1 week to go...can someone tell me?
RNY on 09/17/12
I'm still struggling with the whole caloric malabsorption going away thing. Why get this specific surgery if caloric malab. goes away after a while? Why not get the sleeve? I just hate to think that 2yrs down the road I'm fighting the calories....just like I do now?
i don't think i would have lost any weight without the inital malabsorption. portions were never my problem. there was most definitely something metabolic going on in my body where i continued to gain regardless of diet or exercise. 2 years out it's easy for me to maintain with little work, and i don't think i've malbasorbed for awhile now. my body needed a big reset that i don't think i would have gotten from a band or sleeve (plus only the band and rny were covered by insurance)
In my case I went with RNY because I had a high BMI and the sleeve would have probably (not positively but most likely) been the first step to losing weight and then would have been followed with either a DS or RNY. I personally didn't like the idea of potentially having to have 2 surgeries. Also, I wasn't that worried about the malabsorbtion ending. I am now portion controlled by my pouch! I enjoy food as much as I ever did, I just make better choices and eat less! I don't believe I'm going to have to fight calories, I'm quite content right now on between 800 and 1000 calories a day and that calorie amount will go up some eventually. Depending on a persons activity level you may well be able to eat between 1500 and 2000 calories a day and still maintain your new healthier weight. I'm looking forward to the maintenance stage, but right now I'm enjoying the losing phase and learning what I can and can't eat. Which so far I can eat pretty much anything as long as I eat my protein first!
It is a trade off. People lose the weight more quickly with the caloric malabsorption, but "pay" for that benefit with the permanent vitamin malabsorption and NSAID restriction.
Personally, if I were doing it again now, and the sleeve was an option, I would do the sleeve. Even with the caloric malabsorption, it took me 20 months to get the weight off, so a few more months wouldn't have been that big a deal in comparison to having to worry so much about vitamin levels and how to control arthritis pain and inflammation without NSAIDs.
You are correct, though... In the end, you end up almost in the same place with both surgeries in terms of what you eat and how many calories you can consume.
Lora
Personally, if I were doing it again now, and the sleeve was an option, I would do the sleeve. Even with the caloric malabsorption, it took me 20 months to get the weight off, so a few more months wouldn't have been that big a deal in comparison to having to worry so much about vitamin levels and how to control arthritis pain and inflammation without NSAIDs.
You are correct, though... In the end, you end up almost in the same place with both surgeries in terms of what you eat and how many calories you can consume.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
RNY on 09/13/12
Well, it won't be just like it is now, because you'll have a very small pouch and you'll get full on small amounts of food, unlike now.
Benefits of RNY over VSG include the fact that weight loss tends to be faster with RNY, diabetes may be more likely to resolve with RNY (I'm not sure enough studies have been done of VSG to determine if that's true or not, for sure), GERD is very likely to go away with RNY while VSG often makes it worse, and there is plenty of long-term date regarding RNY while there isn't yet with the sleeve.
That doesn't mean RNY is a better choice for you. There are benefits to the sleeve, as well.
Have you talked to your surgeon about which surgery would be best for you?
Benefits of RNY over VSG include the fact that weight loss tends to be faster with RNY, diabetes may be more likely to resolve with RNY (I'm not sure enough studies have been done of VSG to determine if that's true or not, for sure), GERD is very likely to go away with RNY while VSG often makes it worse, and there is plenty of long-term date regarding RNY while there isn't yet with the sleeve.
That doesn't mean RNY is a better choice for you. There are benefits to the sleeve, as well.
Have you talked to your surgeon about which surgery would be best for you?
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.