Hello - I had my modified panni with Dr. Nohr in Medicine Hat 6 days ago.  I am feeling pretty good and healing.  I have to admit the first 2 days after surgery were tough.  A lot tougher than I though it would be.  I was having trouble peeing and finally was able to the beginning of the third day.  I guess the surgery was quite a shock to my body and all my plumbing decided to take its own time to recover.  I still have not had a bowel movement yet, which is kind of worry some but I am taking stool softners and restoralax daily.  I don't feel constipated nor have an urger to go, so I will be monitoring this.  The surgery itself went well.  Dr. Nohr did a great job with the anchor cut.  I have a new belly button and I can see my pubic area without having to move aside my skin apron.  He figures he removed about 3 lbs of skin/tissue.  I am finding the hardest thing to do is straighten up.  I still tend to hunch over, especially at the shoulders.  Something I have to work on.  The incision (140 staples) looks good and is healing.  Only a few red spots but nothing too bad.  I have not been too swollen as of yet.  I am wearing my binder religiously.

I am very thankful to have had both my surgeries with Dr. Nohr.  He's given me a new lease on life which I am grateful for.

I hope everyone is recovering okay from the recent flooding.

Giselle

Hi Velma44,

Thank you for your inquiry. In Royal Alex hospital, Edmonton, Dr. Birch, Dr. de Gara and other bariatric surgeons have met with many patients with complications from their out-of-province bariatric surgery. The treatments for the complication can be as simple as prescribing medications to treat an ulcer, or as extensive as having many, many revisional operations with over 100 days of hospital stay. 



Dr. Birch, Dr. de Gara and other bariatric surgeons in RAH believe that by conducting this study, we will be able to provide useful information to the healthcare decision makers about the cost resulting from medical tourism. This would allow decreased wait times, more OR slots, etc. for bariatric surgery in Alberta. Ms. Adrianna O. has summed it up well from the post above.

While there are Alberta residents who had successful bariatric surgery outside of Alberta, there are those that end up with complications as well. One of the goals of this study is to get an estimated number of Alberta residents who had bariatric surgery outside of Alberta, both with and without complications.

Also, we have an ethics approval for this study. You may call the UofA research ethics office 780-492-2615 to confirm.

To Adrianna O.
Thank you for your post. It pretty much sums up why we are doing this research. After the data is collected, analyzed, it will be published as a journal article.