REVISION APPROVED! RNY to DS!
I have SO been looking forward to finally being able to say that!!
I had my RNY back in 2000 and have been trying to get approval for revision since last September. I originally wanted to do it with Dr. Rabkin in CA, but after exhausting all appeals including having Walter Lindstrom take on my case and take it to external review, I was still denied. I have no out-of-network benefits for bariatric surgery and there are very few surgeons who are in-network for a revision. I was crushed.
After poring through countless posts, I found out that Dr. Roslin in NYC does RNY to DS revisions, and after some research and with talking to his office, I found that he is in-network for Aetna! I flew to NYC from Cleveland for the consult, psych and nutrition evaluations. I got a call today from their office letting me know that I was approved!!! My surgery date is July 11, and I still haven't fully absorbed it.
From the short amount of time that I spent with Dr. Roslin, I can tell he is a very confident surgeon. He tries to do lap on everyone he can. I had my RNY open, and he said he still plans on doing it lap, but if he sees there is too much scar tissue then he will have to open me up. He doesn't like to keep anyone under too long. I believe he said I'd be done in 2.5-3 hours.
By the way, when I had my consult, I weighed 305, BMI 51. I had gained almost all of my weight lost from my RNY in 2000 (dilated stoma, etc). Dr. Roslin told me I needed to lose 20 pounds before the surgery to reduce the size of my liver (I think that's a standard request from him). I'm down about 14 or 15 lbs, so I'll have no problem making it.
Anyway, I just want to thank everyone for sharing all of their experiences and for all the people on here who take the time to reply to posts. Your insight and experiences mean so much, especially for those of us who have been lurking and feel we don't have anything to contribute--YET. My time to pay it forward is coming soon. Love you guys!!!
Sandy
I had my RNY back in 2000 and have been trying to get approval for revision since last September. I originally wanted to do it with Dr. Rabkin in CA, but after exhausting all appeals including having Walter Lindstrom take on my case and take it to external review, I was still denied. I have no out-of-network benefits for bariatric surgery and there are very few surgeons who are in-network for a revision. I was crushed.
After poring through countless posts, I found out that Dr. Roslin in NYC does RNY to DS revisions, and after some research and with talking to his office, I found that he is in-network for Aetna! I flew to NYC from Cleveland for the consult, psych and nutrition evaluations. I got a call today from their office letting me know that I was approved!!! My surgery date is July 11, and I still haven't fully absorbed it.
From the short amount of time that I spent with Dr. Roslin, I can tell he is a very confident surgeon. He tries to do lap on everyone he can. I had my RNY open, and he said he still plans on doing it lap, but if he sees there is too much scar tissue then he will have to open me up. He doesn't like to keep anyone under too long. I believe he said I'd be done in 2.5-3 hours.
By the way, when I had my consult, I weighed 305, BMI 51. I had gained almost all of my weight lost from my RNY in 2000 (dilated stoma, etc). Dr. Roslin told me I needed to lose 20 pounds before the surgery to reduce the size of my liver (I think that's a standard request from him). I'm down about 14 or 15 lbs, so I'll have no problem making it.
Anyway, I just want to thank everyone for sharing all of their experiences and for all the people on here who take the time to reply to posts. Your insight and experiences mean so much, especially for those of us who have been lurking and feel we don't have anything to contribute--YET. My time to pay it forward is coming soon. Love you guys!!!
Sandy
Wowza! I'm very glad you finally got approved and found one of the very few who can take on RNY-to-DS revisions and who is in-network for you.
His mention of trying to do it lap first raises a concern to me. If I were you, I would tell him I would much rather have it be open and almost surely get both the sleeve and intestinnal parts done in one surgery, rather than taking the slower lap route that can increase the chance that as a RNY-to-DS revision you will wake up with only the sleeve done, due to time, and making you wait for yet another surgery, anesthesia, travel, possible insurance fight, recovery, etc. That is a big thing that bugs me about Dr. Gagner in Canada -- he makes too many people have two-part DSes that could have been one-part if he would have gone open. Rabkin, Keshishian, and Greenbaum (when he was doing RNY-to-DS) all make that specific, super-complex RNY-to-DS revision open.
His mention of trying to do it lap first raises a concern to me. If I were you, I would tell him I would much rather have it be open and almost surely get both the sleeve and intestinnal parts done in one surgery, rather than taking the slower lap route that can increase the chance that as a RNY-to-DS revision you will wake up with only the sleeve done, due to time, and making you wait for yet another surgery, anesthesia, travel, possible insurance fight, recovery, etc. That is a big thing that bugs me about Dr. Gagner in Canada -- he makes too many people have two-part DSes that could have been one-part if he would have gone open. Rabkin, Keshishian, and Greenbaum (when he was doing RNY-to-DS) all make that specific, super-complex RNY-to-DS revision open.
HW/SW/CW/GW 346/335/183/150 5'4.25"
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