My husband asked me yesterday and I had no idea. His sister only has one kidney, so she carries a card in her wallet stating that, in case of an accident and she can't tell them, they need to check her kidney and be careful because she could die from it.

Do we need to carry anything like that or wear one of those medical bracelets or something now that we had this surgery?? I mean I think we would be more susceptible to a leak or something if we had a high trauma to our stomachs no??

You need a card that states that medical personal need to be extremely cautious when inserting a naso-gastric tube. Not that it comes up a lot, but still. I got mine at my two week checkup.

As I understand it, NSAIDS and steroids can be taken with a gastric sleeve. That warning is for bypass patients. This is one of the reasons I choose the sleeve over bypass.

I was also given a card when I left the hospital to keep in my wallet that tells medical personnel that the tube can only be inserted with radiology because our anatomy is now differnet. They also recommended I get one of those medical alert bracelets, but I haven't.

Pricey, but COOL!

http://www.laurenshope.com/

I have a card in my wallet that was given to me at the surgeon's office on my first visit.

hmmmmmmmmm...first i have heard of a "card"...someone has some splaining to do!!

sounds like a great topic for our next support group meeting...

i have card regarding bariatrics

Have a card also that says I had bariatric surgery but I had not idea about the tube insertion. Did your surgeon tell you this.

The hospital I had my surgery at has a whole packet of information that a nurse goes over with you check out. One of them is that you can't be intabated (not sure if I spelled that right-when they put the tube down your throat to help you breath) without having an x-ray at the same time, to make sure it goes down properly. When I asked the surgeon and internal doc they agreed with this as well. Although I suppose if you are in an accident and the choices are 1) die because you can't breath or 2) have the tube inserted, potentially incorrectly, and still live.....I'll take #2.

Yes, the information is correct. No blind NG tubes and they need to know not to push to much fluid into it. Like I said, it doesn't come up a lot, but still ...

I'll have to ask about that too! I know they told me if I have an emergency to go to their ER... But emergencies don't always happen close to home or near that hospital... Thanks for bringing this subject up.

Oh one other thing it says on my emergency card is for the ER to contact my surgeon and lists his name, hospital affiliation, address and phone number, so that the surgeon can personally tell the ER what to do in addition to their treatment to accomodate a sleeved stomach.

I'll preface this by saying I am not a doctor or work in the medical field. However, I have been told that VSG patients do not need to worry about having an naso gastric tube puncturing their sleeve. That is "old" thinking based on the fact that it is a SERIOUS issue for those with an RNY gastric bypass and could easily puncture their pouch. The sleeve is a completely different animal but it seems the advice still sticks.

Kinda like how NSAIDS are fine with a sleeve.....but some surgeons still tell their patients they can't have it.

Just my two cents.