I flew out to Omaha last week for my 6 month follow up appointment with Dr. Anthone.  It went great!

I was greeted at the airport by Deborah (Drifter).  It was so sweet of her to meet me there! We took a lovely horse and buggy ride around old Omaha.  It was such a nice night. 

The next day I finally got to meet my angel, Michelle (delano1972).  We went to our appointments and shopped allllllll day!  Thanks Michelle for letting me hang out with you and your family!

I'm sorry to say I never got a picture with Deborah, but I did manage to remember to take one with Michelle:




Now about my appointment... I do have the start of a hernia.  I was happy to hear it because I know at the end of this journey I am going to need a tummy tuck.  Well, it turns out my insurance does pay for tummy tucks, so I guess I want to take back this hernia.  Do you think Dr. Anthone will let me return it??  lol  Anyway, all of my labs are good.  My potassium came back up since my 3 month labs.  For some reason, they didn't send my protein results with the labs.  Weird.  But Dr. Anthone said he could tell by looking at my face that I wasn't low.  I have been drinking a lot of shakes, so it would surprise me if it was low.

Now about my dreaded stall.  He and his PA and nurse all assured me I wasn't done losing.  The PA told me I would get under 200 lbs.  Huh?  I hope to get much lower than that.  My body was stubborn before surgery.  I could never lose weight on diets, only maintain.  So I decided to come home and do everything I can to get this body to start losing again.  I researched the archives on duodenalswitch.com and found a lady that described what her surgeon recommended to break a stall.  3 days of protein shakes and water.  Doesn't sound like fun.  But I guess it worked for her.  Then she did one day a month like this just to keep the weight loss going.  She said she never stalled after that.  Well, I have been doing this the last 2 days, only I eat some protein, too.  But no carbs.  And I am happy to report that I HAVE FINALLY LOST WEIGHT!!!!  I'm almost afraid to celebrate because I peed so much the last 2 days that it's probably all water weight, but I'll take it anyway!  It's just nice to see the scale go down again.

I've also started walking, running and lifting my dumbbells.  So I now know I am doing everything I can to lose this weight in my window.  I am not one of those that barely watches what they eat and they just keep losing and losing.  I am one of the people that has to fight for every ounce.  But I am confident that with the DS I will be able to do it.

Thanks for all of you who called the wambulance while I cried about my stall.  lol 

Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2008 May-Jun;4(3):404-6; discussion 406-7. Epub 2007 Dec 11

Maintenance of weight loss in patients with body mass index >60 kg/m2: importance of length of small bowel bypassed.

Hamoui N, Anthone GJ, Kaufman HS, Crookes PF.
Department of Surgery, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, 1510 San Pablo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.

BACKGROUND: It is commonly believed that weight loss after biliopancreatic diversion/duodenal switch is inversely related to the length of the alimentary limb and the common channel. However, the effect of the biliopancreatic limb length (BPL) on weight loss has received little attention.

METHODS: A total of 1001 patients after biliopancreatic diversion/duodenal switch (209 men and 792 women, mean age 42 +/- 10 yr, mean body mass index [BMI] 52 +/- 9 kg/m(2)) were divided into 2 groups according to the ratio of the BPL to the total small bowel length (SBL): a BPL < or =45% of the SBL versus a BPL >45% of the SBL. The nutritional parameters and percentage of excess weight loss were compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: In patients with a BMI of < or =60 kg/m(2), the percentage of excess weight loss at 1 year postoperatively was 66.8% for those with a BPL < or =45% of the SBL and 69.3% for those with a BPL >45% of the SBL (P = NS). At 2 years, the corresponding percentages were 73.7% and 79.5% (P = NS) and, at 3 years, were 73.4% and 75.2% (P = NS). In patients with a BMI >60 kg/m(2), the corresponding percentages of excess weight loss was 56.8% versus 61.4% (P = .07) at 1 year, 62.2% versus 77.5% (P = .04) at 2 years, and 59.8% versus 77.5% at 3 years (P = .05).

CONCLUSION: The results of our study have shown that amount of weight lost after biliopancreatic diversion/duodenal switch is directly related to the proportion of small bowel bypassed in patients with a BMI >60 kg/m(2). Also, the effect increased with the duration of follow-up. In less heavy patients, the BPL/SBL ratio had a minimal effect on long-term weight loss and a more pronounced effect on nutritional parameters.

PMID: 18065296 [PubMed - in process


It looks like weight loss is more related to the biliopancreatic limb length being at least 40% of the small bowel length.  Hmmm.....