Why did you choose this procedure over Lap Band, Bypass and Sleeve?
Because it works better than anything else out there and it gives you the most normal postop life. It also never quits working. When you read studies and look at results, concentrate on long term, not short term. Surgery of any kind is traumatic and most people lose weight. Pretty much guaranteed. What matters is where these people are 10 years down the road.
I will be coming up on 20 years postop pretty soon and I can tell you how I see it. The sleeve...works for some but you can't get around the fact that it is just another diet with a smaller stomach. RNY. In my opinion it is very cruel. You have to live with things like dumping/throwing up for the rest of your life. The amount of small bowel bypassed is very small and by the 2 year mark your body has adapted. This is when many patients begin the regain. LAP Band. It doesn't work. Long term results are dismal and the puking never goes away. Also cruel. I have been around the WLS community for decades and I firmly believe that restriction helps you lose weight but malabsorbtion lets you keep it off. The DS works because you get both and so much is bypassed that your body can never completely adapt.
Going back to about 2000, I worked in an office full of fat women. I was one of them. Our insurance covered WLS so 10 of us had surgery. 1 lap band and she never lost a pound. 8 RNY(easiest surgery to get). And 1 DS. That was me. Fast forward almost 20 years and I look like a normal old woman. So does ONE of the RNY people. The other 7 of the RNY women are all heavier now than when they had the surgery.
A couple years ago the successful RNY person was visiting my city and we decided to go out to lunch. I met her at a restaurant. She was looking good. Not skinny, not fat, just normal. Anyway the first thing she did was go find the restroom in case she had to throw up. At 15+ years postop she told me she still throws up several times a week. Yikes! No thanks!
I know me. I knew I needed more than just a diet to lose weight and keep it off. I could lose weight on my own but I could never keep it off. I also knew that I was very metabolically challenged and to lose weight I had to be too restrictive. I could gain weight on a regular low calorie diet. To lose weight I had to go down to 5 or 600 calories a day. So I knew I also needed malabsorbtion. Fat and diabetes both ran in my family and the DS often cures type 2. So the DS was the best choice for me. Do I wish I had picked one of the others? No. I picked the best one for me.
Yup, I still diet. I live pretty much low carb. How many women do you know who are not trying to lose weight? Probably none! I do take my supplements every day. A small handful of pills in the morning and another at night. It's a habit and I have no problems with it. I took vitamins before I had surgery. I do give myself cheat days where I eat as I please. For me, it's holidays and out of town vacations. Sometimes I have a list of things I want to eat. I know me well enough to say I can't cope with neverending deprivation. The cheat days allow me to eat right the rest of the time while still having something to look forward to!
Medical issues. I have none and take no prescription meds. Considering I am old, that really means something. Most people my age are on multiple prescription drugs. I can still run. I can still walk forever. Move a rock pile and wrangle palm trees. I am extremely healthy and I can't even remember the last time I had a cold or the flu(knock on wood). I take good care of myself and I have been lucky.
Now it is your turn to choose. Listen to your doctor and other people. BUT remember this. You are the one who has to live with the choice. They don't. And the surgeons... Take them with a grain of salt because they are trying to make money. Always follow the money! You know you better than anyone else does!
just a minor correction - a lot of us RNY'ers don't dump, and I don't throw up any more now than I did before I had surgery. The first few weeks post-op when your pouch is finicky and you're getting used to the new way of eating - yes - but after that, I don't think frequent throwing up is very common.
This was SO helpful
I have just made the decision to change from VSG to the switch.
I didnt even know what this was. Didn't want to discuss anything other than the sleeve but have since found people who had DS and given my BMI of 51, shot metabolism, family history of Type 2 and metabolic syndrome I felt this is the best choice for me for long term success
My mom had gastric bypass when I was young. She lost fifty or so pounds, and then gained everything back and then some. I'd seen for myself that it didn't work; it was an extreme lifestyle change that she couldn't adapt to and I didn't want a temporary stop-gap/Band-Aid. I wanted something that would really work.
I chose DS because of the research that showed it was most effective for keeping weight off long term and that you could resume a realistic way of eating (gastric severely limits how much you can eat; I eat pretty normally with DS. And by normally I mean how other people eat, not how obese me used to eat).
