Long Term Maintenance with the DS

I just want to make sure people have a good - real idea about DS. I think for some - it is a great surgery - but for others - I would say - for most - DS is too drastic. 

And when I wrote "good food goes to the toillet" - it is exactly what it is. It does not matter if you have one normal BM- or loose BM, or 10 BM a day.  When you have significant "MALABSORBTION" - that is exactly that. What you don't ABSORB - where it does go? Up in a air? Nope. In your BM.  

Malabsorbtion= you eat it don't absorb it so you excreet it.  

I know even with RNY - I malabsorb fats, vitamins and minerals. Not as much as DS - but enough to need vitamin patches (thankful they are here) and I take handful of other additional individual vitamins and minerals (based on my labs) . That costs me on average $150-$200 per month. Plus I need regular doc visits, and other stuff...

Often people don't realize that maintaining good weight and good health can be expensive.

The more you malabsorb - the more you need to take to maintain good levelsm. My **** is expensive. But not as expensive as some DS'ers who have more malabsorbtion than me. 

 

I agree! It does go into the toilet...so to speak. I think we are saying the same thing though..DON'T get the DS unless you're committed to supplementing-otherwise you'll be committing a very slow (and painful) suicide). There is a gentleman that posts on the DS forum from time to time whose doctor gave him NO nutritional information post surgery. NONE! He and his wife had the DS over 10 years ago and they both almost died. My surgeon's office is great-but the nutritionist gave me RNY advice-and my 6 month labs were all treading down....hence the reason I recommend vitalady a lot....she set me straight about what I needed....and it's worked for 10 years pretty well.

On another note, there is a "move" to do the DS with a much longer common channel and a much smaller sleeve. I have a rather large sleeve, and my common channel was about 75 CM (determined by the HESS method) at the time of surgery, but there are surgeons now doing the DS with 250 CM common channels or longer with a much smaller sleeve.

I spend about 80-125 dollars on suppliments per month (that doesn't include protein shakes...which I just started drinking again becasue I'm working out again.). The only thing that may make it go up is switching to Heme iron it's much more expensive...but I thought taking 1 pill that could be taken with food instead of 3 that could only be taken on an empty stomach and no calcium for 2 hours...sounded easier after all these years. Hopefully it won't affect my labs too much.

I love my DS but there is no way I can eat whatever I want. Grains and sugar gives me tummy troubles. I just want people reading this to know that the DS is not some miracle where you can eat whatever you want and lose weight with no consequences. Every surgery has it pros and cons. I would still choose the DS but I can't eat alot of my favorite foods anymore. Granted that is much easier to do when you know if you eat it you will be a gassy mess and on the toilet for hours but it still sucks at times. 

It's all good...YMMV like with any surgery. I'm a guy .....I did eat whatever I wanted and lost weight.....but I'm a guy.

You are also a newbie. Things get easier in year 2 and 3...after you get to goal....your body starts to adjust to malabsorbtion etc.

Scott