Due to finacial reasons I have asked my surgeon to sleeve me outpatient rather than inpatient. I was hoping to hear from some of you that had their surgery outpatient and see what your thoughts were.. were you okay at home after the surgery or would you have stayed in the hospital if you could have? The surgeon said I would have a drain, but only for 24 hours, he also said that I would put a blue dye in all of my liquids to assist in finding a leak if there was one. How safe am I doing this and a few hours going home? I have plenty of help at home (husband and 4 kids).

Personally, I needed that 2 days in the hospital, mainly for the great IV pain meds!

My surgery was approved & scheduled as outpatient. The plan was to keep me under observation until the next morning. However, my heart rate was off the chart & blood count was low. So they admitted me as inpatient thinking I may need a blood transfusion & to monitor my heart. As it turned out, all of the IV fluids along with the heparin diluted my blood. Once the doc discontinued the fluids, blood count was better. No transfusion. high Heart rate was due to hospital anxiety. I absolutely HATE hospitals. Part of the reasons I followed the post op rules @ 100% so i wouldn't end up back there.

So overall, although I didn't want to be there, that extra day was necessary to monitor my situation.

Just to bring some gravitas to the scale of this operation - in the past week, on this forum, I've heard of 2 deaths from post op complications following VSG. One in Mexico and one in Australia - I don't know either person so am assuming that what I've heard is correct.

I can't speak for the quality of care in Mexico and shall leave that to others. But Australia has top notch health care overall, with patients generally having longer and more preventative post-op care than my reading of US posts suggests is the norm "up there". That's not a criticism of others health care systems, more a demonstration of why I have faith in mine.

What this says to me is this op has real risks attached - things go wrong, mistakes are made, luck runs out. Don't get me wrong - I've had this op and would do so again, but I didn't and don't take it lightly.

We are all women*, mothers, daughters, wives, sisters and friends first and foremost. We need to look after ourselves well. Most of us have time on our side and don't need to rush in.

*Apologies to the blokes - please amend as necessary. It seems that it is most often women who find themselves without adequate insurance and so end up taking more risks than they'd prefer, whether that is going to another country or minimal time in hospital.

I will be outpatient in Mexico also. My aunt had it this way and it went just fine for her. She had her surgery at 8 am and was released the next day at about 10 am, making it a 26 hour stay. She had no need to even call the doctor, because he explained things so clearly. I will be doing the same thing at the end of this month. I do think its a personal choice.

I also wanted to make a comment about the death mention. I am not sure people read the side effects information. Surgery is a risk, nothing is fool proof and human bodies all react differently to different siguations. Death is a reality and it should be seen that way. So instead of speaking so poorly about the doctors, realize that this happens everywhere in the world, and can happen to the best of them.

Instead of speaking so poorly about the doctors' date=' realize that this happens everywhere in the world, and can happen to the best of them.[/quote']

I haven't seen anybody speaking poorly about any doctor, only people highlighting the risks and commenting about what that means to them in terms of what is acceptable care and what isn't. I

As you say, death happens. So it makes sense to make people aware of the risks, not to trivialise the risks and to take action to minimise the risks. I think you and I are agreeing on this.

For me, the risk is too great to skimp on post operative care. In a similar manner, I wouldn't ride a motorbike without a helmet.

Omg I cannot imagine doing this outpatient ... I had trouble getting in enough liquids so stayed 2 nights at the hospital and was so grateful for the nurses taking care of me!!