Gastric Sleeve Frequently Asked Questions

Please contact us at +1 (647) 946-5439 and we will be happy to help. You can also reach us at peelweightlossclinic@gmail.com or our contact form. Financing is available.

Yes. We can direct you to third parties that can provide financing for the Gastric Sleeve. We have no relationship with these companies. Many of our patients use MediCard.

Typically, the surgery takes 60 minutes. It may seem longer due to the time to put you to sleep and wake you up.

Yes. You will be fully asleep for the surgery. Our experienced anesthesia team will ensure you are safely monitored and kept comfortable during and after your Gastric Sleeve Surgery.

The surgery is done laparoscopically with a camera and small incisions. Patient’s typically have 4 small half centimeter incision and one incision about 1.5 cm. Once you are fully healed, they are often not noticeable.

We recommend patient’s take two weeks off work to recover from their surgery. In addition, we suggest avoiding lifting more than 10 lbs. for 4 weeks to allow your incisions to fully heal.

Generally, we can organize the surgery 2 weeks from the time you decide you want to do it. This will give use time to have pre-operative blood work, ECG and any other tests/evaluations needed prior to your surgery.

The Gastric Sleeve is covered by OHIP under very specific situations as indicated below:

1. Your BMI is greater than 60
2. Significant scarring in your abdomen from previous surgery that prevents performing a gastric bypass surgery
3. Certain medical conditions that prevent a Gastric Bypass surgery from being done safely.

If you are interested in an OHIP covered bariatric procedure you can ask your family doctor to refer you to the Ontario Bariatric Network to see if you qualify for the Gastric Bypass surgery.

Their diet will progress from liquids, to thick liquids (i.e. soups, custards), soft solids and then regular food. Usually, by 3-4 weeks after the surgery you will be back eating solid foods. Generally speaking, patients can eat most foods.

The difference being you will feel full after eating a healthy portion and not want to over eat.

At the Peel Weight Loss Clinic we believe after care is just as important as having a well performed gastric sleeve surgery.

We offer regular follow-ups with Dr. Kundhal; your surgeon; our dietician, and nurse coordinator. We will follow you regularly to help ensure your continued weight loss success.

Firstly, whether you had gastric sleeve surgery or not is your personal health information and you do not need to disclose it to anyone. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing you had weight loss surgery by looking at you.

No you do not need a free consultation to meet with Dr. Kundhal in person, virtually or on the phone. Please fill in our contact form and we call you shortly to book an appointment at your convenience.

You will be up and walking right after your surgery. For the first three to four weeks post-surgery we encourage you to walk 30-40 minutes daily. At about three weeks after the surgery with consultation with Dr. Kundhal, we encourage our patients to start light resistance exercise. We will discuss this in detail with you during your follow-up appointment.

You should discuss what contraception to use with your family physician.

Generally, after a year it is safe to become pregnant once your weight has stabilized.

Whether or not you need skin reduction surgery depends on a number of factors including your age, amount of weight loss, etc.

All of our patients will be booked for a free consultation with our Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Platt to see if you would benefit from skin reduction surgery.

Generally, our rule of thumb is you should have achieved your goal weight and maintained it for 3-6 months. Dr. Kundhal will help guide you when the time is right to consider plastic surgery.

This is a common concern we hear from our patients. Our experience is that once you achieve a healthy weight your metabolism adjusts and you hit a steady state and your weight stabilizes. We can adjust your caloric intake to help find an ideal weight for you.

We have performed many Gastric Sleeve surgeries in patients who have a gastric band. We remove the gastric band, than we perform the Gastric Sleeve surgery at the same time.  Many patients who have not had success with their gastric band, have lost significant weight when we remove the band and perform a Gastric Sleeve Surgery.