Help in Ohio!-again

bbw1924 · July 5, 2007

Hey guys,

Sorry if this is too long. Ive wrote before about my saga with my band, mostly on the "Removal" board because that is what I really wanted at one time. I had been having some discomfort at times but I don't think removal is absolutely neccessary. My frustration with the band came more from my failure in weightloss than any medical reason. I have listened to some of your replies and have decided to give this thing another shot(ThanKs to all those that helped). Hence my NEW problem: Finding a doctor that will take me as a patient.

My original surgeon is Illiniois and it is getting inconvenient and expensive to keep traveling to see him. It seems like every doc in Ohio I've talk to either does not take patients they didnt operate on or do not take my insurance. When I finally did find a local doctor that took my insurance I was happy as allgetout. But my first visit was horrible and I really do not want to go back.

I told them about my discomfort and the doctor said I should have an x-rAY. So sat in a room for about 2hours waiting to be x-rayed, so I thought, while different people (most likely med-students) came in asking me the same "bandster questionaire" over and over. Finally the real doctor comes in followed by the legion of assistants, students, or whoever they were, with a big needle in his hand telling me to lie back. He was attempting to give me a fill! The doctor had just seen me a couple of hours ago and said I needed a x-ray because he couldn't tell exactly where my port was. Plus I told him I didn't want a fill untill I knew what was causing the pain. When I alerted him to this, he actually yelled at me, "WHAT ARE U TALKING ABOUT I JUST PUT IT IN LAST WEEK!" He thought I was a totally different patient! If I had not said anything, he was attempting to stick and inject me with saline in a spot where I KNEW there was no port. And the medical assistants whom I had told my life story to repeatedly for the last hour where just as clueless about who I was. I felt I was in the twilight zone. They all scurried away and about 30 minutes later a nurse came back and told me that the x-rAY techs were gone for the day and I had to make an appointment next week to be x-rayed and we will go from there. So I sat there for 3HOURS for nothing. Needless to say I ran outta that place with no intention on coming back.

So that leads me is my current situation, I want to be examined to see where my discomfort is coming from if possible. Also I would like another fill so I can continue in this journey and learn how to work with this band. Why does that seem so hard to get accomplished? I am on CareSource (an HMO through medicaid) I guess thats a big barrier because a lot of surgeons don't take it. And as a said before many of the offices I called were not enthusiastic about taking a patient operated on by another surgeon. So my options seem pretty limited. I was considering following up with the Dr. Strange (not his real name:)). But not only was the staff and the surgeon rude, but also incompetent. The wait was aggravating but the "mix up" was downright scary! Any suggestions would be appreciated. I live in dayton, oh but I would be willing to travel to Cinci, Columbus, or anywhere else inthe Ohio area to find a doc that will help me.

faithmd · July 5, 2007

I would suggest you go to Dr. Curry. He's in Ohio and will take on other's patients. He runs the LapBand board over on obesityhelp.com and he answers questions here, too.

His website is thebanddoctor.com

bbw1924 · July 5, 2007

thanks, but u know thats the first place I checked. Doesn't take my insurance. I wish he did he seems very knowledgeable.

faithmd · July 5, 2007

Oh that's a bummer. What is his cost for self-pay for fills? Is it something you could pay up front and then claim on your taxes? the other thing is that if you can show you cannot find a competent surgeon in your area, most companies do have processes to pay for you to go out of network, I know my HMO does.

faithmd · July 5, 2007

My other suggestion would be for you to join (if you haven't already) the yahoo group called bandstersinsurance

You may find more info on there about who you can see.

Also, call your company, they are supposed to provide you with a list of who they will cover for you to see (maybe I missed it and you have that list), and you can cross reference that list with the patient reviews on here or on obesityhelp.com The search function is pretty good here and on there as well.