toronto Western Support group

I was very pro-RNY and I believed it was the right surgery for me but as Karen said I was unable to have the RNY surgery because once they opened me up they discovered I had a complete non-rotation of my intestines that made it impossibly safe for them to perform the by-pass portion of the RNY surgery and so I ended up with the VSG or the sleeve gastrectomy as they call it at Toronto Western.

 Hi pinkkjellybean

So since you have had the VSG. How has your weight loss journey been?

I have been researching inside and out on

RNY cons that are likely not to happen with VSG

. from dr and surgeon forum:
 dumping
 diarrhea
malabsorption
intestinal infections
Bowel obstruction
Ulcers
Anemia
Redirection
Stricture
Smaller pouch
Long surgery
Longer hospital stay

I am not really up to speed with the pros and cons of the VSG surgery although I am sure many people can tell you however you should know that I have had a very difficult recovery from my surgery.   I was in the hospital for 6 days post-op because I could not tolerate fluids and had very strong nausea.  Any time I ate or drank for the first two weeks I was in extreme pain and it wasn't until the swelling went down in my stomach that I finally got some relief from that.  My surgery (although I did have complications with the intestines) was 4.5 hours long when they had originally told my family it would be 2-2.5 hours.  I do have anemia and I am supplementing with Feramax at this time...although my iron did start to drop just before surgery when I was on Optifast.  While I don't experience DUMPING in the RNY sense of the matter there are definitely foods that make me feel very sick and that my stomach is not that fond of and in fact some nights I have had nausea that lasted hours....case in point - two nights ago I tried a small amount of pureed pulled pork that had me sick for the entire night afterward.  

My weight loss has been acceptable in my eyes - although after a good drop in the first two weeks I did experience a stall for two weeks and now I am finally starting to drop again.  

 Wow. I'm so sorry to hear all about your hard times!  Do you know if what you had was common?  Did the surgery take that long because they had to come up with an alternate solution?  Do they know why you couldn't stomache anything and nauseous. I read that if you experience some of those symptoms it could mean you have a leak?  Who was your surgeon?  How are you now?  Hope your feeling better. I wish you success and a long happy life :)

With the RNY I went in on Friday morning and was out Sunday morning. I walked quite a bit in the hospital. I was off pain medication by the second day home. I have had diarrhea only on the optifast. Now I am told constipation is very common. I have not had dumping or any other side effects but I am really careful what I eat. I am not hungry so having a small pouch is not a problem at the moment. 5 weeks post op and I have lost 40 lbs. Unfortunately I have hurt my achilles tendon so am having a problem excercising which would probably help the weight loss. All the things they list above are just to let you know there could be problems. But there are always going to be the possibility of complications with any major surgery. Go to the in take meeting and let them answer all your questions. They are going to tell you the worst in case. You will be able to go to the support group so can meet people who have had it. When I went to the intake there was someone there who had the surgery who was very happy and at goal weight. She was there to support her husband.

Hello

I am so glad to hear you are doing successfully on your weight loss journey. As I had mentioned above I guess everyone has their own opinions and preferences. Mine is not to have my insides re routed. We are all on this site for the same reason, for support, guidance and definitely to hear about others successes!  Thank you for telling about your journey with the RNY.   My friend just had the orientation at Humber and they told her that 1 in every 100 dies?  Isn't that a rather high odds?  Maybe she heard wrong?  Anyhow. I'm not on here to dis anyone's decisions. They also tol her that swallowing anything the size of a lifesaver unchewed can kill her?  She walked out of there scared out of her wit and has decided not to proceed forward...

I guess it also wasn't the greatest idea for me to read the memorial page. Doesn't help :(

I wish you all the best!  :)