Question:
How much is bypassed for DS/DS Pregnancy

I have two questions. 1) What is a normal or average amount that is bypassed for DS? and 2) Anyone had children after DS- what was your experience? One of the reasons I am looking at surgery is to eventually try and have kids- so I am very interested in hearing your experiences. THANKS! CK    — drjakata (posted on November 24, 2003)

November 24, 2003
Cynthia, In the DS world, we don't talk so much about how much is "bypassed" we talk about what length your common channel is. If you go to www.duodenalswitch.com and take a look at the procedure page, it gives a good diagram of how it all works. Most US surgeons do a 100 cm common channel for their DS patients. My surgeon gave me a 65 cm common channel. I've lost 185 lbs without doing much other than just having a heck of a lot of fun. He knew that because of my structural issues (degenerative joint disease in my back, and grade 4 degeneration of my knees) that rigorous exercise would never be in my future. I'm thankful for his honest assessment and understanding of my personal situation. I'm a strong proponent of surgeons tailoring the surgery to their individual patients, rather than taking the cookie cutter approach. And yes, there are many DS post-ops who have gone on to have babies. There's a great profile of a lady on the www.duodenalswitch.com web site, go to the patients page, her name is Amy Y. She's the cutest pregnant woman I think I've ever seen. I'm so proud of her - and I don't even know her! Hope that helps some! Blessings, dina
   — Dina McBride

November 24, 2003
Luckily not all US surgeons cut cookies! They typically go by one of two approaches, the 100cm rule or the 10% rule. With the 10%, they measure your intestines and make your common channel 10% of that number, so it can range from 50-100cm in length. Mine is 75. I do think that's a better method than the always-100 rule, but you should still have good results with that. I'd avoid anyone who does a longer CC than 100cm. BTW, I met Amy Y. while she was still MO. She looks so fabulous now! I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you have.
   — Chris T.