I Am Having A Hard Time Trying To Decide Lapband Or Sleeve?

[JulieC74 37]

Just having a difficult time trying to decide if I want a foreign object in me or having 85% of my stomach taken out. Anyone else struggling with this?

[mandagay 93]

It was an easy decision for me because the foreign object is reversible. They can't undo the bypass

[JulieC74 37]

True! Thank you...I am just getting nervous I think. I have one more month to go then the process starts.

[Toddy 758]

I agree 100% with Mandagay! My whole reason for choosing lap-band was because it is reversible. If for some reason lap-band doesn't work, you can always try something more drastic. You may also be interested in researching lap-band with plication, it sounds like the best of both worlds, and still no organs (or parts of organs) are removed.

[Jen75 33]

Lap band was easy for me to decide. I work in a psychiatric facility. The long term effects of bypass patients and the mal-nutrition component that come with it has greatly affected many people adversely. Mental illness, depression, etc all brought on due to the malnutrition component. The brain and your body need all the nutrients possible to stay healthy...a bypass patient has to be extra diligent In getting in supplements and making sure they absorb correctly if at all. Lapband we simply eat less food and still absorb the same as before. We just change out diet. Not to mention that it is reversible... Hope this helps....

[Brooklynqueen77 0]

Well to me that depends on how bad you eat now. I had my band put in on 4/28/08 I was 236lbs.

Monday I am now having gastric bypass. This is due to the yo-yo dieting the band has you on, I am once again 236lbs. I even got up to 245 last month.

I told my doc before surgery I eat about 1000 calories a day, and after band you are still able to eat the same amount of food, a couple of weeks after you get your band filled.

Since my doc is famous and it was so hard to get appts with her, I ended up waiting 6 weeks 8 weeks for fills and what they don't tell you is that you need a fill every 4 weeks! for it to be effective for me.

When the band expands you can virtually eat anything you like, it just takes a lil longer to eat it.

I got down to 216lbs had personal trainers, joined kick boxing, but it is still a struggle. You only loose about 20% of your body weight on band which I did, I was still technically obese. However at 4'11 I needed to loose 100 + lbs.

I feel everyone needs to see a shrink after surgery which I plan to do to really get to reason for my over eating. As well as work out which I will do as well.

There are alot of staffers at my doc office who had band and they are still obese??? Even Rex Ryan the Jets coach, who had the band, he was done by one of the docs at my docs office at NYU, He even gained weight back!

I recommend band for people who need to loose a little weight, and gastric for major weight i.e. 100lbs or more.

Side note: When I was at one of my LB group sessions do you know who was there, the grandson of the Weight Watchers founder! So that tells you something.

Good Luck with your decision. I hope the surgery goes well and gives you the assistance you need to loose weight.

BKQWN77

[hopetolose 192]

No not everyone needs to see a shrink after their surgery. That will depend on on your relationship with food. In my case I needed to get away from fast food and the band helped me with that and much more. I have lost 90% of my excess weight. My shrink visit only took 1/2 hour, she said I was a good to go and sent me on my way.

[Toddy 758]

It's definitely different for everyone. One of the first things I realized when researching the band was that for it to work your head has to be in the right place. I was actually researching wls for my daughter and quickly realized that she wasn't mentally ready for this yet...but I was!! So I went ahead with surgery and am loving it. I didn't need mental health counseling, other than the mandatory pre-surgery visit, but if my daughter had this surgery she would need extensive counseling both before and after because of her relationship with food.

[hopetolose 192]

brooklynqueen, there are several people on this site alone that have lost over 100 lbs with the band. The band is only as good as you make it be. Im not saying there are not complications that are beyond some peoples control, but they are few and far between. The band will work if you do the right things to support it. I think the only reason that the statistics are lower with weight loss with the band is because people dont use it right.

[NWgirl 574]

AVERAGE weight loss for a band patient is 40-60% of excess weight (depends on age). This includes the people who never followed through with the aftercare or who the band did not work for/they did not work with it. Some surgeries are better for different types of people- sleeve and gastric are kind of a one-stop shop, where you go for surgery and immediately feel the effect of surgery. Lapband is progressive restriction and requires constant maintenance.

I like that the band is removable if problems arise and that I still keep my stomach/intestines. The band is usually slower weight loss, but the five year outlook shows that the band is comparable with other WLS in terms of weight lost. If the band doesn't work, then I can consider more drastic options.

The only real concern for me about other WLS would be that after a couple years, the stomach may relax and stretch, causing weight gain due to eating more. There is nothing else to be done if this happens except consider banding. I guess this means you need to eat right mentally from the start, even though for the first couple years you could eat crap and lose weight anyways due to the malabsorptive nature of the procedure.

You must decide what kind of aftercare you want and what types of pros/cons you are willing to accept. Best of luck.

[JulieC74 37]

Thanks everyone ... decided rhe band is for me..i have a other sleep study Wednesday to adjust cpap and 23rd is my last "Dr supervised diet" then i get to go back to surgeon..classes and seminars complete ..sure has been a long journey but I'm ready!