Eating with a DS: A Day in the Life (pics!)

Good for you! I was pretty sure you were scheduled for a DS. Are you still going to Dr. Pomp, or did you switch?

I wanted to go to Dr. Pomp, I STILL want to go to Dr. Pomp, I LIKED him when we were there in Dec for my husband's DS surgery.

Insurance approved the surgery, but would not let me go outside of TN...told them there wasn't and IN-Network Medicare/BCBS provider for a DS who would do lightweights and was on my third appeal when I finally got Dr. Boyce to accept me from his partner, Dr. Williams(my original surgeon and who would not do the DS on anyone under a 50BMI), and DR. Boyce agreed to do a lightweight. He has done several other LW's over the last two years. Dr. Boyce is also on Bev's list for consideration for DS surgeons but hasn't made the cut yet.

My husband had his surgery on Dec 16th. When we discovered I had to stay in state, rather than switch his insurance who had already approved everything, we went ahead and he had his. He has lost 30 lbs since his surgery.

Liz

So Dr. Boyce IS a Medicare provider? Good to know. What about Drs. Spaw and Houston, the other two DS surgeons in TN? When I had my DS, there just weren't any DS surgeons who were also Medicare providers. But it's been worth every penny I had to pay out of pocket.

Nope, they aren't in network with Medicare, Spaw says so on his site and I verified it with a phone call, Houston doens't mention it on his site, but his office verified he is not in network.

I know that this person won't recieve my message but I will still post it to keep it in line with the rest of the thread:

As part of my journey from that point in time in June to now, I journeled a month of food (which I dispised doing but did anyway), turns out that except for one or two days, most of them never exceeded 1100 calories and yet I did not lose weight. The two days I did exceed 1100 calories, it was by less than 100.

My husband, who ate the same meals during the same month,, lost 15 lbs. Then we sat in front of a NUT and went thru the daily journals. She told me I wasn't eating enough carbs and my body was holding onto my weight because of that. I'm a type II and carb count. So I upped my carbs by one serving at lunch and still no change. But not gaining either.

So YES, my metabolism is totally screwed up.

I too, ate much less pre-op than I do today, nearly 5 years post op from my DS.  In fact, I remember a day when my father exclaimed to me "I just don't understand how someone who eats as little as you do can be so obese".  It stung a little, but was also a little validating to know that he understood that I wasn't a gluttonous slob. 

One of the functions of the DS is that it changes the body's metabolism along with the other bells and whistles.  This corrects the problem for those who who's body fights them every step of the way on any diet.  I went from eating two Lean Cuisine's a day for my daily eating and never losing weight, to eating every few hours and maintaining a good weight and the healthiest I've ever been in my life.

Is the metabolic change factor ruined for me since I went from rny to erny?  I am trying to resarch all this, and am waiting on info from Dr. K for revision to full ds.  I can't find any data on a 3rd revision... if you know where to point me I would gladly go!

I stopped losing, and am stuck still 35 pounds overweight.  I am seeking revision due to other issues dealling with my pouch, but am hopeful I will be able to reach my goal.

Four ounces of meat is a portion about the size of a deck of cards, about as thick as a deck and a half of cards. 3/4 cup of veggies will fit easily in your cupped hand. Do you seriously intend for me to believe that you cannot eat that much food in 30 minutes? Or that you would eat it and then want to skip a 4-ounce serving of ice cream a couple hours later?

Thanks so much. I'm weighing my options, and this is so helpful. I'd love to see the same thing done for a sleeve, RNY, or lap-band.

I don't really understand how people who are posting here pre-op find that a gross amount of food. I mean, they got here somehow, you know? It's not likely it was via a 1200 calorie a day daily intake for years on end.

 I'm so glad you found it helpful! You are exactly the sort of person I was hoping this might be useful to. I would love to see these from folks of other surgery types as well (and even other DSers!).

Then again, I just love food pics. 

I am scratching my head a bit about the portion thing as well, but I guess it's just a matter of perspective. I wonder if people are looking at the total calories (which are primarily caused by the the amount of fat) and assuming I ate a higher volume than I did. I did try to specify the quantities, but maybe the pics were deceptive.