I originally had my follow up appointment with the surgeon for this coming Monday, however the hurricane in the gulf right now is going to circle around all weekend and make Monday appointments impossible. I gave the office a quick call and they actually squeezed me in today, Friday, for an appointment before the weather turns for the worst.
My surgeon reviewed the results of the endoscopy and the result of the upper G.I. His recommendation is that I convert to the Duodenal Switch as well as fix the sliding hiatal hernia and perhaps some trimming of my current sleeve.
The upper GI showed that I have a giant sliding hiatal hernia that is obstructing the esophagus from working properly. I'm mildly embarrassed by my own lack of body awareness, I guess I feel like weird feelings in my stomach and throat are just "normal for me ". He reassured me that this is in fact not normal.
The only good thing about the hiatal hernia is that my insurance will definitely cover the repair to that and I know that my insurance does definitely not include any weight-loss surgery.
This means that a good portion of my surgery will be covered and I will only have to pay for the time it takes to complete the duodenal switch. A significant savings, and my work will allow me to go on short term disability to recover. Which is even better, so I don't have to use all my vacation time for recovery and possibly have to return to work sooner than I should.
I actually didn't really know anything about the duodenal switch until my first consult where he told me about it. I've been reading a lot. The conversion from a vertical sleeve gastrectomy to the duodenal switch means that I'm halfway done the surgery, all I require is the detouring of the small intestines. Although he did say there might be some revision to the fundus, stomach, as mine is quite distended. However he didn't recommend a re-sleeve by itself because they are not quite as successful and just revising the stomach tissue has a higher risk of leakage.
Because I have so much arthritis in my neck, I require ibuprofen on a pretty regular basis. The other option of a gastric bypass is definitely off the table, as that surgery is very intolerant too ibuprofen. The good news is that I regularly take ibuprofen and I don't have any stomach ulcers currently, so that is a positive indicator that this will continue to work well for me.
What I'm really happy about is that all the waiting and wondering about what might happen, what's the recommendation, which revision is going to be best for me .... etc etc is over. Knowing is just so much better, now I can rest easy and do research on my upcoming surgery.
Phew! So happy that I know the next steps.
His office is submitting to my insurance for the hernia fix and is going to get in touch with me with a quote for the remaining surgery that will happen at the same time. Then we can plan a date for the revision - which will have to be in October, I have too much going on work wise in Sept. I'm hoping for October 2, first Monday of the month and almost exactly 5 years to the day (oct15,2012) from my initial VSG. That will be a good date as well, so I can take almost that whole month off to recover.
Happy Dance!!
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