Jump to content

cyberohanamama

Members
  • Posts

    2
  • Joined

  • Last visited

cyberohanamama's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/4)

0

Reputation

  1. You might also need to consider allowing time for a pre-op diet *IF* you are a high BMI patient. Dr. Ortiz does ask his High BMI patients to try and lose 5% of their body weight before surgery. This is because losing this weight reduces the visceral fat around your liver which lies right on top of your stomach where the surgeons have to work in placing your band. Reducing the fat around your liver means you are doing your part to help ensure a smooth surgery and a quick recovery (I'd guess because a less fatty liver gets moved around less/less traumatized during surgery). I was a high BMI patient (385 lbs w/ a BMI of 58) and needed to lose 19 lbs pre-op. I ended up losing 22 in the 6 week between scheduling my surgery & the actual date. While I don't *know* that my weight loss helped make the surgery easier on me, but I can tell you that I was up, walking around, and chatting with my bandmates 1 1/2 hours after surgery and felt fine to go home the very next morning (I only live about an hour from TJ and didn't need to hassle with airport lines or squishy airline seats so I chose to go home instead of spending another night in the hotel). I was banded on 5/25/05 and, as of last Monday, I am down a total of 59 pounds -- I LOVE my band! Losing weight with the band has been by far the less stressful (& and least torturous!) weight loss I've ever experienced (and I'v lost A LOT of weight in my life!) -- plus, for the first time, I feel confident because the band provides me with a tool that will also help me KEEP the weight off for the rest of my life (maintenance has always been my downfall in the past). Lyndy
  2. I haven't needed a fill yet but am planning to go back to Dr. Ortiz. Not only does he have far more expertise in placing the band than virtually all the US surgeons, he also has that same level of experience with managing fills post surgery -- Fortunately, he's smart enough to realize that ultimately the key to the band's effectiveness are the fills! It seems to me that many US surgeons seem to be in it only for the surgery but don't care much about fills -- not as glamorous, I think, and certainly not as lucrative for them). Dr. Ortiz will tell you that he is more aggressive than many about fills (most of his patients only need 1 or 2 fills) and I believe it has a lot to do with the good results his patients report. I get so frustrated for bandsters I hear about on various groups who have had multiple fills but still experience little or no restriction because their surgeons are so inexperienced that they will only do tiny fills to "sneak up" on that sweet spot . . . I realize it's not practical for everyone to come back to TJ for fills -- though I really do think it's good to plan on coming back at least for your first fill. If you're interested in locating a local doc who will do fills for patients who were banded in Mexico, a good resource is the MexicanBandsters group on yahoo.groups which has a listing of docs all around the US that people have used to do their fills locally. Good luck to you! Lyndy Banded by Dr. Ortiz on 5-27-05 -- still no fill needed Down 57 lbs (35 post op + 22 from 6 wks pre-op diet)
×
×
  • Create New...