Hey, so, I'm down to the last two weeks. I met with my surgeon, and he asked me to sign a form saying he could fix a hernia if he found one or do a liver biopsy if my liver looked funky. I did sign it, but now I find myself wondering: how likely is he to find a hernia, if I've already had the upper endoscopy? How much time does a hernia take to fix? (That is the major determinant of cost, and I am self-pay, in the US, so ... it's already a lot.) And if he does find and fix a hernia, how will that impact my recovery time? (I'm having the sleeve, so, it's theoretically a bit shorter recovery than RNY.)

I know nobody can answer how likely he is to want a liver biopsy, but I wonder: how will that affect the cost of my procedure? And how will that impact my recovery time?

I don't want to be cut open any extra times, so I was half tempted to say "Look, while you're in there, if my appendix looks at you funny, go ahead and take it, too," but like I said, I'm self-pay on this. I also have, you know, other life responsibilities, most of which I've said "I'll see you two weeks after surgery" on. So I'm just ... being anxious. As I do. (I'll do some searching online about this stuff, but I know there are people on here who have had one or both things done, and maybe your medical teams told you how that affected things.)

Thanks!

I can't speak about the liver because I don't know about that yet (my surgery is in November) but I do have a sliding hiatal hernia (basically my stomach goes up into my esophagus sometimes) which my surgeon said he will fix while he is in there. If I understood him correctly, that by doing the sleeve it will stop my hernia because he'll be moving my stomach around and then taking some of it away. He made it sound like it was killing two birds with one stone and that there wouldn't be an extra cost however I will be meeting with my surgeon next month so I will have to make sure I understood him correctly.

Just to be sure you might want to check with your surgeon's office and ask them to clarify any additional costs that you might be looking at.

Good luck

Edited September 20, 20187 yr by megolego

A liver bx was a routine part of my sleeve.

He's speaking of the hiatal hernia. It's a condition in which part of the stomach pushes up through the diaphragm muscle. I've watched a ton of the actual surgeries on YouTube and the fix usually consists of a couple stitches. I think all bariatric surgeons are taught to look for this as part of the bariatric surgical procedure.