Help needed

My husband is in need of WLS but is undecided on which type to choose. I have had the Lap-Band myself, although we've decided that this particular surgery would not be advantageous for him. He needs information from patients who have had the VERTICAL GASTRECTOMY and the RNY. He's worried about the malabsorption factor with the RNY. How have you folks been making out with all the vits and proteins? For those of you who had the VG, he's 375 pounds and would like to get down to about 240-ish. He knows he'll have to make certain changes in his lifestyle and diet, of course. Are any of you having success with this procedure? Any help and/or info will be greatly appreciated. Hope to hear from many of you soon! Thanks, Chris

I had an open RNY in 2004. I've lost 110 pounds, give or take 5. Unfortunatley, right now it's take 5. But I'm working on that now. I am still about 10-15 pounds from goal. I haven't had any problems getting my protein in or vitamins. I am having hypoglycemic problems that the endo is evaluating right now. Whether or not it's WLS related, I don't know. I had problems in the far distant past but they have resurfaced with a vengence now. I truly think this has saved my life. Despite the problems I'm having right now. I'm sure I would be diabetic if I hadn't do this. I'm sure I would be very immobile in a few years with knee and foot problems. Even with what's going on now, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I was a lightweight with 100 pounds to lose (110 according to me). I lost 120+ but was finally able to stop the weight loss and maintain after a bit of a gain. I can't say that I've been without complications but I've had abdominal illness since the age of 15 and don't believe that it is directly related to my WLSurgery. At any rate, has your husband researched the DS? Perhaps you could ask over on the DS board as well. I didn't research this option at all because I didn't have enough weight to lose but your husband's BMI may put him into the category of considering the DS (though I'm not certain what the criteria is for all or most doctors who do the DS - which is more limited than lap band or RNY. I hope this helps! Vanessa

A woman at my office had the VBG w/ sleeve (hope that is the correct term). She went from high 300s down to high 200s and seems to be stuck at this point. She feels better but wishes she could get more weight off. Her intake is still quite restricted. While she doesn't have the malabsorptive issue officially, she has had some vitamins levels need addressing. Not sure of the "why". My husband had the open RNY at 437 lbs and in 9 months was down to 240i**** stopped there but at 6'5" that's a good place for it to stop, right? LOL. He has since regained 20 lbs and is working on that slowly. Not a real biggie though. He looks great and feels great. He still does protein supplements daily and takes several vitamins. He has been low in vitamin A and iron and had to add supplements for these. He is 28 months post-op with no surgical complications at all. I had lap RNY at 244 lbs (pre-op loss of 32 lbs down from 276) and in 14 months reached my goal of 160. Now I'm down to 153 lbs. Loss of 123 total (32 pre-op, 91 post-op). I've had weird aches and pains off and on that have never quite been identified but nothing serious at this point. I've had to adjust some vitamins based on labs. I too still do protein shakes and my levels are great. When you get to a certain point post-op...your success is really based on the simple calories-in versus calories-out thing. Initially, you cannot take in enough to gain/maintain and the loss comes. Hubby and I both work to keep the weight where we want it to be. We have to watch intake and stay active and yes... this is our lifestyle now. Good luck to hubby and yourself! Kathy

I had the open RNY in Nov 2005. My highest weight was 358lbs. Day of surgery was 286lbs and I'm now 170lbs. I haven't had trouble with any of my labs. I take 2 mulitvitamins, 4 calcium citrate w/vit d., and vitamin b-12 3 times a week (sublingual). The only problems from the surgery is having my blood pressure drop to a very low level, that due to my previous heart attack caused me a little pressure in my chest. But, by limiting almost all my blood pressure medicine that has pretty much eliminated all the symptoms from that. So now I have no problems and would definatly recommend having this surgery. Terri

Hi Chris, I also had lap RNY almost 2 years ago. Starting weight of 260.5 lbs, lost 21 lbs before surgery per surgeon pre-op diet requirement. Reached surgeon's goal of 130 lbs in 9 months then loss down to 119 lbs. I stayed between 121-123 lbs for many months and just recently gained a few lbs but working on getting back below 125 (only 1.2 lbs left to get there) which is my personal goal. I've had zero complications so far and hope it stays that way. I take loads of vitamins and have my labs drawn periodically to adjust as needed. I also did 2-3 protein shakes until just recently but I'm back to doing them again as I feel much better when I drink them. I also recommend you research the DS procedure, I didn't when I had surgery as I wanted to stay in Houston and there weren't any surgeon's performing it at that time. I'm totally happy with the RNY, absolutely no regrets and I feel fantastic. Dana

I've had the Duodenal Switch, which gives great results, a very normal post-op lifestyle and quality of life, and has the best overall weight loss & weight maintenance on average of any WLS out there. (The Vertical Gastrectomy is the upper portion of a DS, without the malabsorption. The difference is that DS'er malabsorb fat and can therefore eat a higher fat diet) http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/DS/board_id,5357/cat_id,4957/topic_id,91667/a,messageboa rd/action,replies/#593270 I wrote a post about a year and a half ago about the differences between the RNY and the DS. I've lost over 75% of my excess weight, gone from a 51 BMI to 29 and from a size 26/28 to a 10/12. I'm still continuing to lose, look and feel great, and my labs are quite good. I'm about 25lbs from my goal range, but am figuring that 10-15 lbs of that is excess skin that will go away when I have reconstructive surgery. Three years ago (two years pre-op), I had extremely high cholesterol - with triglycerides over 650. I now take NO cholesterol medication, my cholesterol is normal, and my triglycerides were 76 (normal range is 30 to 150). My Trig. have dropped almost NINETY percent. I would highly recommend that he look into it. There is a Duodenal Switch forum here on OH. He can also check out www.duodenalswitch.com and www.pubmed.com (search on duodenal switch). To see what I was eating about 7-8 months out of surgery, click here to see my Fitday Journal: http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=Blackthorne Good luck!