I am almost to insurance submittal and trying to make a decision about which surgery I want. I have about 100lbs to lose and I know both are good with that looking for personal experiences testimonials or upsets about the surgery, hoping more information from those who have gone through it may help me in this important decision,

Love my sleeve.  I'm down 162lbs of which 130lbs were lost postop, 106% EWL (Excess Weight Lost). I hit normal BMI at 10 1/2 months postop

Weightloss with the sleeve is achieved through both restriction and reduction of hunger hormones in the body. Different people lose hunger to differing degrees, but I have virtually none at 14 months postop. 

It seems like with the sleeve the weight comes off but not as fast as RNY does that help aid in  maybe not so  much excess skin? What was your surgery and recovery like? Any complications?

My surgery lasted 45 minutes. I was in the hospital for 22 hours and working full-time within 1 week.   I had a very easy recovery, but then I had lost 32lbs ahead of surgery and I was already exercising, etc.   Having followed these discussions for some time, I don't think that RNY is taking weight off people any faster than the sleeve.  Not scientific but an observation.  I lost 130lbs in 10 1/2 months.  How much faster would I have realistically wanted to lose?  

 
Excess skin doesn't become less or more with speed of weight loss.  Either you are going to have it or not.  It depends on various factors, genetics  as some families have stretchier skin, amount of weight lost, age, smoking, and how long a person has carried that weight.  But rate of weight loss doesn't affect the amount of skin left.

I lost at the same rate as a typical RnY (and faster than some).

This is the way I look at it:

RnY and sleeve give similar results but RnY costs more and has a higher long-term complication rate. As a self-pay that made the sleeve a no-brainer for me. It might be different if I had insurance that only paid for bypass.

The other thing is that I knew from my research that my biggest problem was with ghrelin giving me an insatiable appetite. The sleeve removes the part of  the stomach that produces ghrelin therefore I felt like it had the best chance of curing that problem for me.

 The sleeve, like the LapBand will simply help you feel satisfied eating less.  If that's what you think your core problem is, then the sleeve is a great tool.  If I had to choose between the two, it would definitely be the sleeve. 

The RNY and DS both give smaller appetites with malabsorption.  If you think your weight problem is more than just what or how much you eat, then you may need that metabolic change that these two give you.  The DS is the most drastic, but yields better long-term results statistically, but many do fine with RNY, too.  I know I needed more than just eating less, so I chose the DS for the biggest bang for my buck, and nearly 7 years out, I'm still at my goal.

Except that bypass has some aspects that make it less effective than a sleeve. The malabsorption is enought to make up for them but then the malabsorption goes away over time.

The sleeve is actually pretty metabolically active. Malabsorption is not the only way to be metabolically active. The removal of ghrelin that the sleeve provides is huge and results in improvements in all the other hormones involved in digestion. You don't get any of that with a band -- in fact in one study band patients actually had their ghrelin levels *double*. And with bypass, it seems like ghrelin levels are all over the place -- in some studies they are less than before but not as small with a sleeve, in others  they are the same with a sleeve and everything in between.

 do you have a link that the sleeve affects metabolically? 

 There are a bunch of links here:

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/p/links-for-people-researching-vsg.html

From that page:

Comparing ghrelin & leptin in RnY vs. Sleeve (Leptin levels rose in both, but ghrelin fell more in sleeve. Conclusion:    The markedly reduced ghrelin levels in addition to increased PYY levels after LSG, are associated with greater appetite suppression and excess weight loss compared with LRYGBP. 

Comparing ghrelin & leptin in Band vs. Sleeve Conclusion:    Plasma ghrelin levels are down-regulated with LSG operation but up-regulated with LAGB operation. [Fancy way of saying went down with sleeve and up with band] 

Diabetes with Sleeve vs. RnY vs. Band - Conclusion: All three bariatric procedures are effective in treating diabetes, with a 3-year follow-up evaluation showing an effect that lasts. The AGB procedure was the least effective. The antidiabetic effect was similarly precocious after GBP and SG compared with AGB. This difference may indicate that a hormonal mechanism may be involved, independent of weight loss.  

Improvement in glucose metabolism after bariatric surgery: comparison of laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: a prospective randomized trial.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19638921

CONCLUSION:

Both procedures markedly improved glucose homeostasis: insulin, GLP-1, and PYY levels increased similarly after either procedure. Our results do not support the idea that the proximal small intestine mediates the improvement in glucose homeostasis.

Early postoperative insulin-resistance changes after sleeve gastrectomy

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19916040?itool=EntrezSyst em2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordin alpos=36

CONCLUSIONS:

After SG the improvement of insulin action occurred rapidly and independently of EWL. The results of the present study confirm that a hormonal mechanism may contribute to changes in insulin resistance following SG.

  There's more stuff about the sleeve at that link for anyone who is interested.