Hello everyone, I am just embarking on this new journey. I am contemplating getting the sleeve operation. Everyone I have mentioned this to has told me not to do it. One reason being that I am a nurse and everyone talks about how the operation is to risky. I have been trying to research different doctors and there surgical statisitcs with the sleeve and have come up empty handed. Anyone living in the richmond, va area and had surgery at St. Mary's I would love to here how you picked your surgeon and were you able to find information on how much experience, how many of these surgeries they have performed, etc. I had surgery when I was 17 with no worries, now that I am 27 working in as a nurse in Surgical ICU, surgery scars the crap out of me knowing what could go wrong. I know I need to do this for myself. I am 120lbs overweight and at 27 yrs old I have already started to have joint problems. Thanks for any information you provide for me.

Hello! You will find there are SEVERAL nurses on this board who have had or are going to have the sleeve. I am an ER nurse turned case manager and am in the process of getting approval from my insurance. I decided about a month ago to begin looking in to the surgery after several failed attempts at weight loss and only getting bigger by the minute (literally lol)... I've done a TON of research over the last few weeks... Medical research, listening to patient stories, reading up on physicians, etc... I am pretty certain in my decision to have the surgery but also have a ton of fears because of the complications... In fact, last night in bed I was talking to my husband about it and how scared I am... We are just going to make sure everything is in legal order prior to having surgery just as a precaution... Being in the profession really SUCKS when you need something, you know? lol.. I am always thinking worst case scenario... Just do as much research as possible, ask any question you can possibly think of and make the best decision for you. We are all here to help answer your questions if you need it!!