SURGERY APPROVED BY INSURANCE

I just found out my surgery was approved by my insurance company! I am going to have the Roux-En Y at OHSU with Dr Deveny. The nurse that called me said I weighed to much for the laproscopic, 350 lbs, and if I wanted to have that I needed to lose 50 plus pounds to get under the 300 lbs mark. I opted for the open procedure, I don't think I can lose the weight by myself. Isin't that why I am having surgery in the first place? Haven't got a surgery date yet or a DR appointment set. I will find those out this week. Yeah!

Hi Candice, Pam here, Medford, OR. I'm surprised that they won't let you have your surgery lap as I just had mine on the 12 of April, weighing in at 358lbs right before going into surgery. Interesting how doctor's differ. I'm doing really well. I have six ports and only two of them are sore. My recovery is going well, I tire easily and have a sore back, but it's to be expected. I wish you the best of luck and congrats on insurance paying wtg.

I was 331 pounds and had my procedure Laproscopic and I have a friends that were 377 and 480 and had those laproscopic. Dr Deveny doesn't like to do lap procedures. He likes to do them open and the lap ones all go to Dr McConnell or Connelly (something like that) in his practice. Legacy Obesity Institute hardly does any open procedures even on really large people because it is so much easier on your body. Their practice has done more than 1000 of these procedures. Open is just a lot "easier" for the surgeons who haven't studied and perfected "lap" skills. Maybe you might want a second opinion. It is to much harder to recover from the open procedure and longer in the hospital too.

I've heard the same thing....he prefers to do open. I was at 315 and had Lap....not problems! I'd consider a second opinion if you can. Lap is so much easier as far as recovery! Good luck to you!

Thank you all for your reply, I have my heart set on Deveney, I have heard nothing but good about him, I don't know what to do with the insurance company if I change doctors now. But I will look into it. I haven't been called back yet on a surgery date. Thank you all again for your input

That's awesome, congratulations!! I'm also waiting for a date with Dr. Deveney, lap DS. Now when I saw the nurse for the initial appointment, I even briefly talked to Deveney, she looked at my stomach, kind of poked around and said it should be no problem to do it lap. I weigh 373 (well I've been on a diet for 2 weeks so probably less now) and I'm 5'10". I would double check that. I do know that on the info I got from OHSU it said a greater risk for a convert to open if your BMI is higher than 55. I hope I'm not a convert, I have 2 kids to take care of so I have to get back on top of things as soon as I can! So I'd double check on that, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get it done lap.