What would you want to know

Just in the beginning stages of the WLS process and was wondering from those that have already had the surgery (bypass) what questions would be good to ask when you go in for a consultation. Knowing what you know now would you have asked more questions? Thanks for any responses! Ken

There IS a list on this site, some wonderful perosn will find it for you. Congrats and good luck to you!! I would ask: Am I a good candidate for LAP? How long will I be under? How long is my hospital stay if no complications? What tubes will I wake up with and how long will they stay in? Will my surgery be distal or proximal (and why)? (refers to amount of intestines bypassed) I am X years old, will I need a stress test? Am I required to lose X amount of weight before you will operate? What is your mortality rate (and reasons)? What sort of after-care do you offer? What type of Post-Op nutritional eating plan will I be on? (ie- 3 weeks liquids, 4 weeks pureed, etc) I'm tired and I have to go make dinner but you will get LOTS of replies! Read, read, read all kinds of profiles on this site and ask ANYTHING. If you don't get a response just try again later. I was lucky enough to choose an incredible surgeon and ALL of my questions (and fears) were addressed and there was a ton of information given out in advance. Do you have a surgeon in mind? You can check out that surgeon's forum if he has one on this site and talk to patients as well. Again, good luck!!

Ken - congrats on considering WLS, there is still alot of people who think this is the easy way out. The answer to your question will be different from many people..because there are alot of depending on you and your insurance/finances. For example you may be learning the different types of surgery: Lapband, RNY, DS, VBG etc - which one of those are you comfortable with based on your research, which one is the one your chosen surgeon is most comfortable with doing since some surgeons can do several but chose a most popular. For example: my surgeon does lapband, and the OPEN RNY - can he do the other probably but with his vast experience being in the open RNY that is the one he choses for 99% of his patients. I say 99% cause there might be someone who needs to lose some weight and feels the lapband is for them and so if he concurrs with them he does the lapand. So you have to see what amount of weight you are needing or wanting to lose. Your surgeon would probably tell what surgeries he does, is it open or laparscopically? Many times the questions people ask are related to insurance which would be handled by the insurance coordinator, the other questions would be asked by the patient who had a prior surgery and the surgeon will be doing a revision..rarely does a surgeon talks details on how they actually proceed with a surgery though you can ask. Many people have specific health issues and ask what kinds of resolution to their health issues will be resolved with wls. Some people ask about the hospital stay etc...... Best of luck....what would you like to know?