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Trying to Make the Correct Decision

Uptwist
on 5/29/11 11:36 am - Schererville, IN

Hello Fellow WLS's,

I am three weeks  away from surgery and I am having second thoughts.  I am schedule for the lap-band, but  thinking about the vertical sleeve.  I chose the lap- band because of the flexibility with it.  In a year or two, I plan on having another child that I will have to carry.  I want to make sure that my baby with have all the nutrients that he or she can have when I am pregnant. I have seen the post for and against lap-band/vsg, both carry risk; What would you get?  My insurance doesn't care...I jumped through hoops to get approval!!!!!!!!


Twisting  Over My Decision,

Uptwist

prettypixels
on 5/29/11 12:47 pm
 As someone who HAS a band, which I hate?  I'd say go for the sleeve.  A big advantage with the sleeve is the elimination of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, which is produced largely in the part of the stomach that is removed.  With the band, what I get is stuck, and pain, and the rest of my tummy gurgling with hunger.  Constantly.  I've thrown up 4 or 5 times a day since getting the stupid thing.  I wouldn't wi**** on my worst enemy.  

The VSG has no malabsorption so you shouldn't have any problem having enough nutrients for a baby, although I know people have had babies without problems after the DS and RNY as well.  

Good luck! 
Banded in 2001 at 217 lbs - Band to DS revision 10/25/11 at 310 lbs
If life with your band sucks, you are not alone and it's not your fault.  Check out the failed lap band group!

    
Jennifer S.
on 5/30/11 3:30 pm - CA
 I was going with the band until I went to my first support group and talked to some girls with the sleeve. I got my sleeve in April 2011. I love love love my sleeve. I am losing fast enough, yet slow enough. I eat 3 meals a day. Talk to your dr about the baby concerns. There are several people with the sleeve that are having babies. Good luck with your journey.


 Jennifer    
OldMedic
on 5/31/11 2:31 am - Alvaton, KY
I am over 2 and a half years post-op, and i LOVE my sleeve.  I lost 195.5 pounds post-op, with no problem at all.

Maintaining my weight loss has been easy.  I eat anything and everything.  I just don't (and can't) eat very much of it.

The ONLY danger is:  You can graze (eat small amounts all day long), and if you do, you WILL regain weight.  But, if you stick to meals, and you continue to exercise regularly, there is absolutely NO reason why you can not maintain a healthy weight.

A former Army Medic (1959-1969), Registered Nurse (1969-2000), College Instructor (1984-1989) and a retired Rehabilitation Counselor.  I am also a dual citizen of the USA and Canada.

High Weight 412 lbs.                    Date of Surgery 360.5                                 Present  170 lbs   

        
Doris Cervenka
on 6/11/11 2:11 am, edited 6/11/11 2:17 am - Ganado, TX
      I here about so many problems with the band.  It is pain when fulled.  And it can be over filled.  Plus weight lose is not that great. For really high B.M.I.s.  I was told if have than 60 pounds to lose do get the lap band. So many  people who get the band think I am only to keep for a year or two until I lose the weight or get diabetes under control and then go back to normal.  And be able to keep the weight off with exercise. Once I lose the weight I will not  let come back.  Which is just wishful thinking. Because,  Of are body types and genetic codes.

The Lap band cost just a much Gastic-by- pass without the continued cost of refilling the band and the pain that goes with it.  Please look under Failed Bandsters and you will about all the problems with the lap band.  Throwing up after it is filled and feeling dizzy.  Losing bands not tight enough or to lose. Having to get revisions.
fiveholts714
on 7/11/11 12:33 pm - St. George, UT
I had a band and hated it. It was painful and I was starving all the time I ended up getting a RNY and have done really well. I don't know that much about the sleeve, but I'd consider anything before I'd do a band.
The_Usual_Suspect
on 7/28/11 10:27 pm - GA
VSG on 02/08/12
Check out the VSG board.  There is a lady there who has had great success with the VSG and is currently expecting a baby. 
losing_the_band
on 8/1/11 3:14 pm
Revision on 08/27/15
As someone who has a lapband and is needing revision, I say get the sleeve.  The lapband is great, when it works.  According to my new surgeon, only about 1/3 of patients who get it are actually successful in losing weight and keeping it off.  Another 1/3 struggle, and the final 1/3 fail. 

I was initially successful.  I lost all of my weight.  Sure, I had severe acid reflux and couldn't tolerate many foods (foods that were juicy and solid at the same time, like fresh fruit, were especially bad) when I had ideal restriction for weight loss, but I lost 100% of my excess weight.  I eventually got to the point where I couldn't tolerate the acid reflux anymore.  I was literally sleeping sitting up on a 12" wedge pillow, and was still waking up several times a night because I was aspirating stomach acid.  My chest was aching 24/7 because of it.  So, I went and got an unfill, which got rid of the worst of the reflux (still suffered moderate reflux, but I was at least able to sleep the majority of nights without aspirating).  Of course, that meant my restriction went bye-bye and I started gaining weight. 

I lived like that for 2 1/2 years because I moved and didn't have the funds or the time to find a new surgeon.  I finally made an appointment with a great surgeon and saw him for the first time last week.  Apparently, my original surgeon had overfilled my band, and we never knew the extent of it because she didn't have a fluoroscope in her office.  Extreme overfill (even with the unfill I'd had over two years ago) lead to massive pouch dilation, which has basically put me in the position of REQUIRING surgery now.  My surgeon gave me three options: 1) remove the band and leave my stomach alone, 2) reposition my band into a more ideal position and hope it doesn't happen again, or 3) revise to the sleeve.

To be honest, after 4 years of having this thing in me, I really think of it as a ticking time bomb.  That may be an unpopular opinion, but it's how I feel.  With the sleeve, once you're past the initial healing period, chances of "complications" go way, way down.  With the band, the farther out from surgery you are, the more chances of problems, in my opinion.  Slips, erosions, pouch dilation, etc.  If you ask me, while being banded is better than being fat, it's still not an ideal life.  Worrying about whether new foods will "agree" with your band, randomly "sliming" or "PB-ing" on foods that you've not had problems eating before, port pain, worrying about slipping your band if you catch the flu and have to really puke, etc.   I'm not saying that there aren't people that are happy being banded, I just think that their complications haven't surfaced yet.  Hell, I loved being banded, when the benefits outweighed the problems. 

Four years ago, banding was supposed to be the next great WLS and turn out to be better than RNY.  You simply didn't see that many people needing revision or removal of the band, and the ones you did see were usually dismissed as not having best utilized their "tool."  When I came back to OH a couple of weeks ago, I was stunned by how many people were revising from bands or were posting about major complications. 

Lap-Band 2007

Lap-Band Replaced 2011

APPROVED for revision to RNY! Awaiting surgery date!

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