My insurance will cover either the band or the sleeve- which one do you recommend?

I have had both... nothing with problems with the band. Once the surgery is over, you have to deal with fills and unfills and foods that you can no longer eat. The sleeve is also a restrictive procedure and once the surgery is over, you immediately feel restriction and begin losing weight. If I had it to do all over again, there is no way I would ever have chosen the band.

I have the band, because I didn't have any real choice.

But, my wife will have the sleeve at the end of this month. To me if you can have either choice, then it is a no brainer. THE SLEEVE.

I wouldn't get another band for anything. The complications, the frustrations, getting stuck, sliming, foaming like a rabid dog, stoma spewing, slow weight loss, low weight loss, high complications, all the things that can go wrong with a band... never again.

I've had both. You couldn't pay me to have another band. The sleeve is just safer long term and weight loss is better and faster.

The band is a great way to lose about half your excess weight short term.

I totally agree. I didn't have that many band problems but I was hungry unless my band was really tight, and that made it difficult to eat very many foods. I love the

sleeve because I am never hungry. I forget for hours that food even exists.

I started out thinking I wanted a band, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized it was a bad idea. I ended up getting a sleeve instead and I'm very happy with it.

The problems I saw with the band included:

-You don't get restriction right away so until you do, you are basically white knuckle dieting. I can do that without surgery

-Not everyone gets restriction or keeps it once they get it. Without proper restriction -- finding your sweet spot -- the band doesn't work

-The band has a high re-surgery rate. I am old enough that I didn't want to worry about having another surgery in 10 years when my band eroded or slipped or broke.

Other concerns include:

-weight loss stats aren't as good and weight loss tends to be slower. I thought I could live with that, but now I'm glad I don't have to

-drinking with meals defeats the band's ability to keep you feeling satiety. I thought I wouldn't do that but now that I have a sleeve, I can see times where I might because I want to eat just a few more bites of something

-the fill/unfill process require a lot of doctor's trips and I'm kind of bad about scheduling that sort of thing. For example, I'm overdue for a haircut and I really want one but I just haven't had time to call and make an appointment and I am supposed to call my doctor when I go under 120, which happened Monday and I still haven't had time to call him.... so would I be good about getting my fills? Hard to say and I'm glad I don't have to find out.

Edited June 4, 200917 yr by MacMadame

I currently have the Lap Band- I'm 4 years out, and I've had many complications right from the first fill. My band has prolapsed ( actually my stomach has prolapsed) and I'm a self pay patient looking in to have the band removed and either doing the sleeve or the RNY. Believe it or not the price is exactly the same. $18,800.00 - I'm really having trouble deciding on which one to get. The RNY is a higher success ( That's what my doc says ) but there can be more complications.... so I'm here reading up on the sleeve to determine what's best for me.

I have the sleeve. The clear-cut difference to me is the way food travels through your upper digestive system. With the band the restriction is concentrated to a single area of your stomach. This causes many "banders" to feel like the have an obstruction when eating too fast or eat certain foods. Most banders I know "spit -up" a lot. The sleeve maintains a more natural route of ingestion since the fact is you just have a smaller stomach. Although I strive to get all my needed prtein in every day I am still able to enjoy all the foods I have in the past including bread (in small quantities).

My surgeon has found his sleeve patients lose as much as his RnY patients and have less problems with regain.

Well the obvious question is, how much did you lose with the band.

That can sometimes be indicative of how you will do on the sleeve.

I lost a total of 70 pounds. Went from 255 to 185 but over the last year due to many complications and very little restriction ( meaning they took the saline out of my band) I've gained back 20 pounds.

My doc said at 185 pounds if I lost 7 more pounds I would be considered a lapband success-

My journey continue's... :cool0:

I went from 351 to 275 and I was considered a success with the band. Since I had no restriction and lost the weight through diet alone, woke up choking on acid regurg. nightly, and was still morbidly obese, I fail to see "success" there.

The sleeve is what I hoped the band would be. If you're thinking about it, I give it 2 thumbs up!

Elisabeth,

you have the sleeve as of 4/1/09... What is your progress so far?

What is the difference in your opinion from the band to the sleeve? I'm so worried that if I get the sleeve and not the RNY that I won't have much success ( I say this because I'm self Pay)

Can you share your Sleeve story with me since your a few months out now?

Thank you!:001_tt2:

Elisabeth,

you have the sleeve as of 4/1/09... What is your progress so far?

What is the difference in your opinion from the band to the sleeve? I'm so worried that if I get the sleeve and not the RNY that I won't have much success ( I say this because I'm self Pay)

Can you share your Sleeve story with me since your a few months out now?

Thank you!:thumbup:

You can read my story in the tell your story section of this board (the first section). I never got restriction from the band but I did get awful acid regurg and a poor quality of life. Insurance covered the band but wanted a 9-12 month paper trail of complications before they would pay to have it removed.

I was offered another band (no way!) or RNY. I don't absorb Iron and wanted no part of malabsorption so the sleeve was a good fit for me. I am using my scale at home to gauge my loss and that says 25 pounds gone in 2 months. My MD's scale (the ones we're all familiar with) says I lost 35.

I did a lot of research and talked to others with the sleeve and decided NOT to live sleeping in a chair risking esophageal cancer to please the insurance company. I went to Dr. Aceves in Mexico for the VSG revision and have only great things to say about the experience ($11,500). I feel full on small amounts of food and am steadily losing. I also do strength training/cardio with a personal trainer.

I think you'll love the sleeve.

the important thing for people to know who think RNy is better is that the sleeve stomach is made from the muscular part of the stomach which does little stretching.

I lost count of the number of people I know who had gastric bypass and has gained all or nearly all of their weight back from stretching out "the pouch"

Be prepared if you get the sleeve , to get full really fast and you are DONE.

I'm so worried that if I get the sleeve and not the RNY that I won't have much success ( I say this because I'm self Pay)

My surgeon finds his sleeve patients do as well as his RnY patients initially and have less issues with regain. At least they have less issues with regain since they started using the 32 f boughie. When they used the 48 f, regain was a problem.

RnY is a very different surgery than VSG so it's not like it's just VSG plus malabsorption.