new with questions

Hi all! I'm in the "gathering info" stage and I was just wondering...it seems like it's hard to find a surgeon in So. Cal who does the DS. Is it more dangerous then RNY? Because from what I learned so far they srrm about the same risk wise. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Good morning,

I don't know anything about the DS, but have you tried the DS board?  I had the RNY 8 months ago and have lost 106 pounds and love it!!!! 

Sorry I can't help you with your questions, but I wanted to at least welcome you to the Cali board!!!

Good luck in your info gathering!!!

Michele

You might want to cross post this to the DS forum if you don't get adequate response here.

I can tell you a lot about Lap Band but not nearly enough about RNY or DS to be of much help.

Good luck.

Lisa

I am pre op too.  I'm going with RNY.  There is only one doctor on my insurance plan that does the DS.  I would research them both.  I can tell you that the DS'ers have very strong opinions that their way is better than the RNY'ers.  So much so that I questioned my decision to go with RNY.  The DS has a higher malabsorbtion so your chance at deficiency's is higher.  The DS is much newer.  I question why so many bariatric surgeons aren't doing the DS.  I also didn't find much in long term studies.  Either way, I believe both can offer weight loss, especially when we use them as the tools they were meant to be.  Good luck in your decision.

This is what I am going to tell you.  I do not know where you live or what insurance you have.  The insurance makes a huge issue in terms of if you have a PPO you can pretty much go to who you want it the surgeon is in network or even out of network if you have out of network benefits and will probably pay higherr out of pocket costs.  If you have an HMO you need to go with who your medical group refers you to.  Now if you have an HMO and they refer to more than one dr or group and you want one over the other you need to argue that point home to go to who you want.
Now with the insurance 101 out of the way here is the 411. 
Find the surgeon you are possibly going to go to and go to a free educational seminar that they give.  Seminars are usually free if not do not go as they should not be charging for something like that.  Go to that seminar with questions in hand  ask questions about RNY and DS.  As a previous poster said the DS has greater malabsorption and somewhat greater wt loss than the RNY.  Theydo have less food restriction then the RNY however (OK I KNOW I WILL BE FLAMED FOR THIS) the RNY in the industry is the gold standard.  I have been to workshops for bariatric surgery and some of those that did DS have said they are now doing less of them because they do not like the long term issues with complications down the road. 
Hope that my take has helped you.
This is not a decision to be taken lightly so what I am telling you is to do the research what will work for you and your lifestyle.  You need to go into this educated and knowing about each procedure.
Liz