Bickle/Eagle Health Complex
2500 Canterbury
2nd Floor Southwind Surgery
Park in parking lot E and use entrance E
Significant, sustainable weight loss is absolutely possible for you, if you have the right expertise and treatment options guiding you along the way. At HaysMed, our Bariatric Surgery Program can help you attain a more healthy body weight and other important long-term health benefits. Bariatric surgery can lead to sustained weight loss and decreased mortality due to weight-related complications.
Over time, the benefits of weight loss surgery may include:
In addition, weight loss provides an increase in mobility for previously sedentary patients.
Unlike other facilities offering bariatric surgery, our Bariatric Surgery Program offers an extensive 12-month fitness, nutrition and psychological plan following your surgery. You will receive support and guidance from our nutritionists, fitness experts and mental health professionals to help you navigate that crucial first year after the surgery. Additionally, you will receive follow-up care for five years after surgery.
At HaysMed, we offer both robotic surgery and laparoscopic surgery for the following bariatric interventions:
You must meet the following requirements to be considered for weight loss surgery:
The following steps demonstrate what your journey with bariatric surgery will involve:
Robotic surgery is the most advanced form of minimally invasive surgery available today. For those patients who don’t qualify for robotic surgery, we provide laparoscopic surgery options.
Through a high-tech control module, surgeons move miniaturized operating instruments that allow for extremely precise movements. Robotic surgery makes smaller incisions, which can result in:
Talk to your doctor about bariatrics and robotic surgery for weight loss. To find out if you might be a candidate, please call 785-623-5945 with questions or to make an appointment.
During gastric sleeve surgery, also known as sleeve gastrectomy, we reduce the size of your stomach by about 60%. The remaining stomach is in the shape of a sleeve, giving the gastrectomy its name. As with gastric bypass, the smaller stomach that remains is sealed, so it takes smaller amounts of food for you to be and feel full.
Our bariatric surgeons are highly experienced in this procedure, and our care teams are here to take great care of you. For more information about the Gastric Sleeve surgery for weight loss, call our Bariatric Surgery office at 785-623-5945.
As implied by the term “gastric bypass,” this procedure is designed to route food past most of the stomach and the first section of the small intestines. As a result, this procedure causes a restriction in the amount of food that is consumed and a reduction in the nutrients that are absorbed.
The first step in the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass is to create a small stomach pouch, about the size of a thumb, out of the top portion of your stomach. The small stomach pouch restricts the amount of food that can be eaten in one sitting.
In the next step, the small bowel is divided, and one end is attached to the new stomach pouch (referred to as the gastrojejunostomy), while the other end is reconnected to the intestinal tract (referred to as the jejunojejunostomy).
Our bariatric surgeons are highly experienced in this procedure, and our care teams are here to take great care of you. For more information about Gastric Bypass surgery for weight loss – or the Gastric Sleeve procedure – call our Bariatric Surgery office at 785-623-5945.
With the possible exception of the rare patient who develops obstruction of the stomach outlet, it is unlikely you will ever lose too much weight. On the other hand, snacking and high-calorie liquids can put on weight rapidly.
Because of the large amount of fat between the skin and the true shape of your body, the skin will sag as fat is removed. Since the weight loss is rapid in the first six months, the skin cannot keep up the pace and indeed does sag. During this period, however, elasticity of the skin is improving and the skin is also shrinking. This process will continue over the next one or two years and your appearance will be at its worst point at approximately the six-month point, although it will improve gradually thereafter. Regular and progressive exercise will also help the appearance of the sagging skin. The skin of younger bypass surgery patients recovers more rapidly. Some patients may wish to have excess skin surgically removed at a later time.
No, definitely not! The sagging is related to the total amount of weight loss. It is most problematic during the rapid weight loss phase. If anything is done to slow down weight loss in the initial three to nine months, the opportunity for easy weight loss while the pouch is very small, will be lost forever.
It remains in place and its ability to function remains intact. The muscles may lose some of their contractile power, but the unused part of your stomach is still in place and completely capable of normal functioning in the unlikely event it should be needed.
It is possible, but doing so would result in regaining most of the lost weight. We have never been asked to reverse the operation.
Dumping is the condition that results when sweets very rapidly empty out of the stomach into the jejunum through the small pouch. Sweets have a characteristic called “hyperosmolarity” which means they have a high concentration of particles in solution. One of the functions of a normal stomach is to act as a reservoir where food will be held and emptied into the small bowel bit by bit, rather than “dumped” into the digestive/absorptive part of the intestine. If the latter were to occur, the jejunum would react by sending off chemical signals to stop the intake of such materials on such a rapid basis. These chemical signals cause nausea, dizziness, and faintness. The chemical signals are relatively harmless, but designed to create an automatic aversion to repeating the behavior in order to avoid these unpleasant symptoms. This might be a bad thing if one continues to crave sweets, but most sweet lovers will come to loathe sweets after this symptom occurs a few times. The avoidance of sweets under these circumstances is called an “aversion reaction.” The avoidance of sweets by the patient who has had a gastric bypass procedure probably accounts for a significant part of the weight loss results.
Most gas is created by the 80% of swallowed air which is composed of nitrogen. Nitrogen must travel all the way through the intestinal tract to the rectum. The oxygen portion of swallowed air is simply absorbed. Some people, more than others, tend to be air-swallowers, and swallow air during eating, talking, etc. Others may have “irritable bowel syndrome,” which is often triggered by anxiety, whereby the colon becomes irritated, causing cramps, with alternating constipation and diarrhea. These symptoms can be reduced by the use of bran or other stool softeners to keep the stool quite soft and the work of the colon to a minimum. The tranquilizer effect of aerobic exercise also benefits the irritated bowel.
It can be made smaller by another operation, but it is more difficult and dangerous than the first because of the degree of scarring around the stomach due to the previous surgery.
The size of the pouch after surgery is the most difficult parameter to measure. An endoscopy (looking at the stomach directly through a tube), upper GI series, and other available tests are not always helpful in gauging changes in size.
Some patients may come to feel frustrated and discouraged after weight levels off before reaching an optimum weight level – or when slow weight regain occurs. This cannot go uncorrected. While responsibility to continue making progress and to avoid regression remains with the patient, help will be available. It is important to constantly realize that the pouch is there only as a tool and must be used properly. If this leveling off or regression happens, support may be necessary, so it is important to come back to see us so we may evaluate your case and provide recommendations. We will then go back into your history and review what you learned in your first evaluation and from our materials. Reevaluation does not mean either you or the operation have failed. We are aware it often requires considerable time and effort to change the habits of a lifetime. We understand your predicament. We want to be viewed not as critics, but as guides or coaches.
The HaysMed Bariatric Services team reaffirms to you its commitment to provide the very finest surgical care for the disease of clinically severe obesity. It is our privilege and pleasure to serve you in that commitment.
For more answers, information and assistance, call us at 785-623-5945.
We want your weight loss surgery to be as affordable as possible. If you do not have insurance, or if you have insurance that does not cover all of the surgery or any part of the surgery, HaysMed offers a financing option that may enable you to make your weight loss goals a reality. We work with a finance company called M~Lend Financial. If you decide to finance your surgery, please call our office for more details.
You also may want to consult your tax advisor regarding tax deductible medical expenses for obesity. For more details on tax deductible medical expenses for obesity, visit the IRS website at www.IRS.gov and search in forms and publications under “Obesity.”
It is important to check with your insurance company prior to starting this process. Call the toll-free number listed on your insurance card for either benefits or customer service. Depending on your particular surgery, ask if the procedure code is a covered benefit:
Roux-en-Y Surgery Code 43644
Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery Code 43659
Be sure to clarify that you are asking about the procedure’s eligibility on the basis of medical necessity.
You should also ask the following questions:
Do not start the pre-cert or pre-authorization process or send anything to your insurance company regarding your request for surgery. The Bariatric Nurse Coordinator will handle this process after we receive all the needed information.
Not all insurance plans cover weight loss surgery. If the insurance company states that it is covered based upon medical necessity, the surgeon will write a letter to your insurance company describing why you specifically need the surgery done. If the insurance company instructs you that you have contract exclusion or that it is not a covered benefit then you will need to be able financially to cover the cost on your own. If self-payment is elected, payment is required in advance of your surgery date for this elective procedure.
If you do have insurance coverage for some or all of the aforementioned services, HaysMed will provide you with an estimate of your self-pay balance (including any copayments and deductibles), and you are required to pay the amount of your self-pay balance in full no later than two (2) weeks prior to the date of surgery. This amount will be an estimate only, and it is important to understand that you will be personally responsible for payment of the actual amount of your self-pay balance.
The HaysMed Bariatric Surgery is located at:
2500 Canterbury Drive
2nd Floor, Southwind Surgical
Hays, KS 67601
For more information or to make an appointment, call 785-623-5945.
At HaysMed and across our western Kansas alliance, we bring a shared commitment to high-quality care, outcomes and experiences. Our mission is deeply rooted in our role as a resource and partner for every patient and every community we serve.
