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Valerie’s Message

How many ways can I say that I love my DS? Once I got over the initial recovery period, losing my weight and keeping it off is easier than I ever imagined, thanks to my DS.

My weight history started with my mom doing fad diets with me starting with my first ‘puberty pudge’. This continued with us finding new and creative ways to starve ourselves, while I rarely lost anything despite my best efforts. I was an athlete in high school despite my obesity, and continued to be obese despite my level of activity. I felt very hopeless, and continued to gain weight into adulthood, stopping only when I went back to starving myself again. It was an extremely uncomfortable rollercoaster ride that was my final straw. Add to that my extreme foot pain and chronic back pain, and I wasn’t living my life to the fullest. From that day, I started researching wls. It was through my research that I discovered the duodenal switch, and it just made SO much sense for me. The malabsorption is just what my “hold on to each and every calorie” body needed.

Today I’m a whole new woman. My career is reaching new heights, thanks to my confidence and I hate to say it, but my appearance too. Being a corporate trainer, appearances do matter. I feel that today my appearance finally matches my personality. I was able to confirm that one day when I met a gentleman face to face after training him over the Web several times galarson.com. His first statement to me was “you look just as I pictured you to be”. To me, I knew that day that I made it! Today my foot and back pain are gone, too. I’ve never been healthier, and I owe it all to the DS!

Articles by Valerie G.

Famous Recipes
What to Expect Following Surgery

Lisa’s Stats

DS Veteran: Lisa P.
Location: ON, Canada
Surgery Date: Oct 7, 2008
Surgeon: Marek Lutrzykowski, MD
Highest Weight: 340 lbs
Pre-op BMI: 58
Pre-op Weight: 340 lbs
Goal Weight: 150 lbs
Current BMI: 29
Current Weight: 175 lbs

Lisa’s Message

Having the DS was the single greatest thing that I ever did for myself. I have more energy now than I have in at least 15 years. I look better, I feel better and I don’t feel like I have to hide in my house anymore. I am out enjoying life now. I know this has been said a million times, but the only regret I have is that I didn’t have this sooner, premium home cleaning services. I missed out on so much while my kids were growing up, and I’m trying to make up for lost time now. I am very close to my personal goal, and I’ve gained an inch in height! I thank my lucky stars every day that I was able to have this surgery.

Heather’s Stats

DS Veteran: Heather M.
Location: ON, Canada
Surgery Date: Dec 5, 2007
Surgeon: Marek Lutrzykowski, MD
Highest Weight: 313 lbs
Pre-op BMI: 49.6
Pre-op Weight: 269 lbs
Goal Weight: 150 lbs
Current BMI: 20.9
Current Weight: 133 lbs

Hayley’s Message

I started this journey weighing 346 lbs, wearing a size 24 pant, and 26/28 top. My goals were to get to a size 8 jean (I was determined to get there, even if it was only for a short visit) and to weigh 170 lbs by one year. I surpassed all of these goals!

Progress Report:
(1 week): -30 lbs total
(3 weeks): -40 lbs total
(1 month): -44 lbs total -44 for month
(2 months): -64 lbs total -20 for month
(3 months): -78 lbs total -14 for month
(4 months): -91 lbs total -13 for month
(5 months): -101 lbs total -10 for month
(6 months): -115 lbs total -14 for month
(7 months): -126 lbs total -11 for month
(8 months): -136 lbs total -10 for month
(9 months): -146 lbs total -10 for month
(10 months): -153 lbs total – 7 for month
(11 months): -162 lbs total -9 for month
(12 months): -170 lbs total -8 for month
(13 months): -174 lbs total -4 for month
(14 months): -181 lbs total -7 for month
(15 months): -188 lbs total -7 for month
(16 months): -192 lbs total -4 for month
(17 months): -192 lbs total -0 for month
(18 months): -196 lbs total -4 for month
(19 months): -199 lbs total -3 for month
(20 months): -199 lbs total -0 for month
(21 months): -200 lbs total -1 for month
(22 months): -202 lbs total -2 for month

As I lost weight, I changed my goal weights. I wanted the following:

Normal BMI (must weigh 177 lbs)
Weigh 170 lbs (personal goal 1)
Weigh 160 lbs (personal goal 2)
Weigh 146 lbs (personal goal 3) so I could say that I lost –200 lbs

I reached all my goals. I now weigh 146 lbs, I wear a size 2 jean and Small/Med tops. So I have lost 202 lbs, I dropped 6 shirt sizes, and 11 pant sizes.

I can sit anywhere I want w/out thinking twice about the seating (restaurants, theatres, roller-coasters, planes). I can double cross my legs. I can put my feet up in the theatre seat. I can shop at any store. I can pick an article of clothing off the rack and KNOW it will fit without having to try it on. I’m wearing skirts, shorts, and dresses (I never wore those as a MO person). I’m wearing sleeveless tops for the first time in my adult life. All the discoloration on my skin from being over weight has vanished. I can walk and walk and walk and not get out of breathe or cramp up. I have energy! I am no longer the biggest person in my family. I am the smallest/lightest person in my family now.

I have had no complications or bad side effects. I do not suffer from any bathroom issues and I have no problem maintaining my weight. I lost my weight without ever going on a diet. The DS is a dream come true! For more information about me, check out my profile on ObesityHelp.

Articles by Hayley F.

Acne

Elizabeth’s Stats

DS Veteran: Elizabeth N.
Location: NJ, USA
Surgery Date: Dec 4, 2006
Surgeon: William S. Peters, MD
Pre-op BMI: 63
Pre-op Weight: 400 lbs
Current BMI: 25.8
Current Weight: 170 lbs

Articles by Elizabeth N.

Post Surgery Advise

Diana’s Message

Was a solid child, and then became obese at age 16 when my mother took me to a “health food doctor” who ordered me to stop taking my thyroid meds cold turkey. I gained 30 lbs in one month. Yo-yoed up and down, mostly staying around 210-220, for the next 34 years. Occasionally got down to the 170s-180s via starvation diets and diet pills, but couldn’t stay there. Had two babies, with fortunately uncomplicated pregnancies.

Married my second husband at age 45, and over the next 5 years went from 235 to 290+. I enrolled in a Phase III clinical trial for an obesity drug, which didn’t work, and then gave up. I started looking into WLS in late 2002.

I found ObesityHelp.com, and the more I read, the more appalled and depressed I got. I knew there was no way in hell I could live the way the RNY and LapBand required. I was about to give up entirely, when someone read a post I wrote bemoaning my dilemma, and led me by the virtual hand to information about the duodenal switch.

Well holy crap–this made sense! I have a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from UCLA Medical School, so I know enough about science and medicine to understand how the DS differs from the other surgeries. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen anything about it before, despite 4+ months of research! As soon as I understood how the DS works, I was sold–and thus began my six month quest to get insurance approval.

Long story short, I had a ferocious battle with Aetna, and ultimately won, after threatening to sue them. I had to pay several thousand dollars of my surgeon’s fee, but my hospitalization was fully covered.

I had an uncomplicated surgery with Dr. Rabkin 12 days before my 50th birthday. While I did not have severe co-morbidities prior to my DS, there certainly were several in my future, as evidenced by my SMO mother’s health–I had pre-diabetic hypoglycemia; my cholesterol was about to cross over into the too-high range, as was my triglyceride level; my C-reactive protein, which is an indicator of cardiovascular risk, especially in women, was sky-high, and my white blood count was chronically elevated, both indicators of inflammation of the blood vessels–that earned me a statin prescription and my very own cardiologist; I had urinary stress incontinence; shortness of breath on exertion; my feet KILLED me after walking more than 10 minutes; sex was–well, you can guess.

8 months after my DS, my company closed its offices in CA, and I had to look for another job. I can’t express what a difference it made to be able to go on job interviews and look decent in a suit. One year after my DS, I went hiking and camping with my family and friends–something I would NOT have been able to do pre-op. A month later, my daughter and I traveled in Europe for nearly 3 weeks at a fast pace, climbing towers in every town we went to, including to the top of the Vatican dome in late August.

I would be remiss if I didn’t confess that I did NOT limit carbs enough during my “honeymoon” period. I lost to 205 lbs in one year, and then stopped dead. I had NO trouble maintaining that weight, but I was stuck there for well over 2 years. I wasn’t unhappy with this–I was in size 14-16 at that weight, in the NORMAL stores. Then, seemingly for no reason at all, in Nov 2006, I started slowly losing weight again. I have lost 30 lbs in the last two years, and started exercising, which has put me in size 8-10 (even at 175 lbs!), and hope to win my current battle against insurance stupidity in order to get my reconstructive surgery, which should put me at my goal weight of 160 lbs. 5 years out, and I am not only NOT fighting regain (and not dieting in the least), but I am still slowly losing. This does not suck.

I feel VERY strongly that the DS is by far and away the BEST bariatric surgery available today, both in how well it works, and in the quality of life it provides. Having said that, it is not for everyone. If you cannot commit to eating 80-100 g of protein a day, every day, for the rest of your life, go find yourself a diet with a scar, or a diet with a choke chain–the DS is not for you. If you cannot commit to a strict regimen of vitamin, mineral and probiotic supplementation, don’t bother. If you cannot commit to having blood drawn at least yearly, more often if necessary, and making appropriate changes in your diet and/or supplements, go get something “less drastic”–a surgery that won’t work as well, but won’t be as likely to kill you if you can’t be compliant. If you can’t commit to being proactive about your health, for the rest of your life, including standing up to doctors who want to blame everything that is wrong with you on the DS (just like they used to blame everything that was wrong with you pre-op on your obesity), this fantastic surgery is not for you. Frankly, if you are too stupid or passive to be a proactive and informed patient, move along and have a less successful but less “dangerous” surgery–it probably won’t work very well for you, but at least you won’t become a statistic that makes the DS look bad. We don’t want you to do that, trust me.

Carolyn’s Stats

DS Veteran: Carolyn M.
Location: TN, USA
Surgery Date: Nov 3, 2003
Surgeon: Dennis Smith, MD
Highest Weight: 323 lbs
Pre-op BMI: 52
Pre-op Weight: 317 lbs
Goal Weight: 155 lbs
Current BMI: 26
Current Weight: 155 lbs

Articles by Carolyn M.