DS - RNY - Lap Band

Hello Belinda, Thank you for reading between the lines and realizing that I was asking to hear your story.  Congratulations on your success.  You have a lot to be proud of. I have spoken with my insurance company and I am covered for the RNY and Lapband for sure and I do have the ability to apply for coverage with other procedures.  I have been working with my physician for almost two years as well as working with a nutritianist trying to lose this on my own and that is all documented. I do not get much opportunity to be online during the day so I don't know how much I will be able to post on your coffee post.  Al

Hey there! I had originally gone into things looking at the lap band too, but then I attended one of the same seminars that Laura is talking about.  Dr. Foote, Dr. Baker, and Dr. Kemmeter are all in the same practice here in GR at MMPC. I looked into the VSG, but that is not covered as a stand-alone procedure with my BCBSM. Once I did some concrete research with the DS, I was hooked. My surgeon also helped things with his enthusiasm about the DS. I am sorry you were put off by the zeal of some DSers. It's hard to hide that we love the opportunity that this surgery has afforded us. I was looking for a cure for my diabetes.. I have gotten that. I wanted to make sure that I would not regain the weight I lose after going through surgery.. and the DS has proven to be the surgery with the best statistics in that regard.  Good luck in your journey! PS: There is a well-known DS surgeon on that side of the state named Marek Lutrzykowski M.D. in Bloomfield Hills.

Thank you for the information Jodie.

Hi Al.  Welcome.  I am generally not on this board too much anymore, but I do chec****asionally.  I still don't understand the surgery wars, but I just wanted to tell you my experience with DS.   I am 7 years post-op at this point and my surgeon was out of Bloomfield Hills, Dr. L as we like to call him.  As far as surgeons go, I think he's the best performing the DS in the metro Detroit area.  He has not only performed my surgery, but he performed surgery on my mother and my aunt as well.  Now on to my actual experience with recovery.   I'm not going to lie and say my recovery was nice and easy because it wasn't.  I was back in the hospital 3 weeks post-op because of severe dehydration.  I could not keep food or water down.  Honestly, I threw up every day for a year post-op.  However, I think I am an exception.  My mother and aunt never had problems and have really had no problems thus far (they are both 6 years post-op).  I did not listen to the doctor and never took vitamins and did not drink water for about the first 4 years post-op.  Well, I paid for it.  That's another story in itself.   At about 2 years post-op, I was rushed to the hospital and had to be re-operated on.  My intestines were twisted and I had some adhesions that were causing pain.  The doctor said that there was so much room in my abdominal cavity that it may happen again.  Well, it did.  In all, I have had 5 surgeries at this point.  The most recent being a little over a year ago.  Dr. L did a small bowel resection.  This seemed to do the trick.   With all the issues I have had, I would still pick the DS over the other types of surgery and I would still do it over again if given the choice.   I believe my brother had RNY and I have had two aunts that chose the lap-band.  They are all happy with their surgery choices and have lost weight.  The differences that I noticed between us was that they all have to crush pills, I can swallow giant pills whole.  They have the dreaded dumping syndrome, I don't have that issue.   Each different procedure has its pros and cons and I think you will be happy with whatever route you decide to go.  Good luck By the way, what type of law do you practice?  My husband is civil litigation attorney in Traverse City and I used to work at Trott and Trott.  (I am NOT an attorney though)

Thank you very much for your message.  I am terribly sorry that you had a bad recovery but it sounds like in the end, everything worked out well.  I am a corporate attorney for a medium sized company that has offices throughout the state.  I deal mostly with human resource issues and contract law.