Mixed to Negative Experience

Provider Review

• 8 May 2017

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.