Weirdness of DS and diabetes

Hi I only just found this board (doh!) so I hope you don't mind if I post. I thought you might understand what I'm feeling at the moment! I had DS five weeks ago, and was told that it would improve my Type II diabetes. I didn't really believe the surgeon, because I was diagnosed 10 years ago, my family are mostly all diabetic and it just seemed too good to be true. On the day of surgery my fasting BS was 216, on 3000g of metformin. This morning, on no medication, it was 117. At what point can you relax and call yourself 'cured' do you think? How do you adjust to taking a different path to your family, and not having the complications in your future that you were certain you would get? I just feel a bit disturbed! Sal

Dear Sal, Although I did not have the DS; I had lap-band & my situation is a bit different from yours, I think you can't "relax" all the way.  If you did & went back to some of the old ways of eating, you'd regain the weight again & if even if your blood sugars did not rise back up to diabetic levels, you might have other health issues to worry about.  I have been a Type I insulin dep diabetic for over 36 years.  In answering your question, I am not working from experience since I do not have the type of diabetes that can be controlled by any of these procedures.   For the second half of your question though, if I'm reading it right, you're concerned about being fortunate enough not to have to go through the horrible side complications of diabetes since your family members did/do.  I'm pretty sure that if you ask any of them about it, they would be so happy for you & proud of you for your decision to take control of your health.  Tell me if I'm wrong.  There's no guarantee that if a person has had complications from diabetes, i.e., nerve damage, that this can be reversed even though the blood sugars have normalized.  I guess you'd have to read more since although these operations are getting to be more & more commonplace, there are still lots of questions that need to be answered. Good luck with everything! Sharon in DE 

Hi Sharon Firstly thanks for replying - I know it was a bit of an odd post! What I can't quite believe yet is that DS is a cure in itself for Type II, and doesn't rely on weight loss to do it. When I was researching surgeons I found one in Spain who does the 'switch' part of the surgery on normal weight people just to cure their diabetes. I've lost this amount of weight before on diets and it didn't affect my readings, but no-one seems to be sure how the DS works! Something to do with hormones in the duodenum is one theory, which are bypassed by the switch and not triggered by food passing through. I hope they do some more research on it anyway - they might be able to adapt it to benefit Type I diabetics too, it must be worth a try.  For the second point, I think its more about adjusting to a different path. None of my family know about my diabetes, and I'm not sure that now is the time to tell them I'm cured. I haven't decided - I was in denial for a long time about the illness, and developed the early stages of neuropathy and retinopathy, both of which seem to be resolving now. Everyone just wants to be healthy don't they. I suppose it will just take time to get used to it - they said WLS would be life changing, but I never quite realised how much! Best wishes Sal

Hi I am new here and newly diagnosed with Diabetes. But from what I have read doing the DS on rats instantly cures their diabetes and reversing it brings the diabetes right beck.. They believe it has something to do with the food missing that first part of the small intestine (duodenum). Preliminary findings show it to be permanent and very decisive. Just what I have read.

 

 

mc

 

 

Hi, my husband and I watched a special a few weeks back on either 60 minutes or 20/20 - can't remember which one, and they had done a study of weightloss surgery on type II diabetics. Everyone that had the bypass surgery (not the lap band), reversed the diabetes. They also did this study in lab rats with diabetes, where they tested both procedures. The only one that seemed to "cure" the diabetes was a bypass type of surgery. So, Good for you!!! I hope that all you diabetes problems will be forever behind you. I would say you still need to test your blood sugars regularly... Good Luck....Bev

Hi Bev DS is a 'bypass kind of surgery' because they bypass the duodenum and alter the course of the bilio-pancreatic duct too. It is more malabsorptive than the RNY though, and has a slightly different technique. RNY cure seems to rely more on weight loss, which unfortunately means that although it might help at first, if you put some of the weight back on later (which is common for all types of WLS) then your diabetes might come back. Sally

 It's been 14 weeks since I had my last dose of diabetes medication.  I still monitor daily, usually fasting and occasionally a post-prandial (all are less than 115).  I still carry a meter, glucose tablets, and an ID bracelet, more out of habit than anything else.  I have promised myself that I will monitor until a year after my surgery.  Then, if the A1c is still below 5.2%, I will put away the monitor.

For me, the diabetes is absolutely related to the weight and age.  So, in that sense, I'm never off the hook as far as being at risk, since I'm getting older every day and I *could* always regain the weight.  But for now, I consider my diabetes "in remission."

Congratulations! Its such a relief isn't it. I'm due to get my first post-op blood test result next week, and its the first time I've ever been excited about it.

Well done on your weight loss too, you're doing great

Sal