on weight loss. There is a huge difference between the two philosophies. Other practices try to compete with us by lowering their price. We focus on maximizing your weight loss success. We don't strive to be the "cheapest in town". That is not a good weight loss model. We strive to provide the best weight loss success in every patient. We offer value - the lowest cost per pound lost. We get a lot of transfer patients who had gastric band surgery elsewhere and are disappointed with their post-op program so they transfer to our practice where we help them achieve their weight loss goals.

Many practices don't monitor their weight loss success. We do, and have published five scientific articles on gastric band weight loss. We started doing band surgery shortly after it was FDA approved in the United States (June 2001). Since then we've completed nearly 5,000 gastric band procedures and have experience with band adjustments that number in the tens of thousands.

That extensive experience has taught us many import things on how to perform gastric band surgery and how to take care of patients afterward to minimize their frustration and maximize their weight loss success. We repair/revise a lot of band operations done improperly by other practices. Patients who choose our practice want it done right the first time and want to maximize their weight loss success. People who only care about getting the cheapest surgery and don't care if they lose weight afterward go to our competitors.

Dr. Brad Watkins

Dr. Brad Watkins is one of the few surgeons in the United States who:

· Has completed well over 1,000 gastric band procedures

· Has experience with nearly 5,000 procedures in his gastric band clinics

· FDA proctoring surgeon for both band companies (Allergan, Ethicon)

· Published five academic papers on gastric banding in the surgical literature

· Performs band-over-bypass procedure

· Performs the new incisionless ROSE procedure

· Teaches other surgeons on primary gastric banding

· Teaches other surgeons on band-over-bypass

· Teaches gastric band courses

· Teaches ROSE courses

· Consultant for Allergan Company, LAP-BAND®

· Consultant for Ethicon Company, REALIZE ™

· Consultant for USGI Company, ROSE procedure

· Completed many advanced bariatric courses and bariatric CME programs

· Involved in multiple clinical trials for adult and adolescent obesity

· Nationally recognized on the "Today Show"

· Member American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery

· Member Council for Advances in Bariatrics

[NotSoLittleMermaid 14]

I'm going to shorten up my response here because I've already typed a long response twice, and lost them both in my loopy state of mind. I just had plication surgery yesterday.

I can speak about 2 of the surgeons you mentioned. I had lapband in 04 with Dr Ortiz, then had problems with the band no longer working, had plication along with band removal with Dr Watkins yesterday. I live 12 hours via car from Cinncinatti, (Watkins) and about 3-5hours via airplane to Tijuana. I can tell you both surgeons are excellent. I did as much research possible before making my descion, and here is why I chose the one I did this time:

1 Dr Watkins is in the US. When I was banded in MX,, and tried to get after care here in the states I had a really hard time finding anyone who would even see me. Also, it just seemed like thinks are a little more modern here in the States. Everything was super clean, and nice in MX, but just felt odd, and I had a hard time communicating with some of the nurses.

2 I liked that Dr Watkins takes care of other issues, like putting you on antibiotics and stuff to get rid of the ulcers (H pilori) and does a scope before surgery and takes care of any hiatal hernia problems he finds. (which he did find, so I'm hopeful that my stomach acid and such will be better now)

3 Dr Watkins price was very much competitive with MX prices.

You are doing the right thing by asking questions and doing your research, I know I did, and I'm very please with my decision, Dr Watkins did a great job, he is very caring, along with the rest of the staff I encountered

I would be happy to answer any questions, and could probly do better answering after my loopiness wears off Good luck in your search

PS, I expected this to be a tougher recover than the band, but its actually been easier so far

Karen

Great post, Karen! Thanks for the informative info.. I LOVE this forum!