Recent Posts

I'm out of town right now so I unfortunately, haven't been able to get as much done here as I wanted to.  I will get on it as soon as I get back.  I hope to make this group as big as the yahoo group.  You know, we could always get together for lunch or dinner sometime if that would work for you.  I'm pretty flexible and I really want to meet you!  I can't believe that I wasn't able to stick around after your surgery until you made it to your room that day.  We really need to get together.  You've done incredibly well.  I'm so proud of you!

Hi Amy, I think duodenalswitch.com can answer a lot of you questions but I can answer based on my experience... 3. Yes, they will tell you if you were denied and the reason 4. Everyone looses weight differently but I've noticed most people loose from the top down.  I am heaviest in my lower abdomen and have noticed that area shrink slower than others, but again it's the top down thing.  Oh, how age, obesity and children have ravaged this body. I strongly recommend taking pictures and measurements preop.  It really gives you an idea of how far you've come. Expect extra skin.  I now can lie on my bed and pull my bellybutton up about six inches due to the extra skin. 5. I exercise 3-5 times a week.  I recently went back to the gym after my cast came off and noticed that I can workout harder and still maintain an appropriate heartrate.  I'm also burning less calories than when I was carrying around 90 more pounds.  Oh well! 6. Everyone's weightloss differs.  I received great advice when I came home from the hospital - avoid simple carbs for the first six months.  I didn't avoid them all together but I know that has helped me loose 90 pounds in six months. In the beginning you will only be able to eat small amounts.  Your stomach considerably smaller and it is swollen from the surgery.  I did vomit in the beginning when I ate too much - I had three meat balls and should have stopped at two. Now, six months out I can eat considerably more.  Last night I had 3/4 a piece of Chicken Cordon Bleu, a few bites of salad, a few bites of mixed veggie and a few bites of cheese cake.  I've learned to listen to my body and stop when I'm full. You can out eat any surgery but the DS has the most success.  There is more malablsorbtion that helps with the maintained weight loss.  Thus it is important to take your supplements, protein and water and to get your labs drawn per your surgeon. I hope this helped.  I'm sure someone will chime in with their experiences.  Very excited to hear about your first appointment.  You'll be 6 months post op before you know it!

I'm hoping we can cover all of the bases this way and if anyone runs across local people looking for DS information, they can direct them here as well as to the main DS board.  I plan to add a lot of valuable links to this site.

Welcome Betty!  Congratulations, you're the first member!  Now, we're officially a group!  Let the supporting begin!

Welcome to the all new Mpls. Area DS Support Group - obesity help edition.  It's going to take a while for this to get up and running but we have so many of our existing members already active within the obesity help forums, I though the edition of a local online group here would be a valuable resource.  I'm currently going through the obesity help support group leader training program.  Even though I've been facilitating our local group for more than 3 years, obesity help requires all of their support group leaders to attend the training sessions.  Feel free to spread the word about our new group and I'll be building the information base on this resource within the next couple of days.  Let's see if we can make this group as great and informative as our other groups.  We have a reputation to uphold you know!  Let me know if you have any questions.