I attended a preliminary seminar with the surgeon yesterday, convinced lap-band was the way to go. But during the course of the seminar I learned a few things about the band that made me change my mind. The surgeon said the following:
The average amount of weight loss for his banded patients was 50% of their excess weight. I want to lose 200 lbs, so losing only 100 lbs wouldn't make me happy.
15% of his patients did not lose enough weight to justify the cost of the surgery. I'm self-pay for WLS, so I want the most "bang for my buck" so to speak.
A meaningful percentage (can't remember the exact number) experienced complications such as slippage or erosion, requiring additional surgeries to correct.
Eating the wrong foods, thereby causing "dumping syndrome," can actually work in your favor by causing negative associations with certain foods and changing your desire for them.
The surgeon reassured me I could get pregnant and deliver a baby safely with either operation.
Don't get me wrong, the thought of gastric by-pass scares the $%@# out of me. And the surgeon specifically said he did not prefer lap-band over gastric by-pass, or vice versa. But I can't discount the possibility that banding won't allow me to achieve my goals. And the idea of being tethered to fill centers for the rest of my life doesn't sound that great. So I'm opting for gastric by-pass, even though it is more expensive and riskier.
