My mom had gastric bypass a few years ago and when she came home she had medical plastic bags that collected fluids from her open surgery scars.

I am considering getting a lap band and was wondering if these bags/ pouches were attached after surgery? Thanks

No they are not.

Not if the procedure is done laproscopically. It sounds to me like her surgery was the old style where they "open you up" They don't usually do bypass that way any more, nor "lap band" (the name comes from that ... the lap refers to the surgery type, laproscopic)

They make a few (1-6)incisions, insert instruments/camera through those incisions, do the surgery, remove camera and instruments, and close up the incisions. Recovery is much faster; many lap band patients go home the same day or day after.

I would never get gastric bipass! You literally starve yourself! With the band you still get all your nutriants. You lose slower, but it's at a safe pace. The fluid bags are not part of this surgery, infact, Recovery is much easier! Good luck!

No bags - a couple of steri-strips holding the incision sites together. It really was a piece of cake IMO. I could have done away with the gas pains, but they are only a memory at this point. The recovery time seemed minimal and I felt like, for such a life-changing surgery, it really was anti-climatic.

My mom had gastric bypass a few years ago and when she came home she had medical plastic bags that collected fluids from her open surgery scars.

I am considering getting a lap band and was wondering if these bags/ pouches were attached after surgery? Thanks

No way jose! I just posted a pic of my incisions 2 days after surgery and yesteday (6 months and a few days after surgery) if you want to take a look. Here is the link Once Upon A Time...In the Land of cheese and Sunkist: Incisions

Thanks for all the info! I just wanted to make sure about that before I started to do more research. :cool: