Ok to ask about specific surgeon?

I'm newly returned to this site after a few years. Due to what happened with original surgery and complications, I am terrified as I consider revision. I have a friend who went to a revision surgeon in Dallas with good results. Is it acceptable for me to ask if anyone has used him or is that against site rules? I'm posting from my phone bc not talking to my family yet re: revision so I'm not navigating site real well. Thanks all. 

If you haven't already you might want to also post on the main forum and the forum of what ever surgery you want to revise. I think it's ok to ask I've seen it before altho often there aren't many responses. Oh also post on your state forum, Texas is full of docs so you should have a great choice.

Thanks! I'll start a new post here & on the sleeve board. I found lots of reviews for him on this site but many were 8-10 years old. 

What are you revising from and to?  Look like sleeve is the to.

My post-op "sleeve" looked like a full size stomach with some staples. So I'd like to go from failed sleeve to an actual sleeve. There were problems with anesthesia and my assumption is that surgeon closed as soon as he got in and other problems happened. It has taken 3 years to find a doctor who will validate my experience. 

I was awake during the prep and first part of my surgery. I clearly recall conversations, blood drawn from my arm for a platelet paste he used on the staple line, the catheter insertion to my bladder, my arms spread out and strapped down, the tube in my mouth to my lungs, the cleansing prep before the first cut and the first cut. 

 

Please excuse the font change. I'm having trouble posting frm phone so I'm copying & pasting from note app. 

  Post-op there was total denial & I was referred to as "anxious". I stayed sick for a cpl months then had gallbladder out. Sick for cpl more months. Labs. Barium swallow. Finally got admitted when repeat labs showed early pancreatitis bc he'd missed a stone and it was blocking my bile duct. That hospitalization was a mess with delay for ERCP procedure bc my PCP was an idiot. I spent 4 days out of it on Ativan & Dilaudid before they consulted GI doc to get the stone out.    So I lost some from sickness but no restriction. Because I really didn't get a sleeve. 

I hope you have found a GOOD PCP, GI and revision surgeon to help you through all this

It is perfectly acceptable to ask about any doctor you wan to know about. This is your body and your life in this situation. You want the best doctor you can have to do this surgery. One with a good success rate and one *****ally has a heart for people and will listen. You can check out just about any doctor on this site. Do ask people who have been through this if they would reccomend their doctor. Don't be afraid to ask all the questions you want to know.

Oh my goodness, who was your original surgeon?

He is a general surgeon in Arlington, TX. If there's a way to private message me I will tell you his name. The experience was traumatizing & I would never recommend him. I do know two people who had successful sleeves by him so I'm hesitant to put his name public and have anyone else argue with me or minimize what happened. As I'd mentioned in a previous post, my current PCP is the first MD to validate that the surgeon screwed up. The ole boys network among doctors is alive and well in TX and having a preop diagnosis of anxiety led to easy dismissal of what happened to me.

I have been in the OR as a nurse, and I have seen the type of situation you speak of.  What usually happens is that the patient is given a drug IV to put them into a light state of sedation, and given a paralytic agent to stop their breathing and gag reflex..  Then they are intubated, and given anesthetic gases which take them down to the appropriate level of anesthesia.  It is at this time that the the catheter is inserted and the scrub prep is done.  The surgeon is supposed to get the go-ahead from the anesthesiologist before first incision is made.  

 

I have seen the surgeon absentmindedly make the first cut before he got the go-ahead.  That is the sugreon's fault.  Having a prolonged period of being aware of actual cutting (not just the prep and blood drawn and catheter placement; those things are ideally done when the patient is unaware, but does not really count as a failure of anesthesia) is the anesthesiologist's fault for not closely monitoring for level of anesthesia.

 

Anesthesia is maintaining a patient at the appropriate level of consciousness.  There are (if I remember) five clinical levels of unconsciousness, between fully awake, and dead.  The idea is to keep you unaware, without being too close to either end of the spectrum.  A pt may become light enough to start moving their legs, but is usually put under deeper with more medication and has no memory of that event.  I don't know what your exact situation was, but it sounds very disturbing, at the very least.  I hope you never face anything like that again.