appt at Cleveland Clinic

Lora,
I am a nervous nelly and worried that you would have an EDG all by yourself and have to even get on a shuttle bus to a hotel. Perhaps a friend could watch the dogs and your mom could come with you. I hope this works out for the best. (((hugs)))

Shelly

Unfortunately, having a Chow limits the dog-sitting options (they are very family-centered and extremely distrustful of strangers)... but I would feel better having someone there with me.  What I am really hoping is that the other bariatric surgeon here is willing to go in and see what he can find, and I will not need to go up there at all.

Lora

I was just about to offer dog-sitting services to you. I'm south of Dayton too. I will say that my family and friends call me the dog wisperer . Dogs are naturally drawn to me for some reason. If you would like, I can try it. It would be no problem.

I am glad to hear that you are going to the cleveland clinic but I am a little confused as to what they are going to do for you.  I don't understand the point of going for psychological and pain management when you still dont know what is wrong with you.  I thought the idea is to find another opinion of someone willing to look further to find out the cause of the pain, just treating the pain sees crazy.  I just found that out first hand again.  You already know my adhesions story and now after 4 months of thinking that I was having terrible abdominal pains as still a follow up from my illiostomy reversal surgery and really bad back pains - worse than usual, I was just put on really strong pain killers which actually my pain management doctor wasn't thrilled with but he went along with.  It turns out it was the kidney stones all along.  If we hadn't found out that I had the stones and left them untreated without the surgery to remove them, I would have ended up with severe kidney damage and possibly irreversal.

Pain always means something is wrong and just because one doctor can't find it, then you need someone else to find it.  Maybe once you are at the Cleveland CLinic there is   a bariatric surgeon that can see you - that seems like the better choice.

I had the same thought after I talked with the woman (especially since my surgeon did not talk with me after he talked with them).  At first I thought I would be consulting with a surgeon there but then as she described it, I realized it was only for pain management. 

I agree that finding the PROBLEM (and fixing it) makes infinitely more sense than just finding ways to try to help me deal with the pain, especially since the intense episodes have been getting more frequent. That is part of the reason that I need to see the other surgeon here before I go up there (even if it means having to reschedule with the folks in Cleveland).  If this other surgeon here, however, is not willing to do surgery (he would be the 3rd surgeon to say "no", plus one surgeon who would nto even see me when he found out who my original RNY surgeon was), pain mgmt might be my best option.  I do not particularly trust the other WLS surgeons in my area, and have no idea who to go to in Cincinnati or Columbus.

Lora

What about a bariatric surgeon at cleveland clinic?  Try going to the OHIO board - you might get much better info.  I wish I knew more about your state.  If you are willing to travel to NY, I can be of big help as I know of many great surgeons here that will perform on other surgeons patients - including my own.

The Ohio board is a pretty "dead" one but I did send a PM to one of the people from Cleveland...

Thanks for the offer.  The longer I think about it, the more annoyed I get that this is now 2 surgeons (including my initial RNY surgeon) whose "answer" has been to find a way to live with the pain without even knowing for sure what it is.  If we knew for sure what ti was, and there was nothing they could do to help, that would be ONE thing, but we don't even know WHAT IT IS that they are choosing not to treat!

Lora

Lora,

I'm so glad to hear that you're going to the Cleveland Clinic!  It sounds like a very extensive assessment. 

Praying for you  

It's not true that you don't know anyone in Cleveland. I used to work there long ago. There are multiple hotels and motels as an option. They are very familiar with out of towners coming in and know how to handle things. If nothing else, they are very efficient.
I, too, would feel better if one of those appointments involved a bariatric surgeon once they have all the results from their work-up. You can always ask.
Hope you were able to get those two articles I mentioned. Surprised that almost a third of the patients with abdominal pain of unknown etiology ended up having hernias and less had adhesions.
Right now I'm tied down 3 days a week with cardiac rehab but if needed I'd try to help.

I was able to get a copy of the one article, but will either need to make a trip to OSU's medical library or pay the $31 to get the other one (the one that looked most useful, of course).

I'm still working on pushing to get in to see the other bariatric surgeon here in town before the 12th of September (because if he will do the surgery, I will at least postpone any trip to Cleveland to see if he can actually FIX the problem).

Lora