Category: Blog

Pre-Op: 7 Things You Should Know About The VSG

1) Energy – The procedure gives those suffering obesity the option to live a better, healthier life. Imagine being 50, 75, 100 or even 150 pounds lighter. Would that make you feel better? I know it would. I hear it from my patients every day. They have the energy to bike ride, climb mountains and keep up with their kids and grandchildren.

2) Change your life – The gastric sleeve is a surgery that WILL change your life. And change your life it will! Not only will you lose weight, but your overall health will improve. Patients have reported their Type 2 diabetes symptoms have reversed, their blood pressure has decreased, their muscles and joints no longer ache, and the urge to stress eat has disappeared.

3) Tool – The sleeve gastrectomy surgery is only a tool. You have to work with it. Yes, it’s just a tool. But when used correctly can be the very tool that saves your life. The tool gives you a second chance, a do-over, a way to reshape yourself into the person you always wanted to be…thinner, healthier and more energetic.

4) Temporary speed bumps – Don’t worry, immediate symptoms are only temporary. Keep in mind that they will disappear and all will return to normal. Yes, there are symptoms, I won’t lie to you. But, think of them as speed bumps. They only slow you down for a brief moment, then you are on your way. It’s your body adjusting to the sleeve procedure and the gradual loss of weight you will soon experience.

5) Your journey is unique – Remember not to compare yourself to others. Everyone is different, so individual results will vary. I can’t give you an exact figure of how much weight you will lose, nor how you will feel afterward. What I can tell you based on experience, patient feedback, and actual results is that you will feel and look amazing in a short time.

6) The easy way out….NOT – Some people think this is the easy way out. There’s nothing easy about surgery and lifelong food quantity restrictions. Having surgery is a major decision, but when you’ve tried time and time again to lose weight without success, it’s an option that makes sense. It’s not an easy way out. No way! It’s the biggest life altering decision you will ever make…but, so worth it in the end. And the food restriction part…won’t even matter when you see how much thinner you’ve become and much healthier you feel.

7) Your journey – This is not a race, but a journey that could take you 12 -18 months. Nope, not a race! It does require patience. You have to be willing to make small incremental adjustments…oh, but it will be so worth it when you see the changes that are taking place.

There’s finally hope for the critically ill! The Münster University Hospital has set up an intensive care unit exclusively for the treatment of male patients suffering from coughs, colds, or even both. A specially trained team provides 24/7 care.

This “long overdue treatment site”, as Chief Physician Dr Klaus Schaffers, MD, calls it, will primarily serve men between the ages of 18 and 85. “It is well known, that this group are particularly severely affected by colds, and therefore need intensive care in order to save their lives.”

The treatment of these victims of the cold starts as soon as they are on their way to intensive care: the afflicted patient is taken to hospital in an ambulance with an emergency doctor present, and provided with sufficient amounts of oxygen on the way. In the case of a blocked nose and sore throat, a specialist will have been requested in advance over the radio.

In the meantime, the patient’s relatives receive psychological support. If the patient’s fever rises above the dangerous level of 99.86 °F (37.7 °C), a hospital priest may be summoned if desired.
“Should our patients actually recover from the flu, of course we also offer a twelve-week rehabilitation programme”, says Schaffers.

To date, there has been no satisfactory explanation as to why men in particular suffer so frequently from life-threatening colds. First examination results concerning this are expected from the intra-hospital research group in about 17 weeks’ time, as soon as team leader Kai Triemitz has been cured of his cold.

To get a better idea of which careers are the most stressful, CareerCast examined 200 professions to compile its latest Jobs Rated report.

CareerCast weighed 11 factors to rank the most stressful jobs: travel; deadlines; working in the public eye; competitiveness; physical demands; environmental conditions; hazards encountered; the life of oneself or others at risk; meeting and interacting with customers or the public; and the potential for job growth.

Based on the 11 factors evaluated to determine the CareerCast’s jobs rated stress rankings, these 10 are the least stressful for workers:

The FDA approved MRI-conditional labeling for Abbott’s tiny wireless pacemaker, making it the smallest and longest-lasting MRI-compatible device of its kind. The new labeling also applies to a pacing lead.

The company picked up the Assurity MRI pacemaker and the Tendril MRI pacing lead in its acquisition of St. Jude Medical, which closed earlier this month. The pacemaker allows physicians to wirelessly monitor their patients, which can reduce the need for office visits, Abbott said in a statement. The Assurity pacemaker allows remote access to diagnostic data and daily device measurements using wireless radiofrequency (RF) telemetry.

The new labeling means that patients implanted with these devices may now undergo diagnostic MRI scans without fear of damaging their implant. During an MRI procedure, a hand-held device is used to activate preprogrammed MRI settings for the implants. These settings are individualized to each patient and can help cut down on the effort, time and inconvenience linked to traditional pre- and postscan pacemaker reprogramming, Abbott said.

“A long-lasting and small wireless pacemaker that allows patients to undergo MRI scans is an important step forward in growing our available treatment options for patients,” said Dr. David Sandler, director of electrophysiology at the Oklahoma Heart Institute in Tulsa, in the statement. “The ability to choose a device to best address a patient’s cardiac condition no longer has a tradeoff with MRI compatibility. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Earlier this month, an FDA safety communication identified patients with RF-enabled St. Jude Medical implanted cardiac devices and a corresponding Merlin@Home device—which transmits device data to St. Jude’s Merlin patient care network—to be at risk of harm from “cybersecurity vulnerabilities.”