Consultation got me MORE confused!

I had the RNY in 2002, SW 278; I had complications, back in the hospital 10 days later, surgery 3 weeks after that, developed wound infection, out 3 months. I got down to 200 by December, and then couldn't lose another pound, no matter what I did. I was dedicated to a healthy food regimen and exercise. I could not get under 200 lbs. I dumped, had issues with food getting stuck, a lot of hair loss. I had to work really hard to stay at 200, and gained back 40 lbs, took it off after a year of bootcamp training, and gained it again. I spent years miserable, and finally looked into a revision, revised to the DS on Dec 15. 

You need to have a good understanding of what each surgery is. The lapband does not involve any changes to your stomach or intestines, you have a band around your stomach. A VSG (Sleeve) is NOT anything placed around your stomach, your stomach is created into a sleeve, which is half of the DS procedure, minus the switch of the intestines. The DS offers the most restriction and very few people regain, unlike the RNY where there is a 50% regain possibility because it's not restrictive enough, the creation of the pouch and the intestine re-routed to the pouch causes a temporary restriction but the body readjusts itself, making regain very susceptible.

Every weight loss procedure involves a regimen of focusing on protein and vitamin supplements to compensate for the nutrition not gotten from food. Every major surgery has risks. The DS requires the most maintenance, but t's also the surgery with the best track record. I took several supplements with my RNY, and yes, more with the DS. Vitalady provides a start point,  you can buy 3 month packages, 1 month, independent, use her list as guideline and make your own purchases. Multi, Calcium, Vit D, iron are what most people need; the rest is based on your own labs.  I know band, RNY, VSG success stories. I know plenty of failures. You have to pick the surgery that will be best for YOU. I do recommend the DS over the RNY, it's worth the more sophisticated procedure and post-op regimen. I wish I could have had it first. To me, the RNY is a roll of the dice, and there was no way I was going to get a band on my bypass or a distal bypass to have more of the same problems. I'm a lightweight, but the DS was right for me, it's not just about BMI; it's also about ability to maintain a healthy weight long-term. 125 lbs overweight, makes us morbidly obese too. The bariatric, medical communities have shied away from the DS because it IS a very specialized surgery, the duodenal tissue is THE most sensitive tissue in the human body to sew/stitch. It's imperative if you have the DS you choose an experienced, vetted surgeon. Research, go to DSfacts.com, join the new board http://weightlosssurgery.proboards.com where many DS vets are, read RNY stories, revision stories. 

Thanks for that info. I thought I wanted the DS...cause I don't want to have a second procedure fail and end up BACK under the knife a third time. but i am scared about all those vitamins. I am horrible with the few pills I take now!  I can't imagine swallowing 30 pills a day. That scares me.  I think I would not use this surgeon if i did decide on the ds. He doesnt seem very CONFIDENT in it.    Does insurance ever cover the DS surgery?

I believe a lot of insurance does cover the DS, it's been around for quite a while. But is more difficult to perform and fewer surgeons do it. If you aren't confident in the one you've got you should definitely see someone else. 

You're welcome :) It's good that you are taking a look at this, because it's exactly what you, anyone needs to consider when approaching a major surgery like this. As for the vitamin regimen, 30 is a number tossed out there quite a bit, but really, a complete list of what you will need to take will depend solely on your labs. What's most important is that you have your blood work done regularly and know, understand what the normal ranges are so you know when you get your results if you are in them or not. Then you can tweak. For sure you will need to take a multi, calcium citrate, D3 (also calcium) likely iron, magnesium and B12. You find chewables for your mutli and calcium, D3, sublingual for B12 (under the tongue) and iron often comes in liquid. 

Insurance companies are definitely covering DS, more now than they did before, my RNY to DS revision was covered. Insurance companies are all different. What is key is having a vetted DS surgeon, because their offices usually are also pretty savvy about coding for insurance purposes.

 

If you are truly leaning toward the DS, I encourage you to also visit the other site, http://weightlosssurgery.proboards.com, because there are far more DS vets there. Also go to http://www.dsfacts.com/ where you see a list of vetted surgeons, then you can research them to see if they are covered in your insurance. Many of the surgeons have their own websites, mine does and it's very good. He publishes a lot of papers which you can find in the newsletters section on the site, http://www.dssurgery.com/

I'm RNY to DS. RNY was a nightmare for me, although everyone's mileage will vary. Not even gonna talk about weight loss as that became the last of my problems. I was worried about destroying my car and/or my job with BMs with the RNY. Took me years to get a revision. More stories are available out there on the web, so I can't go on here.

Hi, I wanted to let you know I'm still here, I took down my other profile due to the relationship this site now has with Facebook, this is my new one, which is more generic and private.