VSG over RNY

Hi all. At my last appointment the lady who taught the nutrition class seemed very certain the surgeon would choose the sleeve. Her only reason for this was because I am a dialysis patient. I was on information overload and just answering "oh ok" to everything. Now it's tomorrow and I'm sitting here thinking " why though, my kidneys have nothing to do with the choice of surgery".

Or do they? What are some of the reasons you know of that would make the VSG a better choice over the RNY?

Perhaps the VSG would be better in this case because it's less limiting as far as medications go? With RNY you have to avoid extended release meds. That's the only thing that comes to mind as far as kidneys go, though.

That makes perfect sense! My main goal in this is to qualify for a kidney which means a lot of anti rejection drugs along qith the pile I take for everything else!

One thing you may want to ask about is anti acids and proton pump inhibitors. Research has come out that in cases of prolonged use, they can be hard on the kidneys.

VSG patients commonly rely on these medications as they the procedure makes them susceptible to developing GERD.

I had WLS to lose weight to get on the kidney transplant list. At the time the choices were lap band, RnY, or the DS. I weighed 380 pounds and needed to get to 250 to make the list. I knew I wouldn't lose enough weight on the lap band and for me at the time the DS was too malabsorptive. Do you know what DS is? It's a sleeve stomach with additional bypassing of your intestines. I had taken care of a bone marrow transplant patient who had the DS. He never could absorb enough med by mouth so had to take his antirejection meds IV.

For me the RnY got me down to the weight to get on the list and I continued to lose and stayed there for the 3 years I was on the list.

I take a little more of antirejections meds than normal transplant patients do.

I also had a challenge in doing a combined RnY diet and a renal failure diet. I never needed dialysis and actually the weight loss helped bring my creatinine down for a while.

Is there malabsorption of medicine with the sleeve?

How much weight do you need to lose?

Is your nephrologist a partner with you on this?

Feel free to message me if you have any questions. I am now 5 years post transplant. My WLS got me a kidney.

There is no malabsorption with the sleeve. Our surgery simply removes the majority of the stomach ... it remains functional, only smaller. While we do take daily vitamins ... the reason is different ... we do absorb nutrients from food ...but because we eat such a restricted diet we need the back up of a vitamin. We do not need to take higher doses of our pills.

My kidney transplant surgeon is the one *****commended wls surgery. I was stage 4 with a very low filtration rate. He said weight loss might make my kidneys function better, or at least delay the need for a new kidney. And if not it would help my new kidney last longer. I had the sleeve surgery and my function has gone up. My Nephrologist said I'm doing so well that even if a kidney was available, they would not give it to me at this time. My diabetes also completely reversed. I was allowed to chose which surgery I wanted, but vsg was recommended by my surgeon. It's the best thing I've ever done for myself. God bless you on your journey.

Congratulations on your great success.

Reading all your replies brings me so much comfort! I'm not the only one! The only difference for me is that I am actually on dialysis already. On the bright side I don't have to worry about antacids because as my kidney doc said, you can't damage what is no longer working. And to answer someone's question, it was the dialysis team that referred me to the bariatric center. They are very on board ?

I am so happy to start this new chapter in my life!!!

VSG is a naturally working stomach, albeit smaller. IMHO, a RNY and all that it requires (and prevents), I would have concerns about the meds you may need to sustain your well-being kidney-wise.