The truth about my DS experience

[Guest guest]

You know, I really had to think about whether I wanted to make this

post. I have privately told people who have asked me about my

experience, but on the list I don't try to make a big deal out of it. I

know that everyone is different, and I wouldn't want to feel responsible

for anyone following my example and having a less successful outcome.

So, I downplay how easy this is for me. I know that I mention here that

I eat anything and everything. I mention that my GI functions are not

problematic. Do I mention it a lot? I don't know. Too much? I don't

know. Maybe not enough. I don't know.

I know what my truth is: I feel like I eat just as " poorly " now as I

ever did pre-op! As a pre-op, I was never an eater of mass quantities.

But I was a comfort eater and an eater of lots of fats and sweets. My

too-efficient metabolism hung onto every calorie, and once I crossed the

threshold into morbid obesity, my fate was set. Diets failed me, and I

failed them. We just didn't get along! I gave up on them and actually

lived pretty happily for 5 years or so, until the co-morbidities started

to appear. The joint pains and urinary incontinence and increasing

immobility finally pushed me to the point of considering WLS.

Then I had my miraculous DS! Please don't think badly of me for calling

my DS miraculous. It HAS been miraculous for me! Maybe others experience

hasn't been as smooth, I don't deny that. But FOR ME, this has been a

piece of cake with cream cheese frosting on top.

I went through the initial recovery and adjustment phase with no

problems. From the beginning, I tried and tolerated pretty much

everything. My food intake gradually increased to the point that now I

eat a normal meal. Some days more than others. For example, yesterday I

ate an entire Taco Bell #3 combination for lunch: 3 hard taco supremes

and 1 medium diet coke. Ate it all, in one sitting, in the same amount

of time it would have taken me pre-op. NORMAL. After that was gone, I

had a bowl of ice cream with hershey's syrup on top. I have tested my

limits from day one, and so far haven't found one! I am very thankful

that my DS hasn't failed me one iota.

This is MY experience. Others will have slightly different experiences

based on many varied factors. But for me it has been ALL GOOD. My

prayers were answered, and answered better than I could ever have hoped

they would be. When I was a fat 10-year-old who as being taunted and

beat up daily at school, I would lay in bed each night and pray as hard

as I could that someday, some way, there would come a way to get the fat

off me. God has answered my prayers! Can you believe it??? I am so

lucky!!!!

M.

---

in Valrico, FL, age 39

Lap DGB/DS by Dr. Rabkin 10/19/99

Starting weight 299, now 153

Starting BMI 49.7, now 25.5

Starting size 26/28, now 10/12

http://www.duodenalswitch.com/Patients/M/melaniem.html

Direct replies: mailto:melanie@...

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