Stapled 31 years ago, ready for a change
My name is Tommy I live in Conway Arkansas. New to this forum but not new to wls. In 1978 I had what my Dr."Kerry Ozment "called a gastric staple,more referred to as a stomach staple at that time it was very new.I was 24yrs old and 252 lbs. the surgery went great I lost down to 160lbs and maintained that weight until I was 34 years old.At that time in my life I decided to stop drinking alcohol and I have been sober ever since.When my body started craving the sugar it was not getting from the alcohol I started eating LOTS and LOTS of chocolate, honey buns,little debbies and anything else that was sweet. Well you know what happen i started to gain weight,I really wasn't to worried about it at the time it came on slowly at first and I was just happy to be sober! By the time I was 50 I was up to about 240 and I decided it was time to quit smoking AND NOW 4years later I am at 281lbs.I am considering The DS surgery as my tool, but would like to Know more about it.My wife(RhondaT) had RNY 2 years ago and is doing great,but I have read a lot about regain with rny, an that's my main reason for asking for some of your knowledge.This is NOT about mine is better than yours thing,my wife is very supportive of whats best for me.Some thing keeps drawing me toward the DS,so I would appreciate any light anyone could shed on the subject and would consider any and all Dr.recommendations in or around Arkansas.
Thank You
TommyT
Hi Tommy,
I've been thinking all day the best way to respond to your question. Hopefully it will help you and give you what you're looking for.
In my "I'm not a doctor or medical person, just someone who's been around this particular block" opinion, you are looking for, what is essentially a repair to your surgery done 30+ years ago. Revision/ repair, same thing. I don't think that you should be concerned right now about what TYPIE of surgery you have, but more concerned about how best this is to be repaired. That is a question that can only be answered by a surgeon.
Now, there are very good reasons why the two main bariatric surgeons here in Central AR don't do DS. Carrie, Dr Gibbs' nurse told me it is a very radical operation that Dr Gibbs won't do. Period. You know your dear wife trusted Gibbs to do her surgery, as did I and many, many others. To me, if he said he won't do it, that's good enough for me!
Lastly....let's get to the regain issue you have. You said your main trouble foods are sweets, etc. You know from being around Rhonda these last two years that sugar will become your enemy. If you combine the inability to eat sweets with FOLLOWING THE RULES, chances are very good you won't regain your weight. I'm quickly approaching my 2 year mark at goal, and have maintained within 2-4 lbs the entire time. It takes as much dedication to maintaining as it does losing. This is a lifestyle change and an opportunity to "do it over". Please don't look at it from the "I might gain itt back" but rather "if I can take it off I can keep it off".
Okay, I've rambled long enough. Hope some of it has made sense!
Before doing anything, get consultations from both Gibbs and Baker. Let them be your guide.
I've been thinking all day the best way to respond to your question. Hopefully it will help you and give you what you're looking for.
In my "I'm not a doctor or medical person, just someone who's been around this particular block" opinion, you are looking for, what is essentially a repair to your surgery done 30+ years ago. Revision/ repair, same thing. I don't think that you should be concerned right now about what TYPIE of surgery you have, but more concerned about how best this is to be repaired. That is a question that can only be answered by a surgeon.
Now, there are very good reasons why the two main bariatric surgeons here in Central AR don't do DS. Carrie, Dr Gibbs' nurse told me it is a very radical operation that Dr Gibbs won't do. Period. You know your dear wife trusted Gibbs to do her surgery, as did I and many, many others. To me, if he said he won't do it, that's good enough for me!
Lastly....let's get to the regain issue you have. You said your main trouble foods are sweets, etc. You know from being around Rhonda these last two years that sugar will become your enemy. If you combine the inability to eat sweets with FOLLOWING THE RULES, chances are very good you won't regain your weight. I'm quickly approaching my 2 year mark at goal, and have maintained within 2-4 lbs the entire time. It takes as much dedication to maintaining as it does losing. This is a lifestyle change and an opportunity to "do it over". Please don't look at it from the "I might gain itt back" but rather "if I can take it off I can keep it off".
Okay, I've rambled long enough. Hope some of it has made sense!
Before doing anything, get consultations from both Gibbs and Baker. Let them be your guide.
Susan
You can regain your weight after RNY. You can also regain your weight after ANY WLS if you go back to the behaviors that made you obese to begin with.
If you had RNY in 1978, you definately had one of the older versions of RNY. (There have been 4 versions of RNY since its inception. It has been tweeked 3 times to get the most current version that we use now to correct issues that DID lead to higher chances of long-term regain.) If memory serves, you probably got RNY around the time they were doing a horizontal staple line. You may not even have your stomach & pouch actually seperated apart by anything more than a staple line. (Now they are completely cut apart into 2 seperate pieces and stapled shut.) So I would recommend, before doing anything, that you get your anatomy checked out to see if you have any anatomical failure of your RNY. Previous versions of the surgery where they did not actually split the stomachs have actually had the stomachs grow back together or the stomach has actually created pathways around the staples trying to grow itself back together again. You may have something like that going on which could be leading to your regain. It may also be that your pouch was made too big. It may also be that the ghrelin producing portion of your stomach was left intact. (This was common in previous versions of RNY which is why people with previous versions of RNY sometimes failed... they continued to get hungry. Most of us that get current versions of RNY do NOT get hungry because the ghrelin producing portion of the stomach is now, in current versions of RNY, either completely or significantly removed.)
I considered having the DS initially. In fact, it is the only surgeon I seriously considered as an alternative to RNY. So I have researched it extensively, albeit 2 or 3 years ago.
DSers malabsorb lots of FAT. So if fatty foods are your main problem, the DS would probably work well for you.
But you mentioned sugar. DSers absorb carbs the same as we do (almost completely - especially after the body begins adapting to the malabsorption). So if your biggest problem is little debbies, chocolate, honey buns, etc... the DS will not work as well for you. (DSers on here will tell you they only absorb about 30 - 60% of carbs, but bariatric surgeons will tell you that they absorb about 72% in the beginning which is about in line with RNY. It's the FAT calories that they absorb about around 30% in the beginning, which IS lower than RNY.)
I encourage you to do your own research on the DS. I would also encourage you not to rely on websites like dsfacts, etc where patients on here have created a supposed "medical" website that appears to be done by actual medical professionals. (Believe it or not, there are fanatics - especially about the DS - who will refer to this site like it is a reliable medical website put together by DRS/surgeons, when it is in fact, just put together by some of them.) There was an article published on the ASMBS website called Bariatric Nutition: Suggestions for the Surgical Weight Loss Patient that talks about the DS and some of the vitamin/mineral/protein deficiencies that occur, as well as % of malabsorption, etc. That article actually WAS done by medical professionals and published/endorsed by the AMerican Society of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. (So noone can say it was some RNY conspiracy or anything since those surgeons perform the DS/RNY/everything.)
If you do your OWN research, you won't have to worry any information you receive is tainted by what this or that person thinks.
I hope you understand that I'm not trying to be catty by not explaining everything I've learned about the DS. I just really think it's so important to do your own research. That way you won't have to worry about my sources of my info I'm providing, etc. No matter what anyone tells you that they have learned here, you won't know whether or not YOU would rely on the resources where they got their info or not, you know? I hope that makes sense because I'm typing all this really fast.
But no matter what you choose, definately get your anatomy checked out first to see what you're dealing with.
Good luck!
Wen
If you had RNY in 1978, you definately had one of the older versions of RNY. (There have been 4 versions of RNY since its inception. It has been tweeked 3 times to get the most current version that we use now to correct issues that DID lead to higher chances of long-term regain.) If memory serves, you probably got RNY around the time they were doing a horizontal staple line. You may not even have your stomach & pouch actually seperated apart by anything more than a staple line. (Now they are completely cut apart into 2 seperate pieces and stapled shut.) So I would recommend, before doing anything, that you get your anatomy checked out to see if you have any anatomical failure of your RNY. Previous versions of the surgery where they did not actually split the stomachs have actually had the stomachs grow back together or the stomach has actually created pathways around the staples trying to grow itself back together again. You may have something like that going on which could be leading to your regain. It may also be that your pouch was made too big. It may also be that the ghrelin producing portion of your stomach was left intact. (This was common in previous versions of RNY which is why people with previous versions of RNY sometimes failed... they continued to get hungry. Most of us that get current versions of RNY do NOT get hungry because the ghrelin producing portion of the stomach is now, in current versions of RNY, either completely or significantly removed.)
I considered having the DS initially. In fact, it is the only surgeon I seriously considered as an alternative to RNY. So I have researched it extensively, albeit 2 or 3 years ago.
DSers malabsorb lots of FAT. So if fatty foods are your main problem, the DS would probably work well for you.
But you mentioned sugar. DSers absorb carbs the same as we do (almost completely - especially after the body begins adapting to the malabsorption). So if your biggest problem is little debbies, chocolate, honey buns, etc... the DS will not work as well for you. (DSers on here will tell you they only absorb about 30 - 60% of carbs, but bariatric surgeons will tell you that they absorb about 72% in the beginning which is about in line with RNY. It's the FAT calories that they absorb about around 30% in the beginning, which IS lower than RNY.)
I encourage you to do your own research on the DS. I would also encourage you not to rely on websites like dsfacts, etc where patients on here have created a supposed "medical" website that appears to be done by actual medical professionals. (Believe it or not, there are fanatics - especially about the DS - who will refer to this site like it is a reliable medical website put together by DRS/surgeons, when it is in fact, just put together by some of them.) There was an article published on the ASMBS website called Bariatric Nutition: Suggestions for the Surgical Weight Loss Patient that talks about the DS and some of the vitamin/mineral/protein deficiencies that occur, as well as % of malabsorption, etc. That article actually WAS done by medical professionals and published/endorsed by the AMerican Society of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. (So noone can say it was some RNY conspiracy or anything since those surgeons perform the DS/RNY/everything.)
If you do your OWN research, you won't have to worry any information you receive is tainted by what this or that person thinks.
I hope you understand that I'm not trying to be catty by not explaining everything I've learned about the DS. I just really think it's so important to do your own research. That way you won't have to worry about my sources of my info I'm providing, etc. No matter what anyone tells you that they have learned here, you won't know whether or not YOU would rely on the resources where they got their info or not, you know? I hope that makes sense because I'm typing all this really fast.
But no matter what you choose, definately get your anatomy checked out first to see what you're dealing with.
Good luck!
Wen
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