DS vs RNY

I am trying to decide which WLS to have.  I am leaning towards the DS but have heard some scarry things and am hoping you all can help me.

I have heard that with the DS the gas and trips to the bathroom will peel the paint off the walls.  Is this true?  Does it last forever or go away after a while? I have also heard that the with the DS I will have direaha forever is this fact or fiction?

I am really leaning to having the DS becasue if I go through this I want to do everything I can to keep the weight off. 

Thank you for your help.

Suzanne

I rarely have gas issues. And the smell is no worse than pre-op as far as I'm concerned. I don't use sprays or internal fresheners or any of that crap. Bathrooms are not places of happy fun time sparkle smells as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not some delicate flower that I need to apologize for the fact that my **** stinks....surprise!

In fact it just smells DIFFERENT, not worse. All the talk about carrying around crap you sprinkle into the water and citurs magic and taking internal fresheners I was like oh dear god. And then I farted and was like lol doesn't smell any worse than pre-op when I had 7 bean soup (I seriously had to move AWAY from my own stink when I would eat that soup pre-op XD).

Suzanne,

I was in the same place as you a few weeks ago and found more useful information and links on this board than I ever could have hoped for.  You'll get lots of info, and until the replies start, read as much as you can on this board and also at www.dsfacts.com  and www.duodenalswitch.com

I can't help much yet other than to say that after all I have learned, it's going to be the DS for me. 

Best,
~ Lois ~

Well, the odor of a DS BM is stronger than a regular one, but everybody's poop stinks.  As for flatulence, I've seen lots of threads on the RNY board from people asking what they can do about their horrible stinky gas, too.  I think that any time you have your intestine rearranged, you're going to have some stinky emission problems.  The DS gas & BM thing is exaggerated, though, and very often exaggerated by surgeons who don't do the DS in the first place.  If I eat white flour or sugar, I'm sure to have stinky farts about 4 hours later, so I eat them when I know I'm going to be at home without anyone to offend.  No big deal.  I keep a can of Pure Citrus air freshener in the bathrooms in my house and spray after I go.  Also no big deal.  If I was really bothered, I could also use Devrom or do a round of Flagyl to take away the smell.  I'm not that bothered, and neither is my family.

Constant diarrhea is also a myth/gross exaggeration.  Early pre-op, while our bowels are recovering from surgery, DS and RNY patients may experience some diarrhea.  This is largely due to surgery and to the increased liquid in our diets.  Most of us go home on liquids/purees, and the ratio of solid(ish) foods that we take in is far overbalanced by the amount of water we're constantly sipping.  So, in the beginning, yes, there's watery stool.

However, that goes away and most of us wind up with a softer stool - think soft-serve (oh, you'll never look at ice cream the same way now, will you?).  I think that for the most part, we all have a good BM in the morning, maybe one in the afternoon, too.  I poop more than most people (I did preop, too - I'm weird ) so I might go 3 times a day (morning, afternoon, bedtime-ish) but not more.  I've noticed that when I go strictly low-carb, as you're meant to when you're in the losing phase or if you want to lose a few more later on, I get a bit constipated.  I haaaaate that.  Others have noticed that they tend toward constipation if they try to go low-fat or if they don't eat enough fat (which means nothing more than using regular salad dressings, putting butter on your vegetables, having half-and-half in your coffee instead of skim milk, eating whole-milk cheeses, you know - living like a normal person!).  I have a friend who's had the RNY, and she has to take Miralax daily, as well as stool softeners, just to be able to go at all.  They tend to be a constipated bunch over on the RNY board, bless their hearts.

So, while the gas and BM odor might be stronger with the DS, it is by no means uncontrollable. 

::::waving arms::::

I'm the friend with the daily Miralax and Amitiza--- but it ain't my surgery or even my diet (although that tends to be relatively low in fat)-- it's the hardcore supplementation ( I malabsorb calcium and D3 like a bizznacho so I take lots) and eating more cheese that the entire Alsace region every day. ;) I'm also chronically dehydrated (I mean since birth-- this pooplessness has been a long term issue)

But yep, DSers are better poopers...but thanks to Better Living through Pharmacuticals, I'm catchin' up!

I'm glad to hear you're getting help with that!  I hate pooplessness!

Pooplessness is the pits!

Diarrhea forever is a myth & a lot of what you hear about the restroom smells can be controlled & is mostly while your guts are healing (which will happen with RNY too) or you need a round of antibiotics. It's may help you to go to the revisions board. Statistically speaking DS is the # 1 way to lose the most & keep it off.

You will NOT have diarrhea forever with DS.  That is a myth.  It could not be more untrue and it makes me furious when I hear someone has been told this lie.  Most of us go to the bathroom once or twice a day, and it's not diarrhea, it's soft to firm.  We can develop diarrhea from certain foods, or if we have bacteria in their digestive tract, just like folks who have not even had surgery.  Most of us take probiotics to keep our digestive tracts healthy, and we can take antibiotics if it becomes necessary.  I have fewer bowel issues than I did preop!

As for stinky gas and BMs, I have less gas than I did preop as well, but I do keep my carbs pretty low.  And whose poop smells good?  Mine doesn't smell any worse than preop, it just smells different - sort of sour is the best way I can describe it.  Now, I won't lie.  When DSers eat simple carbs like white flour (pasta, white bread), watch out.  There can be some really stinky gas.  I once had really bad gas after I ate an egg roll - I think it was the cabbage - but we usually figure out pretty quick what causes us problems and we avoid those foods.  Just like anyone else.  Just like a preop wouldn't want to eat a big bean burrito before going on a date with a special person.

Don't be fooled - RNYers have plenty of bowel issues, everything from constipation to diarrhea to horrendous gas and everything in between.  I've seen tons and tons and tons of posts about bowel issues and stinky gas in RNY postops.  When you rearrange the intestines, it just comes with the territory.  But like I said, we can usually detect what causes issues for us individually, and work around those foods.

Like RnY, DS combines restriction, which allows you to lose the weight, and malabsorption to keep the weight off.  Instead of disconnecting the stomach and creating a pouch, DS simply reduces the size of the stomach to create restriction.  You end up with a fully functional, but smaller stomach.  The second part of the DS is an intestinal bypass which creates malabsorption, and keeps the weight off.  Of all the weight loss surgeries, it has the best statistics for the greatest amount of weight lost and kept off long term.   You may have seen from the boards that weight regain is a huge issue with gastric bypass AND lap band - not so with DS, because we only absorb 20% of the fat we eat, and about 60% of the protein and complex carbs we eat.  We can eat larger meals than lap band and RNY - what amounts to a normal, but smaller, meal.  Finally, for me, it had the most attractive  postop way of life with NO dieting, NO counting fat or calories, NO dumping, NO vomiting, NO foamies, NO stuff getting "stuck" and NO chewing food into mush.  DS has the best resolution of comorbidities like diabetes, sleep apnea, etc.,  An added bonus is that the portion of the stomach that is removed is the portion which produces most of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, so you are less hungry postop. 

The keys to DS are these few, very critically important rules:

1.  You must eat at least 90 grams of protein every day;
2.  You must take your vitamins and supplements every day;
3.  You must drink at least 64 ounces of water every day; and
4.  You must get regular lab work to make sure you are taking enough vitamins.

Most of us watch our carbs during the weight loss phase because we absorb 100% of simple carbs like sugar and it can slow the weight loss.  Most of us also can't go hog wild on carbs after we reach goal, but no food is off limits in moderation, as long as we have no individual intolerance to it. 

Check out www.dsfacts.com and www.duodenalswitch.com for more information, and hang out here on the DS forum to ask any questions you have.  Also be sure to check out the Revisions forum here on OH.  You'll see there lots of folks revising to DS from other surgeries.  There are NO folks revising FROM DS to anything else.  I think that speaks volumes.
 

This information has been very helpful, has answer many questions I have had. Thanks to everyone on this site, you always come through.