New into the journey

[GunstonNurse20 1]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting in a forum. After years of contemplating bariatric surgery and literally trying every diet and medication for weight loss, I had an appointment with a bariatric surgeon yesterday. I made no excuses, I thought of no what ifs, I just kept driving because if I started thinking twice, I was not going to make it. The surgeon was very nice and it seems (I researched him) that he got plenty of experience and operates at a center fort excellence designated hospital.

I had already attended his seminar and now we were talking surgery. I am 5'3" and to my shame my weight went up to 279, the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I have asthma, PCOS, and body image issues. Luckily, I have a very supportive family. Dr. Waked said he does recommend the duodenal switch over the gastric sleeve. I am worried after reading some posts. I am worried about complications, medications to take such as Vitamins (the doctor said just a few but how many are a few?), I am worried about body smell (I work as a school nurse and this is important). Has anyone had this surgery recently? I understand that there are many threads, but the more I read, the more confused I become.

Thank you.

[NovaLuna 709]

I had the Loop Duodenal Switch (also called SIPS). I originally was also looking into gastric sleeve, but as you can see when I started my journey I was nearly 400 pounds and my surgeon told me that the statistical average of gastric sleeve would not be enough to lose the amount of weight I wanted to lose and same for the gastric bypass. I was very much on the fence but eventually I chose the surgery anyway due to the surgeons experience and I figured he knew what he was talking about. Vitamin wise you do take more than the average WLS, but not that much more. I process Iron REALLY well so I do a switch on my Vitamins where 1 day I take 1 Multivitamin with iron and 2 Multivitamins without iron and then the next day it switches and I take 2 multi's with iron and 1 without. I also take 2 calcium citrate a day (because I process Calcium really well as well). In my 6 month labs I showed to have a minor Vitamin A deficiency so I take 1 dropper of liquid Vitamin A a day as well. I'll find out how that worked out in two weeks since I just did my 9 month labs today and my 9 month check up is on the 13th. I was 321 pounds on my surgery day and this morning I weighed in at 221 so I've lost 100 pounds in 8 months (and 1 week). Which, honestly, I'm very proud of.

I don't have bad body odor, if that's your concern. It's more your bowel movements... stink. REALLY bad! And avoid anything with excess sugar alcohol because it may give you gas (like it does to me) and it's smells terrible. There are not as many people who've had the DS or Loop DS, but I've noticed it's been gaining slightly more popularity lately so there are quite a few people on this site that you can ask for advice from who've had the surgery. If you have any questions for me feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer them.

[GunstonNurse20 1]

Thank you so much for your response. I did so much research on the sleeve, that when my surgeon brought this procedure up, I was somewhat clueless.