Wow, I was just at my first info session on the 12th and that is exactly the "info" I was getting. These doctors are very experienced in all these procedures, are part of all the bariatric surgery boards, run hospital departments that are centers for excellence. I went in very confident about using them, but they VERY much seemed to downplay the band and push bypass. They called the bypass the "gold standard" of wls in the USA.
I asked about statistics and such from Europe and Australia as I know they have been banding a lot longer. Banding is considered the "gold standard" there. The doctors told us it "was" the standard and that more and more people are getting bypass done there.
I don't want to have to travel for my surgery, these doctors are at one of my local hospitals. Then again, I'm not sure just how much support they will be if they would prefer to do the more invasive surgeries.
LinKo where are you at? Wouldn't that be crazy if we were at the same session? You can pm me also.