Am considering this..

[HeatherSchwartz 43]

Have a consultation in Dallas on Monday. Im excited but scared to death. I hear so many good things but the bad experiences I've read about have me doubting. I can think of a million questions, mainly about how it feels inside you...what does it mean when they say it feel 'tight'? Also can anyone give me an estimate on what it cost without insurance?

[wwled 38]

Have a consultation in Dallas on Monday. Im excited but scared to death. I hear so many good things but the bad experiences I've read about have me doubting. I can think of a million questions, mainly about how it feels inside you...what does it mean when they say it feel 'tight'? Also can anyone give me an estimate on what it cost without insurance?

I was banded in 2010, have since converted to a sleeve due to complications of the lapband. If I remember correctly, my bill before insurance was 3,000 around there.

[HeatherSchwartz 43]

Thank you wwled, My friend has the sleeve and she loves it. Thought about that also but it seems more serious surgical procedure to me.

[wwled 38]

Thank you wwled, My friend has the sleeve and she loves it. Thought about that also but it seems more serious surgical procedure to me.

its more serious but in my opinion, for me anyway, it's worked better. With the lapband, you still have your original stomach , so for me it was easy to sit and eat and eat and eat and just let food pass from my pouch to my big stomach. With sleeve, I can't do that. But that's just me, I didn't make the lapband work.

[2muchfun 8,927]

Lapband usually runs around $10,000.

wwled makes a good point. The two surgeries are so different. Besides the obvious foreign object(band)around you stomach and the fact that with the sleeve you lose 85% of your stomach, both WLS operate differently to persuade you to lose fat.

The band is more voluntary. The band helps to dim your appetite so that you feel satisfied with smaller portions. Where the sleeve forces you to eat smaller portions due to the smaller stomach.

Some people like wwled(banded) seem to never feel that satisfied feeling. Some feel it but choose to ignore the satiety signal and continue to eat. Therefore, patients can continue to eat even too much healthy food and never lose or not lose enough to be considered a success.

As I understand it, the sleeve only has room for 4-6 ozs of food. As long as you follow the eating rules, you are forced to eat less and you lose weight. But, like the band, you can eat around the surgery by consuming ice cream, chocolate, nacho cheese sauce and so on.

You can't feel the band in your body. Tightness is a term we use to describe how small the hole(stoma) is between the pouch and lower stomach. The tighter the stoma is, the harder it is to push food through to the lower stomach. This process is the means by which the band helps us feel satisfied with less food. It's somewhat intangible.

tmf

Edited March 15, 2014 by 2muchfun

[2muchfun 8,927]

Let me add one more item.

This is just my opinion. If you're a patient who feels like they can't control their binging or cravings, the sleeve may be a better choice. I like to think of the satiety or feelings with the sleeve as more tangible than the band.

The band relies on patients to feel a very subtle signal that they've eaten enough. This is somewhat intangible for many banders. Some of the patients in this group do not succeed with the band and revise to another surgery(one of the benefits of the band).

[gowalking 10,790]

....and this is how grownups discuss various weight loss surgeries.

[HeatherSchwartz 43]

Thank you for the info...I am also looking into the sleeve. Very apprehensive about this because my friend that had it done looks like a scarecrow now. I am the type that eats whatever whenever, Happy, sad, bored, it doesnt matter. I LIKE food and that has me worried that the lap band might now work.

[gowalking 10,790]

Hi curiously. I can't influence you...you have to make the final decision. All I want to tell you is my experience. I love food...I don't like it, I love it. Having said that, I love being normal sized as well. And I still love food, I just have learned to eat a whole lot less of it. Yes, there are times I wish I could eat alot of it again, but it's fleeting and as long as you listen to your body and know when to stop, it actually feels good to walk away from the table without being so stuffed that you are uncomfortable. Again..I'm not advocating one surgery over another, I'm just trying to let you know that just because you love food, doesn't mean WLS can't work for you. Good luck with whatever you decide.