Met with my surgeon yesterday

Well, I had my follow-up meeting with my surgeon yesterday following my endoscopy.  He feels the best option is to go in and make the stoma smaller (as it's stretched) and also make my stomach pouch smaller.  Said I would be in the hospital 1-2 days and out of work 2 weeks.  Sounds fair enough to me.  They are going to start working on insurance approval and if everything goes smoothly, I could have the revision in early April.

In the meantime, I will call my husband's surgeon today and schedule a 2nd opinion with him.

I wonder what they put on the paperwork to the insurance company?  "She completely screwed up the first surgery, but we believe in her and want to give her a Hail Mary pass.  So please approve her surgery."  Okay, that probably wouldn't go over well.  I'm sure they word it to indicate "mechanical failure" rather than user error.

So, we will see what happens from here.  But that's where I stand right now.

 Are you sure you want to use the same surgeon for the revision?  Why not use someone who has experience in (as Dr. Roslin always says) "fixing other surgeon's f-ups".  I would never allow my original surgeon to re-operate on me as I feel he is partly to blame for the failure.

I don't know your story or why you sought a revision, so I can't comment to that. But is the fact my stoma stretched really my surgeon's fault? Is it a true mechanical failure? Probably not 100%. Is a stretched stoma a true failure on my part? Possibly. My original surgeon did his job. I was successful for a little over a year. Then, my mom (who I was sole caretaker of) rejected dialysis and came home on Hospice care. I also met my husband (who had the DS in 2003 and doesn't think there are any rules regarding WLS which would explain why he never got down to goal weight). I got married in July 2010 and my ,om passed in Sept 2010. All great stresses...good and bad.

I am seeking a 2nd opinion with hubby's surgeon. I think he's willing to see me because he highly respects my husband and he also did my emergency hernia with corkscrew bowel obstruction this past June. Most bariatric surgeons (at least in his area) don't like to operate on other surgeon's patients. But it seems like he's willing to if that is what I choose.

But I don't necessarily see my failure as my surgeon's failure. I also don't want to take full responsibility for it either. Because it feels like no matter what I've done over the last year, I can't lose anymore. I try and try...it's just not working.

So we'll see. Now I have to figure out how to get copies of my original surgery report as well as the results of my endoscopy from a couple of weeks ago. Any suggestions on how to get that from my current surgeon?

Rereading my first couple of sentences, I hope I didn't come off as being snarky...I'm not meaning to be.

-L

Now I have to figure out how to get copies of my original surgery report as well as the results of my endoscopy from a couple of weeks ago. Any suggestions on how to get that from my current surgeon?

When you do go to a new dr they will have you sign some papers getting permission from you to get your  information from your previous dr/surgeon .

Audrey

Nope. I talked to the new doc's office yesterday and they want me to get the copies. I guess it's so they don't step on anyone's toes, so to speak.

You can contact your surgeon's office and request copies of the original report.  You might have to pay a fee; however, you are entitled to obtain your medical records.

 All I am saying is that I wouldn't be so quick to use the same doctor.  I bet, if you took a pol, you'd see that 99% of people doing a revision used a different doctor.  And while, YES, Doctors generally don't "like" to clean up other doctor's "messes" so to speak, that is what a REVISION DOCTOR DOES!  I'd get an experienced revision doctor to look at your pre-op notes from Surgery #1 and also look at your current endoscopy, ct scan and whatever else you've had done.

Gotcha.  And yes, that is why I am looking at consulting with my husband's surgeon.  He's a good guy and did my hernia...so technically, he's already seen at least part of the insides!   Just got to get him the notes from my current surgeon and we'll go from there.

any chance to get the reports from the hospital they were done at?   That is how I've gotten a lot of my stuff.  Some places charge you a small fee though.

I called and talked to the receptionist/office manager person yesterday (she does a little of everything).  Anyway, no questions asked, "of course she'll send me the reports".  I should have known.  I have a good relationship with her.  But still, I feel almost like I'm "cheating" on my surgeon in going for a 2nd opinion.  Anyway, I should have the report in a day or two.