"I was very lucky to have found Dr. Champion. I had checked around and found that most surgeons who do the RNY by LAP don't perform it on patients who are over 350-400 pounds. I weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 pounds, and had almost given up on having the surgery done by LAP. I decided to call Dr. Champion's office anyway and ask, and I was told that he had performed the surgery by LAP on patients larger than me. I didn't really believe it until I actually went in and saw him. Sure enough he said that he thought he could do it by LAP, but if he couldn't finish it fully LAP, he would add one more incision just big enough to get his hand in to finish it up.
He and his office staff were great. The only thing that I didn't particularly like was that since I was a self-pay, they scheduled my visit with Dr. Champion for the day before the surgery. I felt that I needed to see and talk to him before that so I could put to rest the nagging fear that he wouldn't be able to operate on me or that there might be some extra tests he would want run on me (because of my co-morbidities) that would prevent me having surgery on the day I planned. I corrected this myself by calling back and asking to see him earlier. Sure enough there were some items he needed, including a surgery clearance from my cardiologist. This could have potentially pushed my surgery out a few days, if not weeks.
The surgery went very well, he was able to complete it fully LAP. He didn't use the dreaded NG tube nor the drainage tube. My catheter was pulled while in recovery, and I was up walking to the bathroom unassisted 5 minutes after getting back into my room. I went home on Thursday, two days after the operation. That night was the last time I needed pain meds.
Dr. Champion only does laproscopic VBG and RNY-proximal surgeries, although I believe he said that he has converted some proximals to distals in very rare cases. He is concerned about the side effects and life long risks associated with some of the other surgeries.
Overall, my experience with Dr. Champion and the surgery was great, but as in all things in life, YMMV (your mileage may vary).
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