PRE-OPS: Make sure you learn about the DS before you choose your surgery!

It continues to trouble me GREATLY seeing so many new OH'rs coming on board having already decided on a WLS type and a surgeon having prosecuted NO MORE INQUIRY than perhaps a first seminar and consult and finding themselves already approved and scheduled for surgery. They present full of prescient, but such fundamentally basic questions as to demonstrate a nearly complete lack of understanding of their own chosen WLS type much less that of others perhaps more suitable.

It's my hope and prayer such VALUABLE AND CRUCIAL posts as yours, and so many others might provide that flicker of light necessary to look further into their options and ever just as importantly to examine the lifetime consequences of a single one and only allowable WLS intervention per insurance or cross insurance coverage including a subset of folks who self-paid.

I'm reflecting way back on my military experiences mostly medical per se, but the upper level snipers types I very occasionally saw clinically had an ever present dictate. "One shot, one kill." Seems appropriate here, too, in that our choices may be limited and likely will further be given over the healthcare debacle and fluxation this country finds to itself in. Certainly, I have my own views from a pragmatic viewpoint, but my sense our choices in regards to our special challenges as obese or greater may become more exacting as our health care fluidity progresses.

The metabolic and other challenges we face with obesity is rarely addressed appropriately or even remotely in an honest and forthright way in so called bariatric practices, large or small. Still, lots of folks do very well early out with other WLS interventions, but like you, I refused to be to be a victim of a lifelong need to diet for life outside the simple requirements our DS demands. Please, could eating our way to health so richly and easily with required labs ever be so effortless?

Tis as said with profound gratitude to ((you)) especially, and one and all who just gets it and posts similarly with our need to pay it forward.  **Smiling with gratitude**

Warmly as always,
Rock

Add me to the list of the uninformed...and if you are reading this and just learning there is another weight loss surgery option called the Duodenal Switch, then you need to ask yourself why it is your doctor hasn't told you about it. Even if your doctor doesn't perform the DS, that doctor has, if not a legal-then definitley a moral obligation to let you know all your options. We're talking about your life... the doctor isn't going to have to live with your choice...you are.  Do your research...learn about your choices. Choose what is best for you, but just make sure you do so fully informed.

4.5 years post-op here,  maintaining at a range of 122-127 (I'm 5'4) quite effortlessly.   At age 49, I am a bouncy bundle of energy, and I still take time every day to reflect with gratitude that I had a physician who was willing and able to do the DS.   Although he was a very experienced bariatric surgeon, I was only his twelfth DS.     He's now gone on to do hundreds and hundreds, and is highly respected in the DS medical community.   I know FOR SURE that I would not have been able to maintain at this size with just the RNY or the VSG.  I need that malabsorption, and am more than willing to make the following commitments:  eating at least 100 grams of protein a day, taking a couple of handfuls of vitamins a day and having my labs monitored regularly.   With FREEDOM comes RESPONSIBILITY!   

If it sounds TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it's NOT; It's a 'DS' (Duodenal Switch) ! ! !

Edited to add-> http://www.dsfacts.com/ <-DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and check out this site--
You will be glad you did

If it doesn't click onto the site, Copy and Paste to your browser.  Best of luck to you in your search for the RIGHT Weight Loss Surgery 'for you'.

Well, it can certainly be said it feels that way, but at 7 years out now, I ain't complaining but for being more discriminating in tastes in needed protein variety. Still do high sources of proteins and naturally high fats from fastfood places, but its all good. No, I can't go hogwild with quantities by virtue of my restrictioin in place. But the metabolic correction afforded by the DS makes my life all but normall. So shoot me for having the sense to give up dieting for the rest of my life and finding a way to get there at over 400 lb -plus.

Needed protein requirements and supplements are easy peezy out this far, and I ate a substantial amount of rocky road ice cream last night before drifting off well before last night and the midnight hour. So my age and boring habits might be all too revealing, and clearly most of you are far younger getting into this game. But this is NO GAME! Why not seek normalcy instead of a lifelong need to self punshish and a furtherance to pursue a lifestyle of even more restrictive dieting and consequence? Dieting? How's that worked for ya so far? Postop... Dumping, please! Significant weight regain 3 to 5 years out.... Later for that. It's about the gift of being normal like those blessed being thin without effort or feeling always so damn deprived.Comes and goes for lots, but it will be there and I see it too damn often with other WLS types  that it causes me to want to cry. But, hey, I cry at old movies, too. ;-)

Get a life, [[NO}} get your OWN LIFE BACK, but to do so you may have to look much further than what you may have been told by your own practitioners or what would have ever have been revealed to date by that of your own consultings including, especially, your well meaning charming surgeon.

Tis as said,

Rock

.

Knowledge is power.

I wish I'd known more about the DS back in 2003. I don't regret my RNY, I did manage to keep off 100 lbs, but the DS is much easier for me to live with. I can take nsaids without a problem, I can eat without throwing up, and I can take in great protein sources. I'm a different person in the year since I had my DS revision.

Everyone should learn about EVERY surgery choice, all the pros & cons, and not rely on hearsay. 

Are you the kind of person *****ads Consumer Reports? Do you look for reviews and recommendations before buying a product or eating at a restaurant? I am. There's no way I would settle for one opinion when it comes to something as important as surgery. Please research & do your homework.

11 weeks out from open DS. I am down 58.5 pounds from my highest weight.
I feel fantastic and would do it again in a heart beat.

I am so thankful I checked out the DS forum before deciding which surgery would be best for me.

Here's to a fantasic year!! Happy New Year!

If your under 40 and say taking naiads doesn't affect you,,, think again,,,that weight, and just getting old is wearing out your knees, wrist,feet  and elbows,,, those hinges will start to show  arthritis's soon , and a aspirin a day is the hearts best friend, and prevents stroke,,,but not if you have a rny.....

Having the DS was the best thing I ever did. I was on track for my RNY when i found the DS and dropped my surgery date 2 weeks before going. It was the best decision i ever made. Now i eat what i want and enjoy it all. No guilt.

I LOVE MY DS!