My 3yr surgiversary..

Wow where has the time gone? And more important where have those extra pounds gone? Actually who cares? I am just glad they are gone. 3 yrs ago Thanksgiving I was in Curitiba, Brazil and had my DS surgery. For me it was the procedure of preference as I had known many who were not only successful but where able to pretty much lead a "normal" life afterwards. The idea of not dumping appealed to me tremendously as I knew I would NOT ever totally give up my sweet tooth. 

So far so good. I started out at 276 and for the past year and a half have maintained a weight of 137. In the beginning like everyone else my food portions were small and frequent. But this past year my portions are in the more normal range. Still no weight gain. I eat pretty much anything I want but first start out making sure I meet the minimum protien requirement of 90 grams per day. Then I do have plenty of carbs, pretzels, candy, icecream etc.  Mind you not a ton but I do have them. Daily I am munching on lemon drops or atomic fireballs and still no dumping. This is why I choose the DS for me.

So far it has worked and I am forever grateful to the pioneers of this board who shared their experiences about this procedure with me. One who comes to mind is Momma. She has since passed away but she was a sweet, sweet person who welcomed all not matter which procedure they choose.

I hope we can continue this and respect our differances while also encouraging one another on this journey.  We all want the same thing. To lose weight and never regain it. To be treated like everyone else and not treated like freaks because we are overweight. Only those of us who have been there, done that, know how crappy that is. 

Happy Holidays everyone and thanks to all for your ongoing support.

Congrads on 3 years. I bet you not sorry at all. Me neither. Good luck in the many years to come and God Bless

Thanks Randy..

Yay Pat!  Congratulations on a marvelous three years.   You have done so well, and the fact that you are successfully maintaining at this point out is tacet testimony to the wonderful gift of the DS.  

Congratulations on the weight loss and on maintaining!!

Patt:

What a great post, thanks for sharing!  Such strength it had to have taken to go to Brazil.  So many have traveled to many countries to get the DS, knowing it is the right WLS for their needs.  While I am thankful that we have two wonderfully skilled DS surgeons right in G.R., I too would have traveled if surgeon location or insurance didn't work out as well as it did for me.  You are a brave woman!!

I am almost at one year post-op, so those who have been so successful earlier out are always so inspiring for me to read about.  Except for this weight continuing to melt away as never before, I am living a normal life -- exactly what I had hoped post-op.

All the best in your continued journey.....

Wow, it is truly testimonies like yours which influenced me to research the DS when deciding which surgery to have. Thank you for sharing so openly.  Hopefully others will explore all the possibilities, not just the most popular ones.  I am truly blessed to feel so wonderful just 4 months from surgery.  Thanks! 

Wow Jane, 72 pounds gone already!   You're doing great!   If you ever head out Baldwin way, let me know!    I'd be happy to meet up with you.   There is another DS'er that works here too and she looks marvelous.

 Patt,
Congratulations on 3 great years!
I have a serious question for you and any of the other DSers on this board:  Why the war of our surgery is better than xyz?  When I was looking into things I couldn't find much information on DS but I believe I would not change a thing.  I just read the other threads of recent excitement and noticed that it was largely DSers that posted.  It got me thinking, and wondering, why the divide.  Some of the posts were almost manical in "spread the DS truth" and how superior their surgery is.  
Maybe I'm still euphoric in my experiences with WLS and I encourage many to do it, but it's such a personal choice.  Hopefully this leads to an interesting, non-flame inspiring post as I'm curious.  None of us come to the decision to have WLS easily and many of us come to these boards to find information and inspiration.  I'm sure there's been many RNY vs. LapBand vs. VSG vs VSG/DS threads/flaming on the main boards.  I just wonder if this is the best course of action for those exploring the possibility of surgery to come upon.  
I hope I've worded this carefully enough to get some good conversation going and NOT a flame war, there's other threads that are taking care of that.

I marvel at all of our success, and you should be very proud of your accomplishment!
--Sax

First thanks for your support. Now on to your very important question about the "war" I am not sure why it started or where.

But let me put this out there.. Until about 2 years ago many would not allow the DS. Said it was experimental, even though it has been done for well over 10 yrs. A Dr Hess in Ohio had developed the procedure and was seeing very good results. His research and surgical skills are well known among the bariatric surgical world. He is now retired but many still revere him.  He has many studies out there that support the good results of WLS, specifically for him the DS. It was about 2 yrs ago that someone got wind that WLS in any form seemed to "cure" Type II diabetes. From there many insurance companies eased up on their restrictions of the covering WLS. 

However those of us who had exposure to the DS prior to this and wanted to have this procedure instead of the other available procedures were pooh-poohed by those who did not know of the DS. We were bashed by our insurance companies, physicians who only knew about the RYN-Y and even many OH board members.  On top of this there was a deluge of advertising for the RYN-Y. It was touted as the "gold standard" for WLS in those advertisements. Meanwhile we DSers would see not a few, but many of our friends and associates who had the RYN-Y suffer with not only weight gain but what we felt was a compromised life style due to the limitations that are forever imposed on them by the RYN-Y. Also the dumping was unacceptable to us.  We felt our after surgery lifestyle was a more normal way of life and wanted to share that with everyone. Wouldn't you?

So we took it upon ourselves to grass root educate about the DS, BUT we were stonewalled by many. This is not to say the surgeons who do the RYN-Y are not good surgeons. I am just saying the DS is a more intricate procedure.. Ya' see it truly does not take as much surgical intervention or even training to do the RYN-Y.  Many surgical nurses & physicians have told me this. The training to do the RYN-Y is minimal. To learn the DS takes a more intense training.  In fact the entire bariatric community is still not to the place where specific guidelines are set for the surgical training of the RYN-Y. Basically a surgeon can go to a very brief training such as less than an 8-hour day to learn of this procedure and call himself or herself a RYN-Y surgeon. This may have changed in the past few years, I don't know. I do know when I was researching my procedure the DS surgeons have a much longer training time. I think it is 2 months or longer... However I uinderstand via the Bariatric Surgeon Association they are getting closer & closer to getting this area of medicine set up as a sub specialty. Sort of like pediatrics, OB-GYN etc.  That is to our (the patient)benefit.

The DS group does all ready have something in place. Sort like any other specialty. Where in addition to their regular medical training they take on more time to learn this procedure. That is another reason I chose the DS.

Medicine has become a business in the past 20 years. A subject we won't go into now but it definitely has influenced how and why things are done as opposed to how they were pre HMO, PPO etc days. Ask anyone who has been in the field for that long. Things are so very different now-a-days. Instead of doing what is always in the patient's best interest medicine is now dictated by the insurance coverage.  So when business slows down and there is an opportunity to jump into an area where $'s can be made, trust me, many are jumping into this arena and sadly some are less than the best in their qualifications. This is true in all fields of medicine. Fortunately they are fewer and fewer as time progresses.

So we DSers truly just wanted to be able to have the procedure we wanted as opposed to being told we had to have the "gold standard" procedure or nothing.  That didn’t sit well and again we were out there beating the bushes trying to educate and tell why we felt this procedure was in our opinion superior to the "Cadillac".  When anyone believes in anything passionately and they get stomped down feeling become intense and they continue to even more passionately support their own cause. Sort of like politics. While some can reasonably discuss it others can't do anything but shout and scream.

Slowly over the past few years more & more people have had made strides in bringing understanding about the DS to people. We become frustrated and angry when people won't listen. That is all we actually want AND to be able to have freedom of choice for the procedure WE want not what others try to impose.  We want everyone to be able to have that choice.

We want people to not be cattle herded into one procedure just because it is the cheapest, easiest, covered by insurance or whatever. We want everyone to research all available procedures, learn the pros & cons of them all (including the lab band which is so very new that it personally scares me..) Most import while doing this research we want them to learn and understand about the DS too.

It is frustrating when we are ignored. People don't want to hear about it. I can't tell you how many times I have posted on the Michigan board about some simple thing and though many have read my post no one replies. I basically gave up and read but rarely post anymore instead live my life.

If asked about my procedure, I share. I truly wish success for everyone on this journey. I just also want everyone to know ALL their options and not just what is convenient.  I could have had the RYN-Y and stayed in the US but the results back then for many were iffy (in the long run) My DS surgeon in Bloomfield Hills (Dr Hares) had met Dr Marchesini at a conference in California and once he saw Dr M's presentation of his surgery, gave me his blessing as like most he was hesitant to send me or any other patient to a foreign country to an unknown doctor.  Had my insurance covered the procedure Dr Hares would have done my procedure (the DS)  here.