Sunday, February 8, 2015

2/8/2015

Let's see, an update on me and an explanation of why I stopped updating this page.

In 11/2010 I moved to Mexicali, Mexico.  Around 10/2011 I began working for a surgeon so it was rather inappropriate to continue warning about surgeons.  I decided to leave my blog but, not update it.  Key information is there on Researching Mexican Surgeons.

I currently work for Dr. Juan Arellano.  He is the Vice President of the Mexican College of Bariatric surgeons. They tend to set the tone for bariatric surgery in the country of Mexico. I suspect he will be voted in as President next term.

He also was the starting committee member to begin board certification for Mexican bariatric surgeons.  Today surgeons doing your weight loss surgery should be board certified in General Surgery as well as Bariatrics.  If they can't pass that test, should you really be going to them?

Dr. Juan is also one of two surgeons vetted in DS and he is the only surgeon in Mexico qualified to revise from RNY to DS.

I now have several f/b pages.

One is for regain and/or revision bariatric patients.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130465167129885/?ref=bookmarks

Another is for Failed Bands.  Usually it's not the patient that fails the band, it's the band that fails the patient.  50% of bands of any brand are removed in the first 2-6 years post op, most of these people go on to revise to a better, safer surgery type and do quite well.  So, most of the time it is not the patient, it is the band.  This page is designed to help people deal with band issues and move on with their lives.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/759720587436129/

I have a page for facts about WLS.  There are so many myths and old science being posted all over the internet regarding bariatric surgery  I decided to start a page for just the facts.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WLSFacts/?ref=bookmarks

Then, yesterday I realized there is still a desperate need to show people how to research Mexican surgeons.  So, we are working on a page that is similar to this blog but it will be kept updated.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/792773314105638/?ref=bookmarks

Please note, the above page is under construction, we hope it will be up and running in a few days or a couple of weeks.

Many people are going to these dirt cheap surgeons in Tijuana for sleeves.  Please be aware, if you do this you are not getting an actual sleeve.  This is what they are doing:

When a surgeon does a sleeve one of the biggest costs to the surgeon is the titanium.  The staples.  It's the biggest cost for medical supplies.  It takes (usually) about 8 packs of staples to do one sleeve.

What these surgeons are doing is sleeving the bottom 25% of your stomach and that takes 2 packs of staples instead of 8.  A MASSIVE cost savings to your surgeon.  Then the plicate the upper 75% of your stomach.

Well, we know plication is temporary, it does not work long term.  So a few years down the road these people suddenly lose restriction.  They go get an upper GI (barium swallow) and the find their upper stomach is huge.  At this point they call their surgeon in Mexico to ask what the deal is and the Mexican surgeon will *always* blame the patient telling them they stretched out their stomach.  They ate too much food repeatedly.

Well, you know what?  That's what we do.  We eat too much.  We always did, that is why we needed restriction to begin with.  Surgery doesn't magically fix that so we still tend to push the limits post op. If we *can* eat we *do* eat, that is what we do. That does not mean your stomach goes back to almost normal size.  Yes!  Push the limits and you can dilate your sleeve, but not to almost its original size.

Then the patient has to go to an actual "revision" surgeon to fix what is wrong and only when the REVISION surgeon is looking at the stomach can it be determined what happened.

It's not the patient's fault.  It is the fault of the original surgeon.  When you look at the stomach there isn't a single staple in the upper 75% of the stomach. Just scarring from plication that gave away and now the stomach is huge again.  The upper portion of the fundus was never removed to begin with.  This also explains why the patient is so hungry, they are still over producing Ghrelin, the hunger causing hormone.  When you remove the fundus of the stomach properly, you remove about 80% of Ghrelin.  When you leave the fundus and just sew it up it still produces Ghrelin.

Please don't go to these cheap $3500/$5,000 sleeve surgeons.  Flat out, hands down, it is impossible to do a sleeve at those prices.  It can't be done.

Either the surgeon is doing 25% sleeve/75% plication OR... he is using black market supplies.  There are medical tourism companies based in the US that sell these cheap surgeons knowing full well they are sending patients to horrible surgeons.  Oh!  The patients LOVE the surgeons!  They are nice, kind, charismatic.  They treat the patient well.  Sadly, I'd venture a guess that most people rate the skill of their surgeon on how "nice" they are.  "Nice" does not mean skilled or ethical.  It is not until a few years down the road when you lose restriction and the massive regain starts that you will realize that your surgeon wasn't so "nice" after all.

Do your research, go to a real surgeon.

If you have any questions please email me at any time.

Bipley@gmail.com
602 539 0949

No comments: