Any Tennesseans with DS?
Hi - I'm convinced that DS is the surgery for me. As I said before, I'm trying to get ahead of the ball with the insurance, and visiting seminars and all that.
Which raises the question - which surgeon? A surgeon who had been based in Nashville has moved to the west coast, and there is a guy with whom he used to work who is still in Nashville, still doing the DS.
To me, one of the (if not THE) most important things in choosing a surgeon is experience. Apparently the one who moved to California is the most experienced but I looked him up here, and he'd done hundreds of the DS surgeries open, but (only) 75 lap. The guy here in town has done about 60. I'm wondering if that's enough of a difference to make me fly across country like that.
Has anybody here had to make that decision? Any advice for me?
Thanks!
Love
Dennie
The "guy" still doing the DS here in Nashville is a lap expert and has even taught lap surgery techniques to other surgeons. He was a very experienced and highly respected general surgeon long before he switched his practice to 100% bariatric surgery.
Dr. Spaw trained on the DS under the same surgeons as Dr. Husted. He does all of his surgeries lap whenever possible. I can tell you that for my lap-RNY, I didn't have any stitches on the outside, my skin was closed with steri-strips. That means less scaring.
Another thing you might want to consider in choosing your surgeon is follow-up care. The surgeon Dr. Husted sends his patients to here in our area (Murfreesboro actually) has ZERO experience in DS and not much more other types of WLS.
Attend one of the seminars at Baptist and check Dr. Spaw out for yourself. I think you'll like him.
Susan
Hi Dennie, my surgeon refused to do them as that procedure is outdated, and you lose a lot of your nutrion as it goes right to your bowels so you can become malnurished. There is a forum at the top of the page, click on it and go to the forum for DS, read some of their emails and see what you think, but there aren't that many surgeons around now days that will even to that type of surgery. As Susan said go to some seminars and all types are explained at the seminar, and they seminars are actually run by the surgeons themselves, they will tell you what they do, and what they won't do. When I asked my surgeon he flat out refused to do it. I was asking what the differences were and he said that the DS procedure was the first procedure that was done over 20 years ago and that it's outdated because of mal-nutrion problems. Do your research. We aren't passing you off, but most have had the gastric. I too had perri-strips and no stitches. So the scars are almost faded away. I will tell you this much, Dr. Wright at Vandy only does open gastric bypass. That's a cut from your breast plate to your pelvic. Longer healing time and very big scar big scars also leaves you with a lot of scar tissue inside. When you decide on a Surgeon, and what you want done, the more research you do and understand will really help you when you have to have your psych evaluation prior to surgery. They will ask you questions to see if you understand what all is involved and how well you know about the subject.
Best to you,
May God travel with you on this new journey. Kathy
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