5 Days Switched!

So I had surgery last thursday here in France and everything went really well. The day of the surgery I no longer had conviction that I had made the right choice due to the anesthesia and the pain especially because here they do no believe in morphine pumps. But by day 3, I felt much better. I am now taking some pain medication once a day before bed so that the minimal pain I feel does not wake me up. I had planned to stay at the hospital for one week from the date of surgery and I am glad I can do that because I have seen my surgeon every morning and I get to ask all my questions there and then. This surgery trip would have been great and my surgeon is very renowned here, so if anyone will pay out of pocket and can travel to France, let me know and I will definitely share more with you. Overall staying longer was a great idea and my quick recovery makes me believe even more in my decision. I am very happy to be on the dark side now and I thank you all for sharing your knowledge and expertise with people like me!

However with that being said, when I talked to my surgeon about the size of my stomach and the common channel, he told me that he does not remove 60-75% of the stomach when he does the DS but still takes 100cm of common channel. Two days after the surgery, I told him I was not able to eat much and he told me that he was surprised because he left me at least 50% of my stomach ---- Now I am worried!  I am worried that I will not be able to lose the 120#s I need to lose to get to goal and maintain it. He however is confident that I will get there and his EWL goal is even greater than mine (130#). I know it is early on and I should not be worried about failure so soon, but coming from a failed LapBand I am scared that I will not get to goal with this surgery either.

Do any of you have larger stomachs and have made it? Does the size of the stomach make much of a difference or the common channel is really the tool that helps the most? 

Thank you in advance and again I', glad to have joined all of you wonderfully strong people!

Anyone has a suggestion/opinion/answer for me?

I just saw your post, I'm sorry I missed it earlier.  I would be very concerned too. A small stomach and the 100cm common channel work together and I've not heard of an American surgeon leaving so much of the stomach unless there were surgical complications preventing it.  The smaller stomach helps you initially lose the weight but the common channel helps you maintain further out. If you can control your eating and stay low carb, you may be fine but I would be extremely angry that I didn't get a small stomach to go with the DS. Do you know if he left your band around your stomach? I understand they can be very difficult to remove.

--gina

MajorMom,

Thank you very much for your answer. I did not leave the band around my stomach but said that because I had one it made it hard to do the standard pouch like on virgin stomachs. I am going to send him an email and express my concerns, but before i freaked out I wanted the opinion of the other DSers. The loss is going well though, I have lost 15# in one week so I cannot complain either. Thank you for your response.

I think the fact that your stomach is smaller along with the 100 cm CC should not concern you although it would **** me off that at least the possibility wasn't made clear at the beginning. I would just make sure that even though he left it larger that he still did a standard VSG. There is some enzyme I think that gets reduced with the standard cut that some people think helps the whole process. (ghrellin?).

Anyway, I think you'll do fine to reach your goal.