Blair Mullen
My journey started a long time ago...... In Sept of 2003, I went to my family doctor and ask him for an appointment with a bariatric surgeon...... After a month or so, I met with bariatric surgeon Dr. Jaffe...... I had my consult which took approximately 45 min and I was totally pleased with everything that he had explained to me and at that point I knew this was the operation that I needed to control my super morbid obesity...... He did try to push me towards the lap band which was not covered under my insurance (OHIP).... He explained that I could have a lap band put on and I would have the operation in a month or so ($15,000) or I could wait 2 years for the RNY operation..... I chose the later........ After waiting three years and heard nothing back from Dr. Joffe's office, I did a little more investigating and found that I could have the operation out of the country and OHIP would pay for it due to the amount of time that it takes to have this procedure in Canada...... So I went back to my family physician and ask him about it...... He knew nothing of the sorts..... So needless to say I found another Dr. close to my parents place...... I asked him about the out of country operation and he was more than willing to help me out...... His son is a bariatric surgeon in the US.... After all the papers were filled out and mailed to OHIP for prior approval, I was waiting for what seemed like years (really it was only 5 weeks, but I wanted this bad)...... Approval came in and boy was I excited....... I set up an appointment with DR. GENAW at The Henry Ford Health System...... During my visit with the staff at the hospital they again had to explain the procedure and the risk involved..... I had another pre-surgery meeting with others going through the same operation........The staff sent me home so that I could go through a series of test to make sure there wouldn't be a problem come operation time. After all the test (sleep apnea, stress test, etc) It was time to set up an appointment for the actual operation....... The hospital made sure that I lost weight before they would due the procedure...... This is very important for everyone, not only does it shrink the liver and make it easier for the surgeon to due your procedure but it also show how committed you are to the surgery......... After all was said and done, I had the operation on May 3 of 2007 (my new birthday)...... At that time I was 327 pounds and after a 5 month period I'm down to 260 LBS a mere 67 pounds....... YEAH FOR ME...... But I can afford some more..... This operation saved my life........ And I'd do it all over again if I had to.......... It's been 4 years now and still have not heard from Dr. Jaffe's office....... My only regret about the operation is that I didn't do it sooner.....
Blair Mullen
Over and out
