different surgeon=different results?

[nursesabby 7]

I meet with my surgeon next week YEA!! I feel like those brides that send out "save the date" cards! I chose my hospital/surgeon due to proximity to my home and the fact that 4 close friends highly recommended them. Did nursing clinicals there. Have friends that work there. Met the bariatric staff, LOVED them! I feel that my care leading up to surgery has been excellent. Expect aftercare to be just as good. I will be having lap RNY. Now...I have a jealous co-worker who constantly makes snarky comments about my choice in hospital. Jealous she just started with company and must wait 2 years to get surgery. I did a full year of research prior to making a choice so her "know it all" attitude grates on me! So other day she started in on me that her ONE friend told her that patients with my surgeon lose slower. She said my surgeon is more conservative with his pouch size. Honestly? I really wouldn't care since losing is losing. I have 90# to lose vs her 200+# so I'm sure we look at it differently. I just cannot imagine a SIGNIFICANT (they can't be exactly the same) amount of difference among surgeons, but I do believe MY surgeon will tailor MY surgery to fit my needs. They can only go so small on your pouch! I told her that no matter what the surgeon does, ultimately the weight loss results will be up to me. Opinions?

[ppw 18]

I ignore people like that and do not even consider their opinions. I have had some people tell me that my hospital choice is no good. Park Plaza has its own bariatric wing where the nurses and other staff are trained in bariatric. So I continue to ignore the riff-raff.

[Judyr 57]

Sounds like you are right on track. With excellent care you will continue to lose. I wish that my Dr was closer. I have not been able to go to the nutrition classes because it is a long way from my home and is at night with commuter traffic making it worse. Your Dr will make the best decision for you, but if you don't follow guidelines and rules, you can stretch your pouch. So ultimately it is up to you how you manage your weight loss. I would so ignore your co worker or tell her that you can compare notes when she loses her weight, but not now. LOl.

[winning_by_losing 107]

Personally - I'd consider it along the same lines as someone who buys a super-expensive car (insert make/model here) then proceeds to tell everyone else how superior their car is, regardless of the facts.

Hopefully for her sake, she ends up happy with her choice and is successful in her own journey.

As for you though, if it really concerns you, I'd recommend a quick call to your surgeon's office. I'm sure they'd happily explain the process and how they may differ in procedure from any others (I've found out most surgeons in the weight-loss arena know eachother or at least know of eachother's work).

In my program, we had 2 surgeons to choose from. I had no preference, so took whichever could see me faster. At my next group class I heard almost everyone else in the class talk about how great the other surgeon was and how I made a horrible choice. After talking in detail with my surgeon and raising this to his attention, he quickly eased my fears by talking about his past, his experience and how he approaches each of us as patients. It turns out he started the entire weight-loss surgery program, is the medical director as well as the chief surgeon and has thousands of successful surgeries under his belt. I'm more than happy I "ended up" with what most of my class considered the second choice.

[nursesabby 7]

Me too! That's EXACTLY how I feel winning_by_losing. I plan on talking to my surgeon about it at my appt. I'm not concerned at all since I'm confident in my choice.