Did your surgeon have a back up plan?

Did your Surgeon have a back up plan? As in, if he or she couldn't for some reason do a DS did he say he'd do a medial RNY? My surgeon showed me that today, it kind of freaked me out. He said the chances are very slim to none that we'll have to do it, but he wants to have a contingency plan in place.

I knew from prior abdominal surgery that I had a mess of adhesions inside me.   I discussed this with my surgeon ahead of time so we would be in agreement on what would happen if he ran into difficulty during my DS.   We discussed if that were the case would it be better to do just the sleeve, or to convert to open, if he had to.  He assured me that he could count on one hand the number of times he had to convert to an open DS in all the years he's been doing them, and we both decided that if that's what needed to happen that's what he would do.  The RNY was never an option.

My DS ended up taking over 6 hours because of the adhesions, but I did have the full DS done laproscopically.

No way. Dr E said if he ran into problems the solution was to convert to open and finish the DS.

--gina

NO WAY.

Say no.

I haven't even MET my surgeon yet, but I know from the informational seminar that the backup plan is an open DS!

The only alternate we discussed is that it was possible that he could have to convert to open DS if he were to find something unexpected. He said that it was a very very rare situation that would end that way. We never discusssed converting to RNY as a 2nd choice. If I woke up with an RNY I would have been LIVID! I wouldn't agree to that. I'd rather he just close me up and I'd get a 2nd opnion from someone else later down the road.

Sounds like a possible "Bait & NOT Switch"  please do not settle for less than the best!!

Open DS is better than a RNY !!

I had an open DS and was back to work in three weeks.

Yes my surgeon had a back up plan, but it was only if my liver was too badly damaged because of a history of auto-immune hepatitis (related to the lupus I have).  My surgeon planned to do a VSG (sleeve) if he could not do the DS.  If the sleeve was done, we would have monitored the condition of my liver over time to see if I became a candidate for the DS (in 2 stages).  Luckily, that did not have to happen.  

Imo, I would only want a sugeon to perform WLS on me if he was willing to try for the DS.  If for whatever reason (due to your health issues, anatomy, adhesions, etc.) he can't do the DS and he's only will do a RNY as a backup instead of the VSG (sleeve)...I would question his skill and seek another surgeon.

~Roxy

Oh I just noticed your surgery is scheduled for today!  I hope all goes well and wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery 

Your surgery is today and yesterday was the first time you ever had that discussion with your surgeon?????

Woah.

If you aren't under the knife yet...

tell your surgeon NO WAY on the RNY, that the back up would be either sleeve (with switch to come at a later date) or open DS, or whatever else is acceptable to you. You can even write "no gastric bypass" on the consent form.
     Best wishes to you for a safe and SUCCESSFUL surgery today!

Larra