RNY to DS questions

 Hi, my name is Tashana. I have some questions about revision, and I hope to get some advice here.

I had RNY gastric bypass on March 9th 2010. My weight was 375. I am now 214, bmi 39.

Since my surgery I have had severe dumping syndrome. I also am constantly nauseous and can't hold much food down. I also have a lot of heart burn and acid reflux. I was told that revision to the ds can be done for this situation. I have done my research on this revision, and I want it done.

I live in Colorodo and am insured by Kaiser. They said they would cover a revision as long as I could prove medical necessity. 

What surgeons would you recommend? If not covered which surgeons are the best for cash pay? Does that all have to be paid up front?

Thanks for any advice.

Tashana,  the DS will not necessarily help your reflux. 

How are you treating your reflux now?  

 My pcp prescribed me prevacid and I just drink a lot of water. I doesn't particularly help though.

Perhaps you should increase your prevacid dose and take it twice a day - once in the morning, once in the evening.  Or try another medication,  like omeprazole to see if it works better.

My reflux did not improve with the DS. I take omeprazole (prilosec) twice a day and it completely controls it.

 I actually do take the prevacid twice a day, but i'll definitely ask my doctor about prilosec.

You might want to consider a different PPI....say Protonix or Dexilant (which I think is the bomb). I had horrible reflux for a long time, and it took a lot of experimenting to find the right med. Prevacid did absolutely nothing for me. Protonix helped, but I had to take it twice a day. Dexilant was my miracle worker. I still take a Protonix a day just in case, but I rarely get heartburn/GERD anymore with this combo.

Did you have GERD preop? There is a difference between having unresolved GERD and having acid reflux caused by having your stomach bypassed.

Before I had my initial fobi pouch bypass, I had horrible GERD. My surgery resolved this, but later down the road I started having reflux again, but with very different symptoms than preop. I thought it was like reactive GERD, but it was actually a complication of the surgery, and has been corrected with revising to the DS. And of course I no longer dump or puke my brains out.

I'd go with Keshishian.

 I don't know that I had GERD, my surgeon never mentioned it and I had no idea what it was until after having the surgery. That being said, after reading  up on GERD I do recall symptoms. But the reflux i'm having now isn't quite the same either.
And yeah, I bet the no more dumping and puking is amazing. I'd love for that to be the case for me.

I'm giving Dr Keshishian's office a call in the morning. :)

 How tall are you ?