Jerrie, I'm going to discourage either procedure. Both surgeries are only to FORCE you into dieting. The problem is, you only have surgery on your tummy and not your brain, which still wants to eat too much of the wrong things...and unless you convince your brain that it's wrong, then neither surgery will be long term successful. I have a brother in law and a niece that have both had the bypass surgery. The brother in law did really good with it for about a year, until he coaxed his "new" body to accept sugars, etc. He's now back over 300lbs. The niece did not have a good experience from the get-go and nearly died...could not eat solid foods for over a year, and while she now wears a size 14, instead of a size 30, she is constantly ill, because she eats the wrong things...
The lap band is less invasive, but it's still surgery, and some of the same problems exist. If you don't retrain your brain to eat the right foods, and the right amounts of them, then it won't be successful, long term.
Please, please, please try one more time to lose weight without surgery!! I know you can do it, I've seen your photo and can see a goodly amount of "stubborn" in your eyes!! That's all it takes is to be stubborn about eating right...decide that YOU rule food, and not the other way around! Use food as a tool for survival, and use it like you would any other tool...when you need to.
As for loose skin? At our age, we're stuck with it. I've lost 105 lbs, and the only way I'm going to lose the skin is to have surgery. Skin looses elasticity as we age....hence the wrinkles as we get older. If and when I get to have that surgery, they estimate that I will lose another 15 lbs! Some will shrink back, but most of it is just going to "hang around". ("Nude" is NOT a pretty picture at my house!! ;) )
All of that being said, however you choose to lose weight, it's going to be a good thing to get the excess weight gone! You're going to have more energy, be able to do more, and live longer! I had gotten to the point that I couldn't walk across a parking lot without chest pains...now I can run across the same parking lot and not be out of breath!
~hugs~