The ball is rolling now..

I met with my surgeon yesterday and I was prepared  to bravely state my case to him that I wanted the VSG as opposed to the RNY that I had initially decided on. I told him my concerns and about my pre existing condition and low and behold he made like it was totally up to me. I had heard how much OHIP is a stickler for the "gold standard" and when I mentioned to the one nurse at the clinic she very abruptly said.. nope we don't do VSG only the RNY!
When I said to the doc, I don't know who has the final say you or Ohip he replied.. "Ohip is quite happy to pay for either surgery"
So my date is Dec 1/11 and I am so pleased. I sat in my car after and just basked in the elevated mood I left with... I had been pretty stressed for weeks anticipating the meeting wanting to be prepared.
My surgeon is a nice man, but those who posted about him on here before about him being curt and straight to the point were right. I don't think I even saw him smile, in fact he remained kind expression less LOL  I didn't get to ask all my questions as I kind of felt like some of them were annoying him a bit, and after hearing I could have the VSG I was just so relieved that alot of the questions kind of escaped me. I totally forgot to ask if he could fix my hiatal hernia on that day and that was kind of an important one, so not sure if I should call the office or what.
I just know that when it was brought up in one of the groups the nurse there again said.. nope they won't do that.
So I feel if I call and ask them I will just get a no.
 

Congrats on getting approved for your choice of surgery! As for talking to him about the hernia, I think he won't be able to help but see it and have to work around it for surgery. Just mention it to him when you speak to him on the morning of surgery and ask what he'll be able to do about it.

Congratulations on getting your surgery of choice. 

 Wow, congrats that is great, I am hoping my surgeon will do the same for me.  Just curious if you have any medical reason that the doctor would agree to giving you the VSG?  I have arthritis in my hands, hips, back and knees and I am only 38 and I need the ability to take NSAIDS post surgery in order to better handly my symptoms.

Tammy

I thought my struggling with anemia would be the clincher but the doc informed me you lose the ability to absorb iron with the VSG as well so the thing that secured it for me was the NSAIDS issue.
I have endometriosis and battle with extreme blood loss, once I actually menstruated for 6 months with only a 2 day break inbetween. I was put on progesterone and it worked the first time stopping my bleeding at four months but when it happened down the road again that didn't work and I required surgery to stop it. Now my gyno tells me to take NSAIDS for the pain but more importantly it lessens the bleeding and that's a big thing for me.

I also explained that O/arthritis runs in my and I am concerned if I should inherit that then I would also need the NSAIDS.

If you have a pre existing condition that requires it you should have no problem in getting what you ask for.
Good luck.

 Thanks so much for sharing, I appreciate knowing what I am up against!!

Tammy

The surgeon told you that you lose the ability to absorb iron with a VSG? That is not entirely true. Iron is primarily absorbed in the duodenum, the part of the small intestine just past the pyloric valve, which if left entirely intact with the VSG. But for the iron to be broken down into small enough particles to be absorbed by the body, takes stomach acid, which you have less of post-op. So it is true that the ability to absorb iron is somewhat impaired, but not nearly as badly as with RNYers. All the basic elements for iron absorption are still there with the VSG and you can still benefit from iron rich foods and iron supplementation. If you look at iron deficient anemia rates for mentruating women between the surgeries, it is 60-85% for the RNY and 1-14% for VSG/DS. So there is still a big difference.

This is one of the reasons that I am pushing for a DS, as I have a genetic blood clotting disorder that causes severe menstrual bleeding and frequent anemia. I'm meeting with Dr. Hong in a couple of weeks to discuss this with him (there are other reasons that I am pushing for DS as well, instead of VSG which I don't believe would be appropriate for me either).

Glad to hear you can get what you want. So excited for you!!

 Congratulations on getting your surgery of choice!  This is the first time I've heard that you lose the ability to absorb iron though??

The doc told her a somewhat misleading and highly abbreviated form of what actually happens... I've explained it a couple of responses up from yours if you're interested.