Vannette Olvera struggled with her weight her whole life — that is, until two years ago.
In August 2023, the 33-year-old Clark County resident underwent duodenal switch surgery at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, the only hospital between Vancouver and Olympia that offers the complex bariatric operation.
Before the surgery, Olvera’s 5-foot-4-inch frame carried 286 pounds. She had a body mass index of 44, which is considered by health care providers to be morbidly obese.
Today, she’s 144 pounds with a BMI of 24.
Olvera said the greatest benefit she has experienced since the surgery is being able to be more present with 3-year-old son, Oliver.
“I think it has changed my overall quality of life now that I am able to keep up with and be engaged with him and also help him to develop healthy eating,” Olvera said.
Duodenal switch surgery allows for more significant and long-term weight loss than a gastric bypass procedure, which is more common and less extensive.
The switch surgery makes up 2 percent of weight loss operations in the United States, according to the University of Chicago, the leading institution for the procedure. The duodenal switch removes a portion of the stomach and reroutes the small intestine to restrict the volume of food patients can eat and the amount of nutrients that can be absorbed in a patient’s blood flow.
“Ninety-nine percent of bariatric surgeons and 99 percent of bariatric patients didn’t do it because of its technical difficulty, and patients lost a lot of weight but they were nutritionally deficient, until a Spanish surgeon named Antonio Torres did a loop version,” PeaceHealth bariatric surgeon Dr. Mark Eichler said.
He has been performing the surgery since 2019 when the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery approved the new version of duodenal switch surgery.
“We had four patients waiting and ready to go between 2019 and 2020,” Eichler said.
Since 2019, he has performed about 250 duodenal switch surgeries. He said patients who qualify for the surgery typically have the “big five” weight-related disorders: sleep apnea, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes. Most of these symptoms dissipate soon after the procedure.
“It’s probably one of the best diabetic cures so they don’t have to inject themselves with insulin,” Eichler said.
People who have this surgery lose about 80 percent of their extra weight within two years and maintain that long-term weight loss, he said.
After the operation, it takes close to two months for patients to retrain their stomachs to digest food.
For the first two weeks after her surgery, Olvera was on a liquid-only diet that consisted of 30 milliliters of fluid every 15 minutes. After the first two weeks, Olvera graduated to eating purees and then ultimately small portions of solid foods.
“It’s learning to retrain everything that you developed in your lifetime, and it ultimately benefits you,” Olvera said.
Her support group at the Diabetes, Endocrine and Weight Management at PeaceHealth Salmon Creek Clinic helped her get through periods of food hunger and food grief.
“You have the tool, but your mind doesn’t change,” Olvera said.
She said she did not have a relationship with her body before the surgery, and it’s been a revelation to feel that connection.