Looking for a doc that does D/S in the Tulsa area

Does anyone know of a doc that does the D/S proceedure in the Tulsa area?

Congratulations on choosing the DS. I wish more people knew about it. It doesn't take much reading to see that it has so many advantages over all other procedures. I want to talk to you first about choosing a doc. There's a doc here in Fort Smith who does RNY and LOTS of his pts end up with bad problems and in the hospital for months - my family works on long term care floors and tells me that the nurses who know his work have all told their families to never EVER let that man come near them with a scalpel for ANY kind of surgery. I've heard all the gory details, and lemme tell ya, if that doesn't open your eyes to the importance of getting a good doc, it's hopeless. Now the bad news: Sorry hon, I don't think that there is one. I have been researching DS for a year now. As a transplanted Okie in Fort Smith, I can appreciate your distance issues. I'm guessing that there is not a doc who does DS in Ok, Ark, or MO. I've heard that there is one starting up in the Houston area, but since so much of a sucessful procedure hinges on the experience of a doc, NO WAY is someone who's done less than several hundred of these things touching me. That said, here are our choices for well-qualified DS surgeons, and all are about 9 hours more or less from me: Dr. Clark Warden in New Orleans Dr. Husted in Nashville Some Doc - Alverdy maybe(?) in Chicago And my personal choice hands down - Dr. Gary Anthone in Omaha. Dr. Anthone has done well over a thousand surgeries and has never lost a patient due to the kinds of complications that come from not doing a good job. I've actually heard that he's never lost a patient, period - don't know if that's true or not. Have you been to the DS board? If not, I urge you to start hanging out there. You can learn so much and the people are just fabulous. They seem to know the ins and outs of DS from top to bottom - I've never seen an issue, even the most technical ones involving figuring out what research papers say, that someone there couldn't answer. I just love talking about the DS. Feel free to get back with me if you want to talk. Denise in Ark

Thanks Denise! The surgery just seems to make so much more sense to me. My gall bladder is already gone, so the surgery wouldn't be so extensive. I worked critical care for 18 years and I know first hand about the complications of the RNY. I've seen the 'handiwork' of some of the surgeons in this area all too well! I was going to have the D/s surgery in PA before we moved back to OK. I wish I had been able to get it done before the move back. Omaha is 7.5 hours from here. I wouldn't want to make that trip after surgery! OW! I wish someone would move into the area that was experienced in this proceedure! rigel

I was about 2 months into my WLS journey when I became dismayed at what I read from the RNY people on the main board. WLS was NOT what I'd thought it would be. I'm forever grateful for the input from some DS people *****ad the main board, and quickly figured out that the problems I found with RNY were overcome with DS. In the near-year since that point, it's been confirmed as the right decision over and again. I know that there are some VERY good RNY docs around the country, even a few locally. If I was at all comfortable with that procedure, I'd feel comfortable with the doc. But it's become obvious that if DS is important to me, it will skew the other criteria because it's definitely a one or the other proposition, unless by some miracle, as you say, someone would move here. That would be so exciting - there's definitely not any choices within a couple of hours just about anywhere in the middle of the US, unless you happen to be close to Omaha or Chicago. When I very first decided that WLS was an option for me and started looking into the particulars, distance was one of my top criteria as well - in fact, it was in my 'deal-breaker' catagory. My aunt, who lives at Duncan, had her surgery in Wichita Falls, which is about an hour and a half drive for them. Even that relatively short distance was an issue what with family visits, etc. for only a four day stay. It would have been an even bigger deal had she had complications increasing the length of her stay. Knowing all of this, staying in town just seemed, at the time, to reasonably be a high priority. But as I said, once it became a choice between distance and DS, I figured that I'd undertake the short-term inconveniences and the chances of being far away when I need my family (although choosing a great doc dramatically lowers the odds of that happening). After all, I am becoming disabled because of my weight - at 45 my quality of life is dramatically falling just at the time when we are free of child-rearing issues and could start doing some fun stuff that wasn't possible with kids at home. The difference between short-term discomfort and long-term benefit is overwhelming enough that it became a non-issue after all. Since you're from PA, and apparently had a doc chosen there, is it possible that you have family back there where you could stay until you were comfortable flying again? The flight itself would be pretty short - not more than a couple of hours. If we could get a direct flight to Omaha from Fort Smith, we'd probably fly too. But we'd have to go to Tulsa or LR for that, but we'd still have 2 hour's drive home and all of the flight time. Might as well drive. If you can plan to stay a week and everything is totally uneventful, then you'd probably feel OK for the flight. Most of the people at the DS board have to travel. There just aren't enough surgeons to be convenient everywhere. In the past year, every single time it's been mentioned, it was TOTALLY worth the trip - even the downside of it. Please don't give up on your dream over distance. If you have any regrets with the trip, they will be small compared to the rewards of getting your life back. I am looking so forward to DH and I getting ours, hopefully this summer. I've been through a long process...DH's ins excludes WLS, so by the time spring planting time arrives, I hope to be working at Home Depot, because I've heard their insurance doesn't exclude it. As soon as we have insurance coverage, we're on our way. Do you mind my asking about your coverage? This entire year's delay has been due to that one complication. Once that issue is resolved, DH and I can look forward to our post-children and retirement years with good health and abundant energy for sharing the last half of our lives together. Denise in Ark

Just looking thru the posts and was wondering what is D/S ? Just curious

Not an expert on D/S but...reading your profile...seems like we had some of the same probs after surgery.....glad you are doing better....Floyd was also my Phd take care kristi

HI Mark- DS is short for duodenal switch. All of the statistics are better in comparison to every other type of WLS procedure. Here is a comparison table for you: http://www.dssurgery.com/generalinformation/comparison_table.pdf It has a 98% cure rate for type II diabetes and high cholestrol problems. It leaves the stomach and duodenum with all natural functions - the pylorus works exactly as God intended, there's no blind pouch and no stoma to get clogged up or cause dumping. The intestinal bypass portion is distal and long-lasting. 80% of fat calories pass through unabsorbed and 50% of protein. The vit/min supplements are exactly the same, but many people can quit the protein drinks once they get past the quick weight loss portion if they will eat 100g of protein from food a day. It's easier to do that because food tolerances are better because there is no stoma to contend with, and because the small size of RNY pouches sometimes prevents being able to get enough protein from just eating food, thus the continuous need for protein drinks. The stomach treatment that retains the pylorus is basically just taking away stomach tissue in order to change the regular size/shape of the stomach to more like a thin tube. The area of tissue that is removed produces a hormone called grhelin, which research is pointing to as a cause for inappropriate appetite. Removal of this tissue reduces ghrelin production, and thus appetite is permanently controlled. This is so effective for some people that they only have this part of the procedure, called vertical sleeve gastrectomy or VSG (there's a VSG forum at OH, too), and don't have any bypass (thus no malabsorption) at all. They have to stay on a permanent low fat, low carb, low calorie diet to keep their weight off, but some people insist that it is possible - perhaps even easy- to do so with the reduced stomach size and reduced ghrelin production. This is controversial, but those who have had great success with it are hard to argue with. Those who haven't go back and have a second surgery to get the bypass portion done. The %EWL with DS is statistically greater than with any other procedure, and the % of people who maintain their loss for 10years and longer is greater. While general eating practice should be light on carbs (eat protein first and then veggies - a little starch or sugar if you still have room and want it), you don't have to be careful with fat. In fact, so little fat is absorbed that it's better NOT to be careful, as to get as much of the good fat soluble vits as possible through diet. All malabsorption issues are dealt with through monitoring and vitamin/mineral supplements, same as other procedures. DS makes it easier to maintain nutrition health not only by allowing better eating habits, but because the intact duodenum and lower stomach keep the issues with B vitamins and production of intrinsic factor in good shape. Anemia and b-12 shots aren't issues with DS. Although it is, of course, possible to outeat any WLS, few people with DS later report the need to diet or go nuts with exercising because, at 2 years out, they are otherwise regaining their weight. When I saw how many people were going on strict diets - diet pills, going back to WW, Jenny and the like- or reporting the need to exercise A LOT because otherwise regain was a real problem, I almost backed out from WLS. Then I found out that DS people seldom have problems with regain. After all, diet and exercise have worked temporarily for me a hundred times - if 2-5 years out came and my WLS 'tool' was no longer working so I once again had to depend on strict diet and exercise to keep my weight off, well, I don't have to be psychic to see the future. Up to 40% of people with other procedures might do perfectly fine in the long run - I guarantee I would not be one of them, because I've lived on that road. I'd be whining right along with the ones that scared me! There's a lot of misinformation out there, much of it coming from docs who don't do DS because they don't want to put in the long training time they need to be able to do the procedure. So if you hear anything negative about it, be sure to ask someone who's been there/done that. The DS forum at OH is fantastic. For example, although there are bathroom issues, they are the same as for any other malabsorptive procedure - not worse. Some docs have actually told people that they will forever after have a personal body odor like an outdoor toilet. Absolutely false. Many of the DS surgeries are revisions TO DS from other procedures that didn't cut it. In a year of reading every DS post at OH and YG, I've never seen a single person who had DS revised to a different procedure, but there are any number of people with other ones You'll hear it called several other things, most commonly biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch, or bpd/ds. who are doing it again, this time with DS. Sorry to take so long getting back to you. Your post must have come through shortly after we left for the holiday weekend. I hope you are still interested in this question and the answer - otherwise that was a lot of reading for nothing! Denise in Ark