Re: Starting out - Please Help!

August 3, 2001

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Dr. Mun at the Beth Israel does LAP, but your BMI must be within a certain

range...and I want to say it has to be 40 or under. Pam from Peabody just had

hers done by him, and she had LAP, so she may be able to shed some more light on

the subject, as far as Dr. Mun is concerned.

Jeff

Starting out - Please Help!

Hi all. My name is . I live in Massachusetts (Boston area)and

I am presently very seriously considering RNY surgery. I am torn

between open and lap - not because of the scar issue, but because of

the healing time. I work full time and have 2 very small children

(ages 2 and 3). My research thus far reveals that recovery time for

the open procedure is 5 - 6 weeks. I can't afford to take that time

off from work and I don't know many people who can. The lap

procedure

is about 2 weeks. With vacation, I can afford that. BUT, the killer

is that trying to get into a program that does the lap procedure is

just awful! I've called everywhere. The Lahey Clinic program is

currently not accepting new patients. Mass General sounds like a

program, in addition to charging extra money, makes you jump through

an enormous amount of hoops. NEMC and Dr. Shikora said that they

would send me a packet that I could expect to receive in 2-3 weeks

(Yikes!) and Beth Isreal said they would also send me a packet. Dr.

Thayer's office is the only one that has been encouraging and the

place that my PCP really wants me to go to (probably because it's in

her " circle " for insurance reasons). To be honest - I've been too

obese and unhealthy for too long to wait much longer. I'm sure my

feelings of impatience, frustration, and finances are not unique.

Can

some one please shed some light on how you have dealth with all of

these issues - especially the " recovery time " issue. Many thanks!!

August 3, 2001

,

I know of one other place that does the lap and that's

Darthmouth-Hitchock Medical Center in Lebanon. I had surgery there on

7/21/00 and at that time they didn't offer lap but have since hired 2

more surgeons and now they do.

Lea

August 5, 2001

hi angela

i had lap on 7-20, i took two weeks off of work but i could have went back

after one. my incisions are just about all healed now. I originally persued

lahey north but it seemed impossible to get an appt. I went with beth israel

i called them in feb got an apt in may and they told me surgery was 1 1/2 to

2 months later. So i would give them a call. Also he requires u to be

pretty close to 40 BMI. for lap. im 5-7 and weighed 284. If your bmi is

over say 45 i doubt u could do lap. at least with him. I think lahey does

lap on just about everybody, but that could take years. Let me know if you

have any questions.

Pam C

August 5, 2001