Thread: Gastric Bypass, LapBand, Stomach Stapling?

Which is best? What can I expect to pay? What are the risks?

Well to begin with, First to have any of them done! Your doctor has to refer you for any of them! You Have to be Obese, not just over weight!!!

Then if a Doctor's finding after a complete study of your body fat, health problems etc. Then he'll refer you to a study course to see if you even qualify for any you asked about!!! Then if the person who evaluates you and thinks your a good candidate, then the report is given to your Doctor!

Then your Doctor submits the costs to your Insurance company to see what there going to pay on all the bills and then he will see if your capable of paying all the costs your Insurance won't and make either payment plans with you, or demand you have the money upfront before the operation or what ever can take place!!!

My wife had the Gastric Bypass done because she was 278 pounds and only 5 ft 7 inches tall! and had blood pressure problems, diabetic, and close to heart problems, so she needed it to be done! If your thinking to have any of the ones you asked about, just because you don't want to be fat anymore and have no real health problems!!!! And not on a bunch of medications!

Then just forget it!!! You can get all the weight off yourself!!! Exercise, small portions at meal time and quit all the snackings inbetween meals and quit eating all the stuff that made you fat in the first place! Eat like a 6 year old would eat!!! Give up all the fatty foods and fast foods joints! And a great helper is Slim Fast, but only use as directed!!! Or you will get sick! You can't drink slim fast and fill your face too! you will get sick and diarea really bad!!!

Why anyone who loves to eat and in quanities, feel a operation is the only way to go!!! Those are only for people that there Obese weight is going to kill them soon if they don't! Always remember one thing! You have to eat to live! But you are not suppose to live to eat!!!

No one forced you to eat all the food that made you gain all the weight! There was no gun at your head! No one forced you to eat seconds, or heaped your plate! No one forces you to snack all day and drink all the pop you do!!! You are in full control of your body, not anyone else! Nobody made you fat, you did that all on your own!

Now you have to get the weight off all on your own!!! Diet drugs aren't the answer either, just a bunch of wasted money on empty promises!!! Start drinking 2 full glasses of water, Right before every meal! and instead of pop during the day, Have plenty of Ice water and 100% juices!!! You have to completely change your bad eating habits, eat lots of fruits as snacks instead of chips cakes, candies etc.! You can really do it , But you have to really want too!

Remember food can be your friend to a heallty life, but a buse it and it can be your worse enemy and you will be miserable the rest of your life! And die a very early age!!! Sure it all tastes good, but is it worth killing yourself over!!! Do you really want to spend the rest of your life spending 1,000's of dollars every year for medications just so you can eat anything and all you want!!!

If the food is your best friend, go get some counseling! Food is not the answer to solve any problem!!! Those operations are not for the purpose of looking good!! You can get the weight back off, by exercise and eating only healthy ways!!!

The risk of any operation you mentioned is ungoing health problems, infections and death!!!! A complete overhaul of your eating habits and excercise is a lot better way to go, with no RISKS!!! And doesn't cost a lot of money either!

Gastric bypass and stomach stapling are the same thing. Only you can truly decide which is the best for you. I personally think the gastric bypass is better than lapband since lapband is so new. I have heard of countless people who have had the lapband who later had a revision done to have gastric bypass. There are other forms of bariatric surgery you can consider depending on the area of the country you live in.

I had they gastric bypass done in Dec. 07 and it was the best decision I could make. My health had begun to fail me and because I was so obese and unhealthy it made dieting on my own impossible. I have lost 50 lbs. so far.

cannot tell you what to expect to pay because it all depends on your insurance provider. I can tell you that my hospital bill was well over $53,000 and I have not seen all the bills yet.

The first thing you need to do is talk with your primary care physcian. If you have medical conditions which hinder you then your doctor may recommend for you to have the surgery. What she/he will do is refer you to a bariatric doctor. Generally you have to attend a seminar which will set you all up with seeing the doctor and so forth. You will more than likely have to have a 6 month doctor supervised dietplan so this is a good time to make those appointments and get into see your doctor once a month to be weighed. There are also various tests you will need to have performed. Your primary care phsycian can set you up with those too. To qualify for bariatric surgery you must have a bmi of at least 35 with 2 co-morbidities such as high blood pressure and sleep apnea or diabetes and high blood pressure. There are many co-morbidities but this is just a couple.

The best advice I can give you is to go to the below listed website and research this as much as possible. Having surgery isn't something you would want to consider lightly and truthfully with any surgery there are risks so be sure you know all of them. Gastric bypass is a life changing experience, everything changes and nothing is ever the same. Not only do you loose weight but your tastes change and the amount of food you can intack is very small and will remain so for the rest of your life. Cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs you will have to give up permanantly because you cannot not do these things after you have surgery because they will disenegrate the band and will stretch the pouch. Having bariatric surgery is also not the easy way out as so many uninformed people assume. It is one of the most difficult things you can do and unlike fade diets you can't just go off of it and start eating again.

There is just so much information that I could not possibly give it all to you here. I do encourage you to check out obesityhelp.com. You are also more than welcome to follow my progress and see first hand how life changes by checking out my vlog listed below. I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

Take care. Kellie

This message is you kelliebaby - you said you had a gastric bypass in dec 07, trust me you are far from an expert on this. I know 4 people plus myself who have had this surgery and the weight melted off. Each in our time was trilled and life began again, or so we thought. You said that the bypass won't let you eat too much, that is so untrue. You are in the early stages, just wait, if you do not reprogram yourself on healthy eating you will down the road maybe 2 or 3 years, whatever you will start to eat more. The surgery is great loosing the weight is only half the problem. You need to learn to eat right and exercise. It always comes back to that. Good luck!

I read in a health magazine before that the woman who had problems with her weight wanted to consider lap band surgery to help her lose weight until she realized that her cravings are from her emotional void. The woman consulted a psychiatrist and eventually lost weight. I think some of us who have problems with our weight need to know and understand where this craving is coming from as most of us may only be filling our emotional void or depression with food.

Dazzler,
That is so very true. Unfortunately, the psych eval that most insurance companies require prior to WLS is just a mere formality. It's usually a one hour session that is hardly long enough to discover the true reason behind the person's eating...and none of the surgeries will stop a person from continuing to fill an emotional void with food.

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