Did you have two surgeons?

Thank you so much, everyone, for your comments above.  To Luvmygs you are very welcome indeed!   The first surgeon pair I ever heard of was back in the year 1999. Sonpal and Shiever out of Ohio something, I believe. I hadn't thought very much about it until I noticed an article this morning : http://www.obesityhelp.com/profiles/bariatric-center/obesity -control-center/articles/the-team-based-approach-two-surgeon s-working-together-1  . Seemed to have some insight potential, though as is for just one center it reads a little like an infomercial (which makes sense if/as on the actual center profile itself).  I thought I'd link it to some related posts. Couldn't find any. Thought I'd start one.

 In making this post I was wondering if posters would recommend their own surgeon for interview/comment on this topic if they did surgeries with other surgeons. (By all means, let your surgeon know I'm interested if you think he or she might be interested).  themselves (they referring to 'surgeon' :) ).  No idea if this might even be relevant to patients learning about how things are done or what might or might not matter at large. Would be happy to hear your thoughts on the matter - regardless of if your surgeon is a team operator.

Julia HasHerLifeNow  -  I really like your "what I have changed" list. Anything there you would update?  I spoke with Dr. Gagner in Boston two weeks ago. Really interesting how he has lead the laparoscopic DS/Sleeve field in so many ways.

****rogirl, The PhD - Thanks above.  Who was your surgeon -- Can you add him/her on your profile? My understanding is that the "PA" category in some ways kind of meant "this person can do anything the surgeon allows him/her to do". I don't know how that is regulated on a subfield by subfield basis (though I understand that state medical boards have some say in regulating everything on a per state basis).  So, my guess is that PAs in the operating room can cut. Can anyone post links with summaries to any sources answering that question? I'd love to learn more. An extra set of hands for the harder cases makes sense.  I wonder how common it might be for extra surgeons to be at work "behind the scenes" without the patient ever meeting them. Perhaps some surgeons like it that way. Seems like, potentially, an under-appreciated resource that hardworking quality-focused surgeons might supply.  What is your PhD in? I've had great respect for the poor, hassled, and/or depressed. p-values rule the world (or, perhaps they should?).

GwenMo- Who was your surgeon? Noticing "I know that I'd have felt like a failure to hear "it only takes diet and exercise" on your profile, yes just recently I was reminded, again, how much boundless energy there is out there for people to pour into the "failure" topic.

RossyKate -- really!? During the same surgery... did your RNY first, and then a separate surgeon came in and did your hernia. I bet that could lead to a lot of very focused specialization. Do you know if the hernia was believed to be particularly large before surgery? I'm looking at the profile page of Dr. Hu  http://www.obesityhelp.com/profiles/bariatric-surgeon/dr-si dney-hu-md/  Notice on the lower left there is a list of team members. Any idea if any of them might have been the hernia surgeon?  One of the things I've been following over the years is who different teams consider to be part of their team. Probably a lot of gray area there.

WhiteDove/Emelar -- Thanks. Who was your surgeon?

Erick, my surgeon explained that if a patient's hernia was small, he would repair it himself. If it was medium, as mine was, he had a general surgeon who had much more experience with hernias (his words), and if it was large or very large, he had a thoracic surgeon in to perform the repair.

My RnY surgeon was Dr. Ross McMahon, and my hernia surgeon was Dr. Jed Kauffman, who has since gone on to work at a bariatric practice and now performs wls himself.

I think some insurance companies do balk at assistant surgeons or surgical PAs, so you raise a good point about focused specialization. I can understand having another surgeon in if the first surgeon isn't familiar or confident with an aspect of the procedure, but I wonder about having an assistant at other times. Is it for training purposes or physician preference?

My surgeon was upfront that he felt Dr. Kauffman would be the better choice to repair my hernia, so there were no surprises for me.

My surgeon was Rita Anderson (Hadley).  She is no longer doing bariatric surgery.  

Most of us have our surgeon's names on our profiles, but OH made a change when they did the software upgrade a number of months back and apparently now only the names of surgeons who pay OH show up (which is why it makes it appear that almost no one has their surgeon listed). Everyone's surgeon used to show up.

I think that very often patients are not even aware that there was another surgeon (or even a PA) in the operating room.  I know a number of people who only found that out when they read their operative report, so there are likely many more people here who did have a second surgeon but have never seen their op report so have no idea that there was.

My PhD is in Psychology.

Yes, interesting. I looked back at that 'what have I changed' post and indeed there are things to update. Let us just say that things have relaxed quite a bit since that first year. The only thing that has not changed is the fact that I have not had any regain. Everything else is on a sliding scale I would say. Wine, an occasional cigarette, a croissant or a piece of bread, a slice of pizza. So yeah, I am firmly in the moderation works for me camp at the moment. Until it no longer does at which point I will adjust as necessary. 

The center I had surgery in uses 2 Surgeons for all surgeries high risk or not.

I had 3 in mine. My regular surgeon and 2 residents.