Why DS over RNY?

Read the revision boards....aka the Board of Broken Dreams.  It's all full of Bands and RNY's.  The gold standard, to me, looked a little more gold-plated at best after a while...especially when I saw the statistics.  i don't know about you, but I'd rather have one surgery, but I'm a little overkill like that.  I'll take Nyquil for a little sniffle.  I know that I know that I KNOW it's gonna work.

I also find that eating high protein is so much easier not having to worry about counting fat grams.

Add those reasons to what everyone else said

"gold plated"

I like that too!!!  Good one Val!!!

My morbid obesity had a very powerful hold on my quality of  life so I figured I needed THE most powerful weight loss surgery out there, and that is without a doubt the DS. The thought of possibly spending my life dumping, worrying about strictures, ulcers, food getting stuck and trying to diet again all for a surgery with significantly lower success rates than the DS just didn't make any sense to me. I needed more malabsorption that the RNY offers, also. I knew that that was what was going to be crucial in my maintaining my loss. Since I had Diabetes before my DS, I was much more impressed with the DS's cure rate of 98%, as opposed to the RNY's cure rate of 85%. I also did not like the flawed design of the RNY, bypassing the pyloric valve and such a small amount of the small intestine bypassed.  I wanted a fully functioning stomach, not one with a man made opening to it that could prove to be either too small or too large.  I figured if I was going to be under the knife again it would be ridiculous to not have the weight loss surgery that offered the best statistics AND the very best quality of life. I made one mistake years ago in choosing the band and lived with the consequences of that poor decision plus got to deal with several comorbidities as I regained all my lost weight and then some. I was so very lucky my revision was successfully completed, it saved my life!

Good luck to you!

Before really learning about the DS, I was hanging on the main board listening to RNYers talk about head hunger, the extreme low calories lives they were leading, and that if they didn't exercise that they didn't lose.  It sounded like a diet to me.  All I could think was, "Hell, I've been dieting all my life!  Who needs a surgery to diet?"  Then I came across the DS board.  A person 2-3 months out would come here and say, I'm hungry.  The DSers would say, "Then eat, just grab some protein first and then have what you want!!!"  So different from the RNY board where the RNYers that were further out would say things like, "It's just head hunger," "Go exercise instead of eating, you'll be so glad you did it," "You have got to buckle down and work this tool you've been given!" 

For me, it came down to this.  Get a surgery to go on a diet for the rest of my life and hope that I can maintain good habits once the weight is gone.  Or get the DS, watch my carbs during the weight loss phase, and eat fats and proteins freely for the rest of my life paying no attention to calories.  Hmmm...for me it was a no brainer.  But I was born to be a DSer.  You'll know if you are too.  Keep reading, keep researching, and feel free to ask ANYTHING!  I'll be here and so will this awesome group of people!!!

Oh, and as for the gold standard....around here we call the DS the PLATINUM standard! 

Lori

 I am so glad to see someone from Indiana who has had the DS!  I have been looking into bariatric surgery for a few months, now and was ready to give up since, as you said--RNY and the BAND just seem like surgery to go on a diet!  
Apparently Dr. Inman is the only surgeon in Indiana who does the DS and so I am seeing her in a couple of weeks.  Other bariatric doctors in Indiana have told me that they don't do the DS because it is too dangerous!  I don't understand why because, when you read research it, the DS folks seems to be very satisfied with it.  
Well, hopefully, my insurance will cover it.  They are willing to cover the others...

Hello Francie08,

Another Indiana DSer here, also with Dr. Inman.  She is a fantastic surgeon; you will love her!  She performed my revision from SRVG to the DS last October, and even tho' I had a really rough start, I am oh-so-happy with the results!  There are actually quite a few of us now.  As a matter of fact we are having our monthly support group meeting at Texas Roadhouse on Shadeland Ave in Indianapolis next Monday the 17th.  You should come hang with us and get the "skinny" on the DS.  Also, we are having a Christmas party on Saturday Dec. 13th, so maybe you can make it to that, too.  Good luck with your consult with Dr. I.  Let us know how it goes!!

Edited for a typo

  Thanks for the info.  What time is the support group meeting at Texas Roadhouse?  Maybe I can make it!
Since I keep hearing about how dangerous the DS is because you absorb so little of the food that you eat and therefore don't get the nutrients that your body needs to survive, I wonder if there are any long term DSers out there ( 5-10 years) and how they are doing.  Just trying to make sense of all the information that I am getting.  

I chose the DS over the RNY because I wanted an easier post-op life.  I didn't want to have to worry about the sugar content of every single thing that I ate.  I didn't want to live like my RNY friends (at the time) and be full and miserable after 5 bites.  I didn't want to have the unnecessary attention brought to my eating habits.  I didn't want to have to worry about dumping.  I didn't want to have to stick to a low-sugar, low-fat, low-fun diet for the rest of my life - hell, I'd been doing that for 18 years with NO SUCCESS.  Damned if I wanted to have to do that after going through a major surgery, too.

The DS gave me 3 simple rules as far as eating was concerned:
* eat 100+ grams of protein a day
* eat the protein before I eat anything else
* listen to my body: eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full.

The other rules I got with DS were:
* take my vitamins
* get my labs drawn frequently (once a year now) to make sure I'm taking enough vitamins.

Those two rules above are mandatory with my surgeon's practice for ALL 4 SURGERIES he performs, though, so while they're not JUST for DSers, they are for ALL DSers.

I eat like a normal person now.  Smaller portions, yummy food, no deprivation.  I  my DS.

God Helen, the shortest reason I can think of now is that you won't have to diet again! A year? Really? I could barely manage a week...

I don't feel hungry, I don't have to do low-fat and tasteless, I get to eat pork and beef and plenty of butter, and the DS works. I don't throw up (had enough of that with the band), dont dump like RNYers (had enough of that with the diabetes) and I get to eat all day. Can't really argue with that.

Sal