How did you decide which surgery was right for you? I'm very new to this and I'm not really sure what the difference is

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This is your decision. I was just like you, I was of the mind set of having the sleeve. I was 232 5'4, until the day before I saw the surgeon. My daughter had a friend that had the bypass she came over and asked me a few questions that changed my mind.

1) do you want to be off your diabetic meds immediately? my answer was yes

2) Do you want to lose the most weight? My answer was yes

3) there is a long history with the pass and not so long with the sleeve, which would you rather do? It truly made me thing and I decided if I was going to lose this weight I was going for the gold.

My surgery was on 11/9/16. It has not been a walk in the park but I am down 53 pounds. Off my med immediately, my joints do not hurt when I get up. I still am not hungry and only eat 1 or 2 forkfuls of protein times a day.

This has to be your decision and no one else. You are the one that has to do it. Good luck hope my reply helps.

In a nutshell there are 3 main types - gastric bypass, the gastric sleeve, and lap band.

With the bypass you get a small pouch. Think of it as a bit of rerouting in how your body processes food.

With the sleeve they remove around 90% of your stomach.

With the band it puts a restriction around an area of your stomach mimicking having a smaller stomach in a sense.

There are pros/cons with each one. While you will lose weight with any of them some forms cause greater weight loss, or at least quicker loss. It's a lot to list out but read through some of the FAQ threads in the forums, and there is a wealth of information online summarizing the main differences.

I was set on the lap band originally, but after hearing how oftentimes they would have to go back in to adjust it or remove it due to complications I passed on that idea. The sleeve seemed like it would have a quicker recovery time and didn't really change how the body would absorb food. While the weight may not come off as quickly compared to the bypass that was a trade off I was willing to make.

Definitely take your time, talk to your doctor, and do lots of research.

Lap-band is becoming a less and less popular option. The rate of late complications and revisions is very high and getting higher as more people are further out and experiencing slippage, erosion, and other late complications requiring revision.

For me the choice was between bypass and sleeve and it was an easy one. Here are my reasons for not choosing bypass:

• I had a low enough BMI that I didn't feel such a "drastic" option was necessary.
• I hated the idea of my intestines being rerouted. The more joins in the intestines, the more opportunity for leaks.
• I really hated the idea of the "old" part of my stomach being left in my body where it might develop ulcers or cancer and be unaccessible with a normal endoscopy.
• I didn't like the idea of malabsorption. While it makes the weight loss go more quickly, weight LOSS is a tiny fraction of the journey. A WLS patient spends the VAST majority of their journey in maintenance. Why should I risk Vitamin deficiencies for the rest of my life just to reach goal a couple months quicker?
• I didn't like the idea of dumping. Yes, it might act as a deterrent for eating sweets, but I wanted to be able to eat sweets once in a while still. Plus, it would be silly to RELY on it, since not every bypass patient experiences it.
• I wanted to retain the use of my pyloric valve. It helps hold food in the stomach longer and the idea of my pyloric valve still being inside me, attached to my "old" stomach and opening and closing based on signals from my "new" stomach honestly weirded me out.
• I was self-pay and sleeve was simply cheaper.

I chose the sleeve over bypass too, The reasoning was about the same as JamieLogicals too. Except I didn't have to self-pay. I am also off my Diabetic meds and no longer a diabetic, it took about a week out of surgery to become diabetic free, I no longer take BP meds only a acid-reducer and seasonal allergy meds. I eat 5-6 times a day, I am never hungry. My surgery was Aug 30th and today is the 1/24 and I have lost almost 90lbs and only have about 30 to go! GOOD LUCK IN YOUR DECISION!

Thank you all for your input! My doc leans toward the sleeve and has never had a patient leave the hospital still taking diabetes medicine. My biggest concern is that I have a disabled mother that I care for so recovery time is my top priority. My second concern is that I have trouble with portion control and I want to set myself up for the best possible outcome. Thank you all for responding

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