gastric sleeve vs. gastric bypass?
Dear Monique,
Dear Monique,
Hey there-I have missed you at the COF groups!! How are you? I hope your great. Let me say, first-I have not had the sleeve-BUT-my best friend (Mel) had it-and one of the girls I angeled for-Tammy Hughes, had it. When I first met with my surgeon, due to my BMI being so high-they did suggest it to me-but they presented it as a 2 part surgery, and being that I HATE HOSPITALS and SURGERY-I vowed to lose enough weight pre-op to have the RNY and thats what they sent approval to my insurance company for. I did not know Mel or Tammy at that time.
Let me say-I met Mel first-she had the sleeve-also presented as a 2 part surgery, due to the lack of statistics and so on-they didnt have a lot of long term post op patients to give us statistics on. Mel went in weighing almost 500# and had her surgery in April of 2006 and has lost 280#. Dr. Scott did her surgery and she will NOT have to have the 2nd step, and does not want or need it. Tammy is 5 months out-or almost there-and she did lose a lot before surgery, but she is sitting at over 80# since-and I dont believe she will need that 2nd part either.
Had I known then, what I know now-I would have gladly had the sleeve-for 2 reasons. They dont ever dump-like RNY patients do-has something to do with the routing of the intestines that they do not do on a sleeve patient. Not only do they NOT dump-but they do NOT have a stoma-which is the part of our stomach that tells our head that we are hungry-so they do not get hungry. Now, I just found out I have a bad gb, and I have been very sick on and off for a whole year-but due to my having ulcers on my suture line of my new pouch-we always thought thats what was making me sick. Who knows if this would have been found a lot sooner if I would have had a different recovery year or not-I have had awesome results with the RNY, BUT I have also had episodes of dumping, for a whole 6 weeks at a time-even if it was healthy, on our list and yadi yadi. Dont know if it was gb or RNY....but, I have watched Mel AND Tammy-and they didnt go through anything like RNY patients do. Their stomachs are the sz of bananas and shaped as such as well-so they can eat a little more than an RNY pt with a tummy the sz of a hard boiled egg. They can also eat cake, drink soda or that kind of thing and not get sick. Some think this is a bad thing-I personally LOVE having the control over food and walking away now feeling powerful over it-but some would not see it the same way-each person is different and some wouldnt fair so well knowing they could eat cake, chips and such and not get sick to remind them not to-you know?
Since I didnt personally experience it-if you want their email addresses, let me know and I will hook you up with them, I know that they are more than happy to help anyone with sharing their experiences with the sleeve and just havent seen your post. Please keep us posted as well. Maybe he can come to group? It would be great to see you, even if your late. We miss you. I wish him luck-and I know, just from being around those 2, that they have had the same, desired results with the sleeve as I have had with the RNY and that they dont suffer with dumping and hunger like some of us RNY patients do. Like I said-I would do the sleeve if I had it all to do over again. I hope this helps somewhat. Always, Janet
