We are moving!
We are moving and our new address is 300 State Street, Erie PA 16507. We are moving only two blocks from our old address. The new office is a lot more spacious and has been renovated to meet the special needs of our bariatric patients. This is the building that has Bayside Pharmacy and Hamot Wellness Center in addition to many other offices. Parking is on the rear of the building. The entrance to the parking lot is on 4th street between Peach and State street. Patients will be able to use the card access system in stead of parking meters. The office is located on 4th floor of the building. We look forward to seeing you there.

The First step

Question: I have been thinking about weight loss surgery for a long time but I was not sure. Now I have made up my mind and would like to proceed with surgery. Where do I start? I called your office and was given an appointment to see you in 2-3 months?
Answer: You should start seeing your medical doctor for 'Physician Supervised Weight Loss Documentation' as soon as you make up your mind to proceed with weight loss surgery. You do not need to wait to be seen in bariatric surgery office before starting your diet documentation. This is one step that is the most common reason for delays in proceeding with surgery. If you change your mind after 6 months of diet supervision and decide not to have surgery, you will have not lost any thing. You can call our office and request templates of diet documentation sheets to be mailed or faxed to you or you can download them from our website under RESOURCES section.

Communication With the Bariatric Office

We occasionally receive complaints from patients that bariatric office staff did not get back to them quick enough. We would like to assure you that we are working very hard to resolve this issue. We would also like to remind you that our office handles a very large number of enquiries and it is very difficult to respond to every request in a timely fashion. Here are a few things the patients can do to minimize this problem.


If the issue is not about an emergency,

Please try to communicate through email in stead of calling the office. Email addresses of the entire office staff are on the website http://www.mylapsurgeon.com/

If you can not email and would like to call, please be very specific about your request and keep it brief.

After you complete your preop workup, please wait for at least 7 to 10 days before calling the office to find out if the office has received your paperwork.

Finally, please do not send an email if the problem is about an emergency. In that case, call the office directly at 8148776997 betweeen 8am and 5pm on weekdays
and call the hospital operator at 814877 6000 on weekends and nights.

Thank you for your cooperation

How long do patients need to take multivitamins after gastric bypass surgery?

I occasionally see patients who have stopped taking multi vitamins after gastric bypass surgery. These patients had their surgery several years ago. They think they can now eat everything and dont need to take vitamins.
From medical point of view, I believe that is dangerous. It is true that some patients can probably absorb enough vitamins from their diet a few years after surgery but it is not possible to predict who those patients are. Our bodies have reserves of vitamins so it takes weeks to months to develop vitamin deficiencies. However some of the vitamin deficiencies are irreversible and there is very little (if any) down side to taking multi vitamins on a regular basis. As a rule, gastric bypass patients need to take

Any brand name multi vitamin (twice the amount recommended on the label)
In addition
1500-2000 mg of calcium carbonate or 1000-1500 mg calcium citrate
500 microgram B12 and
325 mg ferrous sulfate
daily

A new feature

To all bariatric patients of Hamot Bariatric Surgery Center.
We are trying a new online communication tool for our bariatric center. When I receive an email about bariatric issues, I will post my replies to our blog page. I am hoping that other patients will be able to benefit from those responses.
Please feel free to give us your feedback about the ways to improve the site.
Thanks
Sincerely
Amjad Ali