New here
I lost 140 pounds with the sleeve and kept stalling (my highest weight was over 750 pounds, though, so I've lost about 460 total). I couldn't get the DS at the time because I had severe damage from Celiac. My guts are happier and healed, so in the next few months we're going to second-stage to the DS. They are also leaving my sleeve alone.
Drinking is difficult for me, too, however I just have had to force myself to drink. I constantly drink all day, about 96 ounces. I have a 40F sleeve which is slightly larger than the small ones, but nowhere near as large as some of the bigger DS sleeves. I can still manage to get it in.
The biggest thing is we will not (probably) lose weight as well as if we had it in one stage, however the DS malabsorption is still powerful. With an intestinal bypass (whether the DS or RNY) the enteroendocrine cells are also altered. These are cells that strongly affect our metabolisms, how insulin resistant we are, what neuroendocrine hormones are in the body, etc. While the malabsorption helps, the surgery primes us biochemically for weight loss, where when we are obese we are biochemically primed to continue gaining weight.
I follow a ketogenic diet post-op. I also have a diagnosis of binge eating disorder. Feel free to ask me about either!
It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much...the life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully. -- Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
