snowbird

Some surgeons use glue to close the incisions. Dr Ortiz does. I know my incision scars are small and not that noticeable, and it was nice that there were no stitches.

I would try Northwest Fill Management next time.

http://www.nwfills.com

Does anyone have a recommendation or a warning about any doctors or clinics in the Bellingham area? Right now I am just looking for lip filler, but in the future may be looking for more work.

Oh, AngieB - that is one hideous animal! Wow - and Snowbird, that's awesome that your insurance paid for Dr. Ortiz! If you don't mind my asking, who do you have?

- Deena

Sorry for the delay; I've had company all week.

My husband and I have Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employees. They told us they didn't care where we had the surgery, it was covered. It paid for all but about $200, as I recall.

not every doctor withdraws the saline before a fill. some doctors feel this is risking infection more than just adding saline.

The "port without a band"story has been around a while. There are disreputable surgeons in Mexico, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised there is some basis in fact for this story. There are some really incredible horror stories about some mexican surgeons, and they have been corroborrated.

My daughter, my husband, and I are all banded by Dr Ortiz, and very successfully. I think we have lost a total of about 260 lb among the three of us since surgery. I went from a size 22 to a size 6/8. I'm two years past surgery and doing very well, thank you.

I bet you could find some US surgeon horror stories if you looked. So let the buyer beware. But I recommend Dr Ortiz to anyone who asks. My insurance would have covered my surgery in the US so I could have stayed around home for it, but I chose Dr Ortiz after seeing my daughter's great experience in his clinic. (My insurance paid for my surgery there too, by the way.)

As previously stated, this is Dr Ortiz's forum, and he doesn't do sleeves. Therefore, his patients are not going to be experienced with or, generally, advocates of, sleeve surgery.

The sleeve is not a malabsorptive procedure like bypass. It makes the stomach smaller, but does not mess with your intestines like bypass. Threfore, there usually is not a nutrient problem, any more than there is with the band.

The band has its problems. I am about two years past my band surgery and feel I have been a very successful bandster. However, I know people who have been banded and have never been able to find a good restrictive spot: some have been over restricted even with absolutely no fill, and others have been unable to reach proper restriction and are either always too tight or not tight enough. then there are slips and other difficulties like erosion. I am not mentioning this to scare anyone from banding, but you should know what the risks are before you undergo any surgery.

I have been told that the way the sleeve is currently done minimizes chances of stretching. A "non-stretchy"portion of the stomach is left, unlike earlier sleeve type surgeries.

One plus with the sleeve is that you DON'T have to keep adjusting it. Aftercare with a sleeve is just about nonexistent. You get it and you are done. No fills, no unfills, no fills, no unfills . . .

While the sleeve is not reversible the way a band is, the band can leave scarring and other stomach and esophogeal problems even if you have it removed. You are placing a foreign object in your body. Sometimes it can cause damage.

Each patient should work with his/her surgeon and decide which surgery is best for them. One thing I am sure of: neither surgery is a quick fix for obesity, and both require work, dedication and proper decisions about food and eating right afterwards. If you don't follow the band "rules" or the sleeve "rules" your weight loss will be unsatisfactory and you can damage your body and your health. But with proper attention and care, both can be great tools to help you achieve and maintain normal weight.

If you are interested in driving to Mexicali, which is not Arizona but a whole lot closer than Tijuana, Dr Aceves will do fills on other doctors'patients. He is very good, and told me he was a good friend of Dr Ortiz. He does fluoro and works out of the AlMater Hospital, which is close to the border. Like Tijuana, you can park in Calexico and walk across the border. He charged me $69 last time, because I told him I was a member of the Arizona Bandster Lunch group, which is just a bunch of us who get together for lunch from time to time--no membership dues required!

I've been banded a year and a half, and first, he is exaggerating, and second, you will create new eating, chewing, and swallowing habits so that eating slower and taking smaller bites will become second nature. This is not something to worry about. If I go out to eat with friends who are not familiar with my new eating habits they will comment about how I eat, but I don't even notice it any more.

By the way, I could probably take a bite of three or four peas at once, but I might not swallow them all at once. It varies from food to food and from time to time on how much I can eat and how much I can swallow at once. But again, don't worry about it. The whole idea of the band is to reduce your food portions, so of course that means your eating experience will change.

Your skin gets stretched out when you gain weight. Many times if you lose a significant amount of weight, your skin will become loose and saggy. It doesn't matter how you lose the weight; it does matter how elastic your skin is, how old you are, and how much weight you lose. I'm down over 100 lb from my highest weight; I look okay in clothes, but I am self conscious about my arms and legs in shorts, tee shirts, and swimsuits. If I had lost the weight from dieting I would be in the same position.

You will look better after losing weight, and you will be healthier after losing weight, so I don't think it is really worthwhile to worry about whether you will "need" plastic surgery. Most times it isn't that we need the surgery, but that we feel we would look better if we had it. However, I know I look a lot better 100 lb thinner, surgery or not.

Speed of weight loss, amount of weight loss, and need for fills are all highly individualized. I have only needed two fills total; my husband, banded the same day, has had five. We have each lost about the same amount of weight. Again, fills and the speed you lose are not the main things to be concerned about, in

hello: me as well. I was so faithful on the diet before and lost 17 pounds. Had my surgery on the 19th and have lost another 5 pounds. But, I just want to try and chew something - even chunky soup. Has anyone tried that before their 21 days was over?

Sure, tons of people have done it. Tons of people have had their band slip, too. Who knows whether eating solids too soon caused the slips or not? Would it really be worth it after going through the pain and inconvenience of surgery, to risk it all for a transitory pleasure? Not to mention the guilt and worry about whether you did yourself any damage.

It isn't that long; you can do it!

I think you are confusing band length/size with fill capacity. I have a 10 centimeter (cm) band with a 4 cubic centimeter (cc) capacity. Some bands have a 10, 12 or 14 cc capacity. The card Dr Ortiz gave me says I have a 10 cm band, but that does not indicate how much fill I can hold in it, which is 4 cc. Hope that clarifies it for you a bit.

Hey, thats a great tip!!!! Thanks.

While this may not be a bad idea when you are first getting started, remember that there is nothing magical about the number 30. You need to chew your food to a liquid state; 30 chews may be more than enough for some foods, but for some meats and other tough fibrous foods, more than 30 is required. You will eventually get into the habit of realizing when your food is ready to be swallowed.

I often do several partial swallows while I am eating. I'm not really good about taking small bites, so I take a near normal size bite and swallow only part of it at a time, keeping back the parts of the bite that aren't liquid enough yet. This is probably way too much information and a bit gross! But basically, being banded is a learning experience of what works for you as an individual. I know I am never going to bother counting each chew, and at this point I don't have to as I have developed new eating habits. But if this works, go for it. Just remember that 30 may not be enough for some things, and learn to be aware of the consistency of the food in your mouth before you swallow it.

Okay, I'm going to be a grumpy old lady here. You do realize that people have been surviving for thousands of years without a bottle to tell them they need to take a drink, right?

The myth of a body needing 8 glasses of water is just that--a myth. Scientists worked out how much water was in the average human body and other people decided that that was the figure for a daily requirement, but there is not any scientific evidence to support that notion. Your water needs depend on your activity and the climate, among other things, and if you are at all alert to what your body is telling you (such as, Ï'm thirsty!!!") you really don't need to worry about proper water intake. You do need to realize that if you are feeling weak or headachy it might be due to thirst, and act accordingly. Take a drink; if you feel better, you needed water. If you let yourself go to the point of really becoming ill, then you have problems that a new water bottle isn't going to take care of.

I live in Arizona a good part of the year, and I carry water with me just about all the time, because it is so dry here that it is very easy to become dehydrated and ill. But I certainly don't keep track of what I drink and do not feel any need to do so. Just use your head!! My Yankee miser roots are amazed at a $30 water bottle, especially in these times of fashionable frugality. If you've got money to burn, fine, but this is certainly not a necessity!

Signed,

Grumpy old snowbird

my apologies... old age does have it's downfall...

It was clynn who straightened out the troll issue.

Aren't the two of you related though? That may be the source of my "oops".

I'm her mommy. I don't mind if you mix us up, although I don't know if she feels the same! However, since I'm seven years older than you are, I don't think we need to start discussing old age. :-)

well said, Kristy.

one of the other forums contains a thread where this board is discussed, and it is JUST what you said. Several are trashing THIS forum, because of "artbitrary" censorship (I am not passing a judgement, just commenting on their posts) and it DIRECTLY imparts negativism toward OCC and Dr. Ortiz.

We agree that the solutions are simple. Warn, then ban, just as the rules for use state.

What happened before, when snowbird pulled a Queen Fiona on a troll, solved a lot of issues quickly. The troll came in, started a LOT of trouble because several posters were posting LOTS of off-topic posts, and no moderators were adusting the threads (moving off topic posts to the off topic category). No moderator sent this troll any notice that his comments were out of line... until snowbird joined us. The problem took a few days, then the troll appeared a few times in a "fake moustache and glasses" and had to be booted a few more times before he got the message. I hear he resurfaced again, and that HE started the ruckus in the shoutbox. ONE person caused it all to shut down.

And, he is laughing his backside off at the board now, because HE won, thanks to Chad's decisions.

Sorry, Chad, if you feel I am being critical, but... I guess I am being critical of the choice of solution. The shoutbox was added because people wanted a chatroom. A nice feature, but, as people said, tough to enforce rules within it.

The PMs... when I received one from the troll when he threatened to call my BOSS and my family, I sent copies to two moderators, who suggested I ignore him. Sheeesh... Ignore someone who has threatened to try and get me fired?? It showed the lack of strength of the persons in charge. Snowbird was the one who kicked the crap out of the troll - several weeks later, when she got involved.

Will, I think you are confusing me with clynn. I'm not a moderator.

Generally speaking, the moderators are old bandsters who have gone beyond the emotional highs and lows of the newbies. They don't contribute a lot to the general threads because your concerns are no longer their concerns, and those who have been banded a while but are still regular contributors usually come up with good advice and support statements. They chime in once in a while when something needs clarifying or when no solid answer is provided by the regularly contributing bandsters. But otherwise, being banded is not the central core of their lives anymore. They have moved on emotionally.

The advantage to that is basically just what I said: they are no longer so emotionally invested in the forum or in the newly banded life. That's a plus, not a minus in a moderator. They read a lot more than they post here.

When you ban a persistent troll, they just jump back in with another login name.

My happiness and well-being doesn't depend on the shoutbox or the PM system. If the moderators don't want to deal with the problems caused by the admittedly few people who make trouble, that's up to them. I can deal with it.

You get subsequent fills when you need them. There is no schedule. I don't see how you can schedule a fill for months in the future, since who knows what your restriction level will be?

As everyone else says, the first fill is usually about 6 weeks after surgery. After that, they usually want you to wait 4 weeks before another fill, as your feeling of restriction may fluctuate. Sometimes you need an unfill, because the fill was too much.

As I've mentioned before, DH and I were banded the same day, over a year ago. I've had two fills total, and he's had five. We both seem to have about the same level of restriction right now, which we are happy with. This really isn't anything you can plan out way ahead of time.

I am writting because of my step mom. She is 520+ pounds and has been told if she don't loose the weight she will die. She does not have any insurance due to the fact she can't work any more because of her health problems. My dad even has to help her some times to go to the bathroom. My question is Is there any groups out there that will help pay for the lap band surgery. Or any help at this point. My dad lost my mom 12 years ago and i don't want him to loose another one. Thank you so much

Shelly,

Is your stepmother receiving Social Security disability payments? If she is, does she have Medicare yet? Medicare can help her pay for surgery. Her weight is high enough that lapband may not be the answer for her; she may very well need more radical surgery. I would bet that many, if not most doctors would not do lapband on her, but opt for gastric bypass.

If your stepmother has worked in the past, but is unable to now, she should check out Social Security disability payments to see if she is eligible. Her weight would make her medically eligible. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be eligible for medicare until she has been on Social Security for 24 months, so that isn't a quick fix for the insurance part of your question. Bless you for caring about her and your dad.

I think we need to realize exactly what this site is: a forum sponsored by our surgeons for the use of his and other patients. It's a service they provide for us. It is not an open forum simply for lap band patients, although it is available for non OCC patients. It reflects upon OCC when we behave badly, and Dr Ortiz and his staff ( including his unpaid moderators) have the right to monitor and delete parts of the forum when and if the users misuse it. There are other forums out there that are not connected with and do not reflect upon OCC that you can use. I think it is unfortunate that the bad behavior of a few people required the moderators' actions, but they have to do what they feel is best for Dr Ortiz and his clinic. That is their job.

What size band do you have? How much fill do you have in it?

I know of someone whose band was too small--he has never had a fill and is always too tight. However, any size band should be able to be tightened to give you restriction. My husband didn't really get any restriction until his fifth fill.

lapbandtalk.com also has an Australia subforum:

Australia forum

What I thought was interesting, and not immediately apparent from this second story, is that she never went back to OCC for followup care and didn't try to contact them for anything other than getting her money back. We don't know why her band slipped or if she followed post op instructions or not. It is, unfortunately, a classic news story with all the really pertinent facts missing.

THAT is sooooo AWESOME Chris!!!!! WTG! THAT is what inspiring me!!! Umm...I dson't think I ever wore a size 4 before? LOL

Congrats girl!!

Thanks. Never before in my life--i think I went directly from a kid's 14 to an adult 14 . . . and then a 16, and an 18 and . . .

By the way, you are doing absolutely fantastic. Way to go girl!

I had my own little victory last night. Went shopping at the mall and bought two pairs of size 4 pants that fit great. Okay, the fabric was a bit stretchy, but I still couldn't believe it. Hee hee.

Us retired folks usually go mid week. We were there twice the last week of September and sailed through with virtually no delay.