Why I Chose a Lapband over Gastric Bypass
First off I want to say, that I'm not down on anyones method of weight loss and if you have had a gastric bypass and had great success with it, then more power to you, but for me it was not a option.
It's a bit annoying that so many people group all weight loss surgery together, talking about the dangers, risks and problems associated with weight loss surgery as all the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I chose the lapband over gastric bypass for several reasons. The most major being that the risk of death associated with a lapband is no greater than having your gallbladder removed. About 1-2000 die from a lapband being placed. The risk of death by gastric bypass is more like 1-50. That's a pretty big risk. But there is more. Gastric bypass have all sorts of risk factors: bowel obstructions, risk of popping staples and bleeding into themselves, malnutrition, intolerance of foods (dumping syndrome), anemia, serious Vitamin B deficiencies, leakage of stomach contents, serious Calcium deficiencies and lifelong needs to be followed by your surgeon to treat this problems with special protein and vitamin regimens.
The lapband is COMPLETELY different. The worst risk complication is band erosion, this only happens in 1-3% of the people with a lapband and people don't DIE from this complication, although they do have to have their band removed. I will never have staples pop or stomach leakage because none of my insides were cut and removed and rerouted. I will never have calcium, iron or Vitamin B deficiencies because I can absorb nutrients normally - because all of my stomach and intestines are there.
And another problem with the gastric bypass is that the stomach can be RE-STRETCHED out - IF careful dieting is not followed. This again, doesn't really happen with a lapband. We can forever keep our bands tightened up and therefore always have the smaller stomach at the top and eat less.
Now I will tell you. If you wear your band too tight, you won't be able to eat bread - awwwwwww, what a shame! Not that I eat bread anymore anyways! And I've never worn my band "tight". The band is tightened through a port under the skin. A small needle is pushed into the port through the skin (on my stomach) and the doctor injects saline into the port and it "tightens" up my band. It is adjustable. As I lose weight around my stomach, the band loosens up and I can get an adjustment to tighten it back up where it should be.
Now I can eat too much and stretch out my stomach (an easy fix) - just let the saline out of my band, allow the stomach to go back to where it was and then tighten it back up.
Now, the reason why a band works for me WITH my low-carb diet is because I'm so metabolically resistant that I have to watch my calories as well as my carbs. This enables me to do so and never be hungry. Well, I mean, I get hungry at meal times, but that's normal! A typical meal for me is: 3-4oz of protein and 1/2 cup of veggies. I can't eat large salads, but don't really need to, in order to feel full.
Statistically, only 1-3% of people lose all their weight and keep it off with dieting and exercise alone. 50% of people with weight loss surgery, lose all their weight and keep it off. I really do prefer the higher stats!
Again, any SAFE way that someone can lose their weight and keep it off it A-OK to me. I want everyone to get to where they want to be and be happy there. It's just my lapband has enabled me to be able to do this a bit easier.
5 comments:
Hello
I just wanted to say my friends sister had a lap band. I don't think gastric bypass is allowed here (not sure) but anyway as it turns out it is probably lucky for her that she had a lap band. She lost heaps and heaps of weight and looked great, trouble was she couldn't stop it, she got very anorexic, ended up hospitalised for some time a couple of years ago, I believe after that they took her band out. No idea how shes doing now as I have moved since so havn't seen her, her sister says shes gaining it back but you know what sisters are like :)
Sherrie - that is strange indeed. I wonder if her band was either too tight with restriction or they put the wrong sized band in her? That's VERY unusual - in fact I've never heard of that happening. I hope she doesn't gain all the weight back. Sadly, most people do if they have to remove the band.
Risk of death with the gastric bypass 1 in 50???? Oh good lord NO!!! It's about 1 in 200 and is acutely affected by the fact that a percentage of gastric bypass patients are extremely high-risk individuals for whom ANY kind of surgery has a very high likelihood of complications. People always forget to factor that in.
Dagny
Dagny - I got my information from WebMD at http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20041007/studies-weigh-risks-of-gastric-bypass-surgery . And I'm SO not against it for other people, it just wasn't for me.
I had a BMI of 52 when I was banded and I was at a super high risk for any type of surgery, but my risks were far less with a lapband, not so much because of my weight or that factor, but because of all the complications that can arise from the gastric bypass itself. Any time your insides or cut and then rerouted like they are with the gastric bypass (or by any type of surgery) it's a much greater risk than them putting the band around my stomach. So no my complications were not the same as someone with a gastric bypass - even though I outweighed some I've known who chose gastric bypass instead of the lapband. That is what I meant.
But like I said in my comments about weight loss surgery in general, the risks outweigh the benefits for many people AND the facts are that people do better with the aid of WLS than withOUT (at least the long term results are much better).
So I'll say again, what I said before. Whatever you chose, if it works and you're happy, it's all good! :o)
Thank you for providing a link to the study you cited. Reading the article in full and then reading the actual study itself I have to say I feel you've quoted a "statistic" in your blog that is out of context and VERY misleading.
The study DOES make separate correlations between incidence of death and the degree of a surgeon's experience as well as the likelihood of complications given the medical status of the patient BEFORE surgery.
The study is from 2004 and the "1 in 50" number was a comment from the surgeon who conducted the study, referring to a particular high-risk situation involving inexperienced surgeons.
People look for just this kind of contextual misrepresentation of "evidence" to support their excuses to avoid doing anything about their weight problem or to bash WLS in general.
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