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First of all Linny, I've read your Facebook Review on Dr. Lopez' site, so I know that you had problems from day 1. Not so much with Dr. Lopez, but with the office staff of Dr. Lopez. I am not a patient of his but have been through (3) read them (3) weight loss surgeries so I know a little bit about this situation.
I'm not sure if you are aware of this but, There are only literally a handful of Drs. in the US who will even attempt a revision of a failed RYNGB. Anytime you have already had a previous weight loss surgery it's a very high risk #1 and #2 rarely can they repair and revise Laproscopically. And this is today in 2019, your surgery revision was done back in 2015 so there were even less Drs. doing revisions. I would guess that when Dr. Lopez started your revision he most likely tried at first to do Laproscopically and quickly knew that getting through old scar tissue would not go well so he then opened you, he may have tried doing the pouch revision but discovered quickly that doing so would put you in more danger and create more problems with leaks and the like. Hence why he stopped working on the pouch and went to giving you a Distal Gastric Bypass which is sometimes called an ERNY. Did you do any research on the possible procedures? And Risks, vs. outcomes? As patients that is our duty to research and know which procedure should be right for us. Blaming the Dr. of choice, who honestly was being a good guy for even giving you surgery in my thinking, is completely unfair, giving a bad review is unfair, knowing that you take a risk going to Mexico because your not going to be there for the aftercare. That's on us as the risk takers. Your negative review is the only one I've seen on Dr. Lopez so one might have to wonder that you may need to take some of the blame in all that. There are such things as bad patients, as well as bad Drs.
I have to wonder how your doing now? Did you have to have additional surgical repairs to get beyond the issues you were having being unable to eat? Because I went through exactly what you did, a revision that took me down for about a year. Reason being when my pouch was revised I had extreme issues with it being to small and literally I hardly ate anything for a years time. However, I dropped all my weight and then some. The problem I was having is I was trying to eat what I shouldn't and kept aggrivating that pouch. Throwing it up and then couldn't eat at all. After a year I finally discussed it with a Dr. because I couldn't eat anything, I had no energy, or strength and couldn't barely get out of bed and daily nausea and dry heaves every single day. This Dr. I finally went to in the States told me and he was not a Bariatric Surgeon he was a primary care physician, because where I lived at the time, they had no one versed on WLS, that I should eat just 1 bite of food every hour to see if I could tolerate it, such as a bite of soft boiled egg, all day long I should do this every hour or so. I tried it and it worked. My pouch did get revised and it was so swollen I could barely eat anything. But I worked with this method and it worked.
The fact that Dr. Lopez charged you an additional $350 for higher BMI and then another $1,000 was most likely because of the time in the OR...Revisions vs. First Timers are completely different on the amount of time and energy put into it. Your lucky they didn't charge you double. 7 hours in the OR times Drs, Anesthesiologists, Nurses, etc. etc. etc. It's naturally going to cost you more and in the US it could have easily cost $50,000 ++++...I would also say that Sandra most likely was just doing her job by asking you to pay as she did, that's her job. However, she might have timed it better. And maybe taken care of you better. But it put her in a bad position because at the end of the day she is responsible for you paying before you leave, so most likely she was trying to figure out how to get you to do that. Bad situation all the way around. Once you leave Mexico, your gone and never coming back. Nothing they can do. It seemed as if you were proud a*****h that you got out of there without paying that extra $1,000...I have been in your position and I would have been happy to have only paid a $1,000 extra. I know this has been a long time ago but it really was upset me by reading your story, as I have been there, and felt you really were just trying to harm the Dr. here when honestly it was quite obvious to me that you carried the biggest brunt of responsibility.
I just wanted to comment on this as there are two sides to each and every story. I believe Mexico gets a bad wrap in all things. But if truth be known. There Bariatric WLS Record is even better than the states and I know the Drs. are much better skilled. Just my two cents.
on 5/9/19 6:05 pm
I had Gastric Bypass in 2009 and lost 50 pounds. I'm now 50 pounds heavier then I was before surgery. I need help and I don't know that I'll ever have money to be a cash patient. Anyone in Utah have any luck with insurance?
Note that Dr Keshishian (aka Dr K) is in Pasadena, CA, which is a suburb of Los Angeles. I highly recommend you contact his office for a phone consultation. I had complex abdominal surgery with him last summer and had a great experience; I also flew in from another state.
Hello, I just joined this organization, but maybe something I can share will help you as you go through this turn of events in your weight loss journey. I had a sleeve in December of 2008 and did really well for nine years. I lost 135 lbs which was really close to my goal of -150 and kept the weight off. But in January of 2018 I had some episodes of choking and vomiting that I thought were due to eating food too fast. I was living in a country not very familiar with sleeve patients and although I told the doctor about my altered anatomy, he diagnosed me with a hiatal hernia and treated that condition with Prilosec. After six weeks, the vomiting and choking was increasing in frequency and I was pretty much on liquids but even those sometimes would not go down. He increased the Prilosec and told me I might be eating too much, too fast, too fatty, or too spicy. After the third visit, he recommended surgical correction of the hernia, but my instincts told me not to let someone unfamiliar with bariatric patients operate on me. I kept going, knowing I needed to see my surgeon back in the US but also not being able to go bac****il June of 2018. By the time I arrived in the States, I was vomiting 5-10 times a day and really miserable. The surgeon in the US was very upset and said, "You're not going to like what you're about to hear." He proceeded to tell me that a particular suturing technique that had been used on my sleeve (back when sleeves were rather new) was creating a scar that had rolled inward and was physically blocking the path. The only correction that would last (in his expert opinion) was revision. He wrote an urgent letter my insurance company stating that this was an emergency revision and medically necessary. I had the revision done on July 9, 2018. I flew out of the States to a brand new country on July 29, scared to death! I have not vomited since July 9 which is a sweet relief! I have lost a lot of my strength during the sickness prior to and the recovery after. I have also lost 30 more pounds. I joined this organization though because I have struggled with a lot of feelings of loss after the revision, because my sleeve and I were a very happy couple. My gastric bypass is a lot more strict in that there is NO WAY I can even have one sip of carbonation at all without dire effects. My lifestyle with the sleeve was so easy that I never told anyone outside of my immediate family I had it! For over 9 years, I was "passing" as a normal person. But this revision: there is so much more to passing that it became impossible and I had to confess to some new friends why I am not interested in the brunch buffets, mimosas, and happy hours that normally I could enjoy to a small extent. Now there is nothing there I can enjoy. It is better than vomiting for sure, but I still need this support group to make a new path for myself. So it's been a couple of months since your original post. How are feeling now and what is the plan for the future?
I revised from lapband to RNY last August and I'm down 124 pounds. You can see the specifics in my signature line.
I don't know why you couldn't be successful converting from lapband to RNY. It gave me a tool that actually works. Not to mention I have had ZERO issues with food getting stuck or throwing up, which happened way too often with my Band. There are a number of people on this site that have successfully met their goals after converting from Lapband. Follow your program and show those people they have no idea what they are taking about!
Good luck!
Band to RNY 8/16/18
Age: 33, Height: 5'4"
HW: 299 (Pre-LB), RNY Consult: 260, SW: 248, GW: 145 (reached 3/31), New Goal: 130, CW: 133.0
Pre-op: -13, M1: -20, M2: -15, M3: -15, M4: -15, M5: -13, M6: -13, M7: -9, M8: -9, M9: -3, M10:
the other one is John Rabkin in San Francisco
RNY 06/03/15 by Michael Garren (Madison, WI)
HW: 373 SW: 316 GW: 150 LW: 138 CW: 163
Not many surgeons do that particular revision and even fewer do it well. It's much more complicated than you might think and thus the risks are higher also.
Why are you looking to revise? That certainly can and probably will determine your insurance coverage. Assuming you are insured, you can call the toll free number on the back of your card to get names of bariatric surgeons in your area. You'd then have to research which ones perform this procedure.
There are two that we see mentioned here often that are considered experts in this area. One is Dr. Ara Keshashian (sp?) in California. I can never remember the name of the other one for the life of me but hopefully someone will chime in here and give you more info.
If you're considering this option for any other reason than mechanical failure it would be hard to recommend proceeding. Fortunately for all of us you don't need my recommendation of course. Good luck, be careful and don't necessarily contract with the lowest bidder.
edited: you can also check in at the DS Forum and you'll probably get more feedback.
Has anyone here had the gastric bypass revision to the ds? I am trying to get information on the procedure, how it works and who in Georgia does it?
Thank you
Patsy
I had my lap band removed last year and have gained 50 lbs I was approved today for RNY waiting to schedule but I'm worried a lot of people said I'm easting my time i won't lose much because its a revision
No, the bloating has gone away. There was a very deep incision from the lap band port removal that I also had to have packed. I found that incision to be very painful. The doctor said he had to cut through a lot of muscle to get to the port. It has healed now and no longer hurts. Overall, I found the revision surgery to be pretty difficult to recover from and my doctor said it was significantly more invasive than just a gastric bypass.
