Why I Traveled For The DS. What's Your Story?

 Surgery....it's a process, it's an investment, it's a roller coater ride.  I think that many of us at the pre-op stage started off by getting info and going to seminars at our nearest bariatric surgeon/ hospital.  Maybe this place was recommended by a friend, maybe you searched online.  Many of us (not all) may have been impressed but the surgeon, but after all, is  he's  just a cutter.

I remember being sooo happy that I had found a highly recommended surgeon.  His office was awesome.  It had a waterfall inside.  It was a "Center Of Excellence" and had some sort of excellence award from BCBS.  I had known about the DS as an option but I was convinced that dumping and other bits of the RNY lifestyle was going to be to my benefit.  I was even willing to get a Fobi from this guy to help protect against stretching my stoma.  That surgeon was so smooth and good looking I hardly realized the load of horse **** he was feeding me.

Here' how much info my then surgeon had on the DS:  Look carefully, buried into the BPD section. UGH  carolinaweightlosssurgery.com/default/weightloss-procedures

I remember calling his office on day and inquired if they offered the Duodenal Switch.  The receptionist said WHAT? then buried the phone in chest, mumbled to some one else then returned to me stating they had never heard of that procedure before.    *SIGH*


I started learning about the DS from a book I had been reading about WLS, then started researching on the net, asking question on OH.  By the time I had been approve for the RNY, I knew that I wanted the DS.  But travel held me back.  I could have the RNY 15 minutes from my house.  Now if I wanted the DS with a vetted surgeon I'd have to travel almost 2.5 hours each way.  BUMMER.  

It was almost a deal breaker until reality, sanity and rationality slapped me thrice in the face!!!

This DS is not a McDonalds on every corner Surgery.  It's a specialized, highly technical surgery.  If I had cancer, I'd travel any distance it took for the very best care and the very best procedures and the very best surgeons.  Was I really going to base a surgery that I would have to live with for the rest of my life on the fact that it was convenient to get to on the morning of surgery?

What about the REST OF MY LIFE.  It's not like I was going to spend the rest of it traveling 5 hours a day to check in with my Dr, that's just silly.  And as time goes on, now I only need to see my Dr once a year.  Most of my business can and has been conducted over the phone, like ordering labs etc.  My Dr is extremely flexible with patients whom have traveled.  I even skipped my 6 month and just had all the labs ordered, and walked into my local Lab Quest (only 10 minutes away, how convenient :) )

But what if something happens to me and I need to get to my surgeon fast?  Unless it's a life or death moment, and if I know it might be  DS related, I'm probably gonna travel to my surgeons hospital or I will be prepared to present info at my local hospital concerning my special internal arrangements and needs.  Let's face it, even the very best surgeons retire, change practices, change fields or even take a vacation now and then.  None of us can or should rely on the fact that he will be there for us until we die.  

It's is up to me to advocate for myself, to know my body and to be prepared to teach my PCP. It's wise to have a file prepared to take to the hospital with as much info as possible.  Always let your partner , a family member or good friend know where this info can be found.

 It is also up to me to research the hell out of the person that's going to forever alter my insides and not let distance dissuade me from the very best care available.

All this makes whining about a road trip seem a pretty stupid when I think about it.

~GG

you are exactly right.  I also went to the nearest baraitric center of excellence by my house. The surgeon was good looking and had a lot of pazaaz. I was in the early stage of my research and after that seminar I walked out with a feeling of, Gee, you better read some more, lady.
At the seminar he proclaimed that bands fail because people dont maintain them. He said that 9 times outta 10 people get the surgery and dont come back for the fills or unfills. 
 Ouch!
His coordinator also said that people who follow up with their bands regularlly are very successful.
Now after reading here OH for even a short period of time, I knew that wasn't the case. so needless to say     I just  got the heck outta there . Who wants a surgeon who is already blaming the patients,even at the seminar.

After finding  a vetted Surgeon,my next obstical was getting a referral from my primary doc. My insurance requires referrals to specialist. So I went to my primary and I told her my choice of surgeon and requested the referral. She told me that she couldn't give me the referral,because he wasn't on her list,meaning with in the HMO network. I informed her that he takes my insurance and all I need is the damn referral . She then says she only has to offer me a network surgeon and thats it. I called my insurance the next day and found out that the only way to get a referral to a surgeon not within the group or network is to change my primary to a doc thats not in a group or network . So I had to loose that  zero, to get to a hero.....lol.
If it's traveling or fighting through red tape, then do it. We only have one body, better to increase our chances.
You can not shop for a surgeon in the same way you buy groceries.   

 
I LOVE that you changed PCPs to get what you need.  Way to go!  

 
I originally thought I wanted the RnY because that's what everyone I knew had.  I later learned about the DS--the "bigger, better" surgery for people who were really overweight.  I was a relative lightweight, but I saw that RnYs weren't working well for my friends, and I wanted a surgery that would do the job.  I decided on the DS, for both me and my then-fiance (now husband).  (He "delegated" weight loss surgery research to me because I'm the nerd in the family.)

When I first started researching the DS about four years ago, I lived within 30 minutes of not one, not two, but three vetted DS surgeons.  I had no idea that this wasn't an option for everyone!  In my initial research, I didn't consider the cost, consequences or inconvenience of long distance travel because it wasn't a factor.  Imagine my surprise when I moved out of state for the first time.  I looked for a DS doctor close to me, and found out that the nearest one was 3 hours away.  That was too much!

I posted on OH, asking if someone knew of a DS surgeon closer to me.  I got flamed by the vets mercilessly!  Didn't I know how special the DS was, and that there wasn't a DS surgeon on every corner like McDonalds or a lottery store?  Uh, no, I didn't, as a matter of fact.  So, I became a quick study and realized that they were right.

I got prepared for us to do a consult with the closest DS surgeon, who was 3 hours away from us, and guess what?  He moved out of the COUNTRY and now does surgery in Canada (Dr. Gagner).  So then there was no DS surgeon in my state at all. That meant that the closest DS surgeons to me were now 10 hours away.  No go.

Fast forward two years until we moved again to another state. This time, I researched and found out that the closest DS surgeon was about 90 minutes away at a prestigious medical center.  My husband had a consult with him, and one week before his scheduled surgery, we found out that the doctor had changed his policy to only do the DS in two stages.  WHAT?  I posted on this board with questions, and after lots of research by the powers that be, this doctor was removed from the vetted DS surgeon list on DSFacts.com.  A two-stage DS is only a DS if it's completed, and there's no guarantee that will happen if A) insurance doesn't cover the second part and B) the doctor unilaterally decides that you don't "need" it.  Doctors who only do two-stage DS surgeries are NOT DS surgeons:  they are VSG surgeons who may or may not do revisions to the DS.  My husband was willing go through with it, but I knew better. We were back to Square 1.

My hubby then did a consult with a DS surgeon who is about 5 hours away from us.  We were going with him, until we learned that there was another doctor 3 hours away.  We went with the closer doctor (Dr. Greenbaum), especially when we found out how experienced he is with both virgin and revision DS's.  My DH had his DS surgery with Dr. Greenbaum on Feb 1, and I had mine on June 7, 2010.

The relatively short amount of traveling proved to be a nightmare for both of us.  Even with all the drama, we don't regret a single moment of it.

While my husband was in the hospital having his DS, I got a call that my mom had one day to live.  I had to get to my hometown right away.  It was an 8 hour drive from my house, but I was 3 hours further away with my husband in the hospital.  I had been up for 20 hours at the time.   There was no way I could make it to her. Thank God she didn't die and I was eventually able to see her, but that was a lot to deal with.  When I had to pick my hubby up from the hospital at the end of the week, it was the worst snow storm in history with a multi-state travel advisory along the eastern seaboard.  It was very dangerous on the roads.  It was nerve-wracking to have a patient in the car, a child and a dog in the car, and have 0 visibility on sheer ice.  We made it, though, thank the Lord!

When it was my turn for the DS, I had a boatload of complications, so my husband had to travel not once but three times to see about me while I was in the hospital. That would have been easier had we lived nearby, but we got it done.  It was a burden financiallly and time-wise with his job and my daughter's school (she had a couple of days left for the school year), but we worked it out.

Compared to lots of other folks, our travel drama was a minor inconvenience.

If you really want the DS and you're not blessed to live within 30 minutes of 3 vetted DS surgeons, you're going to have to travel.  Even though my husband was willing to settle for an RnY just to be closer to home, I couldn't let him, and I couldn't do it myself.  If you want the very best, you have to be willing to sacrifice to get it.

wow that was some journey, sounds like over the hills and far away.thank GOD you made it.

  Amen, and amen!!! 

Agree 100%, travel is an afterthought, I would glady travel to the far corners of the earth to get the DS if I had to do it all over again.

Other than the physical problems that came with being MO, life was wonderful! But my weight (thanks to metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and ****ty genetics) was getting to the point of being an insurmountable physical barrier for doing everyday normal things, I couldn't even have sex with my husband without my joints and muscles being in extreme pain.

I researched and chose the DS- largely thanks to these boards. My insurance excluded any and all WLS even in cases of medical neccessity. The cost I was quoted for self pay in NYC was $50,000- $80,000.



I called "bull****", those prices were inflated because it was NYC and not due to the skill of the surgeon or the medical facility; it's expensive to do business here (labor, rent, insurance, and taxes here are astronomical) and the costs are passed on to the customer. I saw no reason to be financially gouged for the DS simply to have the surgery in NYC when I could easily travel and find equally skilled surgeons with more realistic self pay prices.

Travel didn't scare me. I would do what I needed to do. The DS is a means to an end.

I selected Dr. Stewart and the rest is history.

I loved Texas so much I want to move there, although Nashville is also a contender for my relocation next spring.

I'm one of the lucky few that had a number of vetted DS Dr's within a reasonable distance.  Three years ago I began my journey by coming to OH, fully prepared to have this crapband removed and have the RNY.  Happened upon one those those 'Horrible Surgery Wars' came to the DS forum and never looked back.  I first went to Dr Bonnanni, I had insurance, did the 6 month thing, jumped thru all the hoops, fought the insurance company and lost.  They would pay for the RNY but not the DS, I refused the RNY, I would rather stay fat.  Fast forward a few years, got the funds together, contacted Dr Peters, less that two hours away.  Lovely, lovely man, he was recuperating from an injury, I waited 6 months hoping he would be my surgeon, but it wasn't to be.  So I contacted Gagner, but I had no one to travel with me and my husbands mother's health took a sudden dive, so I had to put my surgery on the back burner.  When things leveled out I decided to contact Ungson, and boy am I glad I did.  I went by myself and they took care of everything, I can't praise them highly enough, or the excellant care I received in Mexico.  Things didn't go well at home, we had a good family friend and my MIL die while I was gone, my poor DH was overwhelmed.  It was very stressful, came home early, still couldn't go to my MIL's funeral.    Funny, with so many DS Dr's so close and I still had to go out of country, and all alone to boot.  I just didn't give up, went thru 4 doctors and three years and self paid  trying to get my DS, I'm down 70 lbs in 5 months, it was all worth it.