DLCoggin

This is going to be the best Christmas present you ever got! Congratulations and Merry Christmas!!

Good article and a very interesting website on DS. Thanks for sharing!

I've read a lot of negative comments in response to someone's decision to have WLS. The majority are based on ignorance of the facts. Some are based on ignorance along with concern for the person's welfare. This is entirely different. This is hate. In a number of different contexts, it would border on a crime. If anyone ever said that to me, about me or about anyone else, it would be the last conversation we would ever have. There is no excuse. No justification. No forgiveness. Some things are not acceptable. I would not want this person in my life or the lives of those I care about.

Do you have a surgery date yet? You may have read in some of my other posts that I'm not a big fan of goal weights. My surgeon never offered one and I decided even before my surgery that my body would know when it was where it wanted to be. So I just kept following the protocol until my weight stabilized. I believe there are several advantages to this approach. When you have a goal weight in mind, it increases your impatience and frustration with the time it takes to reach your goal. If you don't have a goal weight, you're not on any timeline - you won't know you're there until you're there. Much more conducive to focusing on the all-important lifestyle changes as opposed to some "magic" number. WLS patients often experience a weight regain following their weight loss - commonly referred to as "bounce back". It can be as little as 10-15 pounds or, in some cases, considerably more. There can be a lot of reasons for it but, at least in my experience, if your body is at the weight it wants to be at, there's little or no bounce back. I stabilized at 155 and my weight this morning (13 months later) was 152.8. And that's after increasing my daily calorie goal following the stabilization of my weight. Initially by 300 calories. And most recently I increased it again by an additional 100 calories over what I was targeting during weight loss. Finally, not having a specific goal weight takes at least some of the emphasis off of the number on the scales. That's a big deal. And one of the reasons I always recommend folks who are in the rapid weight loss part of the journey weigh themselves no more often than once a week. When you hit a stall, once every two weeks is even better. No matter what we do, our weight loss is going to fluctuate in response to too many variables to even identify, much less address. Downplaying the number on the scale and focusing your energy instead on staying positive, staying focused on following the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can, staying patient and maintaining a food log is a much more rewarding and much less stressful plan. You're gonna love the new you!!

Lol - and now thanks to the RnY almost half of the me that was left is gone!

You're certainly welcome Patrice! Prompted by your question I did a little more research on DS (without the BPD). Here are a couple of articles that you might find interesting. Note that one is from 2011 and the second one from 2012 so they're not quite "current". The first one is especially informative and summarized by the author's statement "This is the most aggressive procedure with the highest risk, but it comes with the best potential for reward." The second link is from 2011 and has some good information but the study cited has a much smaller cohort (60 patients vs. 1,156 in the first one). In this study the author concludes "...the added weight loss compared with gastric bypass is offset by complications that far outweigh any potential benefits." I'm planning on doing more research as time allows. Hopefully there are more current studies (things change fast in the bariatric surgery world) with even larger cohorts. I'll let you know if I find anything more current. The weight loss numbers and long term weight maintenance for DS certainly appear to be very favorable. The challenge is to weigh those benefits against the increased risk of complications. Have a great day!! http://heartland.time.com/2012/09/18/researchers-take-a-closer-look-at-weight-loss-surgeries/ http://medscape.com/viewarticle/749385

Huge congratulations! Well done!!

I don't know much about DS but in the absence of a doctor's specific recommendation that you have DS for specific reasons, you may want to consider the advantages of RnY. RnY has a history spanning more than 30 years. It is the most researched bariatric surgery option there is - by a very wide margin. It is the single most effective treatment known to medical science for obesity, type 2 diabetes and more than 30 comorbidities associated with obesity. Minor complication rate (usually defined as not requiring hospitalization) is about 15%. Major complication rate is less than 5% and continues to decline as the result of advancements in laparoscopic surgery techniques. And the mortality rate is at an all time low of less than one tenth of one percent. RnY has been and continues to be the "gold standard" of bariatric surgery and for very good reasons. You will find many RnY success stories right here on this forum and it's safe to say that the vast majority of us had a history of yo-yo dieting and failure to maintain weight loss. But as you noted, any bariatric surgery can be defeated. It is a tool and there are no guarantees. No absolutes. No surgery changes the need for the all important Prime Directive - lifestyle changes. But you sound to me like a person ready, willing and able to make those changes. If that is true, you're gonna love the new you!!

Yup, have to join everyone else - absolutely no regrets other than wishing I had done it twenty years earlier. The nerves before surgery are perfectly normal. I'd worry more about folks who aren't nervous than those who are. You're about to embark on a life-changing journey that will dramatically improve almost every aspect of your life. It's very difficult to put that in perspective for anyone - you really have to experience it to understand. So I just leave it at - you're gonna love the new you!!

When I lose interest in a thread for whatever reason I just stop following it. Easy to do and easy to just ignore it in new content.

You're gonna love the new you!

I think that doctors are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they know that there are so many variables that predicting things like stalls, weight loss and even calorie goals with any degree of accuracy is almost impossible. On the other hand, many (if not most) patients don't want to hear that. They want/expect answers to their questions regarding what to expect. So doctors do the best they can knowing that anything they offer is at best an educated guess. One that will likely be different from actual results. Since objective, science based, definitive answers are impossible, they're left with subjective opinions. The result is asking 100 doctors the same subjective question will get 100 different subjective answers. Unfortunately that does not change the fact that some of the clinics in the WLS industry do not deserve our confidence. The recent 1-800-GetThin scandal which resulted in five deaths being a case in point. It pays to research your doctor and hospital carefully.

Welcome, welcome losing2win - I love your screen name and you're gonna love the new you!! It probably won't seem like it the first few weeks post-op but this is going to be the best Christmas present you can imagine!

I wouldn't stress too much over metabolism. Yes, it does change and it provides us some insight into explaining stalls. But it's difficult to measure and not practical to manage on a day to day basis. Consider narrowing your focus to the variables that you can manage every day - Protein, exercise, hydration, calories. food logs are an enormously powerful tool. Focus on those things and your metabolism, and your weight, will take care of themselves. You're gonna love the new you!!

Second guessing yourself or the process is the enemy. There is no schedule for stalls and no way to accurately predict how long they will last. But...as long as you are following the protocol and in the absence of a medical problem, there is absolutely no doubt that you will continue to lose weight. No doubt. Burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight. Sometimes quickly. Sometimes more slowly. And sometimes not at all for a period of time. All perfectly normal. But sooner or later, you will lose weight. Science and the universe cannot be denied. Recognize that. Embrace the reality. Remind yourself, every day. Your goal is physical change but your challenge is mental discipline. Persistence, along with absolute belief, can never be defeated.

I'm not sure about that one. You might want to PM Alex. He knows more about changes made or in the works than anybody and he will respond quickly - guaranteed!

So sorry about your disappointment music. But you're doing what's right for your health and I know you understand better than most how important that is. I'm a huge dog lover and every time you look at your foster dog's wagging tail during your walk, you just gotta smile!! Works for me every time my lab wags her tail and that's pretty much all of the time! Lol.

Good for you for reacting quickly to a minor gain!! Compared to what you have presumably lost, losing five pounds is nothing. Are you maintaining a food log? If not, now is a great time to start. My Fitness Pal highly recommended if you don't have an app already. Set your app for losing a pound a week with the associated calorie goal. Follow your plan for a week and see what happens with your weight. If you lose, great. If you gain or stay the same, reduce your calorie goal by 100-200 calories a day. Follow your plan for a week and see what happens with your weight. You'll quickly be able to determine the calorie goal you need to maintain to lose the five pounds. It's easy and it works like a charm!!

In February of 2011 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and that did it. First meeting with my surgeon on May 10th, gastric bypass on October 20, 2011. Type 2 diabetes gone, high cholesterol gone, sleep apnea gone, hypertension gone. Loving the new me!

I'm a meat lover so my favorite dinner starts with chicken, fish or turkey - grilled, roasted, baked, steamed (for fish) - just about any ol' way but fried. Loaded with Protein, very filling and you stay full a long time. Add some veggies on the side and I'm a happy guy!

Click on your profile name in the upper right side of the page and click on "Content I follow". Have a great day!

The waiting is tough but a year from now you won't be thinking about anything but how much you love the new you!!

I did not experience the food remorse described by SoccerMomma (and many other veterans). I don't have any definitive explanation why I didn't but suspect that it may have something to do with the fact that I started a healthy diet several months prior to my surgery. We bought a steamer and ate steamed vegetables along with chicken, fish or turkey almost every night. And as an added bonus, I lost 35 lbs pre-op. I'm just over two years post-op and we still use our steamer frequently. Many (if not most) folks go through a period of "buyers remorse" following the surgery. In my case it lasted about a week or so. There is a "foreverness" about sleeve or gastric bypass that is a little unnerving. Very common but passes quickly. And when the weight starts falling off, you'll never look back! You're gonna love the new you!!

Get well soon! Your positive attitude and courage are truly an inspiration!

I've been using MFP for over a year now and love it. Most of the apps do pretty much the same thing as far as information goes. The big advantage of MFP is their food database. I don't know but suspect that it is likely the largest database out there. That translates into being able to make quick (and reasonably accurate) into your log 98% of the time. But, I never tracked measurements other than my waist and since I've been in maintenance mode for over a year, not much is changing. I can see where being able to see your historical progression measurement wise would be an advantage. One thing you might want to check is their website. Your entries are automatically uploaded to their website. There are things (reports for example) on the website that you can do that you can't do from the mobile app. You might find that the info you want would be available there even though not available from the app. Regardless of the app you choose, food logs are an amazingly powerful tool and the longer you use them the better they get. You're gonna love the new you!