Decision Time

excarolinagirl · December 10, 2009

Yesterday was a wake up call. I had been having right upper quadrant pain. One episode last month sent me to the ER from work as the medical dept thought I was having a heart attack. I had a gallbladder ultrasound and Hyda Scan on 11/30 and just found out the results yesterday. My gallbladder is shot (only functioning at 5%) and I have "fatty infiltration of the liver."

I've been looking at gastric surgeries over the past two years including gastric banding, gastric bypass and now VSG. I was sort of on the fence thinking I could still do this on my own. However, this has brought me back to looking at gastric WLS.

I am meeting with my surgeon re) the gallbladder on Mon. 12/14. He is also my gastric surgeon referral. I met with him last year about gastric surgery options. I want to ask him if the VSG could be done at the same time as the gallbladder surgery. He is pretty conservative so if it isn't a good idea, he will let me know.

Question: has anyone had the gallbladder surgery first and then VSG or other gastric WLS?

Thanks for listening.

Dee :crying:

deedee · December 11, 2009

Welcome Dee!

My surgeon was willing (and planning) to do the VSG and gallbladder at the same time. He said at one time the gallbladder was routinely removed with wls. At one of my pre-op meetings a few weeks before surgery my husband asked about the risks of being under anesthesia longer in order to have both removed and the surgeon did say the longer your under, the greater the risk (it really didn't seem that much greater though). Although my gallbladder was bad (based on an ultrasound I had last spring due to pains), we decided to wait (there were other reasons pertaining to my situation as well). The surgeon said I would need to wait either 4 or 6 weeks (can't remember) between surgeries, but it wouldn't be a problem.

Good luck on your decision process, I'm sure your surgeon will have some good advice.