Need advice - band or sleeve?

[happyinarizona 0]

:blush:I've been overweight since my early 20's (now in my mid 30's) and I just cannot lose and keep it off. My doctor said I'm heading for diabetes, and that scares me. I'm afraid of the bypass and the DS, so i'm trying to learn more about the LapBand and the gastric sleeve.

Would some of you please tell me why yu choose the bnnd or chose the sleeve? And tell me what it is like living with them?

I'm trying to do my research before I choose what to do and have seen lots of information about both. Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

HappyinAZ

[Oregondaisy 2,020]

Living with the band is miserable. You have to keep going for fills and diet until you get the fill right. Most people don't even feel like they have a band for a few months. Then is they get the fill too tight, you are miserable. You can hardly eat anything, have to live on liquids only, have constant heartburn. I could go on and on.

The sleeve is great . Right from the beginning you start losing weight. You get full on small portions and you don't have to go back for any adjustments. It's great.

[*susan* 1,709]

Hi, and welcome to our forums.

Both the band and the sleeve offer you a restrictive type surgery. I have had both. With the band, you do have to visit your doctor on a regular basis in order to get fills. Most people do not achieve proper restriction on the first fill, it usually takes 2-3 fills before they get there. As you lose weight, your band becomes looser and you will once again need to go in for another fill to achieve proper restriction. In my opinion, it is better to go slow and work your way up to achieving proper restriction than to be too aggressive. If you are aggressive, it can result in being overfilled. When that happens, you are miserable and have trouble even swallowing your own saliva. Also, with the band, you have to be very careful with eating. You tend to be more restricted in the mornings, and most bandsters find they are only able to drink liquids first thing in the am. You have to be very careful about chewing your food to mush, taking baby size bites and eating slowly. If you do not consciously do this, your food may get stuck and you will experience what we refer to as pb, which is basically very, very uncomfortable and you will find yourself running for the nearest restroom because that stuck food is most likely going to come back up. There are various complications with the band, such as your port flipping, slippage and/or erosion of the band. There are also several foods that you may find you are no longer able to eat. This primarily occurs with breads and Pasta type products.

With the sleeve, you have immediate restriction following surgery. They also remove the part of the stomach that produces ghrelin, which is the hormone that makes you feel hungry. So, obviously, this is a huge aide in weight loss. However, do understand that our bodies are pretty amazing, and eventually you will start producing it again, just not anywhere near to the extent that one did prior to the surgery. Once you are sleeved, you are basically done. No need for fills, no worrying about slippage, or anything else. There is a risk of a leak, but the risk is very low, especially if you choose a doctor who has a great amount of experience in sleeve surgery and you follow the post-op guidelines. You can eat all the foods you did prior to getting sleeved, just in much, much smaller quantities. You have a fully functioning stomach, it is just smaller than most peoples. If you do overeat with the sleeve, which is possible, you will feel very, very uncomfortable and may also end up bringing food back up.

Whether you choose the band or the sleeve, it is important to remember that both are tools to help you loose weight. Regardless of which one you decide to go with, you still have to be ready and willing to make the commitment to change to a healthier lifestyle of eating right and exercising.

[DownInSocal 12]

Welcome.

I have not had surgery yet. I was going to get the band but after reading on lapbandtalk.com what people were living with daily I knew the band was not for me. Also there seems to be confusion about how long it is supposed to be in the body. Some doctors say forever (I don't know of a medical devise not made of metal that lasts forever) and some doctors say 10 years. That means more surgery later. All the risks of erosion, herniation, foaming, sliming, throwing up.

I will never forget when I made the decision final, I was getting the sleeve. Someone wrote "My friend with the band told me that I could sleep with a bucket next to the bed so I could just wake up and throw up into the bucket." WHAT? I don't want to live that way. I don't want to subject my family to me throwing up in buckets and tumperware all the time. I value my esophagus and teeth also.

So here I am 5 days from surgery. I started this Journey on April 28th so I have had lots of time to think about it. I am nervous but sure of my decision. I want a change and I am ready for it to be permanent.

Oh I am 32 and have been heavy since my early 20's. I feel like I lost some of my best time to being overweight. I don't want to lose my 30's to it too!

[Oregondaisy 2,020]

HappyinAZ, My dad's house is in Mesa and I will be coming to AZ in Oct. I would bed happy to talk to you about the band and the sleeve.

[Jaffa 5]

The sleeve is the better choice. But, the doctor you choose is many times more critical.

My wife see's what I sometimes have to deal with, and she is very thankful she has the sleeve.

[austinglobe 0]

I have had the band since 2004, and it's been 5 years of rough road for me. I am only 5 lbs less then when I started with the Band, and I was self-pay.

My band has no restriction in it now - they unfilled it multiple times due to extreme reflux. I have had acid shoot out of my nose while I slept too many times to count. I've gotten it in my lungs and coughed until I threw up.

Even with no restriction, I have pain when eating veggies and salad. I can't even eat a Tomato or an apple. The band keeps me from eating healthy food.

I'm now looking into a revision to the sleeve at my doctor's recommendation.

[burnsun 27]

I loved my band and had it for 4 years with no issues.....found my sweet spot right away (wnet back to Mexico fo r the first and only fill till I got pregtnant at 20 months post op.....(I had lost all my weight). The morning sickness made me nauseua all the time (not much different than my "fat" pregnancy...... had all the fill removed..... but never was the same after. Kept my weight off......went another 2 1/2 years and into another pregnancy (there were a few mc in between) but each time I got pregnant the hormones reeked havoc with my band!

Last time it slipped, then prolapsed and need emergency removal at 32 weeks into the pregnancy.....the removal cause the emergency c section of my son.

I did not have the option of a sleeve in 2003. Or I would have chosen it over the band.

I loved my band, but I did miss the times I could not eat anything healthy....like grapefruit or apples or broccoli or other stuff......it limited the junk, but i missed a lot of "good" stuff that I liked too.

at this point I have had no issues with eating anything..... just small amounts. SO I do love my sleeve. I am also very rarely hungry at this point.

[TennJenn 9]

I considered the LapBand first before even knowing about VSG. I was researching the LapBand & I kept reading about complications such as slipping, erosion, getting food stuck...then I discovered VSG. I researched it, compared it to the band, prayed about it, talked to dh, talked to people who revised from band to VSG & I decided that VSG was the surgery for me.

I don't have to deal with fills, unfills. I don't worry about complications occurring years down the road (slipping, erosion). I was self pay, so I would have had to pay out of pocket for all fills. I would also be responsible if the band would need to be removed. So VSG made sense all the way around.

Do your research, talk to everyone you can about both, and weigh the pros and cons to both. Then make a decision based on what YOU need/want. Personally I feel VSG is the better choice, but everyone is different & needs to make a decision that is right for HER/HIM.

Good luck!

[RebekahL 1]

I used to work for a WL Surgeon. The sleeve was his choice operation. He did many bands, but many of them opted for revision down the road to sleeve. In my 2 years working for that doctor, I saw quite a few people fail with the lapband vs. the sleeve. I saw many regrets based on choice of lap band over sleeve as well. To be honest, I feel that the lapband is far more difficult to use than the sleeve as a weight loss tool. I have not had the surgery yet, but I would choose sleeve over band without any hesitation, just based off of the experiences I have had with WLS patients who opted for the band.

[athena3127 199]

Take your time and research what is best for you. See if there is a local support group where you could go ask questions. My dr no longer does the band due to the high failure rates that are associated with issues post op. I personally have a family member who had the band and after loosing weight had complications (her band slipped) and she had to have hers undone or have the solution which priovides the restriction removed so unfortunately she has gained the lost weight back and will now have to go through the process again to have the band removed and get the sleeve.

I am only about 8 wks out and I'm happy with my sleeve. I'm still learning and finding things out. However I must say this far best choice I could have ever made.

Happy researching to you!

[CountryGirl5584 115]

I originally planned on getting the band, but I've heard so many horror stories that I've decided to go with the sleeve. I consulted with one of the gastroenterologists I work for and went over the issues he's seen with the band and sleeve. Also, at one of the seminars they stated 1 in every 10 fail on band. I'm scheduled for the sleeve on Feb 9th

[BitterSweet* 835]

This is a pretty big decision to make and it's one that you should reach after lots of research. I'm in the medical field and there is a lot of talk about Lap-Bands getting pulled from the market, and many bariatric surgeons simply aren't doing them anymore because of the failure rate and complications.

Good luck with whatever you decide and Happy New Years to you!

[The Candidate 3,215]

I went into this knowing I wanted the sleeve. That was just my personal choice.

But as someone who is currently going through the approval process with Kaiser Southern CA I can say that right from the get go in orientation we were told that it is highly unlikely that we would be offered the band, because it has been their experience that they are now removing far more bands than they are putting in, due to band complications down the line.

Then when I started taking their required pre-surgery classes in November, the instructor came right out and said you will not get the band. Period. It's either the sleeve or the bypass.

The funny thing is the workbook we were were given for the classes, it still includes information about band surgery, as if it is an option, but they've definitely taken it off the table. The same seems to be holding true for more and more insurance companies as of late.

Edited January 1, 2015 by The Candidate

[Miss Mac 6,261]

I did not want a port in my abdomen. So glad I got sleeved a year ago.