My 565 lbs weight loss surgery journey!!!!!! Videos

 Lucia,

Love your videos and the fact that you are sharing your story.  You are a beautiful and intelligent girl.  Please do some more research on the DS surgery.  Don't just take the doctor's word that it is not right for you.

RNY surgery is great for losing about 100 pounds.  Then people gain back about 20 of that.  DS patients lose more weight and keep more of it off for longer times.

If you do get the RNY, I know that you will work very hard and be very successful with that surgery

Thank you!
I will defo look into it some more because I have so much weight to lose I want to make sure I do whats going to be better for me long term,
I am going to try and make arrangements to speak to the surgeon and then go from there.
Thanks

Lucia, I am so SO excited for you. I was weighed in at just shy of 500 lbs (though honestly I think I had lost some weight by then) and you are going to feel joys that you cannot even fathom now. Small wonders, small victories, large ones, delighting yourself in your abilities every day. Don't ever lose your sense of thankfulness for the little things, they keep me going when times get tough. Congratulations and you are very insightful to have the forethought to vlog your experience. There will be parts of you that you don't recognize when you look back a year or two or three from now, that will feel strange. But in reassessing your past you will have a better insight into the paths your future should take. Brace yourself for the ride of your life!

Good luck on your journey.

I was wondering if you could tell us why your surgeon recommended RNY over DS when you have a high BMI?
Does he even do the DS? Who is your surgeon?

CNC

I have no idea why he suggested that, Im going to see if i can have the DS everyone i have spoken to thinks that will be better. I am having the surgery at a hospital in London there are a few surgeons at the hospital and they actually do all the different types within the hospital im not entirely sure which surgeon will be doing my surgery.
I am going to try to get an appointment to speak with a surgeon because i really want the DS.
Im still waiting for my funding to come through now so im hoping I will have time to change.
Do you know if one surgery is safer than another as far as the DS and RNY are concerned?

Thanks for your help

My advise is to lose as much weight as you can before surgery. I see your BMI on your profile and I can not imagine any surgery other than the D/S for you. Remember that whatever surgery you choose....it is only a tool. You need to work to make it work for you.

 He probably suggested the RNY over the DS because he doesn't do the DS.   It is plain and simple. Most surgeons don't know how to do the DS,  so they recommend the RNY.  If you insist upon Ds they will tell you flat out lies about the DS.

I don't think there is a huge higher risk of complications with DS over RNY.  There might be abit but not alot.  You can have leaks, hernias, lots of complications with either surgery.

With the DS you have to be very focused on supplements and eating the right thing.  DS'ers take alot of supplements everyday (20 to 30 pills) and they are NOT optional.  But you have to take supplements with the RNY too.  With DS you have to be more focused on eating protein and making sure you eat at least 100 grams a day. ( 75% of the stuff I eat is protein based food, i.e meat, cheese, eggs, fish, nuts, diary products, protein shakes, bars etc. I could eat less protein but I find it easier to stick with a high protein diet)   As a DS'er I can tell you there are no off limit foods. 

I think it is important to for you to understand and see the impact of the average  long term results of either surgery, based on your starting weight.

I had to make an assumption here. Since I don't know your height,  I have guessed that you are 5'6 which is a bit taller then the average for a woman.

Right now your BMI is 91
Normal BMI is 19 to 24
At 5'6 140 pounds is a bmi of 23

That means you have 425 pounds of excess weight. (EW)

As per the the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Society,  Excess weight loss percentages  (EWL%) for RNY vs DS are as follows.  (source at the end of post.)

RNY

EWL% at 1-2 years    48%-85%
EWL% at 3-6 years    53%-77%
EWL% at 7-10 years  25%-68%

DS

EWL% at 1-2 years     65%-83%
EWL% at 3-6 years     62%-81%
EWL% at 7-10 years   60%-80%

So let's look at 3 to 6 year results for you.

With RNY your weight range would be 340 to 238 pounds
With DS your weight range would be 301 to 221 pounds

At 7 to 10 year results,

With RNY  459 to 276 pounds
With DS  310 to 225 pounds

Now your results may not be typical,  these are the averages.

So to end my post I just want to say,  that the decision to have WLS is huge, the descion on what type of surgery is huge.  But it is important that you research and understand all the surgery types and really think about what is going to work in your life and what type of life you want to lead.  There are success stories and failures with every surgery type.    Read about all the surgery types, for the DS the best sources of information are dsfacts.com, and the DS board here.  I will warn you that there are many anti-DS people out there who will tell you flat out lies about the DS. (I bet some will pop onto this thread soon!) Please use your brain and take everything said with a grain of salt.

Good luck in your journey.

CNC


AACE/TOS/ASMBS Guidelines For Clinical Practice for the Perioperative Nutritional, Metabolic, and Nonsurgical Support of the Bariatric Surgery Patient "

Wow, thank you for all the informations....... Im going to call the hospital tomorrow and enquire about DS

Hi Lucia,

Saw your vlog and loved it! Thought I might wanna share my vlog with you. I use to weigh 400+lbs and had an RNY in 2000. In 2008 I had a revision to a DS and am so much happier.

Keep the positive attitude and I'm sure you'll do fine.

Dana

Here's my first video for my vlog. www.youtube.com/user/roulette67#p/u/54/eqwFeONijCA

Lucia, congrats on your decision! i am also still in research phase but I am going to go with the DS because from what I read on www.dsfacts.com and PubMed as well they just make all the digestive works a little smaller. Everything is still there and still attached they just reroute things a little differently. With what i saw of the RNY there are pieces that are left unattached with nothing to do. It's kind of gross but i worried that leaving a part in that i'm not using anymore might cause a greater risk for infections and such as it starts to atrophy or that it might rot. It probably doesnt but then I have an overly dramatic imagination. And it seems to me that DS just has a lower chance of complications all the way around. Yes I know that anytime we go messing around inside we run the risk of complications but as i said I am still in research mode. mostly so I can discuss my options knowledgeably with my surgeon once I get to that phase. good luck with your own research this seems like a great place to ask questions and get honest answers :D