HOLY CRAP!! Are they trying to scare us out of the surgery or what?

Bama Bob, Your list seems a little bit longer than the one I got however most of the "big hitters" are covered. The one difference in my experience is that on the morning of surgery, after Doc came in to "sign my belly" (State mandated law), he went over the procedure and added the LAP OR OPEN clause. He explained that the procedure was planned for laprascopic surgery however once I was on the table and he started that if my anatomy was "different", he had trouble moving the liver around to get to the stomach or if there were complications he would revert to an  OPEN procedure and even possibly change the procedure to a vertical banded gastrecnomy. This was what he referred to as his "fallback" procedures and would only use them if, during the course of starting the procedure he had problems.  He explained that in the super morbid obese (BMI>50) that sometimes these issues came up. My wife and I were both dumbfounded, since this was the first time anyone had ever mentioned the possibility of an OPEN procedure or for a procedure to change "on the fly". In hindsight it made sense for him to cover his bases but I felt a slight twinge of "holy crap-what have I gotten myself into".  As it turned out, the surgery went very well and he finished the LAP RNY in about 4 hours.  Said it took a little longer because I was a "big boy".  Regardless, it's still the right decision for me....massive list of complications or not..... You hang in there Bama, won't be long before you're Post OP and heading for Loser-ville. Jim BigDog80

Take it from me, complications CAN happen and they can be a *****  I'm still NPO, nothing by mouth, absolutely nothing.  My 3rd surgeon will look to fix my fistular come April.  The RNY surgeon bowed out saying - he doesn't fix 'problems'....  Not like mine anyway. Bagged and getting hungry, but home for now. Peace & Joy, BobM.

No doubt about the possibility of complications Bob. I gather you have had a tough time from the posts I have read. Hope you are doing better and get completely well soon.  Just wondering, other than being obese, did you have any other co-morbidities such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, sleep apnea, etc.?

Sleep Apnea is gone; joint pain is gone; diabetes is gone.  I told my wife that I'm in better shape now than before the surgery despite a rose bud of intestines showing out my bod!  Hee hee.  Crazy.  Oh yeah, 165 pounds gone since August 20. Peace, Bamabob.

That is interesting to know, that your RNY surgeon doesn't fix "problems."  Does that mean he doesn't want to be bothered, or he doesn't know how, or he can't make any money doing them, or he's not qualified to fix them, or what? This is good information for anyone considering having surgery done by him.  I wonder if in general WLS surgeons take the same approach.  After all, we put a lot of confidence as well as our lives in their hands.