Follow up with surgeon or primary care? How often do you have blood work done??

[2Bsmaller18 436]

Are you following up with your surgeon annually for blood work or do you see your primary care doctor? My surgeon has me coming in every 6 to 8 months (I am 20 months post bypass) for blood work and to have an in person appointment. I met my goal at 6 months, have maintained, don't have any issues so I am not sure if it's really necessary to see the surgeon. I would also assume I just need annual labs done at this point.

[Recidivist 1,141]

I've been doing it every six months (as recommended by my surgeon) but with my primary care physician. It's much cheaper to see my PCP than my surgeon, and all I need is periodic blood work. It's probably not necessary to do it every six months at a certain point, but I like being reassured that my Vitamin levels continue to be good.

[catwoman7 11,210]

I still see my surgeon annually, but I know of other people who just started seeing their PCP after the first year or so.

I get my blood work done annually. Actually, I schedule my annual follow-up with my surgeon about six months away from my annual physical with my PCP, so that way she can follow up with additional blood work if there was something that had to be monitored.

[Arabesque 7,218]

I see someone from my surgeon’s team about every 3 months & have a blood test before the appointment. It as more frequently to begin. For the first year I was seeing my GP in between those visits & she’d get me to have a test too. My liver function went crazy while I was losing & they were watching that closely. I also had a liver scan during that time. (Everything’s fine now. It was just all the stored cholesterol & hormones being released as I lost weight. Whew!) It was reassuring that my medical team were so actively monitoring me.

I’m not sure what will happen when I hit the two year mark with my surgeon. But I’m pretty certain my GP will keep ordering blood work for me.

[RickM 1,747]

We (my wife and I) usually see him (talk on the phone lately) every year, though there were a few years a while go when we skipped it after they closed their local office (they moved up to SF around 20 years ago, but maintained a local office for many years to serve all of their legacy patients and any new recruits from the area). He mostly go over the same things that our PCP does looking at the labs (much more extensive for my wife with her DS than for me with a VSG) so there normally isn't much added, though he often has preferred or recommended levels that he likes to see that may differ from the basic :normal" ranges called out on the lab sheets.

We haven't had any show stopping problems with our WLS over the years, but I look at the annual check with the surgeon as something of a retainer fee so that he keeps us on his radar and current in his files in case something odd shows up, the PCP can give him a call and ask about it (or we can zap him an email.)

Generally, the PCP is just fine for routine monitoring; it's when something questionable shows up that's beyond her experience where it's handy to still have a relationship with the surgeon.

[STLoser 1,099]

Since I was self pay, part of the cost was visits with my surgeon up to a year. After that, I plan to see how much it would cost to continue to see him yearly. If it's too much, I'll just see my primary doctor.

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[Mr Alley Gator 263]

I am insane about blood work i get it done every other month. For my sake so i can keep the engine in perfect tune of Vitamins and minerals. Kinda a sick goal I have to get a A every month