I have been reading here for months and have learned a lot, thank you! I have completed most of my pre-op and only waiting on a psych evaluation. I am 67 years old and I blame all my health issues on my excess weight.

The clinic I am working with in Northwest Arkansas does mostly gastric bypass, about 70% gastric bypass and 30% gastric sleeve. In talking with them it is obvious they promote the gastric bypass over the sleeve. They talk about the benefit of keeping your stomach and the longer track record with the gastric bypass procedure.

I have two friends who have had their gastric bypass done at this clinic with excellent results. I have two other friends that have had the sleeve performed at a hospital here in Southwest Missouri and that was the only option at this hospital. They also are very pleased.

In all my research I had been leaning toward the sleeve but now am wondering if the gastric bypass is a better option. I am not diabetic so that advantage with the gastric bypass does not exist for me. I do have Afib and take Eloquis and have read that may be a reason to not have gastric bypass because of marginal ulcers where the intestines join. The surgeon I am working with dismissed that concern.

I was leaning toward the sleeve because I did not like the idea of rerouting my intestines, the sleeve seems to be less restrictive on the kinds of foods you can eventually eat and there seems to be fewer complications with the sleeve.

My question, why did you choose the sleeve over gastric bypass assuming you had a choice between the two?

Your thoughts will be much appreciated.

I love my sleeve! I was personally against WLS for myself until I heard about the sleeve. I'm only 10 weeks out and it has already changed my life for the better. My reasons for not getting bypass was because it seemed too invasive, I didn't want my intestines rerouted, didn't want dumping syndrome or malabsorption issues, and the recovery time was longer. I also know several people who had bypass and regained their weight -- now, please know that this is true of ALL surgeries and is not a fault of the surgery itself in most cases, but it was still part of my decision back then. Overall I'm happy with my decision to have the sleeve so far and I would still be over 300 pounds if I had not decided to have it (diet/exercise never worked well enough and I didn't want bypass, lapband, etc).

Best of luck in your decision making!

I had several reasons for choosing sleeve over bypass:

• Lower starting BMI (was around 42 when I began the process)
• No rerouting of intestines and additional "points of failure" like with bypass
• No long-term malabsorption
• No dumping syndrome
• Hated the idea of my old stomach being left inside me where it could potentially develop ulcers or cancer and not be accessible with a normal endoscopy.
• Retained the use of my pyloric valve. I liked the idea of keeping my functioning pyloric valve and hated the idea of it still being inside me, attached to my old stomach, just randomly opening and closing with signals from my new stomach. That really weirded me out.
• The sleeve is much harder to stretch than the pouch left after bypass, because it completely removes the fundus.

I'm having my sleeve done on April 21 so excited!!!!????

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated!

Steve

I love my sleeve! I was personally against WLS for myself until I heard about the sleeve. I'm only 10 weeks out and it has already changed my life for the better. My reasons for not getting bypass was because it seemed too invasive, I didn't want my intestines rerouted, didn't want dumping syndrome or malabsorption issues, and the recovery time was longer. I also know several people who had bypass and regained their weight -- now, please know that this is true of ALL surgeries and is not a fault of the surgery itself in most cases, but it was still part of my decision back then. Overall I'm happy with my decision to have the sleeve so far and I would still be over 300 pounds if I had not decided to have it (diet/exercise never worked well enough and I didn't want bypass, lapband, etc).

Best of luck in your decision making!

I agree for ME. I didn't want to worry about dumping (I do it anyways with high sugar). I wanted to be able to have cake or ice cream at special events and I can, but only 2-3 bites. I was not diabetic, I was healthy as a horse, I just wanted the restriction. I knew I would suck at taking Vitamins for malabsorbtion and I was right.

The sleeve was my perfect fit. No regrets.