Help, my cousin is dying!

You have obviously been blessed with better doctors than I. Between my own experiences and all of my son's medical issues, I have met more than my share of very unprofessional doctors that are not above pointing out how low income individuals are beneath them and not worth their time. Welcome to health care in Idaho. I invite you to give it a try!

Wow that's quite the generalization... as another Idahoan, I haven't found that to be the case at all.  Actually to be honest, out of all 8 states I've lived in throughout my life, income has never been a topic of discussion between my doctor and I.  Ever.  How does that even work itself into the conversation?

It becomes a topic of conversation when you are asked the type of insurance you have and you answer with medicaid or none. I am not saying that all of the doctors we have seen are bad. We have dealt with some great doctors too (and we have seen a lot of doctors). 

Unfortunately, I have heard similar stories over the years, both from people with RNYs and DSs.  It is not common but it can happen when you combine a lot of malabsorption with a noncompliant person.  Count me as one of them.

I had my DS revised so I had a 200cc common channel instead of a 100cc.  Made a world of difference in my bathroom issues, although my issues were due to chronic bacterial overgrowth in my intestines, most likely because of how I was configured.  I actually requested a reversal but was told it wasn't possible but I could be revised instead.

This is why many surgeons pushed the lap band and now push the sleeve.  Not because malabsorptive procedures are bad but because the rate of compliance is.

Most of us go into this gung ho, buy up all our vitamins from Vitaday, get our labs done and do everything right.  For a while.  Then life gets in the way, money is short, we feel normal, we are eating a lot more so we assume we are getting enough vitamins from food (that was me).

It would be great if the requirements were only for a few years but with malabsorptive WLS we are talking about life here and a lot of people have short attention spans.  Their life stops revolving around WLS and they just get lazy.

Surgeons have seen patients come back with serious issues due to noncompliance.  There is no way for them to know who will be compliant or not on a long term basis.  So I can see why they push the surgery with the fewest long term issues.

I pray for your cousin.  Is there a University based hospital near by?  They usually take in anyone.  The one near me offers financial aid for uninsured and underinsured patients.  I had complications that put me in the hospital last year and they wrote off my part of the balance after insurance paid.

There is help for her out there but you may have to be the one to find it since in her condition I am sure she doesn't have the strength to fight for her health.  It is up to those who love her to fight.

Thank you for sharing your story and for your advise. My sister and I are researching surgeons and hospitals to try and find the right fit. We will not give up on her and won't let her give up either!

Social situation aside, have you considered seeing a surgeon in Salt lake City?  I live in Boise too and I went to SLC for my surgery and I have had no complications, problems, excellent follow up care (even from a distance) and they are a center of excellence.  I am also 32.  I know you said you can't go back to Dr. Oakley and there are no other qualified surgeons for her to go to in the area, but there are other surgeons here in Boise (I'm sure you have already sought them out, Dr. Korn is excellent, also works with Dr. Oakley so her info would be easily accessible) but if it's a matter of life and death and you don't like your surgeon options in Boise, SLC is only a 5.5 hr drive away.

May I ask which surgeon you used in Salt Lake? Is he well versed in the DS? We were told that the revision is very difficult and the surgeon needs to be very familiar with the DS. We will defiantly look into Salt Lake. Thank you!

Check with Rocky Mountain Associated Physicians.  They have lots of info on their site and you can get a lot accomplished over the phone before heading down there.  You may be able to decide if one of the docs there is a good fit without traveling.  

Sorry this is happening. It dos sound like a revision is the only way to go.

You might ask her GP
about prescribing a product called Creon - it aids absorption so whatever she can get down would help her even more.

If she can't handle solid food see if she can take the most calorie packed protein drink you can find
and see how much of that she can get down every day. It sounds like your immediate fight is just to get her levels 
away from the life threatening stage and then try and figure out a way to get the revision.

If she can get a little healthier go back to the Doc. Even if he is an ahole when he sees she was able to turn things 
around a little bit he may reconsider. It doesn't sound like you have any other surgical options close by.

I'm so very sorry your cousin is going through this! And glad you are fighting to help her.

I'm thinking along the same lines as Pete. While I don't doubt for a moment your account of how badly the surgeon treated her, you are in a tough position in the the resources in your area, as far as DS surgeons goes, are meager. In other words, he's the only DS game in town, such as he is.

I'm sure, if your cousin went back to him, he would be just as condescending/demeaning/offensive or whatever he was. But sometimes you just have to put up with something like that to get to where you need to go. Your cousin could go into any consultation with him KNOWING what she is in for in terms of his attitude and just let him get whatever he feels compelled to say out of his system and then get him to do a revision. She could even try to nip him in the bud by telling him, before he can open his mouth, that she already knows what he thinks of her, doesn't need to hear it again, and now let's just talk about my medical care, shall we?

Or, if you could, maybe you could go to see him with her, since she might not be up to pulling this off. It's difficult when you feel like crap, but the bottom line is that there is a very specific procedure than she apparently needs to have done and he knows how to do it.

A little story from my own life - way back when, I had a tussle with my insurer to get approval for my DS. After finally getting approval, having never met the surgeon, I got worried. What if I finally got to my long awaited consult and didn't like the guy? I wrote this privately to someone here, and she wrote back with some great advice. She said, "Girl, you don't have to marry him, just get him to do your surgery."

    Your cousin doesn't have to marry this guy. she doesn't have to like him. He doesn't have to like her. Just get him to do her surgery.

Larra