Couples Retreat...

[LindaDarnell]

Hi all! I was referred to this board by a very helpful member, as I was inquiring for help on DS. My husband recently had the surgery, more as a step to control his diabetes than weight loss (he barely qualified with a low BMI). I'm scheduled to have the DS as a revision to a VSG in a few months. I have a lot of questions and will need help. I'm scouring the forum to find my answers, but please forgive if I ask something that has been posted and answered before.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[hilary1617]

Hi and welcome, @Blackegi! Wishing you all the best on your journey. It's great that you have a true partner in DS in your husband!

 

[Larra]

Hi! Good to see you here! Lots of people here who have revised from VSG to DS, or who are in the planning stages. Who is your surgeon?

 

[k9ophile]

This forum has a good search feature so you might find answers to your questions utilizing it. Yet everyone has different questions, so if you can't find what you're looking for, ask away.

Welcome and best wishes.

 

[LindaDarnell]

Hi! Good to see you here! Lots of people here who have revised from VSG to DS, or who are in the planning stages. Who is your surgeon?

Thank you again for your help and suggestions. My surgeon is Dr. R.Pulatt at MUSC

 

[Toya C]

Welcome! You are in the right place for info.

 

[Larra]

I've been on this forum and others for over 11 years and have never heard of this doctor as a DS surgeon. I tried to find info online as to what procedures he does and couldn't find it.
There are some surgeons these days doing an operation that they are calling "the DS" but it isn't the DS. The real DS is a standard of care bariatric surgery, and has been considered standard of care for over 25 years. There is a new variation on the DS being called a variety of names - SIPS aka SADI aka loop DS - but it is experimental. The long term excellent results of the DS are well documented, both for weight loss and also for permanent resolution of type 2 diabetes. The long term results of this newer operation are not yet known. In addition, some surgeons are using the code for the DS to get insurance coverage (even though it's a different operation) and others are cobbling together other codes to get coverage. Some surgeons are very honest about what operation they are doing, others are not.
I have no way of knowing which operation your surgeon does, it just worries me that I've never heard of him as a DS surgeon. The DS community is small enough that those of us who are active in this community know who the DS surgeons are. Of course, if he has added the DS to his practice, that would be great. We need more DS surgeons! But I think it would be wise to learn more about the difference between these operations and ask specific questions about what he is planning for you. And, if you are not happy with the answers you get, go elsewhere. There are some good threads about the new operation on this website.
Please understand that I'm not saying he's not a good surgeon. He may be an excellent surgeon. But that won't matter if you don't get the operation you need.

 

[southernlady]

Welcome @Blackegi
I am familiar with MUSC (I'm up about 3 miles from Spartanburg County and grew up in Greenville).

We found out that the MUSC folks are doing the SADI/LoopDS/SIPS not the traditional DS. Difference is how many anastomoses (traditional has 2, the others only have one) and the food channel is 250-300 cm not 100 or the Hess Method.

Ask your surgeon these two questions:
1) Do you use the Hess Method?
2) How many anastomoses?
And have him (or her) draw a diagram for you.

I'm one half of a couple as well. Both my dh and I are 6 years out. I also, like your husband, barely qualified with a 35.2 BMI. I was an insulin pump dependent type 2. But I have had diabetes for decades. While I now control it with diet, my a1c never got below 5.7 and is now back above 6.5. Resolution of diabetes is not 100%, unfortunately I am in the 2-3% that is not resolved.

 

[Psychomom]

Welcome!! You came to the right place!

 

[aaa]

Hello.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Hi all! I was referred to this board by a very helpful member, as I was inquiring for help on DS. My husband recently had the surgery, more as a step to control his diabetes than weight loss (he barely qualified with a low BMI). I'm scheduled to have the DS as a revision to a VSG in a few months. I have a lot of questions and will need help. I'm scouring the forum to find my answers, but please forgive if I ask something that has been posted and answered before.

Thanks in advance for your help!

A few words of caution...
1--Besides all this http://bariatricfacts.org/threads/hello.3190/
2--There is a fair-to-middlin' chance that AFTER you have had this surgery, billed as a REAL DS but performed as a "bait and don't switch" procedure, you will end up paying out of pocket for the thrill of being someone's science project. (Because insurance won't pay for what it did not authorize...even after the fact.)
3--Get a copy, NOW, of the surgery release form and THOROGHLY INSPECT IT. (Tell them you're a slow reader if need be.). If that release indicates anything OTHER THAN a true, two-anastomoses switch, your doctor is...pardon the technical language here...a lyin' sack of shit. And you have my permission to tell him so.

And, hi.

Sue

 

[LindaDarnell]

Hi everyone..thanks for your feedback. So here's the deal: Dr Rana Pullattra is relatively new to MUSC, but has extensive DS experience through the VA system for over 10 years. (I tried to post a link to his bio, but you all can Google it)

At my husband's appointment yesterday that he does the full DS with 2 anastomoses (sp?) and does not perform the methods you all listed because of the low failure/results rates. There is another Dr at MUSC that offered those methods as revisions to a DS but he no longer offers them.