Possible sleeve revision due to reflux and pain, in Ohio
I was a patient of Dr. Watkins in Cincinnati for band and sleeve, with this revision I went to Dr. Rodriguez in Juarez Mexico. Very happy with him and the whole experience. In my experience, most docs don't want to "resleeve" because of the risk. I also didn't fine anyone local with experience with the MGB.
It's been a while since I've been on the board...VSG in 8/2013, lost exceedingly slow but assumed it was because I'm "of a certain age". I managed to lose 48% of my excess weight for about a week before climbing again. I did break 200# for about 24 hrs, but mostly I never was under 210. My surgeon was/is highly respected with an excellent record of 0 mortality. He also was the chief surgeon at one of my insurance's center of excellence. He gets great reviews. I just never clicked with him or his staff and really felt like just a number. His nutritionist met with me twice - once in a group before surgery; once alone at my 2nd post visit. At my 6 month visit, my surgeon met with me with a couple of interns and spent the whole visit "teaching" his interns. In other words, I didn't feel I got a ton of support....but....I ate protein first, etc. Very early on, I could eat my normal amount of food and although I didn't pig out, I did tend to "graze" all day on yogurts and other acceptable proteins. And my stomach roiled constantly with acid which just made me want to eat constantly to try and stop the pain. I had battled acid reflux since my late teens, so when the omeprazole didn't control it, I added my old standby, ranitadine (zantac). That reduced it but didn't end it. My calls to my "contact" (the nurse, maybe?) were useless.She told me to drink more water. I finally moved on to other PPIs and finally settled on lansoprazole which taken everyday religiously seems to control it. But let me run out and have to miss a day or two and all hell breaks loose. So basically I've been on PPIs for going on 3 years and I'm aware they increase the occurrences of osteoporosis (hmmm, wonder if that is why my hand joints hurt all the time over the past year?), also PPIs have recently been identified as a potential cause of kidney damage, and lastly they are virtually impossible to quit due to them causing acid production rebound. Oh, and I've gained 35# back in the past year. Soooooooo, here I am in basically the same boat as you. I don't know where to start, what surgeon to see, whether my insurance will consider this a revision of the regular kind and make me jump thru hoops or a medical necessity that needs to be done, and most importantly... whether I can take off work for a week or two to recover. Will a revision to RnY help the acid, help to lose the weight, kill me? Should I just give the 'f' up and accept I'll be fat for whatever years are left of my life AND live off proton pump inhibitors?
Anyway...following your thread to see where it leads...Thanks for the post, nice to know I'm not alone. :)
Kaj
