GeezerSue

Hmmm...I think it was about 10-15 after pregnancy...and another 20 or so with a hysterectomy...and a good 20 with steroids after pneumonia...and then slowly, with a respiratory thing and a bladder issue which both kept me curled up in pain and on drugs, and whch slowed me down a lot. Those lifestyle changes added on another 40-50 pounds over the next ten years. And there's 100 pounds.

Eating at bedtime is more complicated once you're banded. Many times the food just sits there, trying to work its way down to your stomach. And, when morning comes, you are unable to eat "the most important meal of the day" because you're still processing the last meal. If you can eat at night AND in the morning, it probably isn't a problem. But there are those who drink a lot of Water in the evening just to make sure they aren't going to bed with food left in the esophagus/upper part of the stomach.

Not a medical response, just a chronological one: band--no infection abdominoplasty--infection breast reduction/abdominoplasty--no infection DS surgery--no infection So, after having a resistant infection, I had two more surgeries and no more problems.

I had no complications with my band surgery (Rumbaut in Monterrey, Mexico...Hospital San Jose), and no complications with my DS surgery (Keshishian in Delano, CA...Delano Regional Medical Center), and no complications with my breast reduction surgery/abdominoplasty revision (Andrew Cohen, Beverly Hills, CA...St. John's Hospital)...but with my original abdominoplasty (at a VA hospital), I ended up with a resistant infection, was readmitted and had to spend an extra week or so inpatient getting IV Zosyn q6h. See how we treat our veterans? The supervising physician said that the complication rate for abdominoplasties on an MO population--I was MO at the time--was 100%. After the surgery. I mean he SAID it after, not before, the surgery. HTH

I've only visited his in town place. I've seen photos of the newer place. But what I'm talking about is something like a regional or community hospital with many professionals in place. For unexpected, emergency things happening in the OR or immediately after surgery. At his older place, it was him and an assistant surgeon. That's all...two docs. One really good thing I didn't mention about Kuri is that he and his wife don't like for his wife to be left home alone, so he doesn't proctor and he can almost always be found in an instant.

Rumbaut was part of the pre-FDA testing, so it was a lot of his work that allowed the original band FDA-trials in this country. And, he is a band patient. so he knows the procedure from both sides. (And his family lived in Ohio when he was in junior high, so he is fluent in English.)

While the Tijuana surgeons are certainly competent, there is no full-service, modern, staffed hospital like we are used to on this side of the border. Last time I was at his hospital, Kuri's less expensive facility was a little, tiny...maybe 8- or 10-room bare-bones maternity hospital, which charged $47/day. That was two or three years ago. He later added a lovely new place with a beautiful view. But is was not anything like a staffed hospital. Ortiz's latest place is one of those "south of the border alternative cancer treatment centers." Not any place I'd want to go, because (just my opinion) those places are just selling false hope to desperate people. Sanchez has a full-fare deal, with hotel rooms on the upper floor of the hospital. Rumbaut (my guy) works a fully-staffed teaching hospital. With my kind of luck, I'm happier knowing that there is probably a cardiologist or pulmonogist in the house. Sue

Over the years, I've heard two things about Horgan: he's a gifted surgeon AND he and his practice CAN make patients feel that they are in the way. Personally, I don't care about my surgeon's (or my airline pilot's) personality...but if YOU do, Horgan's probably not your guy. OTOH, he has revised some real messes. Good luck with your choice...

Uh-oh...someone read my post.

..........

Dody, Dr. Pleatman is a respected bariatric (band and RnY) surgeon and, if the ill-informed and unwarranted rude comments you've been making don't scare him away, he is a valuable resource here. You might want to take your Nurse Nancy Kit, find the Glossary and learn the definition of "reversible," as it applies to surgeries. It does NOT mean that there will be no evidence that the original surgery ever happened. Good grief.

NewSho, Two of us here (Rachele and I) have just been revised from band to DS. It WAS a more extensive surgery and the recovery period was lengthy for me. Rachele is WAY younger and was back at work in no time. I am again (for the first time in years) eating salads and having fun with ham sandwiches. (I have to use a wheat-flour-free bread for the sake of my new bowels.) I've lost about 60 pounds...did that in two and a half months and then stalled. My body is catching up. I do NOT spend the entire day in the bathroom. I can eat sugar. And do. I'm avoiding some of the processed white foods, but not because they'll make me dump...becasuse one of my friends told me that if she had it to do again, she'd try to maximize her weight loss during the first 18 months by avoiding white-flour based foods. The DS and RnY are "scarier" surgeries than the band placement. But the surgery was only two hours of my life. I need supplements, but smart RnY people take them, too. Anyway, don't be afraid of DS. If a wobbly old broad like me can do it, it just can't be that difficult. Sue

Uh...Hi, there! :wave: Count me in the 25% and I'm intermittently here. I lost weight for the first eight months and then started having complications. By the time I had the band removed during DS surgery three months ago, I had regained every ounce. (We were finally able to document the barium swallow just sitting in my esophagus. Not moving. The doctors kept showing each other. THAT was why I was on a Soup and ice cream diet.) BTW, one European surgeon (where they have been implanting bands a lot longer) told me that 20% of his practice is REMOVING bands. So, yes, they do far more band implants in Europe, but they consider it a "first response," and are more willing to move on in the event of failure/problems. In fact, before I was banded, Dr. Franco Favretti (one of the earliest band doctors) told me that he felt that all wls should begin with the band and then progress as needed. So, I believe that we shouldn't assume that the Europeans have similar follow-up philosophy.

I got my band. Then, due to problems, I had the band removed and had the DS (which is NOT the RnY). I'm sorry that I didn't "connect" with the data available at the time, which was that at age 55 and a starting BMI of over 50 (but lower at surgery time), I was not the best candidate. AND, that "success" is declared when 60% of excess weight is lost. (That would have left me on the cusp between MO and O.) I'm not really sorry I got the band (except for the money), but I am sorry I waited so long to have it removed and to move on to another approach. Sue

I declare myself Valium-deficient. Is that an accepted disability?

Just adding that you might want to check out the DS. Two of us here have gone from band to DS and seem to be doing well.

What Jacqui said..and he's wrong. The immediate post-op time is NOT about losing weight. The band is designed to work WHEN IT IS PROPERLY ADUSTED!! Most of the immediate post-op weight loss is dehydration. Tell him to RTFM! (Read the ___manual.)

Here's the answer you don't really want...and it's all about number crunching. Apparently, for higher BMI patients, the end result ON AVERAGE gives less than optimum bang for the buck. So, let's say that someone who is 5'4" and weighs 300 pounds (BMI 51.5) has "average" success and loses 60% of her excess weight. That person would then weigh 216 and still be obese, with a BMI of 37.1. In fact, with "the right comorbidities," she would STILL qualify for wls. For that reason, BC California has stopped covering the band for patients with BMI's of over 50. Of course, it's illogical, in that the band and the RnY have the same long-term results. But they can show that the RnY patients GET to a lower weight and then regain and blame that regain on the patient...but the band patient who just loses slower and ends up where the RnY patient is two or three years out can be called a "failure," for never getting to the goal weight. I think it was Twain who said somthing like, "There are three kinds of untruths...Lies, damn lies and statistics."

(I answered Amanda in an email, but I hadn't read this.) Amanda, I was given the drug Reglan, which I took about a half-hour before meals. It causes stomach contractions and moves the food along. I don't seem to need it any longer. I'm pretty sure it helped when I used it. I didn't have vagus nerve damage...just the dysmotility and that caused the food to pack into the esophagus, so I had some dilatation, as well. It seems:::she says, knocking on wood:::that it's all healed, as of about two and a half months after having the band out. Sue Sue

Yup...that part that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). So, compare two patients who paid $10,000 for their bands: 1--AGI of $30,000. 10,000 - 2250 = $7750 deductible 2--AGI of $80,000. 10,000 - 6000 = $4000 deductible How much you can deduct depends on your income. But there are no requirements as to where you have your medical care.

Babs, Since you have had only fouroscopy, and not endoscopy, I'm not sure how he's sure that there is no erosion. Sue

YOU can call you shallow...I wouldn't do that. I guess I grew up too close to Hollywood and I'm too close to the subject matter (my daughter has worked in film and in other working-with-the-big-names gigs) to believe anything in a rag. I don't think people who DO care are shallow...just interested in things other than stuff I care about.

To see who DOES care and to try to understand why those who DO care, care.

At the risk of sounding like a snob--which I already know I am--I cannot IMAGINE why anyone would care what a couple of talking heads from televison do about their weight. (I guess that also explains why I'd never buy Jones' book, either.) And..my mother has lap surgery scars from having her gall bladder removed... Sue

By the time I had a scope, it was part of the pre-op process to have the band removed. I had no erosion, so that was good news. My DS surgeon did it, so that he'd know what he was in for, before doing the revision.