Reactions after surgeon problems

You are quite correct. There are some "support" groups on there but it seems some will only take the positives and not what happens in RL.

I don't know you...but i know my surgeon. I would support my surgeon and his way of dealing with patients based on my own experience.  But at the same time i know i am responsible for my own health. So i need to take action in areas that my doc, as a surgeon is not that familiar with. He is a cutter.  He can give me some guidelines, but overall it is my job to make sure i provide my body with the best nutrition. 

I know he is not a God, not he knows all that can go wrong with post op wls person.  I had bunch of complications.  Food allergies. Intolerance, mineral deficiencies. Etc etc etc... I think that some of that was caused by my RNY... But i don't blame my surgeon.  He did the cutting i asked him to do. He did the job he is trained to do. The rest. He tries too help me s much as he can do by sending me to specialists or recommending actions i need to take i.e. increase protein intake, take more vitamins, etc.  

It is up to me to follow the recommendation.   And when i needed iron infusions - the surgeon office sent me to hema doc to get help i needed. But i needed to ask for that. 

I understand. I would have expected them to know complications after surgery. Neurologic ones are written up in the research, especially with nutritional issues. I obviously have those in droves. They knew about the gastroparesis before the surgery. I took action in that but the doctor (and the GI he originally sent me to and the PCP he referred me to) didn't seem to do any other testing or checking other than just blame it on me. They should have been familiar with nutrition though. The bariatric group didn't have a nut for like ... 10 months ... of the time I was with them and I was with them for only another 6 months.

I do have him marked as an excellent surgeon. It was just the attitude towards me after surgery, how everything got blamed on me, rather than doing a better history. One of the things no one knew was that my insurance required you to have a monthly visit with a counselor. They knew that I wasn't crazy. It didn't help that I got told to figure out how to eat and then got fussed at for not eating to plan when other doctors were telling me to do other things, with sometimes conflicting advice. I was told by the PCP I had originally that neuropathies and nutritional issues and bariatric surgery could be an issue and to work with the surgeon. Surgeon said all was fine when I saw him the scheduled 1.5 months later. Labwork was fine. Then 3 weeks later when I went to the plastic surgeon as I told him I would (and he didn't have a problem with), everything was going to happen for surgery in 4 months. That then changed when I said my iron wasn't perfect. It was low normal. I reported that and they said go to surgeon. I did. All of a sudden, with no bloodwork, I got told no plastic surgery (now the surgery wouldn't be for 2-3 months at that point, well enough time to fix problems). Still all other blood work was normal. I couldn't get an answer as to why it was ok at one point and then changed.

Oh no, I was the one who didn't even bother with the surgeon, asking him. Once I got burned before I did my bariatric followups as asked, but I went to other doctors on my own. I followed up but the lack of telling me concrete answers, etc. so that I could plan anything became a problem. I mean you don't tell a patient "please be careful" and to protein load for 1-2 weeks before surgery, and then say well if you are feeling tired, although you have normal bloodwork, you can't have plastic surgery and you tell the plastic surgeon without giving a solid reason to the patient. I lost the money I had placed on that surgeon for that date.

I got told "figure out how to eat to support your exercise" etc. So ... what recommendations? The surgeons' nut asked on the support group for help.

Why is none of this info on your blog page? You write very clearly and coherently here but the blog entries are next to impossible to follow.  Color me confused...

Good idea. I will work on changing that. Thanks for the help.

Okay, I get it.  You went into this blindly expecting to be spoon-fed all the information you need from here...and you accept when someone tells you that your labs are "fine".   You're a few years out from RNY.  Did you ever get a copy of your labs and read them to understand what the numbers were and how "fine" was defined?  This is where you dropped your own ball.  It really isn't your surgeon's job to keep you healthy nutritionally...it's yours.  So I'm sorry to day I'm kind of siding with your surgeon here - I do think he should have made very clear the responsibilities you had to yourself besides eating the right foods.

Being a DSer, I'm quite used to medical professionals not knowing what I really need, and the first time my labs were "fine"  - I pulled out the last labs and did a true comparison.  I learned that from the other DSers to not trust what I'm told, for the surgeon's staff were not nutritionists, and even nutritionists often don't bother to learn the differences with the DS.   I may have been within range for a couple of things, but I was trending downward.  The medical staff didn't point that out.  The probably didn't even compare.  I did that myself and adjusted accordingly.  When I saw my pcp again, we reviewed my current regimen and I explained my changes and why.  She kept record and understood my anatomical differences because she took the time to learn about it.  We addressed my supplements, though, as a partnership when it came to deciding what changes to make.  I trusted her research, but she trusted my experience and what was shared by others.

I'm not sure what to make of you loitering outside of their office.  It may be legal, but it's offputting, and a little creepy, and I understand why they called the police.  I'm sure it was a little disturbing.  What was your intention for that, anyway?

Actually, no I didn't. Can you tell me where I put that I was "blindly expecting to be spoon-fed" so that I can correct that?

I went to my PCP at the time, who looked at the information I had and said yes, problems can occur, go see your surgeon and work with them on nutrition.

I sent a message to the surgeon about nutritional questions, etc. I was told to turn off the computer, relax and enjoy the holidays. I do believe I have that message so yes, I can prove that's what I got told.

I saw them in the office a month later. Again, all things are fine. I then saw the PCP he recommended, who said it could be MS. At that point I went and found my own neurologist, not the one they recommended, more than 6 months after the original issue.

It was during this time that the surgeon said I didn't trust him because I was asking too many questions, phone calls, emails, etc. to the office. I had other doctors directing me to them. I had medical research that had me ask questions, trends being one of them, like you stated.

The surgeon's notes stated that they would be responsible for nutrition. That's why current doctors, previous doctors, all sent me back to them. They also didn't understand why only partial labs would be done. For example, the hemetologist did zinc and found me deficient. They were expecting that surgeon to do that.

I didn't have RNY - had sleeve.

I actually got the evil eye from a GI I interviewed who didn't know several of the nutritional parameters. He said that if I were starved my albumin would be low. I went cachetic and my albumin was fine. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment also showed people with BMI's of 16 and a normal albumin level of avg. 3.9. Most also don't know that albumin goes high with dehydration. I catch a LOT of flak from doctors when I produce the studies and links to medical research bearing out my concerns.

I have done the same as you have. However, mine do not know anything about it and are also trying to treat things other than bariatric surgery. Nor are the RD's in my area either on insurance or flat out told me we don't know how to deal with you.

I don't loiter. I protest. I'm not talking PETA protests. I have done protesting before with various groups for various causes. Myself and others who protest like we do, are those who hold up non violent type signs and/or have leaflets. We don't scream at people or anything like that. I've had people come and ask and talk to me. I let them know that I went thru asking questions, problems, and that I attempted to work my way up the admin ladder to get items resolved for my health and for other patients' health. I've been met with resistance, bullying, threats, etc. rather than doing real addressing of issues of how they're going to look out for other patients, other than just 'we take care of who we want, etc.'. The whole idea is to let people know: this may be what you get, what happens, when you start advocating for yourself and some practices (such as HIPAA violations, medical records issues, practice treatments) that are not advertised.

Some of your quotes point to your expectation to be spoon fed information:

•  Neurologic ones are written up in the research, especially with nutritional issues. I obviously have those in droves.
• They should have been familiar with nutrition though. The bariatric group didn't have a nut for like ... 10 months ... of the time I was with them and I was with them for only another 6 months.

The point is that YOU should have done the work yourself then instead of now to know what you need nutritionally.  I'm 9 years post op and every patients needs are different, so there is no textbook path to follow.  Your stomach is simply smaller than it was before, and you're eating less than your body needs to sustain nutritional health.  With that comes a great need for supplementation.  That doesn't make you all that special with a sleeve.  Any nutritionist or dietician can treat you like any other normal patient.  If you were not intending to continue nutritional follow-up with your surgeon regularly as your notes state, then you should have had their lab tests copied and taken them to your PCP to duplicate.  Just from your posts right here, I get the vibe that you want to contradict any advice you're given, just like you are with so many people today.  You are now getting "reactive" trying to point fingers at them, and stage a protest, really?  If that doesn't take all!  No wonder none of them wants to work with you.  I see it being nobody's fault but your own, too, and pitching a public fit, illegal or not, isn't going to get your health in order.  It's going to ostracise you from the medical community.  Well done!

    And the word gets out to hospitals AND doctors about the 'law suit ' happy trouble makers and they can refuse to treat and transfer care to an accepting provider.

The AMA is a great place to file a complaint about a physician and standards of care as opposed to the streets with signs unless you are just looking for attention.

YES, and the radio sends me government secrets about aliens.......

REALLY ?!?!? Are you that paranoid to think there are some "Prominent WLS people" to begin with let alone

a "group" secret to keep a story hidden ?!?!?

Eat some carbs or something and calm down for goodness sake before someone locks you up !