I hate that surgeons are recommending VSG to patients with that much weight to lose! So many are just like your sis. Being that she is self-pay, another option is surgery outside of the DS and will probably be half the cost. Mexicali Bariatrics is the only place to trust in Mexico. Dr. Ungson is one of their surgeons and he trained another surgeon to do DS, but the name escapes me. I wouldn't recommend PS if she intends to lose more weight, or else she will need it all over again.

We see new people wanting/needing to revise from VSG to DS all the time. While your situation is more extreme in terms of your metabolism from hell, you are definitely not alone.

I think the DS will allow you to lose some weight with a much more normal level of effort. It will help with a lot of your metabolic issues (the VSG doesn't do this, and gastric bypass helps to a much lesser extent). It's the logical next step for you.

As for myself, I've lived with the DS since 2006 and have absolutely no regrets. I do take a bunch of vitamins and minerals every day. It's not difficult, it simply becomes part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth. I get labs done once/year and adjust my vitamins and minerals if needed.

I agree with Patty - make very sure you are consulting with a surgeon who does the real, standard of care DS and given your struggles, get the shortest common channel you can get. The non-standard operations are experimental, and involve a much longer common channel, which, in your case, is the last thing you need.

Larra

So... Hello again! Skip to the bottom if you want the simple version, haha.

I was very active on this website in 2011/2012. I had a VSG when I was 15, and at first I was very vocal about it. I wanted to spread information and awareness about childhood obesity, and I had hoped this would help me. I hoped it would be the tool I'd need to finally help me be in the best shape of my life.

Backstory: I was overweight by the time I was 3 years old. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance at 5 years old. On strict diet and exercise regimens at 6. I was a super active kid. Lots of sports and activities. Constantly visiting endocrinologists and dietitians and various other specialists. By the time I was 15 I was fed up, and had heard about weight loss surgery in an ad somewhere? Looked into it, and couldn't find much information on it for teenagers but I found a research study to participate in and well.... I chose a VSG because my doctors told me it would reverse all of my co-morbidities and kind of implied it'd be a cure-all.

I was already the "poster child" for diet and exercise, so they claimed I'd be an easy patient.

Alas, the weight loss never followed the way they said it would. I exercised, I ate protein first then veggies then carbs, drank enough water, etc... I had a lot of complications not necessarily with surgery, but with comorbidities.

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism around the time of surgery but was never properly treated. I was taken off my metformin post-surgery claiming I wouldn't need it, but I did. There wasn't really an endocrinologist on board for my metabolic issues pre or post-op, so a lot of that wasn't addressed and the weight fluctuated.

With extreme dieting (Example: less than 600 calories a day and close to zero carbs... pretty much only eating string cheese, baked chicken breast, turkey sausage, and eggs for a few weeks) I managed to lose some weight, but then I stalled out doing that as well and just kind of gave up. That was about 3 years post op. I wasn't in a good place mentally. My family life was rough, and I just stopped caring and regained any of the weight I had lost. (Highest weight ever: 285. Day of surgery: 255. Only ever got to 190-ish years out, and i'm 5'3".)

I'm now 8 years post op. Still eat 1200 calories or less most days. 18 months ago I got a very labor intensive job. I walk at minimum 10k steps a day alone at work, not to mention the muscle I've built from heavy lifting constantly. I've been trying the Keto diet religiously for over a month now, while going to the gym for an hour a day five days a week, and I've only lost 5 pounds.

I'm in a much better place mentally. After dealing with anxiety for majority of my life, a doctor finally took me seriously and is helping me treat it. Finally got my hypothyroidism and insulin resistance addressed as an adult. My lab values are almost perfect aside from being anemic. I enjoy working out, I always have, so I feel like going to the gym has been great for me. I feel great about myself when I go, even if I"m not losing anything I can tell I'm getting stronger. The Keto diet has given me more energy, even if I"m not exactly losing much/at all. I got a good job and rescued a puppy, made the decision to go back to college, just bought my first car on my own, etc... Basically, everything in my life is going really well right now. Except my weight. And it's bothering me.

I wanted the DS when I first researched surgery, but no surgeon would perform it on a minor and this research study I did only offered RNY & VSG. So I took what I could get. Now at 23, I'm seriously considering a revision to DS but I'm just worried it will have little-no affect.

I'm currently sitting at 235lbs. I'm re-reading a bunch of research on the DS that I read when I was younger, and everything that has come out since that I can get my hands on. There is a surgeon known for DS that works ten minutes from where I live. I dont' know why I'm so hesitant, I just dont want to go through with an expensive operation if the tool won't aid me.

Sorry for the long-winded post. To summarize: I had a surgery that didn't really help me as much as I would have liked for reasons not entirely in my control. Now that those outside factors are under control, do I go through with a meeting with a doctor about a potential revision?

Questions for those of you who either revised or anyone with a DS:

Do you regret it?

Is there anything you wish you would have done differently in the process or recovery period?

How was the recovery for you personally?

Advice, if i were to go through with this? What's something(s) you wish someone had told you beforehand?

If you made it through this whole post, thank you very much. I really appreciate it!

I'm not very familiar with the DS Loop, but I am familiar with the discouragement regain weight can bring. Life will always bring you challenges and struggles. So as one who's been there, my advise to you is remember what you did to get where you are today, learn from your past mistakes and work very hard not to repeat them. The best of luck to you and your up coming surgery.

Congratulations on the original success you had, and the future success coming your way. This board is almost exclusively people who had the Hess DS so you won't find much objectivity or encouragement on the Loop DS.

I had it done almost 5 years ago and from what I can tell it's almost identical for weight loss. In my case I lost more that expected and maintain about 10% below my original goal weight.

Your experience will depend more on the quality of your doctor and your specific biome. I eat about 3k calories and 300 grams of carbs daily but my system processes it well. I don't think the DS vs loop DS matters as much as your specific biology.

Good luck!