Sara Blumenthal Dietitian / Nutritionist L.N.

Sara was a riot. She was very informative and quick. Very sharp lady and she knows what she's talking about!

Sara does not accept BCBS insurance and she was not able to provide me with a receipt for her services so I could submit it to my Tricare Prime insurance. She instructed me to contact her to write a letter to Tricare if needed, which of course would be needed in order to obtain reimbursement. I would have rather had a receipt to avoid another step in the process. Sara also had me hand-write information about my diet and vitamins and the few hand-outs she gave me were limited on information. Sara instructed me to start a high protein low carb diet to shrink my liver prior to surgey, but Dr. Greene made no mention of this to me. Maybe because my BMI is 40 and any weight reduction could mean I'm no longer a candidate? I don't even have a surgery date yet. Sara also indicated that I need to take a liquid vitamin and mineral (Innovative Naturals) and a sublingual B12. She also recommended that I get a "sugar-free" whey protein powder (Bio-Chem) to make fruit smoothies for breakfast, which she gave me recipies for. I ended up getting one from GNC for $49. I also had to get the flax seed oil from GNC, $12, another ingredient. I need to contact Epacarthy (pharmacy in Bethesda, MD) to get the vitamins. Sara said they will take a credit card over the phone and ship the vitamins to you. She does not like GNC and wanted me to get a high-quality vitamin. Sara said I'd need to see her at least one more time to get recipies for post-op eating, etc., but I really think we could have handled it all in one visit.

Overall, Sara was very nice, sympathetic, and understanding of my obesity.