Quote from: Toy on May 04, 2014, 08:40:52 AM
Jack, are you from Edmonton as well? I heard about Dr. Bowman. Because of my family issue, I also consider to have the surgery with him, instead of waiting for Dr. Guiffer. Can you share your info to me, such as the cost and the waiting time? Thanks.
I actually live in Vancouver. I decided to pay though because it can end up taking 3 years and that just wasn't soon enough. I also work in an industry that moves around and I'm not even sure if I'll definitely be here in 3 years and it would be just my luck to be almost there and have to leave for work and lose my chance.
It ended up costing near $10,000 CAN. It's pricey but for me, going local proved the right choice. You can go further afield but always worth remembering that if there's complications, unless life threatening, other surgeons are highly unlikely to touch another surgeons work. However, because Canada has national health care, if a complication like haematoma occurs, the surgeon can refer you to your local hospital to have a drain installed via free healthcare. In that situation, you will have treatment for free just on referral so you won't have to worry about them not treating concerns, but if you need revisions, it's hard to get a different surgeon to get involved.
As for waiting time, I had one appointment and already had a doctor referral, a letter from therapist and was at a good weight, so I made appointment there and then. There isn't a large waiting list. I had my consult close to xmas which is a busy time and managed to get slotted in for just before the week off for xmas at my work. The only thing I can't tell you about is whether he does phone/Skype consults or not.
Also, FYI, he prefers patients to be of a good healthy weight, so if you happen to be overweight AND have a problem with people encouraging you to do something about it, then be prepared because he will suggest weight loss prior to surgery because he deals with a lot of MSP patients who get angry when results aren't perfect which is more to do with back fat issues than his actual surgery (honestly, my results are insane this early in the game so he knows what he's doing for sure), and then get angry when he suggests trying weight loss before revision surgery. So that's a heads up if that may be an issue for you. I'm going off what I've heard because this didn't happen with me but I know one guy who took his advice and lost weight first and one who didn't and the latter kicked up such a fuss after only 2 months after he put on 10lbs post surgery too, that it was just pathetic and he tried to put me off until the first guy talked to me and showed me his results and told me about his experience and that calmed me. This is worth baring in mind if you look up some reviews too.
