Geezer is UNbanded, switched and camping...

December 4, 2005

Glad you are feeling good and that surgery went well.

NJChick · December 4, 2005

Good to see you !!! HUGS

CandySmooch · December 5, 2005

I feel retarded - what is this DS??

paula · December 5, 2005

Just thinking about you Sue.

Already a week later... How are you feeling?

Mita · December 5, 2005

Great you are back Sue..

Iluvharleys · December 5, 2005

Glad things went well for you! Keep us posted, and good luck healing up!

Dody · December 5, 2005

As I retired nurse I have heard a lot about duodenal switch being done in European countries for years before it was done here. It is much, much safer as it doesn't mess with the intestinies, but still is major surgery.

Sue, if you had the choice at the beginning would you have chose DS over the band. I can see that the DS revision is not going to require the constant and unending fills and work that the band does, so in your honest opinion what would you have chosen, and did your esophageal problems exsist before banding or did it come along with the banding and continue to get worse. I've heart this to be true with lots of people. They never had esophageal problems before.

I'm so glad you switched over and are doing well. I think Gastric Bypass will become a thing of the past with DS on the horizon.

Best of everything to you. Sounds like you have been through a lot.

Hugs

Dody

donali · December 5, 2005

Whoo Hooo!!

Sue is back and doing great!!!

I couldn't be happier! xxoo Keep us posted, OK?????

Jammin & Losin · December 6, 2005

Glad your doing good!!! Keep us posted !

rachele · December 7, 2005

As I retired nurse I have heard a lot about duodenal switch being done in European countries for years before it was done here. It is much, much safer as it doesn't mess with the intestinies, but still is major surgery.
I think Gastric Bypass will become a thing of the past with DS on the horizon.

Dody

Sue is having her one week check up today, so by now she may be making the trek home. I was unbanded and switched on Nov. 17, I was very influenced by Sue in my decision. She is a very intelligent woman.

The surgery actually isn't any safer, it's still considered a bypass also, and our intestines are rerouted. Maybe with the original DS, I'm not sure, but what I have, and I think Sue has as well is a DS/BPD. I'm not sure if I can put a link here or I could show you a comparison between Rny and DS.

Ds'ers don't have a pouch. Instead of a small pouch (as Sue would say "a pouch smaller than your mouth") we have a banana shaped tummy. Normally it is kidney bean shaped but the outer side is cut away. This side is also responsible for alot of stomach acid and the hunger hormone Grenlin (sp?).

Our pyloric valve is left intact, so there is no dumping. When healed, we will be able to eat more than a bandster or a RNY patient. The intestine is disected, and a portion is rerouted to the pancreas. food goes one way, digestive juices go another and they meet in the usually 100 cm common channel which is where we absorb (the only place we absorb). So instead of absorbing fat all the way through our small intestine, we only absorb in the common channel. This empties into the Large Intestine.

The DS has the best record of excess weight lost, and a low instance of regain. Thats because we malabsorb 80% of fat, and 30% of Protein. DS'ers intestines don't learn to reabsorb fat near as much as RNY. This is why we have to supplement Vitamins and nutrients forever. I take Iron, Calcium, a Multivitamin, and a special Water soluble pill for Vitamins A, D, E, and K. Usually those would only be absorbed in fat, but since we don't absorb much fat, we have to use vitamins that absorb in Water. Any excess fat we eat we pay for in the bathroom, not the scale. We are still directed to eat lower fat, lower sugar and lower carbs. We still absorb carbs.

So it does have its drawbacks. But it was worth it for me. I would rather live my life this way than fat.

Now if Sue would check in, I'd be happy!