Duodenal Switch Information Zone

Surgeon: Dr. Dennis Smith, Marietta, GA
Surgery date: December 12, 2001
Pre-op weightI: 378
Current weight: 195-200 (as of April 24, 2004)

Latest update: April 24, 2004

 
Left: May 1, 2001, 394 pounds, my highest weight ever; Right: 15 months post-op (215lb.)

by Ru:

I have always been heavy. It's the usual story, heavy child, fat teen, MO adult. I was married heavy, had three kids heavy (300 pound range for the twins) went back to college to be an RN at age 30 heavy, and graduated Magna Cum Laude heavy. I had a good marriage, good kids, a career with a good financial outlook, why couldn't I do the one thing that really bothered me??? Why couldn't I lose weight and keep it off??? It amazed me that I could accomplish all these things, yet be unable to do such a "simple" task as losing weight.

I had looked into WLS a while back, when the RNY was pretty much all there was, and decided it wasn't for me. Then one day, I was taking care of a patient who had had this new type of surgery, a duodenal switch. He gave me this web site address (thanks Steve!) and within the hour I was covertly online looking up the site and was glued reading. Then I ran into Dr. Smith in the halls. I told him I was going to be one of his patients soon. He said "great" and handed me his business card.

That was in 1999.

Fast forward to Feb 2001. I finally have insurance in place and am eager to begin this journey. I talk to my PCP and he agrees to give me the consult to the " weight doctor". I joyously called to schedule a consult, sure that within the next week I would be on my way. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the *next* appointment was in JULY!!

Well, needless to say I took it.

Over the course of the next few months I participated in wonderful tests that poked an prodded some of the most interesting places, swallowed fluids I would rather not think about, let alone do again, and worried about insurance approval.

Finally, I received the wonderful news that I was approved!!!! (Sept) My day was made!! Now for a date.......

Arg! DECEMBER????????? Yes, December 12, 2001; an eternity, an eon, you know, FOREVER away!

Now as I sit here, it is Dec. 11, the night before surgery. I am a little nervous, a bit worried. Will I wake up? Will everything be OK? Am I leaving my three kids motherless? Ah, the doubts that plague us all.

Well, I will go sip my water, sit with my kids, watch Jurassic Park 3 with them and try to feel calm. Everything will be ok.

UPDATE DEC 30 2001
Well, its over, I am switched. All the nerves, questions, fears behind me now. However, I still face some residual pain, weakness, eating difficulties, and not wanting to go anywhere. I expected some of this, but not quite to the degree I have it. I am 3 days short of 3 weeks post op and I do expect to get better. I will post in another few weeks., Oh and at my 1 week check up, I had lost 21 pounds. =) Current weight==352 (as of 2 weeks ago)

UPDATE JAN 15 2002
I am feeling better as the days go by with the exception of the nausea, it still plagues me. I am on antinausea meds now, and hope they will do the trick. Don't get me wrong, I do not have all day barf-o-rama, it's more of a random sneak attack mode, lol. Pretty much the doc and I have narrowed it down to not eating often enough and probably not enough protein. My fluid intake is sufficient, but he did say to keep it up so I do not get dehydrated.

I have gone back to work, last week, and am doing ok there. The pain in my abdomen has subsided to the point of nothingness. I do get more tired, quicker, and by the end of my 12 hour shift, I am a bit sore in the tummy from hauling it around.

The good news is I now weigh 335.7!! a drop of 37.3 pound in 4 weeks, not too shabby, by my measure!

UPDATE JAN 20 2002
Another Brief update. My nausea seems to be resolved. I went in earlier this week and received an Rx for Compazine, and while it did make me loopy, it seemed to do the trick. Zero to minimal nausea. Now I just have to remember/make time to eat at work. I still have no pain, though I still do get tired easier, and do not yet bounce back to previous(pre-op) energy levels after sleeping. I am currently 5.5 weeks out. Things really do seem to pick back up around this time. Unofficial wt. 331, (-42 pounds) and I have lost one size in my scrubs already!

UPDATE APRIL 21, 2002
I am just past 4 months now and am unofficially down to 290 (this AM--nekkid of course, lol). That is 88 pounds! Yeah! And the best part is knowing it wont come back!

My 3 month labs were ok. I needed to up my protein as well as begin taking iron. As I have always been borderline anemic, I expected this, so no biggie. My weight comes off in spurts. I will be stuck at a particular weight for a given amount of time, so far from one week to 3 weeks and then BAM!! a 6-10 pound loss over the next 2-3 days, a slow drizzle of 2-3 pounds off over the next 2-3 days and then stuck again. It bugged me at first, but I have become used to it. Nah, it STILL bugs me.

As to how I feel---GREAT!! I think that is due in part to having changed jobs as well. I now work only 8 hours instead of 12, and during the day, no longer at night. And I have had NO nausea at all from 12 weeks on. I, of course, had to be the rare, 3 month puker! YUCK!! But it DID go away and when it did I realized how good I was feeling. I do not have as many aches and pains, i am no longer short of breath, and my right knee (arthritic) does not hurt at all. I am looking forward to coming off my blood pressure medication in June as well.

UPDATE JUNE 20, 2002
6th month check up
Well I made it, I have lost 101 pounds in 6 months. I am "officially" 277 pounds. (272 by my home scale.) My goal was to reach 100 pounds gone by now. I am feeling good, no arthritis pain, no nausea, BP is 107/67, so I am going off my BP meds. I can eat and drink pretty much anything I want. I have energy and I am beginning to enjoy life again. I am beginning to feel like I am in my mid 30's not my mid 60's.
I am very happy at this point to have made the desicion to have this surgery. Update again at 9 months, unless something very wild happens.

Dec 20th 2002:
I must have forgotten to post my 9 month check up. It has been a very rough 6 months for me. Four days after my 6th month check up, my house burnt to the ground. My husband and children are fine, but we lost our beloved dog and 6 of our cats, two of which were new kittens. we are doing ok, and are planning on finally moving back into our home mid January.

For my one year update:

Official weight 231 (mind you this is 3:30 in the afternoon, AFTER an office Christmas party, lol). That is a loss of 147 pounds from day of surgery, and only 3 pounds from my personal goal of 150 pounds lost at 1 year.

I have gone from a tight 5x to a loose XL.

Most importantly, I am happy. I went to Six Flags, rode almost every ride, and FIT ON THEM ALL!!!!!!! I am enjoying life again.

My only problems have been hormonal in nature. I have lost enough weight, fast enough, to be releasing a lot of estrogen, which in turn has been making my cycles VERY heavy. After discussion with my GYN, we decided on a Mirena IUD, (it contains progesterone-the antagonist to estrogen) It helped a little, but not enough, so I was put on oral progesterone, for 10 days. It worked great for my cycles, but has slowed my weight loss down considerably, one of the side effects of synthetic progesterone.

Then on Thanksgiving night, I became horribly ill, and NOT from overeating. I was fine until about 9pm that night. We had eaten around 4pm. I started getting really bad stomach cramps, the kind I have had, though milder, with bad gas attacks. I went to the restroom, hoping to relieve the cramping and pressure, only to become violently nauseous, and throwing up. The cramps became worse. I did have some stool and some gas, but the vomiting went on until about 12-1 am, in phases about an hour apart. Nothing would stay down, not even water. I was sweating very, very badly, of course got chilled and then shakes. My stomach and abdomen hurt worse only the day of surgery. My husband was begging me to go to ER, but the thought of moving was more than I could contemplate. I finally went to sleep around 1ish. I felt ok the next day , and relatively good the day after. However, since then, every time I eat, I have discomfort, and recently really bad attacks of bloating, cramping and gas.

So today I went over all this with my surgeon, and he said it might have been food poisoning, and the problems I am having now, a possible bacterial overgrowth in the biliary limb. So I am on Flagyl for the next 10 days, hopefully everything will calm down.

So, goals are: 35-40 pounds gone by my next check up-in 6 months even out my cycles, and get rid of this crampy stuff--- and get a digital camera so I can post an "after" picture!!!

Update April 2003:

The hormone saga continues, (progesterone pills, progesterone IUD in, IUD out, pills again!) but is slowly getting better, and the scale is *MOVING* again!!! I am down to 218 by the scale at work, and 215 by my home scale, YEAH! (a loss of 163 from pre-op, 187 from my highest).

I am wearing a size "L"----*NO* X's!!! I even squeezed into a size 16 jeans, and a medium stretchy-type pants. I do have another weird health issue: swelling of one leg (calf). I was trying on a pair of (size 18) Jeans--they fit great, except over one calf. Anyway, after a trip to my MD and to Marietta Vascular, there is no clot, but I still need futher CT's to rule out possible clots higher up. Ah well, I will let y'all know what happens.

I am still very happy with my decision to have the surgery. I feel great!

I have to say that the DS has absolutley saved my life--both my physical and mental/emotional life.

Physically preop, I was floating between 402--highest and 372- on day of surgery--dieted to this preop, to help reduce the size of my liver. I had high blood pressure--160/110 ON medication, my reg MD. wanted to put me on another, I had GERDS--reflux so bad, that I thought I was having a heart attack when it first began, I was on Nexium for that. I had knee surgery three months prior to my ds--arthritis and a meniscial tear--due to weight. I am a nurse and at the time worked 12 hour shifts at night. I wore a tight 5x uniform. I was 35 and falling apart.

Mentally and emotionally I was OLD, i didn't want to do anything, I was too tired, to afraid to look silly, too afraid whatever it was I wanted to do, either wouldn't support my weight, or I wouldn't fit. I was grouchy. Out of breath.

I had my DS on Dec of 2001. I am now 15 months out. I weigh 215, and am still going down. I wear a size L. I am on NO meds (other than my vitamins). I am HAPPY, I laugh, I get up and get things for my self, rather than getting the kids or DH to go get it for me. I can sit and cross my legs "like a lady" my mother would say, if she were still here to see me. I have reg BP, no knee pain, no reflux. I went to 6-flags 3 times last September and October, walked (and enjoyed walking) the whole park, rode darn near every ride there and FIT!!! I was (and still am) so very stoked about that. I LOVE rollercosters. Right now I am planning a trip to Disney, and I have no fear.

I think that sums up alot of what I feel--no fear.

I did have some problems with nausea for about 3 months. Some of which I believe was do to going back to work 12 hours nights at three weeks out. When I quit that job and went to a normal M-F 8-5 job, alot of the nausea cleared up. Yes I do have smelly gas (but hey, so does my son. whew!) I know if I eat certain foods I will either have gas or need to be near St. John. But I know this, and plan accordingly. I now take flagyl, chlorophyll, and acidophilus, along with my vitamins, iron and calcium. It has helped a ton with the amount and odour of the gas.

Would I ever go back to the before??

Emphatically NO WAY.

Update April 24, 2004:

Its been quite a while since I posted.

I am 28 months out. I hover between 195-200 depending on the week of the month. I still wear a loose XL or a nice L, the occasional size 16 bottoms, size 14 tops. My hormone problems are gone, but just so life stays interesting, I had a bout with reactive arthritis, a rare complication to an abdominal surgery--not just WLS, but any surgery that opens the gut. That *seems* to be resolved, though it did get bad over winter. And the calf. Still swollen, still no answers.

Still Happy though, and I wouldn't EVER go back!

send email to Ru

back to top of page

[Home] [Procedure] [Surgeons] [Patients] [FAQ] [More Info]

Email the site administrator with questions, corrections, or suggestions.

Copyright © 1999-2002 by The Duodenal Switch Information Zone, all rights reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission.