WHY THE SLEEVE???????

Why did you choose the sleeve vs bypass????? I am still trying to figure out the best one for me I THINK ITS THE SLEEVE ???????But im told I wont be happy with it due to I need to loose 150 lbs. I am LITTLE SCARED OF BYPASS.....im very healthy fit like a horse and built like one to lol give me your reasons for your chose???????

Use the search feature above...the magnifying glass at top of the page. There is so much on this topic. Research and make an educated decision.

Good luck with deciding!

I lost 225 pounds with my sleeve - 98% of my excess body weight. I'm a normal weight and I've been maintaining for over a year now. I love my sleeve, and you will too.

People suggested that I would be better off with the RNY, but I chose the sleeve because it is a simpler operation - it doesn't bypass the pyloric valve at the base of the stomach, and it doesn't reroute the intestines. I also didn't like the idea of dumping, and its less prevalent with the sleeve.

I think people recommend the RNY because its been around longer, but with more and more time and information, the sleeve is looking better and better for weight loss and maintenance.

If you want the sleeve, you should get the sleeve. Both surgeries are just tools and they are both effective for weight loss.

best wishes,

Carol

Thanks carol I am so happy for you and I cant wait the sleeve is deff for me......

You can lose 150 pounds with any surgery you choose. The key is being super compliant with the post surgery diet. There is no limit to the amount of weight you lose. It's all about how hard you work your program.

If you have GERD (acid reflux) RNY might be a better choice for you. The sleeve is notorious for making reflux worse. The bypass is recommended to cure acid reflux.

Both surgeries require you to take vitamins for the rest of your life and get regular lab work to make sure you are not deficient.

The recommendation for both surgeries is to avoid taking pain relievers with NSAIDS (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Aleeve, etc). The old recommendation was that VSG patients could take NSAIDS, but that has been updated. If you have pain from arthritis, be aware that you will be restricted to Tylenol based medication for pain, or risk the formation of ulcers.

RNY patients lose weight faster due to a temporary malabsorption of calories, but both surgeries will get you to a goal weight.

I am diabetic and have GERD. My surgeon said since I am diabetes, bypass the gold standard. I told him I understood that, I had done the research. However, I did not want to have the bypass due to many reasons, one being having my intestines rerouted and another being the hair loss is more significant with the bypass. There are other reasons as well. He told me he did not have a problem doing the sleeve on me. I understand the sleeve can make GERD worse but I an willing to take meds forever for it as opposed to having bypass. It doesn't always make it worse. My friend was on GERD medication before the sleeve. She had to take it one month after and is now off of it completely. I understand this may not be the case for me though.

I need to lose 150 lbs also. As previously stated, you can lose 150 lbs with the sleeve. Many people have done it.

Thanks guys I think im having the sleeve.........

I have a DS. My mom, sister and bil all have sleeves. My daughter is getting a sleeve in 8 days. She comes by her VERY efficient metabolism honestly. I always say we are famine machines and that, in the event of the zombie apocalypse, we will be the last ones standing, surviving on grass and pinecones ; -)

I found that in my late 20's a weight loss diet was 700 calories a day to support around 3 or 4 lbs a month of loss. A maintenance diet was around 1250. I am sure you have some idea of how hard it is to create a healthy menu for 700 calories a day. I lost and gained weight in the usual pattern up until my my daughter was born at 30. My highest weight at that point had been 140 and I was down at 128 and holding when I got pregnant. In my mid thirties my Internist raised with me the possibility of having surgery. At that point I weighed 225lb, on a 5'1" frame with a bmi of 41 if I remember correctly.

I eliminated the sleeve because based on my experience dieting, I felt it would not be powerful enough. I eliminated the RNY option because I felt the surgery was lacking finesse, and that the stoma, and dumping issues resulting from it, were unnecessary discomforts. The DS is a more complex surgery, but results in a more elegant solution that allows the body to carry on digestion in a somewhat more normal way, allowing more normal eating habits. Both of them are more prone to malabsorbtion than the sleeve, but are also more powerful tools. I choose the DS, and while I have had to manage the malabsorbtion carefully and be responsible for my annual panels and taking my changing and abundant supplements, I have maintained my weigh between 110 and 120 for 15 years. I am usually at 115, but my cycle or being ill or traveling can push me up or down 5 lbs in a few days. Happily once my cycle straightens out, or I get home, or I recover from the cold, I quickly return to 115. It is kind os a pain to have a size 2 and a size 4 wardrobe, but other than the shift in sizes I don't think about it much anymore.

My sister has a different relationship with food than I do and is a binge eater. She weighed 330lbs at 5'4". She elected to have the sleeve because she didn't want to have the fallout of the malabsorbtion. I pointed out to her that she was getting a smaller tool and had a larger task ahead but she is kind of stubborn and stayed with the sleeve. She had it two years ago. She dropped from a size 28 to a size 10 in about a year and since then has eaten her way back to a size 16 and is trying desperately to hold the line there. I suspect she is thinking in the back of her mind about a revision, but it's expensive and a huge effort, so I don't know if she will decide to do that. We don't discuss her weight.

A year ago my mom and my sister's husband had the sleeve. My mom was 185lbs, 5' tall and has been very successful, loosing down to her goal weight of 115 and staying there so far. She and I have done a lot of talking about eating habits and always support each other in our efforts. She was a huge help when I was going thru my surgery and I am happy to return the favour.

My BIL weighed in over 450. he was a 58" pant at around 5'8" tall. He has lost down to around 230 I think, and is in a 42" pant. His goal was a 36" pant but he has stalled out and seem to not be loosing any more.

So the sleeve worked for them, in varying degrees, but it was a less powerful tool.

My daughter, following in the family tradition, was tiny until puberty, and then sprouted in every way, around 10. At 22 and 5' she weighs 165lbs and is miserable. She has done the careful dieting and lost it only to have it all creep back on. She is having the sleeve on November 2nd. I feel that because of her youth, the smaller amount she needs to loose to get to a healthy weight, and her generally disciplined habits that the sleeve will be a powerful enough tool to help her manage her weight at this point. As she ages and the metabolism slows down and becomes even more efficient she can consider adding the DS to it if she needs to. I hope she doesn't, but the option will be there.

So, all in one family, five people, five choices, four outcomes and one potential. I had great weight loss and long term control but have had severe anemia and had to take very good care of myself to avoid serious problems. My mom has had a near perfect outcome, is SO much healthier today and seems as if she lost 15 years along with the 70lbs. My sister is in a better place right now than she was in before the surgery, but her future outcome is uncertain. We hope she will be able to maintain where she is, but the jury is out on that one still. My BIL is in a much better place, not where he wanted to be, but so much healthier, more active and happy. As long as he maintains where he is now I think everyone will consider it a success. My daughter's journey is just beginning and she is in the "I HATE protein supplements and it makes everything taste nasty and life sucks" stage. We have yet to pass thru the "What EVER made me think this was a good idea??!!!" or the gas passing that usually resolves that question. I am looking forward to when she begins to emerge from the experience with a new, healthy body and a better frame of mind.

There isn't any one right answer, is there? In your position I chose the bypass and never regretted it even though it is harder to manage than the sleeve. My mom and BIL choose the sleeve and have had it be either the perfect tool, or a good enough tool to do the job with. My sister should have had the bypass, but didn't, because she was wary and somewhat afraid.

You could be any of us. I think a big part of it is your relationship with food. Given how much you need to loose, I think with a sleeve you will have to be very disciplined for the rest of your life to make the sleeve work for you. If that isn't a problem for you then it may be a good solution. It is certainly nice to not have the malabsorbtion issues to deal with. If you are not so confident about food and how you deal with it then the sleeve may not be enough of a tool. And the difficulty is you won't know for SURE until AFTER you have the surgery.

Good luck working your way thru this.

I choose the sleeve & am very happy with my choice. Yeah I had people tell me that because of the amount I needed to lose that I might be better off with the rny or the ds, but I knew what my dieting/weight loss pattern has been & frankly I felt that I didn't need the extra boost that malabsorption procedures would have given me.

Yes you have to be disciplined with the vsg, but you have to be disciplined with any wls, so it really comes down to which one you could do for life. In fact it was the very lack of discipline in part that got me to to the SMO category.

The rerouting of intestines & malabsorption of nutrients for life is not something I wanted to live with. I also didn't want to have a remnant stomach that couldn't be scoped. If I found that I was truly doing everything that I needed to do post op & couldn't lose the weight, I would've revised to the DS, but so far that doesn't look like something I would need to do.

My tool is the strongest tool for me right now, but it's not the only tool in my arsenal to lose the weight. A tool can only be strong if you work it properly. You can have the "strongest" tool in your toolbox but if you don't use it right you can still fail at wls.

Good Luck in whatever you choose to do.

My surgery isn't until 10/29, but I can tell you why I have chosen it over the other options. I had the lap band several years ago. On it, I lost about 130 lbs and was a size 6 on my way to a 4. I am vertically challenged at 5 ft, but was almost 300 lbs before lap band. I maintained that very well, until the lap band slipped...and kept slipping to eventually somehow wrap itself around my stomach. At that time, the weight flew back on. I had no restriction, and even though I was used to eating much smaller portions, didn't realize until it was way too late that those "one more bite" moments were more and more frequent. I had the lap band removed in 2012, due to this complication. I had HORRIBLE reflux (which had completely disappeared after I had lost all the weight), was gaining weight VERY quickly and just felt myself spiraling down.

I have gained, not all, but a significant portion of my weight back, starting at 225, before my pre op liquid diet. For me, the sleeve represents the next logical tool to use. It is similar to the band in restriction and rules to follow. Of course the surgery is vastly different. I have issues dealing with the fact that I feel like they are amputating a part (my stomach) of my body that is not injured or infected. I am trying to think of it like an appendix, in that it is not operating in the way it is supposed to, therefore needs to be removed. However, even with that hesitation, it seems the least invasive to me, in that my intestines are not being re-routed. I was even less comfortable with that idea. I personally have a friend who had RNY and I have seen her go through a dumping episode. Now, understand that not all RNY patients will go through dumping, but I have seen it in action. She has slowly, but surely regain a lot of weight back. Clearly, to me, it shows a lack of compliance on her part.

But with any of these surgery, compliance is a BIG part of making your tool work. I showed myself, when I had the band, that I can comply with the "rules" Yeah. I tested them a time or two, as I suspect most people do, consciously or not, but for the most part, lap band worked great for me, because I worked at it...until it stopped working for me.

So, this is why I personally chose the sleeve. I hope you do your research. Reading people's stories, can be informative, but it is only a part of the picture to consider. Watch videos on the surgery, read what your relationship with food and drink will be like. Think about your history and HONESTLY ask yourself if you can be compliant to the life changes that you are facing. Then, if you are certain on what will work for you, make your choice.

Good luck to you!

Wyldblu