WASaBubbleButt

I never could pass up a dare. ;o)

ohhhhh, do tell!

Actually... THREE bars. Not that I would know. But if I did know there is a ladies bar, a piano bar (gahhhh), and the bar that stays open until 3am with live music. ;o)

Oh my goodness! They are all right there with their own home cures! I love this one: She gets a rash?? Lovely.

Guys are brutal but women are just plain mean. Can't imagine what would be said in the ladies bathroom! Heh....

I'd think twice about Joya. Here is an example of why: can of worms Dr. Joya lacerated a patient's liver, then refused to let the patient go home from the hospital until she paid him an additional $1200 (I think) for repairing her liver. I think she was feeling like if she didn't come up with $1200, she would be looking at a Mexican jail. Another one very recently, he was doing a sleeve gastrectomy on someone, the patient had a leak (verrry serious) and ended up staying in the hospital for an additional 20 days... cost him a fortune BEFORE he went home. Most of the better docs will clean up their own messes and not charge the patient for complications. I don't blame you for wanting to avoid TJ right now, but there are other doctors that are not in TJ that are quite good. The going rate for banding in MX right now is $7K due to a price war, that's good for patients. ;o)

If you can get it done under insurance that really is best. If not, Mexico is a great option. I don't really understand why a sinus infection in the notes would be a problem, I'd appeal that if I were you. You can get financing through a financing company but that is pretty expensive. It's best to go with a credit card (low interest cc) or a bank/credit union loan. You just have to be careful of where you go. Just as the US, Mexico has good doctors and really bad ones as well. That holds true for any country. Then you want to look at location, some cities are safer than other cities. Good luck to you!

LOL! I thought you were telling us about your bathroom habits too! I was wondering how a bandster poohs that much! ;o)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! You know, a good banded friend of mine died last night. Totally unrelated to banding, she had a heart attack at age 38 and died. Her 15 y/o daughter called me to tell me. I've been in a funk all day today and I've also been pissy and nasty. With that said, reading, "I really don't want RNY, or the your-shit-smell kills people surgery"... I LOL in real time after readingt that! You have NO idea how much I needed that laugh! I wasn't ready for permanent and forever when I was banded, I never thought it would work to begin with. I thought when the band did not work I'd just have it removed and be done with it. I was floored when it did work. Now I have a taste of thin.... I'm not giving it up for anything. I think the sleeve is going to work well for me. But, time will tell. I'm still tempted to go to the newbie boards and post that I can't do the post op diet and ask if I can eat a few chickens today. ;o)

It does not bother me as much that studies don't explain about adhesions and post op diet, it makes me damned angry that doctors don't explain this. Most people...if you are honest with them and explain what the deal is and the reason for the post op diet, they can deal with it. But most believe the post op diet is for swelling issues and that just isn't true. So people are blowing the post op diet completely. I have explained it time and time again in detail on this board and I finally gave up. When the vets tell me I don't know what I am talking about, they ate solids during the clear phase and they lived... I give up. People follow the diet or they don't.

You are correct, Inamed's PUBLISHED stats say 3.1%. Their verbal stats are well over 7%. They announced this at the bash a couple of years ago. They keep the safe stats on their website but if you will notice they are old, outdated, and based on small numbers of people. The actual stats are much much higher for slips.

It is a chemical reaction from port and fat. Consider it free weight loss, you don't have to burn it. If this is what it is, use absorbable guaze. It will likely be a port wine color, might be kinda sticky, consistency of oil, and gross. You shouldn't be contacting a facilitator, you should be contacting the doctor.

See post #4.

yeah, I kinda think we have to agree to disagree on this point. When someone responds to tough love with redirection and manipulation, I'm happy because they are getting the point. I had my band removed because it was an evil little buggar that was named "Spawn of Satan" for a reason. ;o) It was causing permanent damage to my esophagus. Here are details: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/wasabubblebutt-recovery-65353/ This explains why I had it removed and how a sleeve works.

Cookie... All your feetie stomping is without merit in my book. Tough love did work for me, thankfully others cared enough about me to call me on my stuff and make me realize what I was doing. Go ahead, pat someone on the head for poor choices. We all have our own way of supporting another, you have yours... doesn't make it any better than ours.

And she has more patience than most of us too. ;o)

Not sure when it was that he got out of prison for US insurance fraud but he's not exactly an ethical person and does NOT have a great rep for surgical skills. He made a deal with an FBI agent who was posing as an insurance adjuster to submit fake claims to insurance co's for procedures that were never done. He got caught and spent some time in prison. Surgical skills: For example, a gal I know on line (we talked on the phone many times, emailed, etc) was banded by verboonen several years ago. She ended up with an infection due to a bad fill by a US doc. She ended up losing her band. I begged her not to go to Verboonan, I begged and pleaded but she went back to him for a sleeve but she got a better price from him than a good surgeon. She ended up with leaks all the way around her staple line (botched job) and was in a TJ hospital for three weeks trying to recover. When she was strong enough to travel she went home to a US hospital. She had a feeding tube put in and that was the last I have heard from her. Her phone is disconnected, her email account is closed. To be honest, I suspect she is dead. Be very careful here, there are many doctors with good reputations with quality skills. Better to choose one of them.

Isn't that a sleeve cost? Aren't bands $7K. I've now had both by Dr. Aceves. Started out with a band and 18 months later decided I wanted a sleeve instead. I'm with Randy, I can't imagine going to anyone else.

Wow... thank you. Thank you very much. That is very sweet of you. And not that I was counting or anything, but it was over THREE months of liquids. With the post op diet it will be four months of liquids. But really, I'm not counting months or anything. HA! July 4th KittenQutie's grandmother is making me Southern fried chicken. I can't wait for that wing! ;o) I may just take the whole day and work on a thigh. I know, I already mentioned it but just in case someone missed it! SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN! OMZ, I can't wait! I want bell peppers, salad, southern fried chicken, yellow squash, zucchini, more salad, veggie salads, cucumbers, apples, and maybe even a veggie Whopper. It will take me days to get through my list of food I want but I'm willing to do the work, I'm willing to eat my way through a few weeks after the post op diet. ;o))))))))))))) I tried to tell my doc that I have 4 months to make up for. I get the impression he doesn't agree with me. What does he know? Let him do four months of liquids, right? His idea of splurging right now is using whole milk in my Protein shakes instead of Water. No Can Do. I swear I see butter chunks floating in whole milk. Yuck. Bell peppers w/Thousand Island dressing, I can't wait. Who needs Ghrelin? My head is telling me I'm hungry. HA!

It was on OH, that board just sucks. However, the person that wrote the "no rights to revision" surgery routine is a person from here that posts on OH as well. On OH that stuff is routine, members don't permit it here so I should have probably explained what I had planned. I did refer to it in PMs, I just didn't want it posted. A handful of people knew but I just wasn't in the mindset to deal with it over here too. In retrospect I don't think I would have had the issues here that I did there. Members moderate the boards pretty well here without moderators. So it would have been fine to post it here. I was scared, I was unsure of changing procedure types. I was afraid it wouldn't work. I had all the usual fears. I was afraid I was making my problems permanent and forever. I'm realizing that being gun shy of WLS was needless, life is good again! It's just that banding wasn't for me. As each day passes I am more and more positive I made the right decision. I haven't barfed except for one of the leak tests. That stuff was vile and disgusting!

I'm really excited about it. I like the concept and I like how it works. About 60-85% of your stomach is removed. I know I know, sounds freaky. But isn't that what we try to achieve with a band? Along the top of the stomach is the fundus, the fundus is part of what is removed and that is the portion of your stomach that produces Ghrelin. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells your brain you are hungry. I haven't felt hunger once since I was sleeved and I'm on the post op diet. ;o) Some doctors say that the stomach will compensate for missing Ghrelin in about 2 years and other doctors say it is gone forever. The pylorus valve is not removed, that is bypassed in gastric bypass patients and that's why bypass patients dump. But sleeve patients still keep their pylorus valve so we don't dump. We have a fully functioning stomach but smaller. No intestinal rerouting, none of that. Your pylorus valve is kinda like a sphincter like a rectum. It controls how fast food is pushed through to the intestine. So what you try to achieve with a band/restriction, I have naturally. So no fills, unfills, or restriction issues. The stomach ends up being a tube shape, I can only eat so much. There are no restriction issues. Basically what I tried to do with a band, I have with a sleeve. There are no aftercare issues with a sleeve, no fills, unfills, barium swallow exams (unless something is wrong), no slips, erosion, port, port pain, nothing. Just a little stomach. It is restrictive like a band but NOT malabsorptive like bypass. They've been doing this since the 70s but 40 years ago it was a huge failure. They were preserving an elastic portion of your stomach and it would stretch out in no time. Today they are saving a more muscular portion of the stomach and it does not stretch. Five year studies show it is more effective than banding for weight loss but less effective than bypass. The sleeve has fewer complications long term than the band or bypass. The grand daddy of all complications with a sleeve is a leak along the staple line. If you have a good surgeon the risk is incredibly minimal. My doc has done over 250 sleeves and never had a leak. I think the key is that he doesn't just use three rows of staples (standard) he also uses sutures and oversews the staple line then goes on to do three leak tests. You measure how much stomach to save with a Boughie, or a tube they poke down your throat during surgery. It goes down to your stomach and the surgeon cuts around this. Boughies come in various sizes. The smallest size you'd want to use for a sleeve is a 32. My surgeon uses a 34 but explains that the way he oversews the staple line he tightens up the stomach with sutures so it ends up being a 32 Boughie size. The largest I have heard of for a sleeve is a 50 Boughie and the person was a revision patient and she quickly regained her excess weight, a 50 is just too big. Most want a 32 - 36 Boughie. There really is a great deal to learn about this. People need to understand the procedure, the goals, the boughies, boughie sizes, safety precautions for leaks, DETAILS of leak tests (some leak tests are just plain dangerous but docs use them because they are cheap and the appropriate leak tests are expensive), number of leak tests, staple line experience, legit stats, the fact that the post op diet with a band means if you cheat you risk your band. If you cheat with a sleeve you risk your life. After about 30 days there is no leak risk and you are done. You do your post op diet, lose weight, and go on with your life. NO AFTERCARE! Doesn't matter who did your surgery, there is no hassle finding aftercare because you don't need it. Leaks usually happen right out of surgery, sometimes they happen due to not following the post op diet. But they are rare. Sleeves do rock! I'm coming up with something similar to "researching Mexican band surgeons 101" only for sleeve surgeons instead. ;o) Sorry, this is kind of jumbled, I'm still really wiped out from surgery. Revision is NOT an easy surgery. Totally doable and worth it, but not easy. It would have been much easier to work on a virgin stomach. This just goes to prove that with banding your stomach most certainly does not go back to as it was before banding. It is much different and revision carries more risk, more potential for complications. Lesson learned for me, pick the right surgery the first time. ;o)

I believe I discussed it here. I don't like repeating it, it makes me sound anti-band. I'm not anti-band, I'm pro-WLS. ;o)

I guess it is true, I DO have a band and I DID get it in 12/06! HA! Thanks, Denise!

No, $12,5 is for revision to a sleeve and band removal, not just band removal. Removal would have been $3500 but I went to Mexico. BTW, my band problems were not a surgical complication, I just don't tolerate a band and there was no way to know that before surgery. Anyone can tolerate a sleeve, it's already your stomach. Not everyone can tolerate a band. I've typically seen around $5 - $8K for removal in the US *IF* you go to your original surgeon, otherwise it is more. Yep, the band caused many problems, band induced reflux, esophageal spasms, periodic gastritis, stoma spasms, the works. I was only on liquids the last three months after hitting goal. It could have happened before goal but nooooooooooo, not my evil little band! ;o) Nope, I'd never do the band all over again. My surgical costs include a lifetime of visits, fills (for the band), etc. I've only paid additional for surgery, the $12,5 for revision (usually would have been $9500) and now I have a lifetime of covered medical care again, excluding surgery. Actually, my cost for revision was $9500 since I am his previous patient he does not charge revision fees but straight sleeve fees. There were other costs unrelated to banding/sleeve. I can't count how many times I was down there after banding and my doc spent hours with me trying to save my band and work around problems. Even with two surgeries, he didn't make much off me! LOL Hard to say if the money for banding was worth it, I did lose 110% of my excess weight, or around 115% ... something like that but it was a hard journey, much harder in my case I think, than a sleeve. But that is what I wanted at the time because I THOUGHT I wanted the least invasive, I THOUGHT I wanted reversible. When you get to goal your perspectives make a 180. You'd give your right arm for permanent. Why in the world would anyone want reversible? I never want to regain 127#.