Hi I actually got Botox and fillers - made a huge difference. I perform on stage so I needed to look like me and not have a frozen forehead (because for performing people need to see my facial expressions) or chipmunk cheeks. I've been to other doctors in New York before (dermatologists and plastic surgeons) - by far Dr.Rosen was the BEST. Probably because he's a surgeon he's super accurate.
I was tired being overweight. I was tired of having little to no energy. I was tired having sleep apnea, shortness of breath and hypertension. I was tired of always being on a 'diet' with little or no success. I would lay on the bed crying wondering if this would be the night I would die in my sleep from being obese. Dr Rosen literally gave me my life back!
My motivation was seeing the success others had from the surgery preform by Dr Daniel J Rosen. Mine was a medical decision not only for weight loss it also help my existing health problems.I no longer on medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol I was borderline diabetic. It's a changing experience that's worth it.
I had a very mixed to negative experience with Dr. Rosen and his nutritionist Megan on my Orbera balloon journey. Dr. Rosen is very friendly and knowledgable, he makes you feel comfortable, but not necessarily prepared for post-procedure. He definitely talked up Megan before I met with her, and stressed that I would have her for a full year, however when I actually met with Megan, I felt the nutrition portion of the procedure was lacking. I received two pages of diet guidance for the first two weeks post-insertion. I followed it. The next time I went in to see Megan, it had been about a month. She was also supposed to call me in the first two weeks and didn't (she admitted she forgot/didn't write me in on the write date), leaving me to my own devices for a bit. At our meeting, she told me bagels were "bad" and made a list of a few foods that were "good". It was VERY straightforward and there was no addressing of what was behind my choosing foods that weren't as "good" or why I couldn't seem to get a handle on dieting (I mean, duh though, there's a reason I wanted the balloon). I hadn't lost as much weight as expected, and didn't feel like the balloon was doing anything so Dr. Rosen checked if everything was okay. In this check-up, he very delicately and kindly told me the reason I wasn't losing weight was my fault. Okay. Cool. I get it. Another problem throughout my Orbera journey was that I was sadly a bit of an anomaly–I couldn't feel the balloon, and I could eat beyond its limits without feeling anything. This was not Dr. Rosen's fault, but he had not warned me about this being a possibility and I felt that had the nutritionist portion been better and addressed underlying habits sooner, I could have potentially lost more weight. I was feeling down in the dumps and had been unmotivated by my last session with Megan, but decided to go back to the office again. This time, I expressed my concern about the nutrition to Dr. Rosen and was immediately met by defensiveness and blame. I went in to see Megan and asked her for more of a diet plan, and we more intensively spoke about what I needed to be eating and made a better list, but it was still very straightforward and still did not address any of the underlying problems. I'm going to make an assumption here and say that the people having these procedures done are people that have not been able to successfully diet. As someone who's balloon did not make me feel full (or anything, for that matter), I felt that I was expected to just successfully diet, and as usual, was unable to. So I stopped seeing Megan as it was unhelpful. At my next visit to the office, I was told that it was my fault I'd gained weight because I hadn't been in to see Megan. Actually, toward the end of my journey I ended up taking the nutrition game into my own hands by paying out of pocket to see a nutritionist who had a background in disordered eating and would address the underlying causes of my diet, not just make a list. This is slow going in terms of weight loss, but has been helpful for me so far. So I did care, though they would like to think I did not. I had such a difficult time with this procedure, because it addressed all of my failures and the doctor did nothing to help me feel otherwise. I arrived to my removal and absolutely did NOT want to see the doctor because I felt so shitty about everything. I felt I would be weighed and blamed again. It sucked. Also, according to my boyfriend who was sitting in the lobby, on his way out Dr. Rosen needed to sign some papers and he said "I have places to be" aggressively to the lady in the office, indicating he really didn't care. Even though my experience with the balloon was terrible, I felt that Dr. Rosen and Megan could have done a better job helping me deal with what ultimately happened. I also feel that Dr. Rosen should have warned me that not feeling the balloon was a possibility.
Coming off the band is the tubing and it ends with the port which allow access to the balloon of the band and sits under your skin. You can feel it, but you can't see it. To access it we use a needle to introduce some fluid, or to take out fluid if your band's too tight. A needle is placed into the port and then fluid can be pushed in or pulled out, and it comes out. Sometimes, we use numbing cream on the skin to make it as painless as possible.
Incision surgery was a big topic a couple of years ago not so talked about these days. I've done single incision, I can do single incision surgery. For Lap-Band, it makes some sense because you're making a fairly sizable, about an inch incision in the belly button to get the band in place. The up sides are one single incision that's given in the belly button which saves you about three or maybe four incisions, that are about the width of my pinky, from being on the outskirts of their abdomen. The downside is that the hole the make underneath the belly button is significantly bigger to accommodate all the horts clustered in one place. And you tend to see is a significantly higher hernia rate at the belly button after surgery. For me that's enough of a reason not to push it on my patients as the way to go. If it's really important to them that they see the scar and they understand that there's a higher likelihood that they're developing a hernia, and need a second operation to fix that, that is something that we can talk about.
If someone asked me for a Lap Band and their BMI was in the normal range, specifically from 19 to 25, I would pause, and find out the situation for why they wanted that Lap Band. If they've been someone who has been a normal weight their entire life and they want to become even more skinny, the answer would be no from me as a surgeon. You probably could go out and find a surgeon who would put it in, because it's a very low risk surgery. Someone who has a normal BMI has the right to go out and get a breast augmentation or a nose job and those surgeries carry risks sort of equivalent to the placement of an adjustable gastric band. However if you're someone who struggled with weight for a long time, yo-yos back and forth and has been able to lose a significant amount of weight and the motivating factor for getting the band is the fear of regaining that weight and getting back to where you were, in that instance I think it's reasonable to put it back as long as you appreciate the risks.
I can think of very few services that would turn down cash, check or credit card as payment for their Gastric Sleeve. In the event that your insurance doesn't cover the surgery or you want to get it done quicker than the 3 to 6 months time frame that they require you wait before surgery. In most practices, there is an option for paying out of pocket. Many practices like my own, also offer financing to cover the cost of the Sleeve. Its not cheap, its an investment and in most cases well worth it.
The goal with the Lap-Band is that it stays in, not only to get you down to the weight you want to be but also to help you stay there. If you've lost a successful amount of weight with a Lap-Band, and then we remove the Lap-Band because you were where you wanted to be, in all likelihood you would regain most of the weight back because you no longer have the Lap-Band inside helping to control your portions and control your appetite. After a certain number of adjustments are reached and your weight has plateaued at an appropriate level, it's really about maintaining that weight and the presence of the Lap-Band continuing to provide fullness after a small amount of food is what helps you stay there.
