When Eddie went to the informational meeting at Sharp, they talked about all the different types of weight loss surgeries available. He came away from that meeting talking about "the sleeve". I had never heard of it before and had no idea what he was talking about. He calls it the sleeve, but it's also called gastric sleeve or verticle sleeve gastrectomy.
Eddie explained that a surgeon will remove approximately 60 to 80% of the stomach leaving a small tube, or "sleeve" that extends from the natural stomach opening to the natural stomach outlet. The procedure helps to limit eating and control hunger by removing the part of the stomach that produces the hunger-stimulating hormone Ghrelin.
It is not gastric by-pass surgery which cuts the stomach outlet and reattaches it to a different part of the small intestine. All of the food will still go through the whole digestive system. Eddie was told that the long term complications of this procedure are fewer compared to the Lap Band procedure. He started researching the sleeve procedure on-line and looking for forums and blogs from people who have the sleeve.
He was finding that most everyone is very happy with the procedure and that a lot of them had the Lap Band and had a complication with it, had it removed and then got the sleeve. The more he researched it, the more he felt he needed to switch his plan and get the sleeve rather than the Lap Band.
We met with his surgeon and talked about our feelings of switching to the sleeve and the surgeon was very encouraging. He has preformed the procedure many times and is confident that it will really help Eddie reach his weight loss goal. The doctor takes many precautions when he does the sleeve gastrectomy that made Eddie feel more confident.
So we set up a surgery date and had some pre-op work done. Eddie is scheduled to go to the hospital this Friday, May 13th. He has to start his prep on Wednesday. We will have breakfast that morning and then he has to drink some stuff that will help flush out his system and he can only have clear liquids after that until Thursday night, when he will stop eating until after his surgery.
He will stay in the hospital for 2 nights and come home on Sunday. He is getting nervous and scared. I am trying to be as supportive as I can be, but I am scared also. This is life altering. I have watched some video blogs from people who have had the procedure and you can watch the weight come off of them. They are all loving it. It is a tough recovery and a huge adjustment, but this is what my husband has set his mind to and he can be stubborn when he wants.
Wednesday we will start tracking his weight and keep everyone posted on how everything is coming along.
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