My mother told me that they have recently found out that a side-effect of the lap-band procedure is that it stops GERD. I don't know if it stops it because it constricts the esophagus and keeps the acid down in the stomach where it belongs, or if it stops it because it stretches the stomach out so far that it can't produce as much acid as before, nor can it reflux it up the same way. I know there was a person or two on here who mentioned having (or having a mate who had) such bad GERD that it kept eating up their esophagus if they didn't stay on maximum doses of Nexium, et al.
If you suffer from GERD really badly, you might ask your doctor about it. If it works without having to narrow the stomach, then you wouldn't have to lose weight if you didn't want to, and insurance might even pay for it as a GERD treatment. Something to look into anyways. Unlike gastric bypass, this is done laproscopically, is 100% reversible and has a fairly normal amount of surgical complications (GB, on the other hand, has a very high rate of complications).