WHAT....YOU SAID WHAT...decision time again???

I have VSG.  I suggest you go and take a look at the men on the forum who've had the sleeve.  Men do awesome with the sleeve.  They drop weight at a much faster rate than women do. 

As far as quality of life... I'm thinking that he means there aren't restrictions on what you eat.  I eat everything...   I kind of see what he's talking about with you being young.  The sleeve is more forgiving with noncompliance. The doctor may be thinking a younger person may have more issues with noncompliance.   If you are noncompliant it's not going to have the same effects as someone with RNY or DS.  At a certain point with the sleeve they expect you to get the majority of your nutrients from food not supplements.

The decision is yours and I wish you the best of luck you do the research and you decide

Read every book on weight loss surgery that you can get your hands on.  Start with your local library, then progress to a bookstore or Amazon.com.  There is a lot of material out there in the world if you want it.
Good luck with your decision.

Kim

I agree with Tsunami in regards to the sleeve, nothing more to add other than the sleeve is actually the first part of the DS which means that you can always revise to the second part of the surgery should the need arise. Click on the name of my surgeon. He is excellent and does both the sleeve and the DS. His track record in regards to fatal complications is 0. Like Tsunami stated, the sleeve is a very forgiving surgery and men do better than women with it although we are not too far behind regarding quick success with weight loss.

Hi M,

Hmmm..I can't imagine being in your shoes.  I always knew which surgery type I intended to have, once I got it squared away in my head that I was truly going to have surgery it all was a go.

I'm not sure your age, or the amount of weight you hope to lose, but only you know what your lifestyle is like on a day to day basis.  Sit back, take your Dr's advice, do your research, and maybe visit each of these boards for the different surgery types before making a final decision. 

I cannot personally speak about the VSG since I chose a lap band.  Personally malabsorption surgeries scare me-I can't explain it, it just is what it is.  The one good thing is a VSG can be converted to a DS in the future if malabsorption is truly what you need.  Maybe if I wasn't so scare of malabsorption I wouldn't be two years out and still needing to lose at least 100 lbs.

Best of luck to you whichever way you decide to go.

Micah,

Try to find a doc who does all of the surgies. This is your choice, not theirs.

Check out my surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital Dr. Genaw, he is excellent. He will answer all your questions, he has a remarkable success rate and he gets straight to the point and doesn't BS you. I love him and everyone at Henry Ford treats you like your their only patient. I was in the same situation as you another surgeon told me not to get RNY because I was too young to understand the changes, WTF, I pay my own bills, and I'm a teacher (age28) so I thnk I can make changes especially if it's for my health. So just check him out.  

Hi,
I went to my WLS with the intention of having the Lap Band.  Since I was Self Pay the surgeon basically told me not to 'waste' my own money as there is not a 100% guarantee with the Lap Band.  Another friend was told the same thing - a guy, but he chose the Lap Band because he did not know anyone who had the sleeve.  He had the Lap Band in April 08 and until Jun 09 had lost 15 lbs.  Most of this was his fault because he kept testing the band to see what he could eat and so he ate everything possible.  I had VSG in May 09 - according to my Dr, I should only expect to loose about 50 lbs.  Well 6 months into it, I lost 70 lbs and at 9 months, I lost 100 lbs.  I am doing all I can to not loose any more weight.  Now, I am 17 months out and my weight loss fluctuates between 95 and 100 lbs.  I am excited about this because the sleeve offers a ton of flexibility.

After the first 6 months, I could pretty much eat any and everything just in much smaller portions.  I still eat frequent small meals - about 6 times a day.  At this point, no matter what I eat, I do not gain weight.  I am in a Sleeve support group of about 30 people.  Everyone else in the group is having similar results with the exception of those that drink alcohol.  They seem to struggle more with weight loss than those of us that do not drink.  However, they have all lost weight but, not as much as others.

I do not go to buffets because they are a waste of money since I really can't eat a whole lot of food.  Now, if I overeat, I am miserable - overeating with the sleeve is painful and all you can do is wait it out in pain or throw it up to get relief.  The overeating feeling is like eating too much at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. 

I can still eat candy and sweets with not problem - just can't eat a lot.  The sleeve is basically a stomach control mechanism.

Now, the guy I mentioned at first, had his lap band revised to a sleeve in June of this year.  Since June he has lost 60 lbs.  He is estatic because unlike the lap band, he can't overeat like he could with the band.  The band required a lot more discipline than I think he was willing to give, now with the sleeve, he has NO choice not to overeat.

Hope this helps...