They've only done FOUR???

So I saw the nurse who gets you all set up in the program for my surgeon’s office yesterday... it went pretty well, no major surprises, but...

So far, they have only done FOUR... yes 4, sleeves!!!

I knew that the number was low, but I didn’t realize that it was this low.  In our area at least insurance has JUST started to cover it.

I was asking about their personal statistics with the sleeve, such as leaks and success rates and she said, “well, we’ve done 4 sleeves and none of them have leaked!"  (this was said in a nice way...)

I figure that if they are a center of excellence and have done hundreds and hundreds of RNY’s (not to mention the hundreds of bands) they can probably handle the sleeve very successfully :-)  Does that make sense or am I kind of being delusional?

 Well techniacally the sleeve is very similar to part of a bypass.  If they have been doing bypasses then they should be able to do a sleeve no problem.

The surgery itself is pretty simple now- the complications usually come from things common to any surgery that any decent surgeon should find when they go in: ulcers, bleeding, hernia, leakage, necrosis, etc. Those are usually really rare.

JB

Actually the sleeve is the same stomach you get with a DS. It's not really like a bypass at all.

Yes, that does make sense as my surgeon said how the sleeve is much more simpler and easier to do than the bypass.The sleeve ,too, was the new kid on the block where I went and I have just been sleeved, and so afr, so good, I came home today!! Good luck!

Cool guys!  I feel better already :-)

I won't get my date til June or July at best, so I bet they'll get a few more under thier belt by then too!

I was the first sleeve patient for my bariatric practice. I was very excited about it. When you are paving the way for so many others I was totally comfortable with being first. I am 2.5 months out and doing great. I go for a check up with my surgeon tom.

 I couldn't agree with you more!!  

 I'm pretty new around here and pre-op but the only thing that would stick out to me would not be the surgery but the follow up and support. 

(but maybe that's not an issue cause the other surgeries' support groups are close enough?)

My surgery had some complications due to inexperience.  The surgeon had done many sleeves, but the hospital and the anesthesiologist had not done many and were apparently not well trained.  I went through a very long drawn out healing phase and many extra days in the hospital.  I am doing pretty well now and really don't want to discourage you, but there are risks with inexperience.  Just be sure to ask lots of questions and make sure the rest of the staff in the OR know what they are doing also.

A bariatric surgeon friend of mine told me that the surgical "maneuvers" are very similar between RNY and VSG so shouldn't be a big deal. If the surgeon has done tons of RNY successfully I wouldn't be worried.