Just came home from a hour and a half meeting with the Surgical Weight Loss team at Lahey Clinic. They do a swell job explaining things. Lots of tests and they decide if you are ready for it. Good back up care and 0 deaths for both Lap Band and Gastric Bypass. They are also testing a new device, called a "sleeve" they will do it if you want with no cost cause it's a trial, before I give the OK I'm going to check that out. It helps with the pre-op weight loss.

Making my appointment for the all day check up and they will fast track my sleep study. It takes between 2 and 4 months. That's the average.

They sent us all home with tons of reading material. I was glad I knew a lot from this site before I went.

Good luck everyone

Paty:smile2:

Just came home from a hour and a half meeting with the Surgical Weight Loss team at Lahey Clinic. They do a swell job explaining things. Lots of tests and they decide if you are ready for it. Good back up care and 0 deaths for both Lap Band and Gastric Bypass. They are also testing a new device, called a "sleeve" they will do it if you want with no cost cause it's a trial, before I give the OK I'm going to check that out. It helps with the pre-op weight loss.

Making my appointment for the all day check up and they will fast track my sleep study. It takes between 2 and 4 months. That's the average.

They sent us all home with tons of reading material. I was glad I knew a lot from this site before I went.

Good luck everyone

Paty:smile2:

Congrats ! Are you going through insurance or self pay ?

read up and do you reasearch you will do great.

Love

Mindy

Mindy, thanks my insurance will pay for it. The hospital will pay for the experimental sleeve if I want it. It's something very new and in trials. They are using it for pre-op patients and it is removable. Have to get more data on it before I decide to use it.

Love,

Pati

Mindy, thanks my insurance will pay for it. The hospital will pay for the experimental sleeve if I want it. It's something very new and in trials. They are using it for pre-op patients and it is removable. Have to get more data on it before I decide to use it.

Love,

Pati

If they are talking about the acutaly Baratric procedure the sleeve , that's not new ?

This sounds like something different.

Is this instead fo surgery ? Im curious what this is ?

Mindy

If your insurance will pay why put yourself through an experiment? It may work it may not. The band has already been proven.

I totally agree with Ariel !

Mindy

The sleeve is something new and they are testing it. There is no cost to me. It's pre-op. To help lose the pre-op weight. They remove it before your lap band surgery. it's not a one or the other thing, so I will get all the details first and decide if I want it done. Thanks for the feed back. I have my date of March 20th for my all day consult and tests. Wish me luck that is the "biggie" when they decide if you are a candidate for surgery.

The sleeve is something new and they are testing it. There is no cost to me. It's pre-op. To help lose the pre-op weight. They remove it before your lap band surgery. it's not a one or the other thing, so I will get all the details first and decide if I want it done. Thanks for the feed back. I have my date of March 20th for my all day consult and tests. Wish me luck that is the "biggie" when they decide if you are a candidate for surgery.

So you will have a surgery before a surgery ? is that right ?

Im confused ? If that is the case i would personally probably opt out of that .

Mindy

I know it's surgery before surgery, I have to hear all the particulars regarding this and talk so some of the participants in the test. As the laptop it's done through the bellybutton.

I know it's surgery before surgery, I have to hear all the particulars regarding this and talk so some of the participants in the test. As the laptop it's done through the bellybutton.

Are you aware what the purpose of the Pre op diet is prior to surgery ?

its to shrink your liver to make surgery safer for you . I understand you do not know what this is all about . Laproscopic surgery , is what the lap band surgery is , So to me it makes no sense to do a surgery BEFORE lap band surgery in order for you to loose weight BEFORE a surgery for you to lose weight ? the pre op diets do not last but at the longest 2 months ? So by time you recover from this pre op diet surgery it will be time to have an other surgery ? This makes no sense to me ! I would get more info for sure.

I guess this is how things get approved that are new. But this really does not make any sense at all ! I also believe that studies are normally done blindly the participants do not know or are not aware of who is doing it ?

Mindy

Here's what I copied from Dr. Alvarez's web site:

"The sleeve gastrectomy is an operation in which the left side of the stomach is surgically removed. This results in a new stomach which is roughly the size and shape of a banana. Since this operation does not involve any "rerouting" or reconnecting the intestines, it is a simpler operation than the gastric bypass or the duodenal switch. Unlike the Lap-Band® procedure, the sleeve gastrectomy does not require the implantation of an artificial device inside the abdomen.

For certain patients, in particular those with a body mass index greater than 60, the sleeve gastrectomy may be the first part of a 2-stage operation. The 2-stage operation may have substantial advantages for specific individuals."

Sounds like they may be doing two operations... :confused2:

Goodluck with whatever you chose. Personally that would be too much pain for me. Two surgeries no thanks! If you don't mind pain and being part of an experiment go for it.

Ohhh, I think I know what the OP is referring to.

Not a sleeve gastrectomy but a new device that is used for patients before surgery. There are some folks that have a very high BMI and surgery is too risky so they put a device somewhere in the gut (I forget details) and it cuts down on what they absorb. They lose weight and then they can go on for surgery at a lower weight and fewer risks.

They had a poll on OH asking us if we would be interested in trying it if it was available. Most newbies said yes, most old timers said no. When they were first considering this the idea was to have this device instead of surgery. The idea being that you have a few months to learn better eating habits, lose weight, then this "thing" is removed and you use your better eating habits to finish losing and maintaining weight.

Obviously, that's just dumb. Most of us if we lose our WLS technique (such as a band) we tend to regain.

Now they must be considering this device for higher BMI folks so they can lose weight and have a less risky surgery.

Personally, I wouldn't do it but my BMI wasn't high enough to warrant it. I'd just stick with the actual WLS and leave it at that. But I'm not everyone and there are some folks who could probably benefit from it.

But it's not the same as an actual sleeve procedure, it's a sleeve that goes in part of the intestine to prevent food absorption if I recall correctly. Kinda like a temporary bypass procedure. It can only be left in for a few months and then has to be removed.

Thanks now I understand it was such a brief explanation. I don't think I need this either. My BMI is 38.5 with Type II diabetes and some bone issues and Cholesterol. I think it's for people with very very high BMI's.

I won't have this for sure now