Lapband vs Bypass

[Laurie123 0]

I met with the psychiatrist last week and I meet with the surgeon tomorrow. The psychiatrist spent a lot of time explaining that the lap band is all hype and advertising and to get results you need to to the bypass. I want the band for obvious reasons including less invasive, slower weight loss (I see this as a good thing), can remove if there is a problem, etc. She kept telling me that the band is almost always revised with bypass and the patients in general are so unhappy. I have been stewing on this for the past week. Everything I've read tells me to do the band, everything. Yes, I know that the results take more effort, which is a good thing I believe. We're changing our lives we should be working for it. The band is a tool only. I don't know, can I get some thoughts from all of you? I plan on having this discussion with the surgeon and the more I think about it, they psychiatrist was very unprofessional saying things like this. I'm having my surgery at the Cleveland Clinic so this is totally unexpected. I have to lose about 120 lbs. Thoughts????

[va_viv 3]

Hey! I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's hard enough to make this decision without having someone else, who is suppose to be there to help you and guide you, knock it down and make you second guess yourself. I agree that was extremely unprofessional.

All I can do is tell you why I chose lap band, getting banded tomorrow...YAY. The main thing that attacted me to the lap band was, like you mentioned, the slow weight loss. With the band I feel that you have to change your life FROM THE BEGINNING or you won't be successful. You are learning to eat better and completely change your unhealthy eating habits in order to lose the weight. With the bypass you are almost guaranteed to lose the weight..so it's kinda backwards. You lose a ton of weight then to maintain you must learn to eat better? Doesn't really make sense to me. If a bypass patient doesn't learn to change their habits they'll gain all the weight back. You will notice that there are several bypass peeps on here getting banded on top of their bypass because they have been unsuccessful. I'm not talking bad about them or am saying that they all were unsuccessful due to eating bad..but it happens.

My other concern was loose skin. I'm 25 yrs old and I frankly don't have money to be getting plastic surgery. I want to be able to lose weight slow enough for my skin to catch up. I'm not saying that noone has loose skin I'm just saying it's almost a guarantee with the bypass (speaking from experience, I know many bypass people).

Lastly, the re-routing of my insides is something that doesn't sound very appealing. I want to get help without having to change my insides.

I hope that helps. Think long and hard about this because I know it's a tough decision. Just know that if you're dedicated you'll definitely be successful in which ever surgery you choose, just make sure it's your decision and don't let anyone (like that stupid psych) change it. You'll KNOW when you choose the right one.

Tons of luck to you!! :tongue2:

Edited October 5, 2010 by va_viv

[Laurie123 0]

Thanks that helps. I researched this very thoroughly and was completely comfortable with my decision, but then got concerned.

Good luck to you tomorrow!

[Mariasha 3]

Find a new psychiatrist fast. Highly unprofessional.

The psychiatrists job in this process is to evaluate if you have any emotional issues that are contributing to your weight problem, not to tell you which procedure you should have done.

If you want to discuss which surgery to do, you can discuss that with your surgeon.

Good luck with your surgery!