I chose the sleeve over band for a few reasons - these are my personal opinions, worth what you paid for them, and not meant as a bash on the band, I am not a Doctor nor do I play one on TV:
1) The band is a mechanism, manmade, it can break. My cousin had the band and it helped to her lose 100 lbs, but then it broke. She revised to Gastric By Pass (RNY).
2) I also thought that having a port, that you can feel under your skin and needing to go for adjustments was too creepy for me.
3) It is adjustable - you can have the saline removed, this may be a positive to some, but to me that was a free ticket to quits-ville.
4) It is reversible, done with the new lifestyle? Have it removed - again free ticket to quits-ville.
5) Restrictions on what you can eat - with Sleeve once you are healed there are no dietary restrictions in terms of stringy vegetables or dry goods.
Some people look at the sleeve and say it seems so extreme, it is not reversible, you will have 85% of your stomach removed, that is so scary! But those are the things that appealed to me. It is just me in there, just less of my stomach, I can't decide that I want my restriction decreased, I can't decide that I want to eat "normally" again, and beleive me I know I needed the finality of this surgery.
I have lost 64 lbs as this post, I feel great, I can walk again, I can be active again, I am getting rid of most of my clothes as they are now too big for me, I can keep this up, my sleeve gives me the tools I need to be succesful.
There you go - my thoughts - and 100% discount from the normal 2 cent price :-D
