Jon1rene

I would not do the gastric balloon and honestly for a 15 year old, I don't think ESG is a good option either because you have to be really committed to lifestyle changes for it to work and it is hard enough for adults to lose weight on it. I would recommend like the other person posted - nutritional counseling, weight watchers, and at most a prescription weight loss drug such as Wegovy or Saxenda. Wegovy has had results as good as an ESG but can be quite expensive if not covered by insurance.

Sharp is an insurance company like blue cross, kaiser, united health, anthem, etc.

To OP did you get a new surgeon? How did it go? I saw a surgeon at UCLA and UCI; both sister centers of UCSD. I went with the surgeon at UCI; liked him and his support staff so much better. UCLA was supposed to order some further test as I'm having gastric bypass to repair a failed acid reflux surgery and they never did. The nutritionist I met that day was a complete ding bat and I felt like I knew more about the diet than she did (acid reflux recovery is much the same). My surgeon's staff is amazing; they answers any and all questions as soon as I send an email or leave a message; even doing a phone appointment from home to accommodate my schedule. My husband, daughter and grandson see hemophilia and genetics doctors at UCSD and they are wonderful, so I think it might be that department at UCLA.
Hopefully you have found a surgeon you are happy with and on your way to or already had your surgery.

I know that I wouldn't have been ready to do the surgery when I was a teen, but that doesn't mean that he isn't. But it's a lot of work. Here is an article about teens having bariatric surgery from the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/health/obese-teenagers-bariatric-surgery.html
If you can't access it, let me know and I will try to summarize.
There are also medications that can help that could see if he's ready... but he'd have to be compliant with the medications, and in order for them to work, you have to eat less, so if he has bingeing issues, it won't help.
It is certainly better to have surgery when you're younger and don't already have co-morbidities, but you have to be mature enough to change your eating habits, which can be hard if all your friends are stuffing their faces with junk food.
Good luck!

Have you considered other options like the gastric balloon maybe? It’s a temporary change of up to six months and could be a good way to test his personal resolve and commitment to changing his eating habits without surgery. Plus he’ll lose some weight, which might be enough motivation for him to live a healthier lifestyle

I am not very familiar with this procedure but the only thing I would suggest is probably what a doctor will suggest as well is that he get evaluated by a psychiatrist to see if he is ready for the procedure. If they do not required it, however, I would seek this out myself. You may even consider having him work with a specialist (on disordered eating) for a little while to see if he can lose it on his own first. I had the mandatory psyc evaluation and passed with flying colors only to learn AFTER the procedure that I suffer from emotional eating and without the therapy my sleeve would be a waste because I still feel hungry all the time (it’s head hunger) and I can eat a little bit every hour or so and consume quite a lot of calories that way if I wanted to. I wish you the Best of luck in your research and his journey.

They do the gastric sleeve and bypass on teens, I wouldn’t think it would be an issue finding someone to do it.

I don't know of any specific doctors, but I see you're in California like me. Stanford Children's up north has adolescent bariatric surgery and they list their doctors who do the surgeries with their hospital too. I know Stanford is a great hospital and family who have gone to the hospital (non-bariatric reasons). Here's a link to their bariatric page for adolescents. I wish your son and you the best in this new journey!
https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/service/bariatric-surgery

Thank you so much for your help. Greatly appreciate it!

Not exactly your circumstance....I was on Victoza.
When I first started on Victoza, I lost about 30 lbs. over 6 months. Most of it from nausea and some reduced appetite. The appetite reduction went away. I stayed on Victoza after starting my weight loss prep program and lost about another 20 lbs. That was mostly from healthier eating. Blood sugars were decent.
I stopped all diabetic meds on the day of my surgery in December 2020. Have lost 110 since surgery. Sugars remain good.

Thank you so much for your input. I did read the article and it gave me some decent insight.

We have a consultation today on zoom and I will have a lot of questions.