Last Thursday night I attended a WLS seminar at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge. They rotate which doctors speak at the seminar from the groups which perform the surgeries in the WLS program at Woman's Hospital. This particular evening, we had a surgeon from the Surgeons Group of Baton Rouge.
There were about six attendees, and we were all at different stages of interest. There was one woman who was ready to set up her appointment and have her surgery done this December. A mother and adult daughter in the seminar were there and seemed at the opposite end of the spectrum. I got the impression that the mother had dragged her daughter along and her daughter wasn't ready to even consider it. Another woman was asking a question a minute. The final woman in the room (besides me) was silent the entire time. I was quiet too. I did ask one of the nurses a question on the side, but it was more to confirm price for self-pay than anything else.
The seminar itself was fairly informative. I think I knew most of the material by now. If you spend any amount of time reading other people's stories then you're bound to know about the risks and rewards. One thing that I really appreciated was that the surgeon broke down the differences between gastric bypass, vertical sleeve, and gastric banding. The most common procedure they do is the sleeve (the one I am planning to have done) and the average % of excess weight loss is 40-80. In other words, if you are 100 lbs overweight, then on average you would lose 40-80 pounds. There is less risk with VSG than with the bypass, the weight loss is quicker than with the band, and they all require nutritional supplements.
I am really liking what I'm hearing about the program at Woman's though. I need to do some more checking into it. I want to make sure I know if there are any additional costs involved. It sounds like it's all including, but if so that means that you get exercise and nutrition consulting, a support group, etc! Very nice :)
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
Always Beautiful,
Kelly
