Do you feel healthy?

[Ray_Of_Fricken_Sunshine]

Dr. Guerron was my surgeon, as well. I appreciate this man on so many levels. As you said, he doesn't have the arrogance that is often equated wth surgeons. He GENUINELY cares about his patients. He challenged me to become an expert on this surgery, and encouraged me to ask him as many questions as possible. When I did, he took the time to listen to my concerns and ultimately, he agreed to make changes to his usual method to accommodate my particular wishes. He is generous with pain management after surgery. His fellow, "Dr. Madu", is one of the most compassionate people I have met during this entire process. The man is a very accomplished surgeon, yet exudes nothing but humility and kindness.
The psychiatrist that I saw was Kelly Friedman, and I really liked her. She's very "No Bullshit" and she's also very educated in the specificities of the DS.
The NUTs are the same as they are everywhere. They will present the same info that your research online will tell you is not necessarily true to DS patients.
Anyways, I have zero reservations about highly recommending Dr. Guerron.

 

[Larra]

@CaitlynR my concern about your psychiatrist at this point is not just that he doesn't know the DS and gastric bypass are different - ignorance can be fixed - it's that he doesn't listen to you. What good is a psychiatrist that doesn't listen? That's essential to psychiatry. Perhaps I'm doing him an injustice, but from what little I know about him, it sounds like his main concern is prescribing meds and he's unhappy because you're about to make this more difficult for him.
The meds are important, and getting them right does require a lot of knowledge and judgement. But there is, or should be, so much more to therapy than that, and a doc who doesn't listen to the patient isn't going to help nearing as much as he could.

 

[CaitlynR]

Ray, so awesome to hear your experiences with Dr. Guerron. I would love to pm/chat with you more some time. I would say take you out for lunch but I guess not great timing, heh.

Larra, I certainly don't go to this guy for therapy, just meds. Even with that it is mostly for convenience. He listens in that I basically decide what I want and he goes along with it and that is for the most part what I want out of a prescriber. I am a clinical psychologist and have friends who are psychiatric prescribers so between my education (albeit non medical but I understand a lot of it and dig in the medical journals in databases at work) and discussing with medical friends (both NPs) my requests are well thought out and informed. However meds after bariatric surgery is beyond my knowledge and that of my friends. Unfortunately perhaps beyond his as well. And yeah, when it comes to actual clinical skills I have not been impressed. I just haven't found anyone better without it being a long drive away. But heck, I drive a long way for the surgery stuff for lack of high quality options locally, so I may have to do that for this too.

 

[Ray_Of_Fricken_Sunshine]

Any time! Oh, how I would love to go to lunch! Womp Womp.

 

[DianaCox]

To follow up on what Larra said, even if this shrink is just a pill pusher, it is IMPORTANT that he understands the structural/metabolic/absorptive differences between the procedures, in that your medications may have to be changed significantly, including the medication itself; quick vs. sustained release; whether the medication relies on absorption in a specific part of the intestine; whether the medication itself is fat-soluble and/or requires bile salts to be absorbed; whether your dosage will change due to rapid release of estrogen stored in your fat (can cause mood swings early out) or due to your lower body weight over time; etc.

A pill-pusher who is not interested in learning the facts and science behind my DS is not one I am interested in giving my BUSINESS to. A walking malpractice claim.