I had surgery on July 28th 2009, just 2 days ago. I am 20 years old and have been very over weight all my life. After going through diet after diet, nothing was working. I watched a couple of my friends go through the gastric bypass and my roommate had the realize band surgery. after seeing their progress I decided I needed to make a decision. There were so many things I liked about both but the fact of having something that couldn't be reversed scared me. Even though I know I will probably never have the band removed, if something were to go wrong I would want the option to have it taken off. So far things are going good, although I'm not sure what I can and cannot have. Good luck to you all!