Dr. Mark Pleatman is a life saver!...Here's my story.
My name is Stephanie Rhoades I am 26 yrs old and was 226 lbs when I had my lap-band® put in on March 25th 2009 in Mexico by Dr. Beauncourt.
I was 24 when I decided to have the band put in, I was a size 13 before I had my son and gain 55 lbs do to bedrest the last 3 months of pregnancy for high blood pressure. I was so down on myself for the weight I had gained. I was divorced last june and alot had happened. And like everyone else I tried EVERYthing BUT NEVER STUCK WITH IT. So I wentthrough ( who I thought was a great company) Worldmed.com and found the chop-shop that Dr. Beauncourt runs in TJ Mexico. At the time I saw nothing wrong and went and had it done since it was $5500.00 and I am self pay.
Okay so a week after I was told I could start eating applsauce and sf jello. Yeah right I would have on bite and my throat was tight and and was ALWAY nauseated! Horrible I remember I was calling Dr. eauncourts staff 24/7 crying telling them that I cant eat and it was bad that somethings wrong, they would tell me that was normal and to calm down. I was a mess. I was 9 days out and crying all the time I KNEW something was not right. I was a huge mess I cant stress that enough. Finally 8 days post opt- I wanted it OUT. I know I know people must think I am nuts but I was not okay 1 baby spoonfull of apple sauce made me sick. I was calling around ( in Wa) to have it out, everyone just kept telling me to wait wait and at this point I was DONE) I looked up on here and found Dr. Pleatman on here and called his office. I spoke with Debbi is office staff and she was WONDErFUL. Here is a woman who calls the office crying and Debbi talked with me for about 20 mins about everything. She told me to call anytime even though I wasent a patient and she calmed me down. The next day I called saying the same thing i want it out! Next thing I knew I was taLking to Dr Pleatman himself, not staff, not anyone else him. I told him what was going on and he said that the band could have slipped and or it was to tight. This was a Friday . I was so releived to actually speak with a Dr who didnt think I was crazy and understood that I was serious. He set everything up for me. My mom and i flew into MI, on Monday and his staff andhimself were in contact with me 100% of the time! I went into surgery tuesday morning and I was so dehydrated that it took 8 stick to get an I.V into me and 4 tries on a Blooddrawl. I was so dehydrated I couldnt even get tears out even though I would drink bottles of water and gatoraide all day. DR PLEATMAN, is a GOD-SENT! He was wonderful I had NO-GAS after waking up. I went for a follow up the next day and found out the band that was put in by Dr Beaucournt was held on by 1 stich ( not right) and it was tight and small. Dr.Pleatman is wonderful, he is very good at what he does and I will always recommend him for anyone who will consider him for surgery. If anyone has any questions or anything please feel free to write. I just cant stress enough how wonderful Dr. Pleatman is and his staff is wonderful also! I will always be grateful to them!
Stephanie from Seattle WA