Hi to all you lovely people,

I hope you'll excuse me for 'gate-crashing' your site, as personally, I am not planning VSG, but am here on behalf of a friend. (Where have I heard that before?) No, it's true!! I'm English and have an Italian 'friend' who is well into investigating having VSG, but her English is not so hot and this site seems to be the best forum site we have found, unfortunately, there is no Italian equivelent, so she has asked me to do some research on her behalf. She has had appointments with surgeons and counsellors, but is the type that wants to glean as much information first, before making the final decision as to if she wants to 'take the jump'! Three years ago she had a Gastric band fitted and lost some weight, but had to have it removed a year ago as she was so poorly with constant vomiting etc..., apparently, sometime after her op she learnt that the band had slipped and this was causingall her problems. Anyway, one question that she seems to have a 'thing about' is what the effects are post surgery after 10, 15 or 20 years. She is really keen to understand the possible long-term implications (as well as the short-term). You have a great community site here and I am impressed and would like to use it to benefit my friend. Just to give a bit of information: My friend, whom I wll call Carla, has visited a private clinic initially, but as she has a coupleoffriends who work closely with hospitals,she has sought their help to know if this hospital has a good VSG reputation and is also now looking at information at a goverment run hospital.

Hopethere are some out there in the community that can help Carla feel moreconfident moving forward as I know that she thinks this procedure could be what she has beenlooking for for the past 20 or so years.

Thinkpad.

http://asmbs.org/

This is the web page for American society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. There is a bit of reading to do but you have an amazing amount of information in this site. Good luck,

Another thing to consider about the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy ("VSG") - doctors have been performing gastrectomies on people for a long time for reasons other than weight loss. A gastrectomy is a surgery where most of your stomach is removed. The "vertical sleeve" is a reference to the shape of the stomach that is left. VSG are done with weight loss in mind and the pre surgery process and post surgery care are targeted for weight loss patients. A "regular" gastrectomy is done on patients who for other health reasons, need to have most of their stomach removed. I believe the VSG was developed as doctors realized that gastrectomies were really successful at helping people lose weight and maintain their weight loss. I personally had a teacher (band director) when I was in high school (approaching 40 years ago) that had a gastrectomy and lose about 60% of his stomach (due to ulcers). He is still alive and thriving. The safety and long history of successful surgeries is one of the reasons I felt very comfortable making this choice.