Ive been trying to do my research on the lap band to gastric sleeve operation and am really getting scared.

I have read about the nausea, vomiting, pain, leakage, stents, hair loss (omg the hair loss), inability to eat enough Protein.

But the good part to look forward to at the

end of the rainbow to, is the weight loss, hair growth after almost a year, pain is gone, starting to eat and keeping it down.....

I hope when my time comes I have an easy transition.

Any advise?

I just got sleeved on 3/20 and feel satisfied to know I made a great choice. With time I will heal and loose this weight. I made so much research with this and decided to do the sleeve because nothing else gets modified and only one organ gets changed, & It only gets reduced. Every surgery is risky. Keep in mind that you can regrow the stomach. Another thing is food intake. With the sleeve I get to eat anything without restriction. The bypass is more delicate when it comes to food. I'm happy with my research. I can suggest that you check you tube out and follow people that has had it and watch their lives change. Good luck!!!!

It'll be two months for me tomorrow, and here's my experience so far:

Surgery Day:

Immediately after surgery I felt like a train hit me, but I was too drugged to really think about it. At one point in time I just sat in a chair and stared at the wall for 3 hours.

Days 1-3 post-op:

I felt miserable. Seriously regretted going through it. I felt like my stomach was going to be in pain for the rest of my life.

Days 3-7:

I felt miserable, but got to the point where I could tolerate it. I remember saying to myself.. "Ok, this sucks, and I did a dumb thing, but If this is how I'll feel the rest of my life, I can live with it.. I'll make do."

Day 7:

I woke up feeling normal for the first time. As if I hadn't had surgery at all. Stomach still get REALLY upset when I tried to eat anything, and I was barely getting in 4 table spoons of food a day.

Days 7-30:

Every day got a little better. By two weeks out, I was back to being active, and playing drums.. started walking, and playing dance games on kinect again. Went back to work. By the end of the first 30 days I felt 98% back to normal.

The majority of the latter half of the first month was spent re-learning what signals my stomach is trying to send. Training myself to throw away food when I'm full, and what being full (or empty) actually feels like... because it's different than post-op. (When I'm full, I get a little pain at the bottom of my esophagus. ) and that's my "NO MORE" notice. If I eat more than a few bites more than that, I have to throw up.

Days 30-60:

Feel 120%. More energy and freedom from the weight loss, I'm able to go out and eat at restaurants. I feel like a normal human being again. During this time, I realize that I can OVER eat my sleeve still... donuts slide through like nothing, chips, ice cream... it's incredibly easy to still eat WAY too many calories... so Month two, my mind shifted from "My sleeve won't let me eat too many calories" to "My sleeve is majorly helping me not overeat, but I still need to take the reigns and make sure we're making the right choices."

I haven't had any issues with Protein, or hair loss. I've lost 45 lbs since surgery and 70 lbs since my initial consult. And while it's frustrating at times not being able to eat everything you see, I feel like this is the best decision I've ever made.

I've had lap-band surgery, and will have my sleeve surgery Tuesday. My lapband install surgery was really, really easy. I would go so far as to call it a "cake walk." My lapband removal surgery actually hurt more, but only right after. When I woke up from band in, I had no pain. When I woke up from band out, I was rating my pain a 4 and wanting meds. Kudos to my surgeon for throrough port placement technique.

I don't know if the nausea I see being reported in most VSG cases is a reaction to the anesthesia, or an effect of the stomach butchering. I see just enough people not having nausea problems that it seems almost like an anesthesia thing. I wonder how many nauseous sleevers did/did not have nausea with prior surgeries.

You didn't have hairloss with your band? I did, Mad hair loss for a while. I expect it to be similar this time around. The duration of the hairloss is much more related to you, than your surgery.

There's a huge functional between the band and just about any other WLS procedure in that with the band, the point is that you start with a HUGE menu to choose from, and then it narrows. I didn't have too many problems getting Protein in even though I had have restriction before I had a fill. I just snuck Protein powder into just about anything that went in my mouth: Jello, pudding, even Water. I'm going to try that this time around too. It will not be my day 1 focus, but if I can drink some water I may as well drink protein water. As long as I can tolerate it, that is.

Here's an analogy. When I was in labor with my daughter, I just kept telling myself, "This is nothing. It's going to get so much worse." And I said that over, and over, and over. And eventually I reached a point where it didn't get worse, it went away. One of my first coherent thoughts after actually delivering her was, "Really? That's it?" I think I just expected it to be so horrible that I never realized the peak when it arrived.

I'm expecting to feel horrible after I wake up from the sleeve surgery. I'm going to keep telling myseif "It will only get worse." I know that seems counterintuitive, but if I keep expecting worse, I'm always going to be mentally prepared to take on more than what I currently am, and eventually it's going to stop.

Anakin Jay, that's an awesome break down. Thank you for taking the time to do that.