I'm sure you get this question often....

go here:

http://www.dsfacts.com/duodenal-switch-surgeons.html

you can find a vetted surgeon who performs the DS

Hi, Jeni.

Short version? DS rocks. RNY sucks.

Long version?

First, go to a REAL DS surgeon. If they cannot do the DS, they will tell you how BAD the DS is. They will NOT tell you they do not have the skill to do the DS. Find one on www.dsfacts.com.

As to why I chose the DS, I met with a few docs in the Chicago area and none recommended the Lap-Band for me, as I had a lot to lose and they told me I would never get to goal and not be able to keep the weight off. Now that I know what I know about this "easily reversible" option, I am grateful to these docs. It is NOT easily reversible and can cause a lot of harm to your body since your body has started to accommodate this foreign body by growing over it, etc.

Plus, I did not want to diet ever again. The LapBand seemed like a diet to me and I was good at cheating on diets. In fact, I cheated my way up to 344 pounds since I was alays in a diet, it seemed! And the one IRL person I know with the Lap-band is a major sugary milkshake drinker and has not lost weight after the initial first pounds as she recovered and had the newbie enthusiasm. She is miserable and fights for every ounce. 

The RNY lifestyle did not appeal to me. I have herniated discs in my back and arthritis in my knee, so I wanted to be able to take NSAIDs for pain. I also was afraid of the possibility of dumping and ulcers, which do not happen as a result of the altered anatomy of the DS. Dumping scared me a lot. I am responsible for the safety of my kids all day--I cannot risk being incapacitated. Plus, the one person I knew IRL who had the RNY dumped all the time on the craziest things and she never got even close to goal weight. She is now considering a DS revision.

PLUS, the doc at Northwestern who does the RNY said I probably would get to goal but gain half of it back and when I expressed my diasppointment, he chidingly said that 50% regain is what the bariatric world calls "success." He also said my diabetes could come back!!!! Aaargh!

I knew there had to be something else. The therapist I was seeing at the time for my eating issues suggested the DS to me. I had never heard of it!!

The studies out at the time I made my decision two years ago showed that the DS had better weight loss and regain rates. Even more studies have come out since then saying the same thing. The DS has a 98% "cure" rate for diabetes vs. 80% for RNY. The post-op lifestyle sounded like me, too. Drinking with meals, eating regular food with sugar and fat, yahoo!

As to what I eat, I cannot eat a full meal at a restaurant in one regular sitting. I do have restriction and those portions are WAY out of control!  On the other hand, I often will eat some of my doggy bag leftovers before I go to bed.

I'm not winning any competitive eating contests at Coney Island, but I do eat like a normal person would, well, one who doesn't have to watch their fat intake. LOL I basically eat what I want, as long as I get protein first.

The malabsorption rate with the RNY fades over time, so their restriction and malabsorption fade. Not a recipe for long-term success, in my opinion, and I would not want the potential negative aspects to go along with it, from dumping to having food stuck to reactive hypoglycemia years out.

I have zero regrets. Zero. My life is even more amazing than it was since I regained my health (it was pretty amazing before, actually). I was going to hell in a ratty handbasket before my DS--diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis, herniated disks. All conditions are gone or improved since my DS and weight loss.

Hope that gave you a snapshot into my thinking. I do not have all the answers. I took a leap of faith and here I am so far, incredibly happy with my choice.

Best of luck to you.

Nicolle

 
I chose ds for quite a few reasons.

One being I have a teen daughter in the house, and while she sees I am on a 'diet' now (I just had surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago), in time she will see that Mom can eat pretty normally. That is important, because she was starting to have issues with weight because my dumbass neighbor seems to think she has to be in competition with my 16yo daughter to be a smaller size (my neighbor is 40****ep stressing to Charissa it's about health, not numbers, and she gets that, so I didn't want to screw with her mind by not eating more than a couple bites at a time. What would I be teaching her??

Second- my boys, when they get to be my daughters age I want to be running around playing sports with them just as I try to do with my daughter. With rny the percentage of regain was too high for me to consider it for myself. Why would I have surgery only to gain the weight back and have that constant battle still going on??

And third- every bit of research I read showed me that the DS was the best option for long term success & health. Either surgery you have you are making a commitments to vitamins & supplements for life, so I wanted the one that was going to be best for me!

I chose the ds because after researching different wls options it made the most sense.
I chose it before I ever found OH. 
I didn't have anyone to "sway" my decision.  It was just the most sensible one in my opinion.
Then I got here and found out that I wasn't the only one that felt that way!!! LOL
Look at all the wls options.  Even if you only want to look at the good side of all of them the ds is the best.  If you want to look at all the drawbacks of them in my book the ds ROCKS!!! 
Be sure and educate yourself on the fact that any wls can have major complications.  All of them have their "bumps in the road".  Be sure to know as much as you can possibly know about all of them.
Kathy

You must make sure that you do your information session with a surgeon who actually does the DS. There are plenty of surgeons out there who will say or advertise that they do the DS but then you find out that they don't really do them. They will tell you all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't have the DS which are untrue.

The surgeons who actually do the DS can be found on www.DSFacts.com

The reasons I chose the DS?

**Best cure rate for Type II Diabetes which killed both my normal weight parents.

**Best long term statistics for keeping the weight off. I could loose weight with Weigh****chers or other plans but I couldn't KEEP the weight off.

**Best post-op eating. I did not think I could live on the very restricted RnY diet for the rest of my life. The DS allows me to eat a much more satisfying diet.

**I wanted to keep my pyloric valve and not run the risk of dumping syndrome.

**I wanted a surgery that would work for life. Not one that would stop working after 2-3 years.

Study, study, study!! Read the revision forum, the weight loss surgery regrets forum, the RnY forum, this forum and read the links you've been given.

I think if you will take the time to do your homework your choice will become very, very clear and obvious to you.

When I went to the seminar they covered all 4 surgical options... it came time for question and answers and I asked Dr. Kemmeter which of his patients were happiest with their post op life- he said without a doubt the DS'ers! Of course a lot went into my choice, but his answer was a great eye opener.
Follow everyones advice here and do your research.
Best wishes!

Lisa

Here's what I tell people about how I chose the DS:

I was originally on track to have RNY back in 2002, but got derailed after preop testing revealed that I had pulmonary hypertension. It's a long story, but it's on my profile if you'd like to read about it.

Even though I was off the track for RNY, I continued to attend the program my then-surgeon required of all his patients. I'd paid for it, so I figured I could benefit from it anyhow :-).

I saw some disturbing trends there. This was a big group, as several surgeons sent patients to it. There was, of course, a cadre of very successful patients (all RNY). They finished their year of program and went on with their lives, and as far as anyone knew/knows, all is well.

There were a surprising number of people, though, who fought and fought and fought to comply with what was expected of them, and the weight didn't come off well. At every meeting, there was word of someone else in the hospital with this or that problem--usually an ulcer or a stricture.

I listened to stories of dumping episodes, of getting food stuck episodes, of the mental/emotional challenges of having to live on highly restricted diets.....and I thought, "There's not a chance in hell I could live with this." (I should add that I have a major vomiting phobia. I'll do just about anything to not vomit. Not a good thing in some cases.)

Well, time passed, I got fatter and sicker, and eventually (again, story in my profile), it came out that the pulmonary hypertension was caused by the fat on my torso squashing my heart and lungs. It went from, "You cannot have any surgery at all," to, "You must have surgery or die."

I came back here to OH, feeling desperate because the lap band wouldn't give me enough weight loss to have any real hope of curing what was ailing me, and the RNY seemed to me like foolish butchery for not enough good results.

Someone told me then about the duodenal switch, invited me over to the DS board, which at the time was pretty much brand new, and the rest was history.

What I like about the DS:

1. 98% cure rate for type II diabetes. This was a major biggie because I had very bad diabetes.
2. Normal stomach anatomy and function is maintained. The stomach is reduced in size, but the normal stomach outlet, the pyloric valve, remains intact and functioning. There is no "stoma" with the DS or the vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG).
3. The intestinal changes that are done in the DS "jump start" the body's metabolism. Mine was shot to hell from a lifetime of PCOS, dieting and other factors.
4. I'd already done many years of low fat, low carb, highly restrictive dieting and I knew I sucked at it. The DS gives an eating quality of life that I find easy to live with: eat a primarily animal protein based diet. I'm a happy carnivore :-). I had to learn to restrict my carb intake, but it was a lot easier to do when I could eat meat, cheese, fish, eggs, etc. with abandon, with little regard for fat content. (DS'ers only absorb about 20% of the fat they eat, so for most of us, fat is almost a "free" food.)

I felt so strongly about the superiority of the DS to any other procedure that I traveled and paid out of pocket to have it done, rather than have the RNY done fifteen minutes from home and covered by insurance. It's been four years, and so far, so good :-).

 

 

Thank you all for your insight on this..I will be doing my research for sure.