Lapband Vs. vertical gastrectomy

Hello everyone!  I'm Julie from Lake Lure, NC and I am interested in getting wls but I went to my first appointment last week and I was going to have the lap band surgery but the nurse said that the veritcal gastrectomy would be a good option! Now I wanted to get some information from people that had had the surgery.  Would you do it again?  any regrets?  Did insurance cover it?  Anything really?! Thanks so much!

Julie

 

hi Julie, welcome to the boards. i'm pre-surgical. just started the process. i'm looking into lap band myself. i originally was going with rny, but the whole idea of rearranging my insides gave me the heebie jeebies too much. now i have to loose 50lbs in order to do lapbad. and i may not even end up doing lap band either due to some insurance issues. all i can really tell ya is to use the boards here and surf the net for as much info as you can find. make an informed decision. find out as much as you can and then go with whichever procedure feels right to you.

Hi Julie -

I was originally going to do the lapband, but switched to the rny because the malabsorption issue was actually a benefit to me ... long story, you can read my profile if you want details ... at any rate, there are forums here that are specific to a particular type of surgery. I checked all of them before deciding. So, go look at the lapband forum and the VGB forum, I'd check the others as well. You may find some bias from people ... feeling that there way is the only way, or universally the best way. To find the forums, you can click "Surgery Types" in the blue bar that appears above you username on the top left of your window. It will display a list of the different surgery types. Just click on a link and off you go.

I would also do research on each type and talk with your surgeon, not just his RN to get an opinion about why VGB might be the best solution for you.

I hope that this helps.

Barb

Hey Julie - I was originally looking at lapband because I don't want malabsorption,then I stumbled on the VSG forum here. Check out the forum and the vsgfaq.com. I'm told its a little harder to get insurance to approve depending on your carrier but you don't know until you try right? It really comes down to what fits you best. GOod luck!