Hi! So I had gastric bypass on 4/26 and found out after surgery that my surgeon removed part of my stomach like they do with the VSG. He said it was to remove the ghrelin hormone. Has anyone else had this done? He said it wasn’t a duodenal switch but gastric bypass.

31 minutes ago, Quesodip251 said:

They gave me Omeprazole, which I already take daily anyway

Maybe try Nexium? You can get it over the counter and my husband swears by it. He used to take Omeprazole (it's Prilosec) and he still had break through reflux (he has GERD) so he switched to Nexium (his insurance won't cover it) and he's been fantastic ever since (it's been 4 years and no issues at all).

Nexium is omeprazole. Just a different brand name. Don’t know what it’s like in the states but in Australia you can only buy 10mg Nexium over the counter. 10mg is fine for basic heartburn but reflux & gerd really needs a stronger dose. Here 20mg is by script & 40mg requires the doctor to fill out additional paperwork because of the strength & effects of long term usage of PPIs so they are reluctant to prescribe the 40mg.

As to your surgeon. Did he describe what he would do in your surgery before your surgery? If so did he say he would do the sleeve gastrectomy as well as the bypass? As the form said he would do additional procedures if necessary, what was his justification for doing the gastrectomy? His saying it’s what we do here is not good enough because he told you you’d have bypass surgery & you did not have a gastric bypass alone. If it’s what they do there the gastrectomy aspect should have been identified on the consent form. At the very least you were provided with inaccurate & incomplete information about what your surgery was & involved.

Generally, your lower BMI would indicate a sleeve would be most appropriate for you, however, your existing GERD would support the decision to have bypass. Doing both seems excessive. Just my opinion.

Edited May 1, 20224 yr by Arabesque

2 hours ago, Quesodip251 said:

My acid reflux is bad still from surgery but otherwise I’m doing a lot better! Not much appetite at all

I had GERD for 11 years and they had me keep taking meds for 30 days post-surgery and then stop, it's been fine since then.

17 minutes ago, Arabesque said:

Nexium is omeprazole. Just a different brand name. Don’t know what it’s like in the states but in Australia you can only buy 10mg Nexium over the counter. 10mg is fine for basic heartburn but reflux & gerd really needs a stronger dose. Here 20mg is by script & 40mg requires the doctor to fill out additional paperwork because of the strength & effects of long term usage of PPIs so they are reluctant to prescribe the 40mg.

As to your surgeon. Did he describe what he would do in your surgery before your surgery? If so did he say he would do the sleeve gastrectomy as well as the bypass? As the form said he would do additional procedures if necessary, what was his justification for doing the gastrectomy? His saying it’s what we do here is not good enough because he told you you’d have bypass surgery & you did not have a gastric bypass alone. If it’s what they do there the gastrectomy aspect should have been identified on the consent form. At the very least you were provided with inaccurate & incomplete information about what your surgery was & involved.

Generally, your lower BMI would indicate a sleeve would be most appropriate for you, however, your existing GERD would support the decision to have bypass. Doing both seems excessive. Just my opinion.

Nexium is esomeprazole, not omeprazole. They're close but have a few differences. I switched from omeprazole to esomeprazole and preferred it. I recommend getting the generic of either rather than Prilosec or Nexium, it's identical and cheaper.

1 hour ago, Arabesque said:

Nexium is omeprazole. Just a different brand name.

Nexium is Esomeprazole. Prilosec is Omeprazole. They're similar but not the same. They're in the same family but are slightly different.

1 hour ago, Arabesque said:

Don’t know what it’s like in the states but in Australia you can only buy 10mg Nexium over the counter.

Here in the states you can buy 20mg over the counter and you can just buy 2 to take 40mg, which is what my husband does.

1 hour ago, Arabesque said:

Here 20mg is by script & 40mg requires the doctor to fill out additional paperwork because of the strength & effects of long term usage of PPIs so they are reluctant to prescribe the 40mg.

My husband was prescribed 40mg of Nexium but when his insurance changed and stopped covering Nexium at all, he decided to buy it over the counter. He was started on 20mg and took it for about a year and had some issues near the end of that year, so they upped it to 40mg and it worked great. Still does. That's why he chose to keep buying it over the counter when the insurance stopped covering it.

On 04/30/2022 at 19:43, Quesodip251 said:

Hi! So I had gastric bypass on 4/26 and found out after surgery that my surgeon removed part of my stomach like they do with the VSG. He said it was to remove the ghrelin hormone. Has anyone else had this done? He said it wasn’t a duodenal switch but gastric bypass.

Congratulations on the surgery! ? I’ve been following you since I got on this site about a month ago. Please keep posting.
Sending get well wishes! ❤️

1 hour ago, Mariann812 said:

Congratulations on the surgery! ? I’ve been following you since I got on this site about a month ago. Please keep posting.
Sending get well wishes! ❤️

Aww! Thank you sweetie!

I’m a nurse, so am well versed in these drugs. As everyone else has said, Nexium is Esomeprazole. I tried it in the past but it didn’t help. All PPIs end in -azole so they sound similar. Omeprazole (Prilosec) is the gold standard-I’ve been taking 40mg daily for years. I either temporarily need a higher dose or something stronger. My old GI mentioned there’s something stronger but didn’t say what it was-possibly an anti-ulcer medication.

9 hours ago, Arabesque said:

Nexium is omeprazole. Just a different brand name. Don’t know what it’s like in the states but in Australia you can only buy 10mg Nexium over the counter. 10mg is fine for basic heartburn but reflux & gerd really needs a stronger dose. Here 20mg is by script & 40mg requires the doctor to fill out additional paperwork because of the strength & effects of long term usage of PPIs so they are reluctant to prescribe the 40mg.

As to your surgeon. Did he describe what he would do in your surgery before your surgery? If so did he say he would do the sleeve gastrectomy as well as the bypass? As the form said he would do additional procedures if necessary, what was his justification for doing the gastrectomy? His saying it’s what we do here is not good enough because he told you you’d have bypass surgery & you did not have a gastric bypass alone. If it’s what they do there the gastrectomy aspect should have been identified on the consent form. At the very least you were provided with inaccurate & incomplete information about what your surgery was & involved.

Generally, your lower BMI would indicate a sleeve would be most appropriate for you, however, your existing GERD would support the decision to have bypass. Doing both seems excessive. Just my opinion.

The surgeon never came by to talk to me about surgery at all-that’s the issue. I told the nurse beforehand that this isn’t appropriate informed consent procedure and she grabbed a different doctor who said the surgeon would be by to talk to me about it but never did

8 hours ago, Future Sleeve Diva said:

My husband was prescribed 40mg of Nexium but when his insurance changed and stopped covering Nexium at all, he decided to buy it over the counter. He was started on 20mg and took it for about a year and had some issues near the end of that year, so they upped it to 40mg and it worked great. Still does. That's why he chose to keep buying it over the counter when the insurance stopped covering it.

It’s cheaper for me to buy the prescription version at 40mg than OTC at 20mg. I think it’s $5/month for me. I’m blessed to have good insurance.

My surgeon also prescribed a gel antacid called Magaldrato Dimeticona that I started mixing in my drink. Hopefully it helps

2 hours ago, Quesodip251 said:

It’s cheaper for me to buy the prescription version at 40mg than OTC at 20mg. I think it’s $5/month for me. I’m blessed to have good insurance.

I'm jealous!!! My copay with my insurance is $10 (still not bad, I know, but $5 is better lol).

How are you doing? No reflux I hope!