BPD and BPD/DS

[Guest guest]

Hi, all.

I see there's been some discussion since I posted earlier this week.

I'm sorry -- I don't read the list regularly at all and when I do, I

just search for my name, so I miss out on a lot.

But I want to be clear on a few points:

1. I consider my BPD to have had an *excellent* outcome. I have

excellent health and am pleased with my maintained weight loss of 125

lbs -- and I'm 10.5 years out. I'm fitter than many of my non-op

friends who have never been heavy.

2. I had no ill effects after my surgery -- no nausea, easy and fast

recovery (and my surgery was done " open " since lap bariatric surgery

wasn't done 10 years ago. Though my surgeon was one of the pioneers of

lap gastric bypass surgery). No leaks, no need for re-operations. I've

never had a problem with protein intake and have never used protein

supplements.

3. While I wonder if I would have had to deal with occasional

halitosis if I had the DS instead of the BPD, I have no assurances

that my outcome would have been any *better* with the DS. Every single

complaint that I've ever heard from a BPD patient (halitosis, nausea,

vomiting, gas, diarrhea, anal leakage, excessive or not enough weight

loss, weight regain, micronutrient deficiences) I have ALSO heard from

DS patients. I have also known DS patients to complain of not reaching

satiety easily.

I think that my outcome and my experiences in the short-term post-op

and long-term post-op are excellent and would not necessarily have

been better with the DS and I think my outcome has been better than

some who did have the DS. Why? I never needed a revision or any

follow-up surgeries; I don't experience nausea or pain. I don't

experience gas or diarrhea (except on rare occasions when I ingest

dairy -- lactose intolerance which I would also have had with the DS).

Honestly, in all my research and reading and experiences, the BPD and

the DS are NOT lightyears apart. The DS is a *modification* to the

original BPD. It's a very complex modification to perform surgically.

I can understand a surgeon looking at the Scopinaro BPD and at the

BPD/DS and deciding that the differences between them are not worth

the cost-benefit difference to the surgeon *or* to the patient.

Patients may feel differently. They may not.

Admittedly, I have a bias. I don't like to see the BPD put down or

surgeons or patients who feel that the DS is automatically and

comprehensively superior to the BPD. They are VERY similar surgeries

with very similar average outcomes.

Sharon

BPD April 17, 1991, Dr. Wittgrove, Alvarado