I've seen oodles over the years getting their DS "finished".

Some docs will only do the DS in two parts or the SMO. Sleeve first for a year or 100lb loss, then finish the DS thereafter. It was by this process that they realized that some people never needed the DS and the sleeve stood on its own.

For the rest of us though, we need to change the way our body metabolizes food, and the DS does that.

Asking for a friend?

Actually my sister :) Her starting weight 400 lbs current weight 300 lbs. She's lost about 100 lbs with the sleeve after 1 year, but stopped cold after about 6 months, has just maintained since. It's like it's just stopped, would like to lose another 100. She's a cancer survivor and has an autoimmune disease, thinking is this might be some (not all) of the problem.

Has anyone done a sleeve to DS and what kind of results did you see? She has a appointment next week with a different surgeon who does only DS. Any comments appreciated.

Thanks

Diarrhea can be a side effect of Flagyl. Of course, it didn't start the problem as you already had diarrhea, but once you discontinue the Flagyl, the diarrhea may improve. I would at least give this a chance before doing something as major as a revision. After 50 days of suffering I can understand your desire for relief, but keep in mind that with less (or no) malabsorption, you may find yourself regaining weight. For me, I would try everything else short of revision before taking that risk.

Larra

Congrats Janet!

Is your in/out of network coverage just a different copay split (30/70 vs 20/80) as is typical for a PPO, or no coverage vs. coverage? If it is just a different copay split, then there may not be a big of a difference as one may think, depending upon timing and cir****tances. Does your family normally use a lot of med care, and exceed, or comes close to, the max out of pocket levels of the policy?

When I had my WLS with Dr. Rabkin, he wasn't in network (he usually isn't, or wasn't at the time) but by the time Aetna paid off, we had met our max out of pocket expense for the year, so they paid his fee 100% even though he was out of network. Just a consideration. Also, some docs who are in network will charge a "program fee" to cover expenses not paid by the insurance - this is usually a nominal few hundred dollars, but can sometimes be thousands - so that is also something to work into your calculus.

Good luck in getting through this.