sleeve or bypass

Hi,

I have never been called a lightweight before so this is cool. My bmi is 38 and I have sleep apnea, diabetes, fibromyalgia, hypertension and fatty liver and hashimoto disease.

Met wtih the nutritionalist and psycologist at my first appt today and was told that if I have the gastric sleeve done, since my bmi is 38, I have a total of 70 pounds to lose and I would probably only lose 40 to 45 pounds with the sleeve.  That ticked me off since I was counting on having that surgery.  Now I'm scared that I'll have to have the full bypass but honestly if I'm going to have surgery I don't want to suffer through it to only lose 40 pounds, you know? I mean I could never lose that on my own - I've tried for twenty years, but still compared to all the others seems like notsomuch. 

 

any thoughts suggestions comments?

Hi there,

I too have fibro and after the first couple months following RnY, I haven't had a flare.  My energy is amazing and I am moving more.  I will admit the first 2 months were rough.  The flares were almost daily and I was living on liquid Vicodin but then they went away as the weight melted off.  You can contact me if you want to know more.

Susan

I'm totally off blood pressure pills as well.

Welcome to the lightweighs.  i wanted a sleeve but my insurance would only pay for a band or RNY so I chose the RNY.  I have been totally happy with it and have lost all my excess weight and am off all meds except prilosec.  We have some sleevers who have lost it all but the averages say they will lose less than RNY. 

Thanks.  I really want a faster recovery though. Ugh. If I do the bypass I'll have to wait until around February due to work issues but with the sleeve I figured two weeks off then work from home another 1/2 week and I could do it August.  

I had my sleeve done on 6/4 and with weight lost on my two week pre op diet, I have already lost 30.2 pounds in a month. Almost half way there! You can lose the 70 lbs. with the sleeve. The Docs are just conservative about the numbers. But you have to work for it! The sleeve is a tool, not a miracle. Good luck.

Thanks. I am seeing a lot of lightweights who have lost a lot after the sleeve. I wonder if they pu**** because they get more money from it. Wouldn't put it past them!

Studies show similar results between bypass and sleeve. Averages for those surgeries range from 60-70% depending on the study with a few showing worse and a few showing better.  But most lightweights do better than national averages and losing 100% of excess weight is fairly common.

It sounds like someone took the national average and multiplied your excess weight against it as if everyone is exactly the same and all lose the average. But that's not how it works. The SMO tend to lose a smaller percentage of EW and lightweights tend to do better than average. And other factors can come into play as well.

This is something that a lot of programs do and it ticks me off every time I hear about it. Your program should be able to do a better job of predicting what YOU can lose based on your situation if they have a reasonable amount of experience. My surgeon said his lightweights typically lose 80% of EW with both sleeve and bypass, but that he didn't see any reason why I wouldn't lose 100% of mine. And he was correct.

One way or the other you are going to have recovery.  I think from my years on here that recovery depends more on the person than the type of surgery.  We have had sleevers who take 6 weeks off work and RNY folks who go back after 2 weeks.  How fit you are, how you handle the medications give for surgery, age, lack of complications, etc seem to play a bigger role than type.

All 3, Sleeves, RNY and DS can get you to where you want to go.  May be easier with RNY and DS to get there.  May be easier with DS to stay there.  All take a live time committment to change.

RNY'er here... last Jan 14th to be exact.  I went back to work after two weeks.  I have not had any problems other than constipation in the early weeks.  I have lost 77 lbs since surgery and 93 total.  I am close to my docs goal (mine is 35 more lbs to go).  I follow ALL THE RULES and am enjoying a much more active and free moving life.

Which ever you do... like Price says... your recovery is very individual as is your weight loss numbers.  Do your research and pick what's best for you and you should be fine.

Lucy