Question:
what are the ds side affects no one wants to talk about?

   — randy S. (posted on March 26, 2006)

March 26, 2006
While there is a wide variation among DSers, the gas can be controlled by what you eat. If you don't eat complex carbs, you will not get gas. Now, that doesn't mean you can't eat complex white carbs (flour, pasta, bread), just that you don't eat them 4-6 hours before you have to be around people who you don't want to offend. What that means for me is that I "time shift" carbs I want to eat -- I only eat them for dinner on work days and on the weekend when I'm not going out. And we can also take certain things like Devrom and chlorophyll tablets, as well as Gas-X that lessen the gas if you still have problems or WANT to eat these foods at inopportune times. I chose to "time shift" my pasta instead. And I can live without white bread (except good french bread at a restaurant). As for the other things, I have had NO trouble with calcium issues and I'm 2.5 years out. I take 1000 mg/day of calcium citrate, and eat a lot of dairy products, plus my calciucm contains extra magnesium and vitamin D AND I try to get some sun as often as possible. I am 52 years old, and perimenopausal, so I'm in the prime of my calcium losing years, and so far, no problem. That doesn't mean I become complacent -- I ALWAYS do all my labs, and I will be getting my DEXA scans regularly (at one year out, I was 2.5 standard deviations OVER what is normal for a woman my age) to make sure I STAY OK. In short, with the DS or ANY malabsorptive procedure (including the RNY), you MUST take supplements and do your labs regularly. It beats the hell out of being fat! And the ease of eating everything BUT white flour products is magnificent to me.
   — [Deactivated Member]

March 26, 2006
Diana gave you a great answer! I've been researching WLS for almost a year and will be going to Brazil to have the famous Dr Marchesini perform my surgery since my insurance will not cover me. One thing I did was go to the boards and read all the posts of long term post-ops for both RNY and DS -- everyone has their issues. I even read the boards specifically dealing with post-op problems, but remember the problems are posted by a small percentage of the overall population. Both RNY and DS deal with malabsorption -- with either surgery you have to be committed to doing your labs and adjusting your supplements accordingly! No matter what, you can't be complacent! The biggest kicker for me in deciding on the DS is that famous/infamous malabsorption -- it's what keeps the weight OFF! I was more afraid of regain with the RNY. Read about how MANY RNYers are struggling with regain, you've almost never read about a DSer regaining a significant amount of weight. Also, read up on all the revisions -- that's what led me to the DS... all the RNYers getting revisions to the DS. The DS leaves you with a normal (albiet smaller) stomach (NO pouch rules), pyloric valve intact (no dumping), and the malabsorption -- which keeps the weight off. You are doing great by researching ALL your options. The worst thing you can do is to go into surgery NOT knowing all your options. I always cringe when I hear an RNY patient say "What's a duodenal switch?" Yikes! You may also want to go to the Duodenal Switch Forum here on OH and see what those post-ops are chatting about. Good luck!
   — [Deactivated Member]

March 26, 2006
P.S. Check the Yahoo! groups for post-op problems -- those boards are not moderated or minimally moderated so that people will post their post-op issues more freely. Some of those boards are for post-ops ONLY, but they will allow you to join just to read the posts, but not ask questions or make your own comments. :-)
   — [Deactivated Member]

March 27, 2006
Randy- For what this may be worth coming from a huge RNY fan, I think that the DS provides the best, most sustainable long-term weight loss sucess. Many of the malabsorption issues have been resolved as the surgical technique has improved over time. Certainly you would need to be vigilent about supplements, but given your desire to lose your regain and keep it off, I would think that the added burden would be worth it. Good luck in making the decision that is best for you. You can find articles about DS issues by going to Google Scholar and searching there; also, the NIH site (NIH.gov) also provides some great overviews of the general issues faced by the typical patients of the various weight loss methods.
   — SteveColarossi

March 27, 2006
Hi Randy. My experience has been one of the better ones, in my opinion. You will read horror stories about smell, bad gas, etc, but my personal experience has been that these are manageable things, based on diet. If I were to carb load on white bread, pasta, etc. not only would I be struggling to get in my protein, I would likely be pretty gassy. If I eat tons of fruit (which I've done inadvertenly) I have gas. Can I manage it? Yes. Poop issues? In the morning, then generally I don't go for the rest of the day. I would suggest coming over to the DS forum, ask your questions, read some of our profiles. I've not found too many people unhappy with their DS. This isn't to say there aren't those who struggle, but this happens with any surgery. Personally, I love my DS and would do it again in a heartbeat. Good luck to you.
   — [Deactivated Member]