Last Domino

ImaWaterBender

I go to the Nutritionist in an hour for my evaluation for the sleeve. This is the last specialist that I have to see. Then I just have to finish my five month weigh ins and the last one is in the beginning of January. 76 days until my surgery date.

I had my psych eval on Monday and passed that. All of the rest of the tests have been done.

Fingers crossed! The dietician staff at my hospital is MEAN. I have to work with them, though.

janet0513

Fingers crossed How are they mean?

homerismyhero

Thats hard with you don't like the team you have to work with- I encountered a few jerks.

2BeHappy2

I hear you OP...sent you a msg on my issues w/ the staff working under the surgeon!
I don't care much for most of them and I hate the thought of having to continue to deal with these kind of insensitive people for the year and then annually there after.
I wish there was a way I didn't have to

ImaWaterBender

The staff dieticians at my hospital tend to be very harsh about the diet. Now I know it's good for them to be straight shooters. I have gotten a lot of good advice from them, but one of them keeps mentioning that she naturally weighs 100 lbs and can eat 'anything she wants'. I just think it's mean. I don't think she's suited to a bariatric clinic, more like she should be in an upscale spa where everyone is skinny, but probably there she would not be able to feel superior, as she does when she weighs us in on the cattle scale.

2BeHappy2

(from the nutritionist) When I was doing my 3 month weigh in and 5% weightloss requirement before surgery, Id stopped all pop and occasionally (for something different) Id make a mixture of 1/2 (100%) juice and 1/2 water.
No, I didn't expect high fives and big parties to be thrown for me but all I got was negative and put downs.
She said IF I had to I should do 1/4 cup juice and the rest water but that I really shouldn't be drinking that anyways.
It just went like that throughout the 3 months....just nit picking instead of encouraging and supporting the efforts I was putting forth.
Then after surgery that same negative attitude transferred to the nurse who see's patients after surgery at their post-op appts.
I chose honesty when I told her the average # of proteins Id been getting in per day.
This person told me at my 1 wk out that I needed to make my 70g protein #'s by the next appt which was 4 wks later.
Knowing this made me very anxious every day worrying about how I was going to meet the bare minimum of 70g when my stomach went from big to very small.
I cant ever seem to catch a break!
Now if I was gaining then I could understand a finger shaking to be expected but give me a reassuring smile sometime so at least I know theres a heart somewhere in that chest
The only thumbs up I get are from people in these groups which is terribly sad that people here can guide me along better than the staff do in their job positions

katematt313

ImaWaterBender wrote: »

The staff dieticians at my hospital tend to be very harsh about the diet. Now I know it's good for them to be straight shooters. I have gotten a lot of good advice from them, but one of them keeps mentioning that she naturally weighs 100 lbs and can eat 'anything she wants'. I just think it's mean. I don't think she's suited to a bariatric clinic, more like she should be in an upscale spa where everyone is skinny, but probably there she would not be able to feel superior, as she does when she weighs us in on the cattle scale.

I hated the first nutritionist I met with. Her name was Katrina, she looked like a Barbie, and she was a b****. At our first meeting, she treated me like a moron, then showed me a photocopy of the USDA "My Plate" on 8.5"x11" paper and said, "this is what a 9" plate looks like; you should be using a plate like this." I made the mistake of pointing out that you can't fit a 9" plate on a 8.5" wide piece of paper (because really, who's the idiot...), and it went downhill from there. I came to her after having had some success with a LCHF diet (I lost and maintained a 40 lb weight loss and the diet helped but did not completely resolve my T2 diabetes, and my weight was not changing anymore), and was very much pro-low carb and needed more information to feel comfortable with her dietary recommendations. She refused to answer my questions (which I wrote down in advance of my second appointment and brought with me) and told me that if I knew anything about nutrition, I probably wouldn't be fat. NO JOKE.

To make a long story short (too late!), I suffered through two appointments with her and satisfied my insurance requirements, but learned NOTHING helpful from her, and was nearly put off of the process entirely. I left the experience with Katrina completely unprepared for either the pre-op diet or the post-op diet. I knew that this was an issue.

Three weeks before I was going to start my pre-op diet, I called the surgeon's office again, spoke with my case manager, and requested an additional appointment with a nutritionist. She told me that the first available was Katrina, and I told her that I preferred another nutritionist. When she asked me why, I told her that Katrina was rude and completely unsuitable for this kind of practice, as some of her comments were definitely in the realm of "fat-shaming". I gave her concrete examples about my concerns. My case manager confided in me that I was not the only patient to complain about Katrina and request reassignment to another nutritionist.

I understand that she is no longer associated with the weight loss clinic, and that is a good thing for all future WLS patients who are seen in that practice.

Think about saying something to appropriate office staff or your doctor after you've satisfied your insurance company's nutritionist requirement.

Frankly, I bet your complaints would be listened to very closely.

The weight loss clinic that I went to is associated with a prominent local hospital. There is a lot of competition for WLS patients in our area (I am in CT), with several local and regional hospitals advertising WLS heavily and building state of the art, spa-like offices for WLS practices. We are a nation of obese people, WLS spells big bucks for medical providers, and providers have to compete for "clients" just like any other business.