Advice concerning weight loss surgery

I am not sure how they compare. However, I had a friend who recently had their stomach stapled. For two weeks before the surgery she was only on a liquid diet. For the first week after the surgery you are also on a liquid diet. Now she is able to eat a few solids. However, if you eat meat the meat has to be finely chopped. there are also certain vegetables that you are not allowed to eat. Once she had the surgery she was in alot of pain but she feels it will be well worth it in the long run.

I had lapband surgery December of last year, I've lost 85lbs and I highly recommend the surgery. I would also recommend that you speak to your doctors and find out which one is right for you. I don't want to say anything negative about the bypass surgery, I can only state my reasons for not having bypass. I chose the lapband because of its much lower mortality rates, much less invasive surgery, many less complications and most important, the ability to reverse the surgery if it goes wrong. If I didn't like the band it can be removed easily and I can still have the bypass. The bypass in not reversible and is a HUGE change in your digestive system. The bypass style surgeries create a malabsorption of your food intake which leads many patients to be forced into taking massive doses of vitamins and avoiding some foods which now make them very ill. Now, with that said, there are some negatives on the lapband side as well. Some foods will get caught in the band and you will vomit. Some people find some foods intolerable, not violent reactions like dumping syndrome, but again, vomiting. Some people have band slippage and erosion of the band surgical area. Of course bouth surgeries carry risk of infection, but so does scraping your knee. I think you should definitely go to obesityhelp.com and band2gether.net and read the positive stories, but also seek out the negatives. Weigh your options carefully and of course ask questions in both forums.

Find a Bariatric Surgery center of Excellence in your area and go see their presentation. You will get more than enough information to start you in the right direction.

Last May I had the Fobi Pouch Gastric Bypass done. It is basically a rny where they vertically cut the stomach and place a silastic ring at the base of the "new" stomach to prevent the stoma from stretching. It has been wonderful! I've gone off my high blood pressure medication and lost 102 lbs so far! I feel great, I only wish I could have done it sooner. You do have to be committed to your new life style after surgery. You have to make sure you get enough water, protein, exercise, and take all the vitamins your dr. wants you to everyday (for me this ends up being around 7 capsules and 7 chewables a day). I can't tell you much about the lapband since I didn't go with that one. The only things I know are that it also works wonderful for most people, it's less invasive because they don't alter your stomach, it doesn't cause the malabsorption issues that rny causes, but it also has a slower rate of weightloss because of this. You also have to get fills every so often. I know a lot of people who swear by both, for me the bypass was just the way to go.

I had open (full cut) Rou en y (RNY) August of 2003. I am going for my tummy tuck on Monday for the excess skin. I have heard the the RNY is the most permenant. All just being a 'tool' anyway. I have lost 199 lbs. RNY is where they separate the stomach into 2 sections and join them down lower to digest the food. Obesityhelp.com is a great site for learning about any type of weight loss surgery. All Bariatric Hospitals schedual information sessions and are willing to answer any questions you might have. Lap surgery is where you have small holes instead of the long zipper cut that I have. My surgery can be done with the lap surgery. I hope this helps. Ask me any questions and I will try to help with info or lead you in right direction for the answers.