Trouble figuring out if I'll be getting a proximal or distal RNY

How do so many of you here know things? Do some of you work directly in the WLS field?  Where do you learn all this stuff; if not online, where?  Small minds like me want to know!

Thanks for the great info! My NUT only recommends a multivitamin with iron once a day and calcium twice a day, so I'm guessing they don't perform a true distal.

It's funny, when I was a kid, I thought a cool surgery would be to have a valve installed below your stomach that you could switch between "digest" and "don't digest" settings -- eating veggies? Through your intestines they go! Eating crap? Straight out the butt! (Looking back, it's kind of sad an 8-year-old even pondered these things...)

Question: I always thought the malabsorptive component was the metabolic part of the surgery that you lose the benefit of after 1-2 years. But you say the metabolic part is the most important...what exactly is it then?