How many of you had the sleeve first then revised to a Duodenal switch?
I am debating between the sleeve and the DS. I have heard many folks say to just get the DS because it's more effective and that the sleeve won't be great for maintaining weight. I have also heard that the sleeve would not enable me to get 150lbs off. What has been your experience and why did you revise to a DS or why are you thinking of revising to a DS?
I would just go for the DS to start with. I revised from a stretched out sleeve after some regain. I have GAINED, yes, GAINED about 10 pounds since my DS revision. The DS (for me) is nothing without a tight small sleeve, I was not resleeved when I had my DS. Just the intestinal part was done, I thought my old sleeve was good still.. Now I have to get resleeved!! Seriously! I wish I just got a DS to start with. I was a lightweight so the DS was not considered for me with insurance. My VSG was insured by my province, in Ontario Canada. After I regained about 40 pounds post VSG, I got a self paid DS thinking it would be enough. It wasn't. Now I am getting a resleeve, that HAS to work. Just go for a DS if you can. Save time screwing around with revisions etc. GOOD LUCK.
I'm very sorry to hear that you gained with the DS. I know that my surgeon makes a rather large sleeve and his patients lose and I have heard somewhere on here about someone that didn't have her stomach cut but just had the re-routing and she lost weight but I can't remember where I saw that. It's odd that your not losing. I will say this though, I have seen on the boards here that with the DS if you don't eat enough calories and a lot of fat you will stall. Some folks up their fat and calorie intake but stay low carb and then lose weight again.
The surgeon who did my sleeve Sid y sleeve was stretched but didn't say where. I still have a lot of restriction bit I don't know. I am to going to have a revision to y sleeve however as re sleeping is more risky for leaks from what I have read.
GL
Congrats on getting the switch portion this year! Did you find it hard to lose and maintain weight loss with the sleeve? I have heard some DS folks speak about upping their calories-fat and protein only- and then dropping more weight. It might be worth a try because the sleeve diet is very different than the DS diet-from what I have read. I read about folks eating a ton of bacon for a few days and then dropping weight. It's wild!
The sleeve is restriction only. I know you will hear people discuss how removing the part of the stomach that produces Ghrelin is like sleeve magic. But the real deal is that it requires very strict adherence to a low, cal, low fat, low carb diet for life. And if you have metabolic issues, and most people heavy enough for WLS do, restriction alone will probably not get you to a normal BMI or allow you to avoid regain.
I've seen many people work the sleeve like crazy and lose well. But it seems like too many are regaining a couple years out. I don't think it's the patient's fault. The surgery is failing them, not the other way around. Remember, the body adapts and keeps on trying to get back to it's happy place, fat.
Moving on to the DS. You will hear how many worry about losing too much. Getting too thin. Well this can be true for a couple years. For some people. But at more than 10 years postop, I diet all the time. I can't eat as much as I want of anything. But I look like a normal woman my age. And most women of any age always want to lose weight. Even with the DS, the honeymoon does end. Weight again becomes the eternal battle. The difference is that now I can lose without going down to 600 calories a day. I can manage my weight and I never could before.
I got the sleeve a little over a year ago and am looking into getting the DS or the intestinal portion added. I haven't seen my surgeon since about 1 month post op (long story) but I'm not sure how he will feel about me not being able to reach goal. I have an appt with him on wednesday and plan to talk to him about checking to see if my sleeve has stretched, which I know it has because I can eat about a normal size portion and then about 10 mins later be hungry again. I've only lost about 50-53 pounds and have been maintaining since May 2013. I've tried MFP and am currently on Weigh****chers and I'm still not losing. I haven't given up yet because I havent gained and probably being in the mindset of constantly trying to lose is the only thing keeping me from gaining.
I've been looking into Aceeves for my DS possibly this summer. Unfortunately my husband is deploying soon and I don't want to get surgery when he's overseas and Dr. K is very pricey. I'm self pay without any financing, just plain old cash that we've saved up. After reading some of the other replies in this post I think I will also ask to be re-sleeved when the time comes for me to get my DS. Good Luck OP. Oh and I also wanted to add that my surgeon at the conference said that if you don't lose enough weight with the sleeve then he can convert it to a rny (100% covered by insurance) but after doing tons of google searches on vsg to rny and reading what the DSers had to say, it made total sense for me to go the DS route since I already have the 1st part of the surgery.
