Up until 3 weeks ago I was convinced I wanted the lap band. I met the HAPPIEST lady ever when I went for my consultation and she had the sleeve. She was so happy and had her 2 small grand kids with her. I know that I was looking for the least evasive but now I am thinking the sleeve looks better because of the maintenance of the lap band.

How painful and how long is the sleeve recovery?

I was all for the least evasive and shortest time in the hospital when I first started my journey the beginning of last year. When I went in I found out that they were doing the band anymore and that the sleeve or by pass were my only options, so I put everything on hold because I did not have the time to be down for any amount of time. Jump to Jan of this year, I was diagnosed with PCOS as well as high cholesterol and was told by my dr that I should really consider it because I have 3 small kids and I need to take care of myself to see them on to graduate, marriage, babies ect... So I started my research on everything and found a lot of things are going wrong with the lap band. As hard a choice as it was I decided to start my journey for the sleeve and now I've decided it was the best decision I could have made. Recovery really was not at all as bad as even the hospital made it seem and the pain was nothing that I couldn't control with my pain pump. I am 3 weeks out and I can do just about everything that I could do before. I had surgery on Tuesday morning and came home Thursday afternoon and was out walking around my apt complex Friday morning. I took my pain meds for the first 2 or 3 days home and was able to go off of them except occasionally at night to help with the pain because unfortunately I am a stomach sleeper and found myself rolling onto it in my sleep! Feel free to message me if you have any questions

Up until 3 weeks ago I was convinced I wanted the lap band. I met the HAPPIEST lady ever when I went for my consultation and she had the sleeve. She was so happy and had her 2 small grand kids with her. I know that I was looking for the least evasive but now I am thinking the sleeve looks better because of the maintenance of the lap band.

How painful and how long is the sleeve recovery?

That's a hard decision to make! I know I went into my first consultation thinking I wanted the band also... I left unsure, it took me a week (only) of research on both procedures side by side to make me realize how little I knew!!

Truthfully I had never heard of the sleeve before my first consult with the bariatric surgeon.

I would say go to the band forums and read their experiences....and most definitely read the band to sleeve revisions here!

Good luck to you.

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/forum/13-band-to-gastric-sleeve-revisions/

First day or 2 was a little painful, but nothing the pain meds couldn't handle. I didn't need pain meds after first few days. Then week 2, I felt like I was hit by a truck but that lasted only for 2 days. By the end of week 2 I had no pain, but didn't have too much energy & wasn't sleeping much. Week 4 & 5 I started feeling really good & more like myself. Been smooth sailing since.