WELL, here we go !

My numbers were similar to yours, except I am a lot older. I am 5'7" tall and was 42 years old when I had RNY 6 years ago. My highest weight was 339 and my current weight is 138. It took me 14 months to get to my goal weight. Second only to adopting my kids, it was my best decision ever.

Time tables can vary greatly depending on your insurance and your surgeon's schedule. I had to do the six month supervised surgery before I could get insurance approval. My surgeon is very busy so it took another 2 months to get a surgery date.

Do your research and do what is best for YOU!! Good luck!!

Thank you everyone for your wonderful words !

Well Curlygreen1996 I am going through the process and from my very first meeting which was June 10th I am looking at a November Surgery date.  I still have 2 more nutrition classes and the end of this week i have Psych evaluation.

It is probably going to take me 6 months, but it will be totally worth it!

Good luck to you!

DO IT!  It is a week of pain/discomfort for a lifetime of happiness.  Well, I can't say a lifetime yet because I am only 6 weeks post op LOL!  But I already feel like I have a whole new life.  I am down almost 60 lbs in 6 weeks, and I can already say that this was the best decision I have ever made.  I struggled my whole life as well, and it's like I finally found something that is worth putting the work and effort into because it actually works!

I went to my first seminar on April 8th (I think) of this year, and had my surgery July 15th.  The best parts are my energy, feeling like a whole new person, being able to exercise again, newfound sense of confidence and success, the list goes on and on.  It is difficult, you will have bad days and you will mourn food, but it is part of the process.

Best of luck :)

It's going to depend on a lot of factors. Some insurance policies require you to do a doctor-supervised diet before surgery, and it runs anywhere from 3 months to a year. Some surgeons require you to lose a certain amount of weight before they'll do surgery. (I think they secretly hate fat people!) What tests you'll need to do will depend on your individual health, and what your surgeon requires.

I started seriously considering WLS in August of 2003. I saw a surgeon in September, and in early October I met a couple of ladies who were about 18 months post-op from the DS. I went home, started researching the DS, and in less than 24 hours I had completely changed my mind about the form of WLS I wanted. I cancelled the RNY I had scheduled with the first surgeon, and on Oct. 30th I met with my new surgeon. My insurance didn't require any pre-op diet, and my surgeon said "I'm sure that if you could lose weight, you already would have done so." I got a surgery date of 12/11/03.

The VSG/Sleeve is a great surgery---IF your metabolism is 'normal'. Mine's not. I reckon I got two copies of the thrifty gene, because my metabolism was super-efficient. It could hold onto nearly every calorie I took in. I knew that restriction alone was not going to solve my problem. At 45, I'd been on one diet or another for 36 years. (My first doctor-supervised diet was at age 9, and my first diet pills at age 11.)

Having spent most of my life dieting and GAINING weight, I knew restriction alone wasn't going to work for me. The DS/duodenal switch actually dramatically, permanently changes how we metabolize food, and I knew that was what I needed. Statistically, the DS has the very best long-term, maintained weight-loss stats for patients of any size. This is even more true for those of us with a BMI greater than 50. It also has the best stats for resolving or preventing co-morbs like diabetes and high cholesterol. It has a Sleeved stomach, so you can still take NSAIDs for those joint pains. (Which may or may not improve with weight loss---losing 170 pounds didn't improve my extensive arthritis much.) The DS also has in intestinal bypass, which is what makes the big change in our metabolism, and causes us to permanently malabsorb a significant per centage of the calories we eat---about 50% of protein, about 40% of the complex carbs, and about 80% of the fat we eat. Of course, this also means we malabsorb certain vitamins and minerals, especially the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. With both the DS and the RNY, daily supplements are mandatory. (They are also a very, VERY good idea with a VSG, too.)

The best and worst parts? Well, before surgery, the worst was getting the pre-op testing done. The tests themselves weren't bad, but getting around the hospital was. My knees were so very bad that I simply couldn't do the walking, but they had porters who'd push you from one place to another in a wheelchair. Which was fine, until the little guy came to transfer me from one place to another with a CHILD-SIZED wheelchair! I just looked at it and said "I'm not going to fit in that." He said, "Well, it's just a little ways." So I said "Which half of me do you want to carry first?" He went and got a bigger wheelchair. (*grin*)

Post-op, the worst was getting out of the bed the first time. (My DS was done open.) It did get easier each time, but it took several days before it was 'easy' again.

And the best? I'm almost 11 years post-op, and not only have I had zero regain, I actually lost another ten pounds a couple of months ago! I love my DS.