Goodbye Roux En Y... hello VSG!

Feb 20, 2013

Yesterday I met with my surgeon, Dr. Carlin of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. What a super nice guy! He never made me feel uncomfortable, he was very professional, funny, and just overall very personable. (First impressions are always a big deal for me).

We talked about everything under the sun in regards to my history, the surgeries, what I wanted, and what he thought would be best based on my past medical history, as well as my labs.

To be honest, I had my heart set on having the Roux En Y surgery. It's the surgery I researched the most and in my mind, that's what I was prepared for. That was however until we discovered that it's not going to be the best option for me.

Dr. Carlin discovered that I am very anemic. He said that from his experience, those patients who started out anemic (even IF they had brought their iron levels back up) tend to have many complications from the RNY surgery and several times a year require iron infusions, and also puts me at a higher risk to develop a heap of other complications.

He seemed very concerned and honest when he said that if I were his mother, sister or other family member he would not recommend it. Of course he left the decision up to me. He just recommended strongly against it.

We talked about the sleeve and he feels like it will be a better fit for me, and I do not disagree with him at all. So I have since opted for the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. I feel very confident with this decision and have begun researching more into it. I have done a little research on it, but since I figured RNY was going to be the best, I didn't dig as deep into it as I probably should have.

After my appointment I met with Wanda, the Bariatric Coordinator to schedule my next appointments. I will have my psych evaluation next Tuesday, Feb. 26th and my exercise consultation on Wednesday, March 6th. I'm also waiting for my appointment with the doctor to clear me for surgery. Once all that's complete, I go back on April 5th for my pre-surgery visit with Dr. Carlin and to schedule surgery.

I also found out yesterday that I do not need a pre-approval for surgery from my insurance company - so everything is good to go. I just have to finish up the last few steps, and I'm done. I'm so thankful that we were blessed with such great health insurance through my husbands job.

That's my update for now. As things get moving I'll be sure to update more.

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