Pulmonary Embolism 20 years ago might be an obstacle...

[Tootles1975 59]

So I've been trucking along with all my appointments, completing everything but the endoscopy, one nutritionist visit and the sleep study. I met with the sleep study doctor today and he was very, very interested in the fact that I had a pulmonary embolism almost 20 years ago. I had a vena cava filter installed at the time and took blood thinners for six months and was told it all cleared up on its own. I see a vascular surgeon (and have for the past five years) who monitors the filter --- I just recently had a X-ray of it to make sure it hadn't moved (he actually was going to suggest removing it until I told him I was preparing for gastric bypass). Neither he nor the bypass surgeon had any real concerns about this history, they just said they would prescribe blood thinning injections pre-op and/or post-op for me.

Well today's doctor was very negative and thought I should reconsider the surgery given my history with the embolism. I was shocked by his overwhelming pessimism (he told me that it was probably impossible to have the filter removed since I've had it for 20 years--which is the opposite of what the vascular surgeon said) and that he wanted to order a whole new battery of tests (Ultrasound, nuclear medicine, echo doppler, PFT) in addition to the sleep study (which...I don't even think I HAVE sleep apnea) and extensive boodwork to see if I have any pre-indicators for clotting, and then see me again in a month.

Now I'm a bit worried about all kinds of things, and while I know it's better to be safe than sorry, it makes me worried/angry that the vascular surgeon and the bypass surgeon didn't seem nearly as concerned about this as he was. He did concede he might be erring too heavily on the side of caution, but still seemed very negative about the whole thing. He said if it comes back that I do have genetic problems, I should consider if it's worth doing the surgery or trying instead a medically supervised weight loss program. I tried to explain to him that my primary motivation for surgery is that it will severely minimize and maybe eradicate my diabetes, which diet/exercise won't do, and that I know regular diets only generally have a 5% success rate long term, but he seemed pretty skeptical about my claims.

I'm not sure what to do now. My husband thinks I should cancel all the tests he scheduled and go to a different doctor for the sleep study. But now I'm worried, and I'd rather know if there's a problem or not. But...I don't want it to prevent me from getting the surgery either.

It's just so weird to suddenly be worrying about a medical problem that happened 20 years ago, and hasn't really been an issue since.

Anyone have any embolism history that put obstacles in their way to surgery?