Hi, only my second time on here. I think I will end up w/Dr. Aceves for vertical sleeve surgery if I can work things out financially. My question is have you found it easy to find a doctor in your home town who is willing to follow-up if you have any problems. Flying back to Dr. Aceves would not be financially possible for me, nor taking the extra time off of work to travel. Would appreciate any input. Thanks, love this forum!

I too am going to have surgery with him once I find financing. I don't have insurance so I go to dr office that provide service specifically for people paying out of pocket. I am going to contact them to see if they will follow up or if they can refer me to someone who will follow up. I'm interested to see if anyone has found such a doc and how they went about finding him/her. Do you have any idea when you will have surgery?

Hi there! I grew up in Greensboro, NC and my daughter lives in Raleigh, works in Cary! I would like to have surgery in the late Fall (my daughter is having C-section on 8/3/10 so I need to be around for awhile after that, but my husband wants me to wait until Jan. 2011 when our new flexible spending account kicks in from his work so that we don't have to borrow as much. I really don't want to wait--will have to see how things work out. Good luck on your financing.

Thanks! Have you asked your dr about follow up? Even if he doesn't perform VSG's he may be able to provide the aftercare. I believe we just need labwork and the barium swallow at 3, 6 and 12mths out right?

No, haven't gotten that far yet, but I will be looking into all that.

I ran it by my general practitioner he said sure. He is always interested in something new for himself.

You will need someone to give you a prescription for Nexium.....thats and the upper GI. Thats really all you need. Almost any primary care physician can handle these things.

I live in a small town and I was pleasantly surprised when I went to my first appt. after the sleeve surgery with my general practitioner doctor. She was completely supportive and said she had a couple of other patients who had gastric surgery. This in a town of 400 people!!!

I was afraid she would be critical of my whole decision of Mexico & the sleeve, so I was so relieved.