I wasn't sure if I should start with what may have been legitimate inquiries or with the ignorance being passed back and forth as though it were fact or just the nasty stuff. I think I'll stick to that order.
Inquiries
This should be the easy part. Stuff that is malabsorbed is malabsorbed. Our bodies don't know we ate it. We don't get the benefit of the good stuff (the nutrients) or the bad stuff (the fat or calories) in foods we malabsorb.
I'm not sure why people think that foods that our bodies don't know they were fed are somehow hurting us, but in answer to the cholesterol question--thank you for asking--I'll post my lab results, reference ranges in parentheses:
Cholesterol =152 (0-199)
Triglyceride = 98 (0-149)
HDL Chol = 74
LDL Calc = 58 (0-99)
LDL Direct = 74 (0-99)
VLDL Calc = 20 (0-30)
Homocysteine = 9 (5-15, <12 is preferred)
HS CRP = 0.16
<1.0 = Low Risk
1.0 - 2.9 = Moderate Risk
>3.0 = High risk
My Cardiac Risk Assessment Level (the above score) could be SIX TIMES HIGHER than it is and I'd still be "Low Risk" for cardiac problems. And I'm 61 years old and I've started each day with bacon and a cheese omelet or ham and eggs almost every day for the past two years. My PCP, Endocrinologist and Cardiologist all want to trade lab results with me.
In fairness, high cholesterol was never a problem for me. Before, during and after the band, it hovered around 190. Immediately post-op with the DS it was 119. Now it's just where it needs to be.
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Ignorance
I have IRL friends who have had the band, RnY and DS (although almost all of the banded people are now unbanded.) Let's say we all walk into a Krispy Kreme store and we each order one glazed donut. A banded person, who has the same kind of band experience I did, will plug up and start producing huge gobs of viscous slime that needs to be spit out or barfed up. The RnY person will end up on the floor having a dumping episode. The DS person will enjoy the donut right then...and then need to take a purse-sized can of Ozium to the bathroom with them several hours later.
Point is...NONE of the fat people need the lousy donut and each will pay a price. But if you think I enjoyed my barfing into parking lot bushes and my sprints across restaurants because of plugs (and not just from donuts, because I only ate one the whole time I was banded) MORE than I enjoy my stinky poo on the occasions I eat something I probably should not, you are sadly mistaken.
I function in public. My dentist doesn't back off. My hairdresser--who bothers to mention ANY bodily aspect she doesn't approve of--would tell me. The esthetician at my dermatologist's office has been close enough to wax my brows and keeps inviting me back for other services. If she thought I'd stink up the pricey Newport Beach office she and the dermatologist share, she would NOT solicit my business.
We function every day...all around you..and most people do not have any idea they were sitting next to a DS patient on a plane or standing next to one in an elevator.
Are there "exceptions?" Yup. With any surgery? Yup. (See below)
The comments about "rather be fat than deal with _____ " (fill in the blank) don't show a lot of maturity or wisdom. If your mother needs colon surgery to get rid of the colon cancer that might kill her, would you tell her not to because her poo might stink? Would you tell your mother not to have ANY surgery that would save her life but maybe produce some unwanted side effect when she makes some unwise decision? Morbid Obesity kills people just as dead as colon cancer.
Several of the products people here have been laughing at were made for ostomy patients. DO remember to tell your loved ones NOT to have any life saving surgery that you "have heard" might be offensive to you.
I almost forgot this part..."the massive supplementation." ROFLMAO. If you are a woman, you'd BETTER be considering supplements. Don't get pregnant if you can't subject yourself to taking a few vitamins! If you have a LAP-BAND
® which IS working the way its marketers say it works (somebody must have one of those), then you probably are not getting in as much protein as you need. If you are an obese female living north of the equator (and probably using sunscreen), you likely have a Vitamin D deficiency (does your doctor test for Vit D 25 OH? Probably not. But because they are LOOKING for malabsorption, our doctors do.) So my "MASSIVE supplementation" consists of:
- Multivitamins (BA chewable, also recommended for banded patients)
- Calcium (BA chewable, I just double what every woman needs)
- Vitamin D (two teeny capsules a day)
- Vitamin C (why not?)
- Every other day, I throw in either a folic acid or a biotin (both sublingual), because I don't know if I'm getting much of that and it won't hurt anything. I don't "need" them...I'm just adding them "in case."
My labs are done more often than the labs of most people here, I'd bet. And I KNOW what my results are. That is a better situation--in my opinion--than to position myself to laugh at others for behavior I THINK they have to engage in while simultaneously guessing that my labs ore okay.
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The Ugly Part
You want to laugh at people you think have eating disorders? Try this:
CHEW AND SPIT
Gas problems entertain you? You'll enjoy this:
Anyone with this problem??? Gas increase w/pants on!!!!
Do belching and crapping your britches stories tickle you? Enjoy these:
Burps come from no where .............
and
TMI I know, but this was too funny (and gross) not to share.
Finally, when someone complains about others "dissing" their surgery choice and then posts comments to "dis" someone else's surgery choice, how can that person POSSIBLY think he or she is even a little bit better than the person or people they started out complaining about? That is not just ignorant...it's delusional.
Sue
Banded for three (mostly miserable) years, lowest BMI was 40-ish.
DS for two delightful years, current BMI is 30-ish. (Too bad about the part where I live on steak and candy...I'm WORKING on doing without so much candy or moving more...but a BMI of 30 is ten points lower than a band ever got me, so I'm a happy camper.) 
(duh)
