Los Angeles Surgeons / General Questions

[PJKS1989 6]

Hi everyone -

I’m so glad this website exists - I never knew about it until today.

I’m 31 years old, 6’1 and 350 lbs. I’ve decided to start researching information on the gastric sleeve. I live here in Los Angeles and have some great hospitals available to me.

I’m wondering if anyone has had their sleeve surgery from CEDARS SINAI or UCLA? If so, do you have a surgeon you recommend? How was your experience? Any particular surgeon you thought was incredible? I would LOVE to connect and talk more if you’re willing.

I have a web seminar with Cedars tomorrow which will hopefully give me more information, but hearing directly from patients would be amazing as well!

More generally, if there’s anyone in the LA area that’s had the sleeve and would be willing to talk to me about their experience I would be very grateful.

I’m feeling nervous but optimistic. I’ve tried everything since I was in 6th grade to lose weight and I’m hoping the sleeve will be a powerful tool that I can use to access the healthy life I so desperately want!

Thank you all for the support.

[RickM 1,747]

HI, welcome to the club!

I am familiar with the Cedars bariatric department, having met and talked to them several times over a few months on a prospective non-bariatric procedure (that I ultimately never had) but came out with an overall positive opinion of them. I am not personally familiar with UCLA's program, but have seen a couple of questionable things from them over the years.

Here in the LA area, one doc that I would certainly have on my list to consider for sleeve type procedures is Dr. Ara Keshisian in the Pasadena area.. I would probably have gone to him for my sleeve if he had been practicing here at the time; instead I went to the Rabkins up in SF as no one in LA had much experience doing sleeves then and they had been doing them for around twenty years at that time.

Dr. K will probably push you to do a duodenal switch (a sleeve plus malabsorptive intestinal rerouting) over the sleeve as it tends to have better long term results with better regain resistance than the VSG or RNY. For me, I felt that it was overkill for my needs (though was just the right thing for my wife,) so a good, honest look at what your needs really are would be in order in working out that decision.

Good luck, and PM me with any other questions that you have,

[New&Improved 1,780]

On 6/23/2020 at 9:11 AM, PJKS1989 said:

Hi everyone -

I’m so glad this website exists - I never knew about it until today.

I’m 31 years old, 6’1 and 350 lbs. I’ve decided to start researching information on the gastric sleeve. I live here in Los Angeles and have some great hospitals available to me.

I’m wondering if anyone has had their sleeve surgery from CEDARS SINAI or UCLA? If so, do you have a surgeon you recommend? How was your experience? Any particular surgeon you thought was incredible? I would LOVE to connect and talk more if you’re willing.

I have a web seminar with Cedars tomorrow which will hopefully give me more information, but hearing directly from patients would be amazing as well!

More generally, if there’s anyone in the LA area that’s had the sleeve and would be willing to talk to me about their experience I would be very grateful.

I’m feeling nervous but optimistic. I’ve tried everything since I was in 6th grade to lose weight and I’m hoping the sleeve will be a powerful tool that I can use to access the healthy life I so desperately want!

Thank you all for the support.

Have you decided on the sleeve over BYPASS? Being that you're at 350 you'll need to lose at least 150lbs

[RickM 1,747]

On 6/27/2020 at 5:14 AM, MIKEYY84 said:

Have you decided on the sleeve over BYPASS? Being that you're at 350 you'll need to lose at least 150lbs

There is very little, if any, difference in weight loss performance between the sleeve and bypass; the bypass may get one to goal weight a bit faster owing to the added boost of its caloric malabsorption, but that disspates after a year or two and one tends to wind up in the same place with either procedure, and likewise, regain performance is similar between the two. The choice usually comes down to compatibility with any pre-existing conditions (GERD, at least without an obvious cause such as a hiatal hernia that can be corrected along with the surgery is usually bad news with a sleeve; being prone to ulcers or stomach polyps is bad news for a prospective bypass patient, as is need for regular use of NSAIDs.) Metabolically, if one needs something stronger than a sleeve, the DS is the way to go as it goes much farther in normalizing one's metabolism; it is unlikely that the OP, being a young(ish), tall(ish) guy of "moderate" BMI (46ish) needs to go that far, unless he has had a long history of yo-yo dieting.