Only for the NON faint of heart...

To anyone that isn't faint of heart and that might be researching the sleeve~                   I want to know all the ins and outs of this surgery. LITERALLY. So, I went you tubing today and watched the procedure being done. Wooooaaaahhhh. It really doesn't look super complicated. Of course it's a surgery, but it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. I first wanted the lap band, but after more thought and research, decided on the sleeve. I am only in the beginning stages of the long process to have the surgery, but wanted to see what was going to be done to me. When I posted on here before about my feelings in regards to having some of my actual stomach REMOVED FOREVER someone put it quite simply and comforting to me. That part of the stomach is like an appendix,tonsils, etc. Just another one of those parts you don't really need and can live without. lol Anyway, just thought I would share. Hugs, Joni

I know that I don't qualify as an expert because I'm still 11 days from surgery (and counting!) but maybe I can help anyway.  I always said I would NEVER do surgery.  I thought if I couldn't do it on my own then I didn't want it badly enough.  When my sister mentioned she wanted to do it, I had already been thinking about it and we went to the seminar together.  (My sister had already been to a seminar from another surgeon.)  I knew that if I had surgery it would be Dr. Walton because of some people I know and he also did Bobby Barry, Jr. on channel 4 and I have watched him melt away!  That was the first time I learned about the sleeve.  I had heard of it in passing but didn't know the details.  My sister has to do the sleeve.  (she takes NSAIDS so she can't do anything that has the malabsorptive part)  She said immediately she was doing the sleeve and I was busy being freaked out by the fact that they removed 75-80% of your tummy.  Yikes!  They're gonna throw my tummy in a slop bucket?  You gotta be kidding me!?  I even went to my 1st consultation with Walton and told him RNY.  But the more time went by and the more research I did, I decided to go with the sleeve.  I like that the mechanics of how the food enters and exits your tummy is not changed.  And, for me, it all came down to the fact that anyone can out eat any surgery.  So I I truly only have 1 "honeymoon" year to change my relationship with food, I might a well do the sleeve.  Plus I'm self-pay and that's saving 5K.  Although the money means nothing to me if I can't lose and maintain that loss.  I'm at peace with my decision because I think it is the right one for me.  I'm tired of being tired all the time and I hate being overweight.  I believe that this is my time!  This is my chance to take control of my life and use food as fuel instead of entertainment as our bodies were designed. I wish you much luck in your journey.  I think WeightWise is an incredible program.  Please work that program and use the people there to support you and use all of us here on OH to support, entertain and maybe inform you! Kim

Very well said Kim !!! - And yes, this is your time. I know, because you seem determined and you have the right attitude - you follow the doctor's and nutritionist's orders, you exercise, hey, you even watched us "lab rats" eat and took notes..so, I think you are ready for this. By the way, they took 2/3 of my stomach out, but don't worry, it won't go in a slop bucket!!! They send it to a diagnostic lab

 I love my sleeve.  I don't "dump" and i dont have to worry about the fills with the band.  When I first of the sleeve I was at my seminar for the band,  The nurse told us about the sleeve, and then told us of the complicaitons that she had with the band.  She later told us that during the next week the surgeon that I chose for my surgery was going to be taking her band out and doing a sleeve on her.  This is a woman that worked with 5 different bariatric surgoens in the Dallas.  She could have chose any surgery with any surgeon, yet she was using the same one i was.  This put my mind to ease and I have not looked back. Good Luck