Shellyac

Welcome to the board. There is a great deal of info to be had on this site. Make sure that you read the negatives as well as the positives on the board. I feel that I am better prepared for surgery by having an idea of what can go wrong, it gives me insight on what to look out for and what to avoid after surgery. PS did you hear about the iBand at your consultation?

That article is misleading, the statement (about the band receiving low marks) was not made by the ASMBS but by a researcher presenting at the ASMBS conference. While I don't disagree that the band has it's problems, you need to make sure that your that you aren't giving out misleading information Edited to clarify the statement that I was referring to

I haven't been banded yet (I'm scheduled for Friday) but from what I've read from others it can range from being painless to causing a great deal of pain. I think it depends on the person giving the fill and your pain tolerance. You should also check out the threads on fills to get a better idea of what to expect

If you haven't yet I suggest that you also read the other surgery sites including the complications portion of each site. When you go to your seminar sometimes they will have post-op patients there to talk about their experience, take advantage. Ask about more than their weight loss, like what are their experiences with eating, do they have problems with certain foods, what happens if they eat too much or too fast. If you are planning on going through your insurance, contact your insurance company to see what they cover. Also realize that the process takes at least 3 months, more likely at least 6, and sometimes longer if other life issues come into play. If your current insurance doesn't cover find out if you could switch to another plan that will cover it next year or you may want to find out how much the surgery will cost out of pocket if you have it locally or if you have to consider going to Mexico to be able to afford it. Consider if the band maintenance is right for you, are you ok with needles, are you ok with having to go in for fills at least once a month or more often if an unfill is needed. Are you an impatient person? Are you ok with the idea that getting to the green zone could be a long process that will come with periods of not being tight enough or being too tight? Also realize that weight loss with the band is generally slower than with other procedures, but I believe that it is generally the same after two years Also if you are interested in the band but are afraid of some of the problems that come with it you may also want to consider the band with plication, this is a newer procedure that combines the band with sleeve plication (this procedure folds and sutures you stomach into a sleeve but your stomach is not removed) in addition it seems that most insurance companies will cover the band with plication but the bigger obstacle right now seems to be finding doctors that preform it. But the benefit with this procedure is that early results show that there are fewer band complication like erosion and slippage, there are fewer needs for fills, and the weight loss rate is similar to the gastric sleeve. Good luck with your search for more info

You could talk to your doctor's office to see if they would be willing to accept the 90% as full payment.

If you had really bothered to read the original post you see that she was possibly having her plication revised to a sleeve which is why she was posting here. Also she was talking about how the doctor, the hospital staff, and the booking agency failed her and was warning people not to use them which is valuable information for people who are researching going to Mexico to have any surgery done. Finally I think that the poster was probably very well informed about the plication because I have not seen her post anything negative about the procedure just the doctor that preformed it. To me that signals that you know what you are supposed to expect from the procedure and that it's failure lies solely with the person who preformed it.

I found this on the sleeve board about do's and don'ts and I think these easily apply to people with the band

Hi, I just wanted to say that I think that this list is great and even though I'm not getting the sleeve I feel that it still applies to what I will be facing. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to share this on the band site and I think it should be shared on other sites as well.

I think that you may not need to wait an additional 6 months if you have a record of 6 consecutive month of a supervised weight loss attempt within a certain time period (I believe that it might be in the past two years) Also check with your insurance company to see what they require in terms of the supervised diet, some only require 3 months. Finally if your surgeon agrees that you shouldn't wait for the procedure, you could have them appeal to your insurance company to waive the the 6 months based on a position paper from the ASMBS which says in summary

You may want to check with your doctor offices to see if they would be willing to take the insurance payment as payment as full, it might not be possible in the 50% case but they may be willing to take the loss of a few thousand dollars. A few of the people on the lap band board mentioned their doctors doing that so it might be useful to check out the insurance and financing board over there for more info

Hi, I'm scheduled for January 6th for the band with plication or iBand. I was supposed to start my liquid diet today but I have family that's staying with me until Monday and I find impossible to try to be on the diet now. Plus my PCP mentioned to me today that she thought that it would only be a 3 day liquid diet so I figure if I at least do that I should be ok

The band doesn't need to come out for pregnancy. Some doctors will just unfill you so that eating will be easier. Also most of the things that I have seen said that you should wait a year to get pregnant because of the fluctuating hormones from the weight loss but I believe that there have been a few women who have gotten pregnant soon after surgery

For me it came down to not wanting to make a permanent change to my body. I know that there is a chance that the band might leave a lasting effect but is more likely that if I needed to have it taken out it is easy to remove. Also I did not want to deal with the issues that came along with the bypass like dumping, I wanted to know that I could still enjoy a drink or a dessert on occasion without worrying that my body would rebel. My original surgeon tried to push me towards bypass but that just ended up making me consider the sleeve, after all if I'm going to make a permanent change I might as well go for the one that would leave me with the more normal life, but I was told that my insurance wouldn't cover me because my BMI wasn't over 50. Fortunately I found out about the band with plication which gives the benefits of both the band and the sleeve

The decision of what procedure to get is up to you and your doctor. The most important thing is that you get the procedure you are more comfortable with, for most people with the band the fact that you're not cutting your stomach and not rearranging your digestive system was a major reason for choosing the band, at least it was for me. You should also consider what life will be like after surgery. For sleeve and bypass patients, you don't have to follow up with your doctor as often as band patients. Also the process of getting to optimal restriction is often not easy and can take several months and for some people who had to revise from the band never found that green zone. You should also consider how your eating habits will have to change for each procedure, each procedure has it's own set of issues. Also keep in mind that if you want to have the sleeve you will need to make sure that your insurance company will cover it for your BMI, some companies only cover it for patients with a BMI of 50 or higher but this will probably change relatively soon. Finally there is a new procedure called plication where your stomach is folded in on itself and sutured in a sleeve instead of being removed. Initial results show similar weight loss to the sleeve but with fewer complications and this procedure should also be reversible. Since it is new it's not covered by insurance companies yet as a stand alone procedure but they will cover it if you are also having the band at the same time. The benefit of having the combo procedure is that plication seems to eliminate some of the common band complications like erosion and slippage and it should also help you to not be able to cheat the band because your stomach size is reduced. There aren't that may doctors preforming the procedure yet but it's starting to become more common. The main drawback is that there isn't that much long term data on the procedure.

Hi, I'm scheduled to have the iBand on Jan 6th. I'm really looking forward to hearing how things go for everyone else

You should be able to get approved on your BMI alone. You typically only need to have a comorbity if you are between 35 and 40

Insurance companies will cover the lap bad with plication but there aren't that may doctors that preform it so it may be more difficult to find a doctor to preform it than to have your insurance company cover it if you have it with the band. Here are a few articles about plication and it complications: http://bariatrictimes.com/2010/05/19/laparoscopic-greater-curvature-plication-an-alternative-restrictive-bariatric-procedure/ http://bariatrictimes.com/2011/09/22/early-complications-of-120-laparoscopic-greater-curvature-plication-procedures/ Also while I don't dismiss the possibility of a serious complication like necrosis, I think that the doctor that preforms the procedure is more the problem than the procedure itself. In Zanthina's thread she mentions that one of the doctors that treated her found that her suture line was not as should expected. In another thread that I saw about sutures coming undone, the procedure was done by a doctor that did not list any training on the procedure on his list of experience and training. Plication as a weight loss procedure is relatively new but plication as a surgical technique has been around for over 40 years, it has been used primarily as a treatment of GERD

I think the short answer is that you don't know if the sleeve is going to stretch (but if does I think that there is only so far that it can go). You just have to take a leap of faith but take as informed of a leap as possible, that's what I'm doing by having the band with plication next week. Like you said there isn't any long term data on either the band or the sleeve. I think it will be a long time before there is solid data on the band because the procedure is still evolving. As for the sleeve the best I have been able to find is results for patients about 6 years out but the good news is that the sleeve has been a deemed an acceptable primary weight loss surgery (it was previous recommended as either as the DS first step or for patients with a BMI of 50) As a result there should be more patients getting the sleeve and thus more follow-up data. When looking at info to help you make your decision make sure that you put more weight on the published studies because while there is a great deal of knowledge to be gained from individual experiences, they may not by typical and you don't want to compare your success or failure to them but it's better to see how you compare to a group average What it will basically come down to is how compliant of a patient are you. If you had no problem eating correctly on the band, then you should have no problem with the sleeve. I think that the trap that WLS patients who regain weight fall into is that they don't have put in any work after surgery or that they can eat what ever they want and the "tool" will do all the work. As long as you don't do that you will be fine with what you choose

You should also check to make sure that they don't require a BMI of 50 for the sleeve. When I was considering the sleeve after my original doctor tried to push me towards bypass instead of the band (I ended up switching doctors and will be having the band with plication next week), I was told that BCBS required the higher BMI and that they only covered the band and bypass for my BMI (43). If your BCBS also has the same requirement I would suggest that you have your doctor's office submit the latest position paper from October 2011 on the sleeve from the ASMBS (www,asmbs,org the paper is located about halfway down the page) along with your paperwork. The 50 BMI requirement is based on a previous position statement and since the update is relatively new, it is likely that BCBS hasn't officially changed their policy yet but I am guessing they will in the next year.

It sucks that your parents won't help you right now but you should try to do as much as you can locally to continue on your journey. Are you using insurance to have the surgery? If so, you should contact the company to see what they will require you to do in order to be approved. Hopefully you can get to most of those appointments on your own. Talk to your doctor's office and explain your situation, they may allow you to do some of the appointments via Skype (I live in MD and I am doing the surgery in Florida so the doctor allowed me to meet with their nutritionist that way). Try posting for a local buddy who might be willing to help get to your appointments, you could even ask your doctor's office if they have any patients who live near you who may be willing to help. You mentioned that your dad doesn't know how much you weigh, well tell him. Tell him about the health problems that you have because of your weight or if you are lucky to not have any problem yet, tell him about the problems that you can face. For most people at your weight it's more of a question of when problem will happen not if. Talk about how you want to be able to be happier and healthier than you are now. Tell that you plan on doing with or without their help but having their help will make it easier for you. If you have failed at other weight loss attempts, explain to them why you failed and tell them how having surgery will help you prevent failing again. Try to educate them about what surgery options you have and why you decided to go with the band. Talk about how this isn't the easy way out, that the band is actually the procedure that requires the most work after surgery. Finally stay committed and focused in your Quest for surgery, even if you have to it all on your own and it takes more time in the end it will be worth it.

EA Sports Active is very good. I haven't tried the sequel to it yet but if it is anything like the first you will get a pretty good and diverse workout. It would also be easy to make it more challenging by adding your own weights

I totally understand what you're feeling. I'm in the same boat. I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. I even had a friend mention it will weird to see what I would look like thin (it only came up because we have another friend who had a gastric bypass but she was thin when they first met) I wouldn't be upset about getting the 2X because at some point you will be there (hopefully for a minute) and most likely it during the winter months. It should be nice to have something new to wear during your transition down. By next winter you will probably be much smaller than an XL. I would take the sweater as a sign that your parents have faith that you will lose the weight, and they didn't give you something that would put pressure on you to try to fit into, like a size 6 swimsuit, so it shows that they realize that it will be a process. I say wear the sweater, think about how great it will feel when you can comfortably fit into it and also think about how much better it will feel when it's too big for you to wear.

I think that it;s more about having the surgery done locally vs, having it done in Mexico. Many people have reported that it is hard to find a doctor locally who will treat them after having had the surgery in Mexico. Plus you will need to see your doctor often in the beginning stages of having the band. The down side is that you may have to do the the 6 month supervised diet which will mean that you'll have to wait until the summer to have the surgery.

You should see if your insurance company requires a certain BMI to qualify for the sleeve. I know that BCBS currently requires a BMI of 50 or higher. If your insurance company does have a BMI requirement for the sleeve and you don't meet it, I would suggest that you include the most recent position statement from the ASMBS (www.asmbs,org) about the sleeve when you submit to your insurance company for approval. The reason that BCBS, and I assume other insurance companies, require a BMI of 50 or higher is based on the previous ASMBS statement on the sleeve that only recommended it only for high BMI's. The new statement came out in October of this year so it's very likely that the insurance companies haven't updated their policies yet

I find that if I drink a protein shake with a straw I can pretty much avoid tasting it. It was sound weird but what I do is bite down on a bendy straw to make it as flat as possible, then I put the straw about 3/4 of the way to the back of my throat and start sucking a slow and steady stream of protein shake. Using this method I find that I don't taste it very much at all and I haven't gagged which I would be afraid I would do if I tried to drink it straight from the container. I haven't been banded yet so I'm not sure how well it would work afterwards but I am pretty sure that I don't take in much air using this method so I think it will work post band.