Great Surgery (VS) and Horrible After-Care

I reached my 50% milestone today or halfway in the journey to my ultimate weight goal. I got here in 4 months instead of the three that my surgeon, Dr. Paul Cirangle, literally flogged me over at my last visit. Dr. Cirangle is a fantastic surgeon who on April 4 performed a Vertical Sleeve on me and it is doing something I could never do on my own. I am grateful for this. I have seen my diabetes go into

Unfortunately, I realize I am alone in this journey because my surgeon and his very young Dietician do not care about me as a person, but only a statistical participant in his outcome data. They have one message to preach and it badly contradicts messages I get from My Fitness Pal and other health sites like Web MD. They essentially preach a liquid diet and staying at 600 calories per day even 4 months post op and regardless how much exercise one does because it is his belief that exercise does not have an important role when compared to diet. Anyone can do a liquid diet or practice radical Atkins theory, but ultimate success means learning to eat solid food and a healthy balanced diet. People vary in their speed of weight loss and their needs because one sized is not all the same.

I learned the hard way that if you dare to have a mind and an original idea, you are deemed a non-compliant patient who is a "closet carboholic". You get accused of lying about your behavior and then get to face the wrath of Khan, so to speak, because in the medical world, the surgeon is always right even though other longstanding members of my medical team may disagree. He is a miserable soul who believes that running people into the ground is the proper way to motivate (undoubtedly learned in a military medical school where non compliance can be responded to by discharging or other severe penalties). I am on my own course now, one he no longer controls, and will succeed no matter how abusive he or his doting staff become. Lesson learned: there is a difference between being a skilled surgeon and then knowing how to conduct aftercare in a dignified way which treats patients with respect and realizes every patient is unique and comes with his or her own set of needs.