It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Yes, it’s that time of the year! When MO, SMO and SSMO people start thinking about parties and eating and STUFFING themselves into party clothes (or going to buy new party clothes because last year’s don’t fit anymore) and people watching them EAT with that disapproving side-eye glance and eyeroll at the person they are speaking to. When the morbidly obese start thinking that maybe they’d rather stay home this year, with their own personal turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie, and avoid the stares and whispers and comments of so-called friends and family.
And when thoughts of sugarplums lead to thoughts of the hopelessness of dieting, exercising – and Carney Wilson and Al Roker and Anne Rice and Star Jones and WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY. Of taking the “easy way out" – which, as you will eventually learn, is the ONLY way out.
So if you’re one of those pre-ops who just found ObesityHelp.com, and you are finding yourself overwhelmed with the scariness of it all, and IN PARTICULAR, IF THE ONLY SURGERIES YOU HAVE HEARD OF ARE LAP-BAND (AKA “CRAPBAND") AND GASTRIC BYPASS (AKA Roux-n-Y OR RNY OR “Ruined, and Why?"), AND MAYBE THE VSG (VERTICAL SLEEVE GASTRECTOMY), YOU NEED TO LEARN ABOUT THE DUODENAL SWITCH OR DS BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHICH SURGERY TO HAVE.
If you have not THOROUGHLY studied the benefits of the duodenal switch (DS), you cannot make a fully informed decision about which surgery is the best one for you:
1. The DS has by far the best average weight loss of any of the surgeries – a statistical fact
2. More importantly, the DS has by far the best average LONG TERM MAINTENANCE of weight loss of all surgeries– a statistical fact
3. The DS has by far the best CURE RATE FOR TYPE 2 DIABETES, including LONG TERM CURE, even with weight regain (the others have substantial rates of diabetes returning, especially with the far more likely weight regain) – a statistical fact
4. The DS is suitable for ANYONE who qualifies for bariatric surgery, and not just SMOs, which has been recognized by the ASMBS, ACE, Medicare, and most insurance companies, even for BMIs >35 with a serious co-morbidity (especially if that is diabetes or hypercholesterolemia – a statistical fact)
5. The DS has the easiest post-op dietary regimen of all of the surgeries – FAT IS YOUR FRIEND. Little to no restriction on eating delicious high fat, high protein foods, because you don’t absorb much fat – and your cholesterol and triglycerides will plummet, without meds
6. Good DS foods include marbled steak, crab legs with butter, chicken WITH the skin, cheeseburgers with all the fixings (but hold the bun), scallops sautéed in butter, cheese of every sort, eggs – and BACON!
7. No dumping, no food getting stuck, no limitations on drinking with meals, no sliming or “productive burping," no fills and unfills, no stoma blockage, no marginal ulcers, no restrictions on taking NSAIDs
However, you should NOT consider the DS if you
1. Are too stupid to follow the simple rules of the DS: eat high protein, take your supplements, get your labs done diligently and adjust your supplements as necessary
2. Are too lacking in self-control to manage/time your overall intake of refined carbs to avoid weight gain and gas
3. Are too sheep-like to argue with your PCP or surgeon for the right to have the most effective WLS
4. Are too passive to fight your insurance company to get the DS, when most of them will LOSE the denial on appeal
5. Are too cowed by doctors to stand up to them in the future, to explain what surgery you had and how your treatments need to be tailored
6. Are too submissive to advocate for yourself
7. Are too weak to be certain that you will ALWAYS ensure your access to necessary protein, supplements, lab tests and other medical care
8. Are too dim-witted or so brainwashed by Judeo-Christian “morality" to understand that eating delicious flavorful food that you enjoy and which is right for your anatomy is not sinful or gluttonous – it is wonderful!
9. Are so self-loathing that you feel you need to suffer to atone for your sins in order to enjoy life with weight loss surgery
10. Here's a new one, from the last incarnation of this post:
YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE THE DS IF YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT HOW PEOPLE SAY THINGS, AND THE ACCURACY OF WHAT THEY SAY.
Remember:
1. Insurance coverage for the DS is expanding all the time, and even if your policy does not cover the procedure you have a good chance of getting it covered on appeal
2. Only a qualified DS surgeon can help you figure out if the DS is for you - if you see a RNY surgeon, he is going to tell you to have a RNY
3. If you see a surgeon who SAYS he offers the DS, but then tries to talk you into something else, odds are you’ve gone to a “bait-and-don’t-switch" surgeon – check the surgeon list at DSFacts.com before you go.
4. WARNING: More and more insurance companies are instituting a “one bariatric surgery per lifetime" restriction on their policies, no matter WHO paid for the first surgery – and you may not get a second chance to have a revision if you pick a surgery that doesn’t work for you in the first place
5. Revision patients lose more slowly and lose less on average
6. Revisions are MUCH more dangerous surgeries than virgin surgeries
7. Think about the psychological damage it would cause you to work your ass off to work your ass off with a less effective surgery – only to have it fail
THINK TWICE, CUT ONCE!
For more information, please come over to the DS forum here, or go to www.DSFacts.com
Bought a 22-pound turkey today, along with the makings for stuffing, lemon ice-box pie, walnut pie (think pecan, but with walnuts instead), scalloped potatoes, broccoli casserole, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, yeast rolls, and probably a couple of things I'm forgetting. Oh! Giblet gravy---LOTS of gravy!
Oh and I can bring homemade salted butter with me, a friend with a farm gave us four gallons of pure cream and the kids have been at it all week. I have enough butter and buttermilk to keep us for a year! LOL Oh and homemade whipped cream......mmmmmmmmm.........
Courtney - Lap band to VSG revision
Oh and I can bring homemade salted butter with me, a friend with a farm gave us four gallons of pure cream and the kids have been at it all week. I have enough butter and buttermilk to keep us for a year! LOL Oh and homemade whipped cream......mmmmmmmmm.........
Oh and I can bring homemade salted butter with me, a friend with a farm gave us four gallons of pure cream and the kids have been at it all week. I have enough butter and buttermilk to keep us for a year! LOL Oh and homemade whipped cream......mmmmmmmmm.........
I ordered a fresh 22 lb turkey and a 10 lb HoneyBaked ham from our local gourmet grocer last week (not standing in line at the HB ham store is worth it!). I have bought the yams, which are sweetening in the dark; as are the white potatoes (not Russets, or Yukon golds - genuine white potatoes) for the potato leek soup (note to self - put leeks on the list!). I have the fixings for the cranberry relish (cranberries, an orange, a lemon and a lime - juice plus LOTS of zest from all three are the secret ingredients).
After an extensive search, I found where the store was hiding the Mrs. Cubbison's Cornbread stuffing mix, and bought 4 boxes, which I will use at the base to improve with celery, onions, black olives, yellow raisins and walnuts - and a whole lot more sage, garlic, parsley and pepper, as well as just the right amount (a metric buttload) of butter and chicken broth. My stuffing is FABULOUS if I do say so myself. I put some in the bird, and some gets baked on the side (and part of it I don't put the nuts in it). And after the turkey is roasted, I make a gravy too (I might turn that over to anyone who comes and feels like they want to contribute).
My stepdaughter's husband will make butternut squash puree. My daughter will be making some kind of dessert, as well as bringing a mess of extra turkey legs. My dad's girlfriend wants to bring something - I think I will ask her to make a green vegetable (which nobody will eat, because of all the other creamy DS-friendly goodness).
My other stepdaughter will be arriving around 12:30 PM on Friday for an 11 day visit with her 7 month old daughter whom we have not met (there was a rift between her and us which has been on the mend) - so we won't be having our Thanksgiving until then. I'll let her fix up some of the yams, which will already be roasted, with marshmallows and brown sugar.
Deviled eggs will be made the day before and eaten with the ham while we get all the fixings ready for an easy start the next morning. Soup and cranberry relish will be cooked the day before too - they are always better the next day. And there will be a pumpkiin pie from Costco, because they make the best damned pumpkin pie and it's $6. I will probably make B&B flavored whipped heavy cream from scratch.
Sadly, my son is currently the one not speaking to us - tough love is tough, but it had to be done. So there will be no need for crescent rolls and jellied cranberry sauce this year. That will be sad, but I'm so peeved at him right now, I'm already getting over it. And I don't eat either of those things anyway. And who knows, maybe he will sober up long enough to consider what he's missing.
I might have to make some bread in the breadmaker for the hardcore fresh bread eaters though.
SO: Turkey, extra turkey legs, ham, deviled eggs - PROTEIN. Oh, and did I mention that I baste that turkey with butter and paprika, and the golden brown crispy skin is MINE, ALL MINE!?! Well, it is. For days after Thanksgiving, I will take some of the skin and crisp it back up in the oven and eat it for a snack - gawd, I'm already drooling at the thought.
Potato leek soup made with butter and milk, yams drenched in butter, cornbread (just a bit lower in white flour) stuffing, cranberry relish - carbs and fat and carbs and more fat - but not the horribly farty kind (well the soup is, because of the milk and flour used to thicken it, but hey, it's the holidays!).
Oh, and of course we will have Hawaiian sweet rolls for the ham and turkey finger sandwiches both the day before (ham only) and the days afterward. And lettuce and tomatoes and mayo and fancy mustards.
It is going to be a several days long eating fest. And because I have a DS, I will be enjoying it thoroughly without feeling guilty.
