Hi Everyone,

Lorraine here. I'm pre-op DS with Dr Rabkin in San Francisco, CA. Has anyone had their DS done by Dr. Rabkin? Any reviews? Does he have a list of pre-requisites that the pre-op patients need to follow before surgery? I haven't been in to see him, but my insurance approved him to do the surgery and I will have no out of pocket cost, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm expecting a call from Matt or Anna very soon. Any info that anyone can provide is much appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Lorraine

it seems like a lot of DS'ers on another board I'm on had a lot of positive things to say about him

My wife has a DS from his older brother, now retired, done about 11 years ago, and Dr. John did my VSG around 5 years ago. Unless things have changed radically in their program, things tend to be a lot more straightforward than many programs. There is the usual clearance from your PCP, and maybe a specialist or two depending on your particular health issues (cardiac, pulmonary, etc.) and the typical surgical pre-op tests (EKG, blood draw, etc.) and then a liquid diet (probably clear, don't remember) the day before and a bowel prep/clean out the afternoon/evening before. If you want to be particularly conservative, you can have your "last supper" two nights before and go with a mushy/liquid diet the day before the day before surgery but that isn't required as things flow through and out well enough on their one day program.

Our PCP has been impressed with their practice ("my other WLS patients don' get this kind of follow-up..." in regards to their annual lab draw,) and after my surgery, Dr. John gave him a phone call with a post-op report ("surgeons never do that - I;'m lucky to get a fax of the surgical report...")

Good luck, and have a pleasant trip through all of this (ours has been boringly routine!)

Sent you a PM.