Need WLS statistics, please!

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4430853/PRE-OPS-ONLY- Post-ops-read-about-the-DS-at-your-own-risk/

This post doesn't have actual statistics, but what are you looking for?  Scientific publications?  Graphs?  The word of a surgeon?  Percentage of comorbidities cured?  For how long?  Are you SMO - oh, I just looked at your profile - and yes you are, SSMO in fact.  You shouldn't be considering ANY other surgery than the DS.

Your parents have no more right - paying for it or not - to decide what surgery is best for you than they do to direct how an attorney conducts your defense if they are paying for it (I'm an attorney - it is VERBOTEN for the attorney to even DISCUSS the case with someone besides the client without the client's permission, and IMPERMISSIBLE to allow the person paying the bills to direct how the case is conducted).  They either give you the money freely and willingly and let YOU chose what is best for YOU - who is the one who has to live with the consequences for the rest of your life - or you find some other way to pay for it yourself.

I'm probably around your parent's age, and have adult children - some of whom are not living their lives how I want them to (OK, none of them are - but then again, I'm a task-master).  I cannot imagine withholding money for a surgery that they need because I disagree with which one they chose - when I don't know **** about any of them other than reading billboard advertising.  They are overreaching and being controlling, no matter how "well-meaning" they think they are being - and they are JUST PLAIN WRONG.

This really chaps my hide.  Next week, I will be 8 years out from my DS.  I am not only an attorney, I am a PhD in molecular biology/biochemistry.  I researched the living HELL out of my surgical options, and 8 years later I KNOW I made the right choice, and spend HOURS every week helping people learn about the benefits of the DS, and helping them get insurance to cover it.

Now, if they REALLY want to do their research, THEY should be reading here.  THEY should be searching on PubMed.

Here are some threads from here, and some research papers from PubMed for them to start, to learn how TERRIBLE the CrapBand is (keeping in mind how much WORSE the SMO do with the CrapBand - much worse than people who are only MORBIDLY obese).

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4304076/PLEASE-RESPOND-Explain-your-Lap-Band-AGB-Experience/

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4376706/If-your-band-FAILED-you-please-check-in-here/

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4386446/Allergan-amp-Realize-bands-recall-information/

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4387717/benefit-of-lap-band-surgery-on-16year-old/

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/LapBand/4398937/New-here-Researching-and-Learning/

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/lapband/4399622/Newbie-from-Chicago/#36376935

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/lapband/4421031/I-hate-my-band/


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2698858/?tool=pu bmed
"The placement of a gastric band appears to be a disservice to many morbidly obese patients and therefore, in the current culture of evidence based medicine, the prevalent use of laparoscopic gastric banding can no longer be justified."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21422330
"However, because nearly 1 out of 3 patients experienced band erosion, and nearly 50% of the patients required removal of their bands (contributing to a reoperation rate of 60%), LAGB appears to result in relatively poor long-term outcomes."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21188545
"LAGB can achieve an acceptable weight loss in some patients, but the failure in one out of four patients does not allow proposing it as a first-line option for the treatment of obesity."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20496124
"Of the study population, 146 (52.9%) patients had at least one complication requiring reoperation. Presently, only 148 (53.6%) patients still have their original band, 49 (17.8%) had their original band replaced with a new one, and 79 (28.6%) had their band removed."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19730234
"The percent of excess weight loss at 4 years was higher in the gastric bypass group (68 ± 19% vs. 45 ± 28%, respectively, P < 0.05)."

Regarding this study - I find this VERY disturbing: "Between 2002 and 2007, 250 patients with a body mass index of 35 to 60 kg/m2 were randomly assigned to gastric bypass or gastric banding."  Randomly assigned a surgery type???  Holy fuck!!  Who would participate in such a trial??

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18795380
7 year study on lapbands, with SOME patients converted to RNY:
"Patients converted to gastric bypass, and those retaining gastric bands throughout the study had very similar outcomes."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18656830
This is interesting in that the LapBand patients long-term assorted into two types when you plot weight:
"It has been our perception that the weight loss results after gastric bypass are relatively normally and tightly distributed around the mean, making it relatively predictable. However, we have found that the results after adjustable gastric banding are more highly variable. In fact, there appears to be 2 groups of patients after this restrictive operation. One group, that is able to work well and does not struggle much against the restriction, accepts the limits that it imposes, and another group, that does not easily learn to deal with the restriction and hence mal-adapts."


Tell your parents they really have no business dictatate hich surgery is appropriate for you, but if they want to understand how YOU are making the decision, they should read along with you.

DO NOT GET THE LAPBAND, I REPEAT, DO NOT GET THE LAPBAND!!! i have had the crapband for 4 1/2 yrs and all this alleged "less invasive" surgery has done for me is give me gastritis, esophagitis and a hiatal hernia. i lost 30lbs the first year then gained and ended up weighing 18lbs MORE than i did before surgery...why? because i can eat dense protein and veggies without getting stuck. Things like chicken, pork, salad, broccoli, etc. 

Getting stuck makes you feel like you are having a mini heart attack, severe pressure in the chest, faint feeling, sweating, feeling like you cant swallow and spit filling you mouth...fun, huh!!!

Plus, with the lapband there is no room for error. If you have a week/weekend with a lot of events that include foods, which most do, and you are not vigilant about EVERYTHING you put onto your mouth YOU WILL GAIN. There is no malabsorptive factor to the lapband so unless you want to continue to DIET for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, the lapband is NOT the way to go because honestly, in a perfect world all of us would eat perfectly and have perfect metabolism:) We can get close to that perfect world and thats call the DS!!!

Im revising to the DS later this year:)

Good luck and please feel free to contact me thru pm if you would like to talk:) jen

Listen - this is YOUR health,  YOUR body,  YOUR life.  Just because they are lending you the money does NOT give them the right to interfere in your medical decisions or in your discussions with doctors and others.  

Clearly they have done ZERO research and are ignorant about WLS.

DO NOT GET A LAP BAND.

+++++ LIKE +++++

YAY and AMEN! It's not like they are going to be feeling the pain from stuck foods, the vomiting, the way less than needed weight loss, the fills and unfills, the possible life threatening complications from a band gone bad. YOU get to feel all that and then some. I'd tell them the complications of the band and then ask them why they want to torture you like that if they love you. But then i've become rather blunt like that lately so you don't have to be as rude as I am getting but like newyork***** wrote this is about YOU and not them! Don't settle for less than the perfect surgery for you

When I first looked in to WLS I looked into the band too. Thanks to the lovely ladies (and gents) here I realized I didn't want to be cut into more than I had too and that for my BMI the band wouldn't do crap for me. There's great links and info posted here so I'm sure you'll have plenty to give your parents. I just wanted to welcome you to the site and send a huge *HUG*! This is the first step into your new life. Make sure you let us know what happens after you educate them.

Kristen, unless you are the youngest librarian in the history of the country, your parents have no business trying to tell you what surgery to have. You are an intelligent, capable adult. You are the one who will live with the consequences of this decision. Regardless of  who pays for it, the decision MUST be yours and yours alone.
      The lap band works best, when it does work (which it often doesn't) for the people who need the least help with their MO. I don't mean to be critical in any way when I say that that isn't you. You have a lot of excess weight to lose, and in all liklihood a broken metabolism. The lap band has no metabolic benefits whatsoever, and that's aside from all the problems people have with food getting stuck, band erosion, band slippage, never getting just the right amoung of fill, etc. Lap band has the highest rate of reoperation of any wls presently available.
    I would be glad to provide you with some great articles about the excellent longterm results of the DS not only for amount of excess weight loss, but also for maintaining that weight loss AND for maintaining good nutrition. I am also sending you a pm.

Larra
    

And, I would add in your discussion with your parents, that all the SMART people get a DS. :)