Dr. Scheslinger and revision surgery

Hi
just wonder if anyone had revision surgery with Dr. S. I'm from WI and need to travel quite far. I had a RNY done and now my stoma is dialated and I was looking into getting a DS as a revision. Any in fo about Dr. S would be great. I heard some good and some bad. I'm sure that is the normal for any dr. though. Also did insurance pay for your revision? I have Unite Health Care Choice Plus.

alot of people on here go to him, I am sure they can tell you about him! 

There are a few physicians who do revision surgerys and what your need is. Before settling on DS, look into options such as Stomafix or why you need the revision in the first place. It could be a simple process. Dr. S does do his share of DS's here in AZ for revisions. Weigh out your options for the best long term decision.

Wow -- people keep sending me links to rebut the people saying that Schlessinger does DS revisions.  I know I've answered you on other threads, but I want to post this on the AZ board as well, so others can see this.

By the way, from what I've seen, Stomaphyx doesn't work -- there are LOTS of posts on the main message board from disappointed Stomaphyx patients who have lost no weight, just thousands of self-pay dollars.

Now, back to the main topic: to the best of my knowledge (which I am saying for legal reasons), Dr. Schlessinger DOES NOT DO RNY TO DS REVISIONS.  From what I have seen over and over on these message boards and in my PMs, he SAYS he does them, then does the "bait-and-don't-switch" when he does the consult.

"Bait-and-don't-switch" -- several people on these boards have discovered that when they actually go in to talk to him, he tries to talk them into an ERNY -- tells them it's safter.  I don't know anyone he has actually revised to a DS (he MAY have done lapband to DS revisons, but those are entirely different) -- which doesn't mean anything, of course -- but I'm just warning you.  I don't think he does the revision of the stomach, only virgin DSs.  And I think his office calls the ERNY "just like a DS" because they make the common channel the same length, but again, I don't think he revises the stomach -- and without that, you don't have a DS, you have an ERNY, with all the pouch problems AND a lot of malabsorption -- the worst of both worlds.

But please -- go ahead and have your consult with him.  I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.  The more surgeons doing DS revisions, the better.  But I'd ask him to give you his statistics IN WRITING.  How many revisions to a TRUE DS (including a vertical sleeve gastrectomy) he has done.  How many virigin DSs.

One recent person he did this to is Kerry -- but I haven't seen him on the DS Forum for a while.  Here is a link to a thread he started in which he reported the Schlessinger "bait-and-don't-switch."  Kerry later had a proper revision to a DS from Dr. Rabkin instead -- he felt Schlessinger LIED to him.  You can click on the "contact" button if you want to PM Kerry directly.  http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/board_id,5357/cat_id,49 57/topic_id,3699220/a,messageboard/action,replies/#29407315

Diana

 Quick question ... Kerry  had a true D.S. revision and had multiple problems with  infection and needed additional surgeries ??

A true D.S. revision scares me ...But that's me !   I  made my choice for the shortened common chanel and I am very happy with it. But everyone is differant.  & I dont have pouch problems.

 

Kerry had a minor structural issue with (this is what I recall -- I'm sure if you contact Kerry he will be happy to tell you exactly what it was) scar tissue inside his sleeve.  He had to have a second surgery to fix that a few days after his DS revision and all is now well.  I don't believe he had any infections (other than thrush, which is very common after any surgery where they give you massive doses of antibiotics - I get it just about every time).

Here's one of his most recent posts to go off of to see his post history:

Post Date 12/30/08 7:40 pm
Topic: RE: ***Tuesday Food & Fitness***

 This is my first try and remembering what I ate today:

B: 8 oz. OJ, 2 eggs with ham, cheese and salsa.
S: Deep fried breaded chicken breast strip with ranch dressing for a dip.
S: 6 Ritz crackers with tuna salad and cheese.
L: 3/4 of 2 enchiladas 1 cheese, one beef, some chips and salsa.
S: Some white corn chips with hot bean dip and salsa.
D: 3 Van de Kamp's breaded fish fillets, with fresh lemon and tater sauce. 
BTS: Who knows????

Carbs ?
Protein ?
Drank about 1/2 gallon of water.

Fitness - nuthin really, just worked on my truck for a couple of hours, probably walked 1/2 mile today just doing what I do.

Kerry

A couple of other comments: if you're willing to settle for an ERNY, WHY would you travel to AZ for it??  There are many surgeons a lot closer to you who can fiddle with your intestinal bypass.

Also, I found this from  mew6495 from just a few days ago:

Post Date 12/23/08 6:08 am
Topic: RE: approved for revision, now what???

 Hi Iisabelll,

Definitely talk to your doctor about the proper diet you should follow.  But as an original RNYer I can tell you you should keep most of your food intake to protein and the lesser portion to complex carbs.  Stay away from the refined sugars and flours etc and make sure you chew your food throughly.

Not sure how Schlesinger's name came up in this string of posts as you did not appear to be asking for advice on him but I can tell you from my personal experience that I felt he was up front and honest with me and I am very happy with my revision to date for many reasons.

Dr Schlesinger  gave me several options as far as revisions and stated clearly up front that he did not perform DS revisions on original RNYers due to the elevated risk associated with it.  He did not in any way, what-so-ever try to change my mind and talk me into something else.  At no time did I feel pressured or baited.    I also consulted with several "DS" revision surgeons (some of them came highly recommended from individuals on this site) and they relayed the same info as far as the risk factor goes and 2 of them also mentioned that if it was the DS I decided on that they could not guarantee they would perform the total DS on me until they opened me up to see what my internal system was like.  They did promise they could do the bottom portion switch but with a already existent pouch system they would make the evaluation and determination at the time of surgery.    I for one appreciated ALL the surgeons I spoke with honesty and advice.   The risk was the factor that helped me decide on what was right for me.

Good luck to you.  I hope all turns out well.  Keep us posted on how you proceed.

************

Finally, it should be noted that both SheriAZ and My_Time apparently both thought they were getting a DS from him.   Here is a link to the thread where a prospective revision patient wants to hear of others' experiences with the RNY to DS conversion and they answer her that they both had one done by Schlesinger: 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/revision/action,replies/bo ard_id,5360/a,messageboard/cat_id,4960/topic_id,3815154/page ,1/#30533441

Kerry J called him on this and dropped him like a rock when he realized what was going on:
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/board_id,5357/cat_id,49 57/topic_id,3699220/a,messageboard/action,replies/#29407315

Post Date: 8/17/08 3:53 pm
Ginau,

I called his office and then later in the day he called me and we spoke for at least 30 minutes. I was surprised that he would take so much time to discuss my case when he hadn't even received any of my medial records. And while I did appreciate his call and the time he took to talk to me, it was obvious he was against me haveing a revision to DS.

Since my conversation with Dr. S, I've looked up and read three different published DS studies and what I found was that Dr. S either:

1. Didn't know what he was talking about.
Or.
2. Lied to me to try and scare me about haveing a revision to DS done. 

Here's what that part of the conversation was about:

I mentioned to Dr. S that I'm a private pilot, I fly my own aircraft and I want to continue being able to do that, I do not want to lose my FAA medical because of some problem a RNY or DS revision might cause. To that, Dr. S told me that the average DS patient has 6 very loose bowel movements a day and that I could expect to have that if I had a DS.

This came as quite a shock to me because no one on the DS board has indicated they have this problem and in fact, from what I've read there, there is no such problem. But I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, so I've been reading all about it since then. If you check the posts I've made here since then, you will see that I haven't mentioned this here until now. I didn't mention it because I wanted to find out for myself if there were any peer reviewed studies on the subject and if there were I wanted to read them for myself. I've done that and there are such studies; here's one of them:
  
http://www.duodenalswitch.com/procedure/clinical_data/Annals DS042303.pdf

If you bother to read it, you will see that the average bowel movements per day for all DS patients is 2.4.

Now, I'm not acusing Dr. S of trying to do a "Bait and Switch" on me, he may very well believe that DS patients have 6 bowel movements a day and maybe he was just trying to help me not make a big mistake. The problem is that he told me things that are not true and like my Dad always told me, "Son, it's not so much what people don't know that hurts, it's what they know that ain't so that really hurts people. And spreading things that are not true does hurt people.

Because of this I will not be considering Dr. S for my revision, unless I discover I can't get a revision to DS and have to settle for something else.

Kerry