Please share your experiences of RNY revision to DS - I really need some advice
Thank you all so much for taking time to write to me and share your experiences. I am deeply grateful to all of you and feel a sense of convergence that this decision is not one to enter into lightly and that recovery is going to a much longer process and pain and complications are likely and should be expected. Your honesty is so refreshing as it seems so hard to get these kind of answers from medical professionals. I have had two surgeons tell me "there is no way to revise it to a DS so I am learning that they either don;t know about it or are comfortable doing what they do. I wish they would say here are the 5 best surgeons for this operation, but doctors seem to have their own ways of operating. Lee was the $40,000.00 all inclusive or just the surgical costs. I don't have that much laying around, but I could borrow from my 401k or get a home equity line. I am just wondering how I would deal with complications when I am in the east coast of the US and these wonderful doctors are in the west coast. I also want to thank you for explaining why the open operation was actually preferred by you and it really made sense when I thought about what you said about needing the clearest field of view. Again, please accept my deepest thanks to you all.
Regards
Tomson
Tomson...here is the current list of experienced RNY to DS revision surgeons that we commonly point people in the direction of:
Dr. Keshishian, located in California
Dr. Rabkin, located in California
Dr. Stewart, located in Texas
Dr. Simper, located in Utah
Dr. Elariny, located in Virginia
Dr. Roslin, located in New York
Dr. Buchwald, located in Minnesota
Of course, the above doctors are in the United States
Dr. Baltasar, located in Spain
Dr. Marchesini, located in Brazil
Dr. Gagner in Canada and Dr. Greenbaum are also experienced surgeons, but please use caution, and RESEARCH!!!!!!!!!!!
RNY to DS Revision 4/29/2011
Dr. Henry Buchwald
"Think twice.....Cut ONCE"
So my story....I had RNY in May of 2008. I had a very rough summer that year. I had complications with strictures for the entire summer. I had trouble dealing with a surgeon and clinic that had a 'blame the patient' mentality and it took three months of begging to finally get them to order an endoscopy. The endoscopy showed that my stoma was so strictured that it was almost closed. It took three dialations to get it to normal size. after the dialation, I felt much better (able to eat and drink). Soon after that was fixed, I developed severe reactive hypoglycemia and food intolerances. I had trouble with all dense foods and was vomiting almost daily. Not fun at all. To top it off, my body stopped losing around the 8 month mark and then started to go back up. Day of RNY surgery I was 268. I got down to a low of 192 for about 5 minutes and then slowly started to regain, no matter what I did. I began my journey to revision to Ds in Dec of 2010. I went to the University of MN Medical Center and had Dr. Buchwald for my surgeon. He is a pioneer and very experienced in this revision! Things went very fast and I had my revision at the end of April 2011. Day of revision I was back up to 250. It was the best decision I have ever made.
I was in the hospital for 7 days. That is normal for revisions with Dr. Buchwald. He only does open. I was just fine with open. I had the RNY and my gallbladder out lap. Between lap and open, I actually prefered the recovery from the open surgery. It went much smoother for me and I had less pain. Of course there was pain, there is pain with any surgery....but for me it was tolerable. I only took the prescription pain meds for a couple of days and then just did tylenol. Recovery was exhausting, but my body had just been hit by a mac truck, lol. I have 5 kids and was back to doing light stuff about 3 weeks out. It took a good 8 weeks before I really felt back to normal. I have not had any complications. My reactive hypoglycemia is gone. I had good restriction with my sleeve and very rarely throw up. I am two years out from my revision and am maintaining in the 170's. I am happy with that. I am a good girl and take all my vites and eat all my protein.
The most important thing is to have an experienced surgeon. Choosing from the list that I posted for you is a good thing. How much have you research the ds? Have you been to dsfacts.com? That is a great place to get factual information about the DS. You'll be eating high protein, high fat, low carb. You'll be taking a lot of vites for life. You'll be getting extensive labs drawn every three months the first year and then every 6 months thereafter. These are all non-negotiable and you need to commit to them before having the revision. It is SO worth it!
RNY to DS Revision 4/29/2011
Dr. Henry Buchwald
"Think twice.....Cut ONCE"
Oh, I am just so sorry that you had to go through all that trauma just to get the stoma adjusted. That is like post traumatic stress. I think you get heaven bonus points for all of that. Yes I have read ds facts website from cover to cover so to speak. I am worried and my wife is even more worried as I had trouble with my first surgery and she is convinced it will be even worse this time. I know she is coming from a place of love, but fear has stopped me from doing too many things in my life already. I am really surprised that you don't go for an MRI to see what the current plumbing is like from old RNY, but no one has done that. I am worried about the travel and complications. I am so grateful to have a place to talk openly and honestly to people who know what I am going through. My original surgeon said he would do a distal conversion to my RNY, but I think that is not going to fix things and I want this to be the last surgery so I am not going to try half measures. If it were up to me I would either have me die on the table or come through without complication, but life is not one to give us such choices. I am so glad that the DS seems to have been the best answer for you. Thank you for posting the surgeons. I am surprised that yours was not listed as you seemed to have had a positive experience. Good luck with your journey and I thank you for your kindness in sharing your story.
