How long did your surgery take? Was it lap or open?

I am just curious as to how long it took you to get through your surgery 1 hour 3 hours etc?

Was it an open surgery or lap surgery?

How long did it take you to get approved?

How long did it take you to reach your goal?

Have you gained any weight back?

Pros and cons of having the DS?

If you haven't gained any weight back how long have you been maintaining?

I am 20 years old so if any of yall had your surgery at a younger age do you have a ton of excess skin?

It is getting closer but being able to set a date hopefully and all these questions are starting to come into my head.

I'm nervous, excited, scared, sad, anxious, all of the above.

Thanks in advance for your answers

 -Alicia

I thought you changed your mind about the DS.  Decided it wasn't for you.  What happened?

I wish I had had surgery at the age of 20.  You are lucky!  Sagging skin?  You'll have to wait and see there's no way to tell for sure.  But at the age of 20, you are going to get better results than most of us.  Just because you are younger.  But here's the real truth, you will never look as good as if you had never been heavy.  And if you have plastics, you trade all the jiggly bits for scars.  Get the pic of you when you were thin out of your head.  You won't look like that.

I had surgery about 10 years ago.  I gain and lose all the time and I still diet.  I am still always trying to lose weight.  But now it's 10lbs, not 100.  I go up and down from a 6 to a 10.  And any of those sizes are fine with me.  The important thing to me is that I look normal and I'm healthy.

Mine was open and it took 2 YEARS on a waiting list to get surgery.  It's not nearly that bad today!  As far as I'm concerned, I will probably never reach my goal.  And yes, I gain and lose weight all the time.  My op was 8 hours, probably a bit long for a virgin DS.

Pros and cons?  The DS is the most effective WLS there is today.  Most weight loss and least regain.  One of the biggest pros is that we are able to eat and few DSers throw up a lot!  Maybe a con is all the vites we have to take but that's not an issue for me.  I took vites all my life.  Maybe having labs done once a year is a con but really, anyone with WLS should have labs.

10 years down the road it all just becomes automatic.  No big deal.  But in the beginning, it takes over your life for a while.

Hi,

I can't answer all your questions I just had surgery on the 6th. I was about 7 months getting approved because i went through the program in one state but had surgery in another.

I was told my Ds would be between 3 and 5 hours, I was 3 hours lap. I think as far as pro's and con's list you would have to do some of that yourself because what might be a con for one may not be an issue for another person. I'm still not eating am just on liquids. Make sure if you havent already you visit dsfacts.com.

Best of luck

Trish

I am just curious as to how long it took you to get through your surgery 1 hour 3 hours etc?

2.5 hours

Was it an open surgery or lap surgery?

Open

How long did it take you to get approved?

10 days from when it was submitted

How long did it take you to reach your goal?

14 months

Have you gained any weight back?

15 lbs - still beneath the average expectancy of 15-20% ewl

If you haven't gained any weight back how long have you been maintaining?

6 Years

I was almost 38 when I had my surgery. It was done lap and took 4.5 hours. He had to repair a Hietal hernia. My insurance required a 6 month dietician supervised diet. Once I finished that and it was submitted it took about a week to 10 days to hear back from insurance, but all of that is dependent on your insurance. I am 7 months out from surgery and have lost 129 pounds, only 54 away from my goal of weighing 175. I am 5'11". I thought my stomach would be where I had the worse skin issues but it is not. My legs and arms are the worse, but they have always been big, my tummy was always flat until I had children. Everyone's body is different with skin issues. Exercise will help. I am hoping to be down to goal before a year out. 

I chose the DS because of the sucess rate and the varied diet. Also, being able to take ibuprophen was a biggy though I don't take it often, maybe 3 times since surgery. The cons are all the supplimentation and the hair loss at 3-4 months out, but I knew those when I made the decision. I would be lying if there are not days when I wish I didn't have to take them and that I could eat pasta and bread, but then I remind myself what my life was like with that extra 129 pounds. Good luck and weigh all your options.