*QUEST* Dr. tells me that I can have either the RNY or Sleeve - Did I make the right choice?

I've been through all pre-op procedures.  My doctor told me that I'm a candidate for the RNY or Sleeve.  Since I have severe heartburn - I chose RNY.  Insurance has approved it and I have a surgery date in December 2012.  Now that I've looked through many of these forums, I wonder if I made the right choice.  Also, I didn't know anything about the DS and wonder if that's a better choice for me. (BMI is 53).  Any help in this discussion is appreciated.

There are a couple questions in your post. I'll try to address both.

First, if your only choices were really just RNY or sleeve (this is NOT the case!) and you have severe heartburn, RNY probably is your best choice. I say this because RNY has excellent results for treating heartburn. This is the one and only comorbidity where RNY does better than the DS (more on that later). The sleeve, esp if it is made very narrow, which is what some surgeons are doing these days, could make your heartburn worse. 
    When surgeons started doing the sleeve as a stand alone, they made the sleeves bigger - as is done with the DS. However, due to problems with weight regain and/or inadequate weight loss, they now often make the stand alone sleeve very narrow. Whether or not this will fix the weight regain problems longterm remains to be seen, but it can definitely make GERD worse.

Now, about the DS. The surgeon named in your post isn't going to offer you the DS because he doesn't do it. That group doesn't offer the DS. But if you are willing to look elsewhere, your choices needn't be limited to what this one surgeon and his group offers. The DS is a standard of care bariatric surgery for anyone who qualifies for wls, and is clearly recognized as the superior choice for people with a higher bmi, such as yourself. It has the highest percentage excess weight loss and best maintainence of that weight loss of any wls presently available. It also has the highest rates of resolution for all comorbidities except GERD or any wls presently available. It includes the sleeve, but since it also includes significant malabsorption and metabolic changes, the sleeve doesn't have to be made super-narrow as it would be with a stand alone sleeve, so it shouldn't be such a major problem with your GERD.

I'm guessing that you are somewhere here in the Bay Area, so I'm going to send you info about  our support group in a pm. I hope you can come and learn more about the DS from people who live with it, and who will openly and honestly share their experiences with you. Also, there is a lot of great info about the DS at dsfacts.com.

Larra

Larra,

First off, my apologies for not responding sooner. 

So much has happpened.  I've actuallly had surgery (12/11/12).   I decided on the RNY afterall because of my GERD issues and also my addiction to sugar.   I feel pretty good most of the day but I've been having this stomach cramping/constant pain that it gets hard at times. I was trying to get myself off the Lortab (liquid Vicodin) but I've decided to continue to take it a couple of more days to control the pain.

Yes, I am in the Bay Area (San Jose).  I've gone to the support meetings at Good Samaritan and found them to be helpful.

Can I ask about you?  Have you had surgery?  How long ago?  I'm definitely interested in re-joining the support group meetings and hope to get a new schedule for Good Sam soon.  Where do you attend?

Sandra

Best wishes to you for a speedy recovery and a successful surgery. I hope it works out for you.

The support group that I attend is sponsored by Pacific Laparoscopy, the practice of Dr. John Rabkin. It is very much oriented towards the DS, though we've had people with other operations come occasionally as well. I had the DS almost 7 years ago and I'm very happy with it.

    I suspect the meetings at Good Sam will be more oriented towards people with RNY, and probably more useful for you, though there will be people there with sleeve or lap band as well.

Larra