disco stu

Yup It's real, but it gets better with time and management. Management equates to mostly avoiding Gluten and other carbs. You may discover other 'stink bomb' foods as well - avocado for me - so there's a bit of trial and error for the first few months. The good news for me is that most of the bad stuff happened at night; during the day at work I was mostly fine. I do carry Poo-porrie in my backpack just in case though...

The pain will be a fleeting memory a week from now. Grunt through it. The more interesting questions will come in a week or two...

Why are you focused on salad ? That's a coping mechanism ur gonna wanna save for months and months from now. Right now should be protein, protein, protein ,protein ,protein ,protein. My fav at this point? Clear Chinese: like sizzling rice soup ... minus the rice. More than a month out: grilled salmon with a side a butter. Hell yeah I said BUTTER. The least you can do to stay away from wheat carbs. Trust me. There is no amount of BUTTERED fish that will hurt you more than traditional carbs. You will be OK. Have patience. A watched pot never boils.

Why are you focused on salad ? That's a coping mechanism ur gonna wanna save for months and months from now. Right now should be protein, protein, protein ,protein ,protein ,protein. My fav at this point? Clear Chinese: like sizzling rice soup ... minus the rice. More than a month out: grilled salmon with a side a butter. Hell yeah I said BUTTER. The least you can do to stay away from wheat carbs. Trust me. There is no amount of BUTTERED fish that will hurt you more than traditional carbs. You will be OK. Have patience. A watched pot never boils.

Yup. First week sucks . But then you'll jump on scale and maybe, wasn't so bad....

One trick I've read about and tried myself is to go back to a "day after" post-op diet for a week (or two if you can do it.) Remember the liquids only, followed by puree'd baby food? Yum! But honestly, our stomaches are weird. I have noticed multiple times that if I go ham the night before, I wake up ravenous. But if I tone it down - or even fast - the night before, in the AM I can barely finish a meager breakfast. Weird, but true. So maybe give it a try. GO back to your Dr.'s post-op diet for a week and see what happens....

Vegas? Was it Blossom? They're good, but they're a high volume bariatric farm; the "love 'em and leave 'em" school. If you want them to take responsibility and help, you're gonna have to get pushy\aggressive. i.e. Threaten to blast their name all over the bariatric forums and Yelp. maybe even get a lawyer involved. Unless you make noise, they will not help you, which is BS. Whatever is going on with you, it;'s not normal. They need to step-up and help you through it.

A lot of us have had the DS (or simpler SIPS) after re-gaining with the sleeve.... more that I expected when I first joined these forums. On positive side, most of us found the recovery to be a breeze compared to the sleeve procedure. Also, I have read a few posts from people complaining about lengthy stalls, but almost zero stories of regain. This thing absolutely works! On negative side, you will have to get used to some significant, potentially embarrassing, life-style changes - most of which revolve around the restroom - that will be with you the rest of you life; much more life altering than either lap band or sleeve. As someone going through this, I say it's 100% worth it, but be forewarned. If cost is a factor and you live in an expensive state like California or New york, consider going out of state. I'm from California, and was able to save 10k to 15k by having the procedure done in Vegas. Texas is lower cost as well. DS does seem a little extreme to just lose 35lbs. But if you want to lose it and keep it off forever, it's something to consider. With DS, there is something called the "common channel" which depending on it's length, can somewhat control the total amount of weight you will lose. The longer the channel, the more nutrients you retain. And like my surgeon said, if you find yourself too skinny, eat more cheese burgers!

Funny. At my center all they said was, "You're going to be much more sensitive to alcohol. One drink and you'll be flying! Your friends and relatives will love that you're such a cheap date!" They sold it as a bonus!

"transference" in an interesting notion, but based on my current experience, I've become convinced that there's a brain chemical explanation for my alcohol increase post-bariatric...... First off, let's acknowledge that heredity has a lot to do with addiction. Some of us are just born wired to fall prey to over drinking. Study: If neither of your parents were alcoholics, you have a 1 in 10 chance of developing alcohol issues. If one parent was an alcoholic, your odds move to 1 in 2, and if both parent were alcoholics, your odds move to 4 in 5. ack!! Guess who drew that last lucky straw! AA calls it being born 'allergic' to alcohol. Second, alcoholism is a scientifically provable brain chemical disorder; not some kind of moral failing or weakness of will-power. Here's a snippet from a great video that really helps explain. Third: There have been studies which link vitamin deficiency with an increase in alcohol abuse. I'm describing this study from memory, but it goes something like this: Back in the 50s, they did a study where they placed rats in a cage with a bowl of water and a bowl of alcohol and then fed them Puppy Chow. About 10% of the rats turned into alcoholics, which is in line with the general US population. Next they re-ran the experiment with a new set of rats, except this time, they extracted all the vitamin nutrients out of the food. About %85 of the rats turned into alcoholics. Finally, the re-ran a third time, but with Puppy Chow mega fortified with vitamins, specifically B and C. None of the rats turned to the alcohol. When I read this study - true or not - I was inspired. It made a connection in my head. What is one of the major issues facing post-bariatric patients? Vitamin deficiency. And who hasn't been a very good boy about taking his bariatric vitamins for the last two years.... the exact time frame where my drinking went from the occasional bender, to daily drinking? Me!! So two weeks ago I started getting really serious about my vitamin intake, including getting B-12 injections every two days. Wow! what a difference! My craving went from a scream to a whisper. This last 12 days of sobriety has been a piece of cake compared to all my other attempts (none of which lasted more than seven days before giving in to the cravings). Your milage may vary, but if you are struggling with managing your alcohol cravings, give b12 injections a try. Hopefully it makes the same difference as I've experienced the last two weeks (knock on wood) I'll keep this post updated and honest.

Hey guys, This may be a tough subject, but if it can't be discussed on an anonymous forum where we regularly discuss our bowel movements and farts, were else can it be discussed? I've kind of hinted at this in a couple of my previous posts, but four weeks ago, my issues with alcohol had gotten to the point that I finally had no choice but to start attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, as well as various addiction treatment options provided through my health plan. For background on what I'm talking about, see: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/popular-weight-loss-surgery-roux-en-y-gastric-bypass-linked-to-alcohol-problems/ According to some studies, the odds of a post-bariatric patient having alcohol struggles goes up 28%. Wow. I've done a couple of searches on this board for alcoholism, and come up with basically zilch. Given the increased odds, how can that be? I can't possibly be the only one on here who can directly correlate my increased drinking to the date of my surgery. I bring this up, mostly because it's what I'm living right now, and I have a lot of information to share and well as unanswered questions. NOTE: I'm 13 days sober since making a few key changes in my vitamin intake, which has me very excited. Would love to start a discussion and share with anyone out there who is struggling. PM is fine as well. -ds

Woot!

...for instance.... I lost 7 lbs 3 weeks ago after I quit drinking and started Intermittent fasting. I was excited by results, and doubled down. If anything, I have been eating even cleaner and been more aggressive in my fasts. Last two weeks? Zilch. Nada. No movement. In fact, the harder I tried, it would seem the scale would mock me and move UP a lb or two. ack!!!! (NOTE: I did drop a belt hole during this period.) .. then this morning, down three lbs in one night. And I fully expect to see another 3 to 4 drop by the end of the week. Just the way this seems to work...

Woot! You're in for a wild journey, but the payoff is worth it

My surgeon said I could go to town the night before surgery; have any kind of "last meal" i wanted. It wasn't going to make a bit a difference. The reason they put you on such a strict diet pre-surgery is to shrink your liver so they have more room to move around in there. But your last meal isn't going to enough time to change things one way or the other, so don't worry about it.

I agree that six months seems aggressive. That may be true for Sleeve, but SIPS should me more like a full year before things slow down. You story seems pretty extreme...11 lbs in a week?.... but in general, yes, weight loss seems to come in spurts followed by frustrating lulls. Just keep working the program and have faith. You'll get there.

I haven't made any big announcements, but when someone comes up to me to congratulate me on all the weight i've lost and asks, "how did you do it?" hoping that have some kind of amazing dieting tip in my back pocket, I usually tell them straight out. It just feels wrong to lie. I also make sure to point out that it's not all free and easy. It takes work, huge lifestyle changes, and there are nasty side effects. I've had a couple of big guys want to grab coffee afterward to get more details. You can tell it's something that they considered, so they're excited to talk to someone who's done it and had success.

Odd question, but what the hey..... I'm 48 years old and have never been a coffee drinker. I always got my morning caffeine fix with a couple of Cokes (diet, but sometimes regular.) But this week I'm trying to kick the soda habit - for the 25th time - and as part of that, I'm thinking about taking up coffee. All of my loved ones are obsessed, so there must be something to it, right? Day one discovery: no way I can start with black coffee. Uggg! I've been fine - in fact enjoyed - Starbucks Frappicionos on occasion, but let's face it...those are basically milk shakes, with a ton of cream and sugar. Clearly sugar is a no-no for DS'ers, but what about the cream? Aren't we okay with fats, like butter? Would this mean that cream is okay? So day one, I got a black coffee and dumped a ton of just cream into it (or whatever is in the silver pitcher at Starbucks. I assume it's half-n-half? wasn't paying attention) and I was able to drink it fine. Purposely skipped any kind of sweetener. No sugar. No Splenda. My plan is to gradually lower the amount of cream, until I learn to enjoy it black, but that could take awhile. So, what's the verdict? Is cream ok for DS'ers?

I had the SIPS procedure (a.k.a.single-anastomosis duodenal switch), which is the new kid on the block. Similar to DS, but a simpler procedure which - in theory - means less risk of complications, and fewer side effects. For instance, because the channel is in the 250-300cm range, there are fewer vitamin deficiency issues than traditional DS. Quote: Patients report experiencing significantly less malabsorptive symptoms compared to a standard duodenal switch because the common channel length is almost twice that of a standard DS. But as noted in my earlier post, there are people on forums who will say SIPS is still "experimental" or at the very least, has not been around long enough to support the above claims. The single-anastomosis duodenal switch, also called stomach intestinal pylorus sparing surgery (SIPS), or the single loop DS, is very similar to the standard duodenal switchoperation, except that the small intestine is only transected at one point instead of two. With this operation, the majority of the most stretchable portion of the stomach is permanently removed (as in a sleeve gastrectomy) but basic stomach function remains the same. In addition, roughly half of the upper small intestine is bypassed, resulting in a moderate decrease in calorie absorption. Weight loss is achieved both through restriction of food consumption and malabsorption, which results in very good long-term weight loss maintenance. http://www.centerforweightlosssurgery.com/service/weight-loss-surgery/single-anastomosis-duodenal-switch

I've been using this post to "blog" my "journey." As far as how it's going, "Slow but steady"

Interesting. My common channel is 280cm. According to my surgeon, he would normally go 250cm for higher BMI than I started with (another way getting a sleeve first screwed me! hahaha) . So the obvious questions is, "why is Strivingforbetter's 'typical' number a full 100cm different than mine?" That seems like a huge discrepancy. I imagine it's probably something to do with traditional DS vs SIPs; SIPS are 100cm longer in general? Also, it's possible it has something to do with male vs female, but that seems less likely....

Yup. Agreed with your concerns. (NOTE: You take much fewer vitamins with SIPS than DS, so +1 in SIPS column for that.) I didn't write what I wrote to scare you off. I just want don't want anyone headed down the primrose path only to feel tricked or betrayed later. Just know what you're trading. That being said.....despite a few rough moments for me, I'm glad I got the SIPS and would do it again. Let's face it, being fat sucks, and has plenty of embarrassments, inconveniences and even physical pain on it's own (ex: bending over to tie a shoe) . Those thing are behind me and good riddance. Also note that many of the bathroom issues can be curbed or at least significantly lessened simply by being careful with carbs. THe issues I've had are mostly my own, lazy, fault.

I'm Sleeve to Sips revision, little more than 4 months out. I honestly didn't do enough research on Full DS before going with SIpS...I just believed my Dr, who called SIPS the "bazooka" of WL surgery while having the least side effects. Sounded pretty good so I went for it. There are some SIPS haters on internet forums who say that SIPS is still experimental and unproven. Also, if you dig you'll find a single study that kinda' sorta' implies that SIPS becomes less effective vs DS after a year, (but I've also read a pretty compelling refutation of that same article so..... who really knows with anything you find on internet? Something to ask your surgeon about, I suppose.) I can report that all that my post op experiences seem to match pretty well with the stories I read full from "full DS'ers". I can't tell the difference. My weight loss has been slow but consistent. Keep in mind that I'm a revision, and revisions are never as fast\effective as "virgin" procedures, so I'm reasonably happy. My #1 piece of advice comes in the form of a warning: These procedures work, but there's a cost. It's almost Faustian......There's no such thing as something for nothing. There have been multiple occasions where I questioned my decision and even times I wished I hadn't done it. For one, my restroom visits will never be the same, which is embarrassing and uncomfortable. Also, I feel either nauseous or constipated almost constantly, which has significantly affected my sex drive.... It's hard to feel romantic when I'm constantly farting and my stomach is twisted in knots. ...there's a cost. Be prepared

Welcome to DS. I'm about 4 months out and still experience explosive, speckle-the-bowl, diarrhea four to ten times a day (and night). It's my new normal and I've just had to get used to it.

It's a little weird, but I've discovered that I love the taste of distilled water over any other brand of bottled, including the expensive fancy stuff.