I need an anatomy lesson!

 My surgeon told me that only 5% of the intestines is bypassed. I thought the first part of duedonum is longer than that. Does that sound right or did I misunderstand what he told me? 

No, he's correct.  The bypassed portion typically isn't all that long, especially compared to the 20-ish feet of intestines you have.

Most RNY's have 100cm (3ft) bypassed (proximal).   In rarer cases, up to 200cm (6ft) are bypassed (distal)

Out of curiosity, I dug out the report of my procedure.  In part, it reads, "the small bowel was traced out 100 cm distal.  It was divided transversely with the GIA stapler. Small bowel was then traced out an additional 150 cm, where the side-to-side enteroenterostomy was accomplished with internal firing of the Endo-GIA  60 mm stapler."    So, I either got the normal 100 cm bypass or a 100+150 cm bypass?  

So 10 years post surgery you feel great and have no regreats?

I've never regretted my surgery for one minute - no buyers remorse, nothing!   I didn't find it difficult and haven't really found post op life too difficult either.

I've had some iron deficiencies, solved by infusions and while I didn't have type II diabetes before surgery I do now - but it's not weight related and is under control with my diet and metformin so no biggie.  I still dump but know, for the most part,  what to eat and not to eat to avoid it and I did suffer Reactive Hypoglycaemia but again, diet takes care of that.

I don't feel I have anything to complain about ...

People 10 years out and more are who I am also interested in hearing from also. I'm 45 so there are a lot of years I want to have healthy in front of me. It is good to hear success stories, thank you for responding. 

The Duodenum is only about 12-15 inches long, so your surgery completely bypassed the Duodenum and roughly 2 feet of your jejunum. Because most of our digestion takes place in the Duodenum, the bypass limits digestion and absorption of some nutrients. It's also why they leave the bisected part of the stomach intact and reattach the duodenum back to the Jejunum, so that some of the digestive enzymes and gastric juices can still aide in digestion further down. It's also why we need to chew our food so thoroughly and take supplements. Since the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct attach to the duodenum, we lose their immediate assistance with digesting fats and sugars and become prone to dumping. 

With the RNY my surgeon told me he didn't take any more of the intestine away than needed to be done.  They don't know what ea*****h of the intestine does, nor how it effects nutritional intake, so he took as little as possible while making the realignment to my pouch.  Seems to have worked OK.