WASaBubbleButt

Most docs seem to work through financing companies. I'd find a doctor you are interested in and see which co's they work with (should be right on the doc's website) and apply that way. The problem is, if you are approved by "X" company and the doc does not work with that company, the loan may not be completed. Sometimes they will accept the check but they have to sign a contract with the financing company and they don't usually want to do that.

If insurance covers banding you aren't considering self pay are you? It's a lot of money if insurance should pay for it. Self pay... people do just about anything to get this surgery. I was lucky, I just wrote a check. Some folks get medical/surgical loans, some refinance their homes, some borrow from friends and family, some sell personal belongings, one person even went dumpster diving and sold treasures on ebay until she saved the money. It doesn't have to be $17K, Mexico is a cheaper option, less than half the price. Dr. K in CO is $10K. The prices are coming down, thankfully.

I have Hashi's and I had no problem losing weight. Sad thing about thyroid issues is that it's easy to pack on the pounds but it still has to be burned off the same way. Cutting calories and exercise. But it can be done. Just make sure your labs are good and weight loss is the same as with anyone else. In my case my weight wasn't due to thyroid, I just ate too much. ;o)

I wouldn't worry a lot about what others think. It is your body and your choice. You have to do what you have to do. Look at it this way, you could wait on surgery and try more failed diets and in a few years you could be a larger BMI or you can do it now and get your life back. This isn't like a face lift, we are saving our lives here. This is huge. If I would have been overweight at 19 I would have wanted to do something about it. I'd rather see people get their lives back. Life is different after reaching goal in *so* many ways. Go for it and trust your own thoughts and feelings. Don't worry about what others have to say about your own medical decisions.

I just saw this thread! Nope, every city doesn't have a support group. It started with four of us (Gary, Kira who wasn't there, Wendy, and me) and grew from there and I'm thrilled it did. I think it's good for veteran banded folks as well as newbies. Besides, I like banded people and it's fun to get to know more of them locally. BTW, I still can't believe we talked for SIX hours on the phone last night! HA! Yellowroseaz: Everyone is welcome! The more the better. I believe you did PM me and I added your name to the email list. Can't wait to meet you! Kzintak: I think that's a great idea. Or, as large as we are getting have two. One for east and one for west valley? Whatever anyone wants me to do, I will. I don't know the east valley well so I don't know restaurants. Anyone have some good places in mind? Just think, in a couple of weeks you'll be banded!!! I loved meeting everyone in person. I've talked to some on the phone, some via PM, but it was fun meeting everyone in person. Let me know when I should set up another.

Not getting good restriction is rare but it happens. Thing is, it happens with J&J too. There are four people on OH right now that are complaining that they have 10-13cc in a 9cc band and have no restriction. I have to wonder if they think they have that much in the band. Maybe the doc missed when filling them, maybe there is a leak, maybe maybe maybe. I don't like the buckle on the band, looks like a duck bill. My concern wasn't erosion, the duck bill doesn't touch your stomach. I kinda wondered about it rubbing against the liver. But I haven't heard of it happening yet. But I do like the way the J&J band looks under fluoro w/contrast. I like the company better than Allergan, mostly I like that Allergan (Inamed) has competition. That will be great for patients in the end. Inamed isn't king bee of banding anymore.

People like you make us all look like idiots. Someday someone is going to pee in your soup and quite frankly, you'll deserve it.

There is a guy there that runs the fitness forums and does computer stuff for OH. If you want to PM me your ID on OH I'll log into my account, PM Jeremy, and ask him to email at the email address you signed up with. He should have all that info and can help. OH kinda sucks. :wub:/

I just found something curious. You infer I make money by helping people find a way to research a doctor that will be cutting them open and looking through your posts I see that of 23 posts, 15 of them are pushing your doctor and your doctor only. The rest are about Christianity and how it is your mission to help people get surgery. Check it out: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/search.php?searchid=1152374 I have over 5000 posts and the vast majority of mine are helping people with band problems, emotional problems, WLS issues, eating disorders, sharing information, giving/receiving support, researching information on doctors, etc. Now it makes sense why you don't want folks researching their doctor, it would appear it cuts into your income if people know the truth about yours. Cheers.

When someone screws over the insurance industry do you honestly think the insurance co's are going to eat the costs? Of course not, they pass them on to us. In one sentence you claim premiums are too high and yet in another you infer your doc (the one that stole from insurance co's) wasn't much of a criminal. Well, he was enough of a criminal that he went to jail for it. If you aren't willing to scream about those robbing the insurance co's with fake claims for free money, do you really have a moral right to complain about the premiums you pay? I can appreciate they saved your life. All our doctors saved our lives, that's what WLS is all about. We all had obesity related issues, you aren't alone there. You are merely one of us. However, skill IS an issue. I'm glad your surgery went well, that isn't true for all the patients your doctor has cared for. Nobody pays me for my services, I do it all for free. I am not the one pushing one doc, I push research. I push having a freak'en clue about who you are going to. I push knowing about the doctor that will be cutting into you. There are about 4 docs in Mexico that are better than average, there are about 4 that are simply dangerous. The rest are simply average. I find it funny that you infer I am being paid for posting a research thread on this forum (sig link) when in fact, you are the one selling your own doc on this board. Who is really behaving as a patient coordinator here? How much do you think people pay me for reading my sig link? Are you serious? Try harder for a better slam, you aren't doing so well.

I don't believe so.

I don't like the port placement. Well, I'm just going to edit, copy, and paste something I *just* sent in a PM: With Inamed the surgeon stitches the port into place exactly where he wants it. W/J&J it comes with a device that looks like a glue gun. They put the port on the bottom of the glue gun and place it where they want it. Then they pull a trigger and the port has staple like things on the bottom of it that reach out, grab a hunk of tissue, and hang on. No sutures. With the Inamed port they stitch it into the fascia which is connective tissue above a muscle and below a fat pad. With the J&J the staple things grab hold of whatever it can hang onto. Before the J&J band was FDA approved J&J could not discuss it but they did refer me to a J&J rep in Germany that could discuss it. (FDA rules) He said that when they were making plans to change the band after it was purchased from Sweden they were asking doctors for suggestions on how to improve it. Doctors wanted less OR time and it's faster to use the glue gun device than it is to stitch it into place. So that is one of the changes that was made. There are no "needles" that are on the port (Isuza), they look like staples that haven't been used yet. They go around the bottom of the port. When the device works during surgery the open staples come out, attach to tissue, curve under, and hang on like fingers around a pole. This is where it comes to personal preference, my personal preference is that I want my surgeon taking the time to suture my port into place. There is no way to suture a J&J port, there are no holes to run sutures through. With the Inamed port it has holes like the petals on a daisy for sutures to run. If you'll look at my posts for some time I was kinda pro J&J but after seeing the port placement and the duck bill (a thing that sticks out on the band) I'm back to being pro Inamed. But you know, it's like chocolate. One likes Hershey's brand and another likes Dove brand. It's personal preference. They all work about the same way and as long as people lose weight safely that is all that really matters. Isuza... port flips do not happen because the surgeon sutured the band incorrectly. When you lose weight you condense and your body accommodates the port differently. Sometimes it is a surgeon issue but not all the time. If someone flips two weeks out of surgery, my guess is it might be a surgeon issue. But if it flips after a 200# weight loss, I don't think it is fair to blame the surgeon. The port placement scar is usually bigger for J&J than Inamed. The port glue gun device is bigger than the port so it takes a larger incision to fit the device into the body. But the difference is tiny, it's not a big deal. Some surgeons just make a bigger incision than they have to with the Inamed port. But if they only made the incision as big as absolutely necessary the Inamed port incision would be smaller. But again, it's a tiny difference, at best a half inch. Not enough to worry about. We have stretch marks bigger and thicker than the entire port incision so it's a non issue. Stretch marks are going to show 10x more than a port incision. Angie... the bands all fit exactly right if surgical technique is done well. One thing I like about Inamed is that it does require the surgeon to determine which size is best for the patient. With my doc we pick the brand, he picks the size AFTER he gets in there and sees what size is necessary. My bottom line is that I'm the patient, I'm paying the bill, I want to learn about all my options and I want a say in what is going in my body. I don't want my doc choosing based on money issues, which band he gets cheaper, which rep he likes, which company he wants to proctor for, etc. We should be aware of ALL our choices and we should be an active member of the decision making team when it comes to our own bodies. Banding is a cut throat business. It is, check out all the patient coordinators posting here trying to drum up business and watch how they behave. Doctors do the same darn thing sometimes. We cannot depend on others to tell us what we want, which WLS we want, which doctor to use, which band we want. We have the responsibility to learn about all our options and choose with our doctors. It's all about educating yourself so YOU can make decisions about your own body with your doctor. There is no need to depend on others to make all your WLS choices for you. This is our last shot at weight loss, we owe it to ourselves to be well informed.

When it comes to bands most docs who offer both bands will give patients a choice and they should. Patients are far more involved in their own medical care than they were in the 50s and I think this is something to be encouraged. There are differences in the band that patients need to be aware of and make their own choices. Patients are far more aware of what is available to them than they used to and I think it's great! I am thrilled that patients are more aware of the options available to them. Plastic surgery patients choose their breast implants, they choose the size, style, and brand. Same with penile implants, butt cheek implants, chin implants, cheekbone implants, etc. Banding patients choose their brand of bands, joint replacement folks have options and choices in their implanted devices, contact lens wearers pick their types, brands, and styles of contact lens, those who are fitted with diaphragms and IUDs choose brands and options. I'd MUCH rather patients be involved in their own medical care and be an active participant vs. being told what to do and how to do it. Doctors often times choose drugs and devices based on cost and how much they like the reps. I don't want my band chosen because my doc likes the rep, I want the band that is best for me and I want to be a part of that discussion. Consider this, Inamed used to be more proactive in weeding out the bad docs and not selling them bands. That would leave patients going to that doctor with limited choices in bands and not because the doc didn't like the brand of band but because they were so horrible they couldn't buy them. Inamed wouldn't sell them. THAT is how the bad docs used to pick band brands. Nope, not me... I want to know everything about the band and I might agree or disagree with the type or style being put in me. There are significant port issues with J&J vs. Inamed and I think patients have a right to know what those port issues (namely placement) are and decide if that is what they want. I'd have to respectfully disagree with your stance on this one. I'm thrilled patients are more active in their medical care than they were 60 years ago. They are getting better quality care and able to make choices about their own care and that's a great thing! I wish they had more options available to them. If we were talking about actual tools such as the reference to your mechanic husband I'd be more inclined to agree. But if there are two mufflers available and one is a cheap crappy version and one is a more quality version, I would hope his customers know there is such thing as quality difference in various car parts. They aren't telling him which wrench to use to install the muffler (are wrenches used for mufflers??), they are dictating the quality of muffler they choose to use. Big difference.

For the most part I agree but I have learned something since posting here. Some docs will pay patients for referrals. There is one doc here that has no formal patient coordinators, ALL of them are patients that post here anyway and when they spot a newbie they go after them like an arrow heading for a bullseye. They get anything from free fills to $500 per patient they refer. Half of them have more IDs than they do change of underwear. The reason I know this is because they have actually PMed me and asked me not to post their doc's stats because it makes him look bad and scares the newbies away. Heh.... I have to say that I look for both. But I pay more attention to the positive posts when someone has been banded for at least a year. Most people who have WLS go through a honeymoon stage after surgery. They are in love with their doc and they are in live with their surgery type. We have all been fighting fat for so many years and we have all tried so many things that suddenly when we go to this doctor we suddenly see a light at the end of the tunnel and we want the rest of the world to experience the same joy. Weight loss isn't typically a competition, we all want everyone to meet their goals. It's something really unique to us fat folks. When we first get surgery we are thrilled and want the same for everyone and we push our surgery type and swear only our doc is good. After time we learn that wrapping a band around our stomach isn't such a huge thing and it's kinda easy, honestly. We suddenly discover there is more than one doc that knows how to do it safely. ;o) Watch the threads, you'll see what I mean. So I don't pay a lot of attention to the "I love my doctor" threads until the person seems to be over the honeymoon phase. When they have been seeing the same doc or at least in contact with the same doc for a year then I pay attention. Has the doc been good? Supportive? Available? Or now that the surgery is over is the patient on their own? If there is a problem is it fixed? If there are non surgical complications is help and support available? I don't pay much attention to newbies who love their docs but I do pay attention when someone is a long time poster and posted their experiences from beginning to current. You know, you can change your info so you can't be contacted. Wasn't sure if you were aware. Thank you for saying that. Sometimes I wonder if it was a waste of time to write that and then someone mentions using it and it makes me feel good. So thank you for saying that.

Well, Elisabeth, in all fairness would it really do any good to call the school if you had the name and ask if Isuzu attends that college? I would hope someone has a clue about the band being implanted in their body and has enough information to have a strong opinion. I just did not see where Isuzu offered to give up personal information. I say I'm a nurse, do you know where I work? There are some things that I would hope people don't give out over the internet. And to write more than once about an ignore feature... I don't personally agree with that. While I'm quite sure it was not intended as such, it might come off as looking like encouragement to have everyone put a single person on ignore if a few disagree with him. One of the issues I absolutely adore about Alex is that he encourages everyone to voice their opinions, he understands style is unique and he encourages that too. Or as he says, it makes people real. I think his attitude is what makes this forum as fantastic as it is. However, the ignore comment I wrote of above is personal opinion, nothing more.

He just had a death a couple of weeks ago but I don't know all the details. I do know that a crappy coordinator that contracts with him ended their contractual relationship over it. When a crappy scum level type coordinator won't even work with him, that's bad. I mean, there are decent coordinators and horrible ones. He had a horrible business he contracted with. A death does not always mean the doc did something wrong. If doctors could control everything that goes on with patients nobody would ever die. But overall no, he does not have a great rep. He also inflates his stats, claims he has done farrrr more bands than he has.

Hmm... who should go to jail? Dr. Verboonan. He stole money by scamming US insurance companies. He doesn't have the right to take money that belongs to someone else. Isn't that what we teach little children? Don't take things that belong to others and lie about it? A "tale" implies there is something false about the story and there is nothing false about it. Here is a newspaper article that explains fairly well what Dr. Verboonan did: SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Six Tijuana doctors arrested in sting Here is a small bit from the article: During the FBI investigation, an undercover agent posed as a private investigator hired by U.S. insurance companies to investigate claims filed on behalf of Mexican doctors. The undercover agent was given copies of suspected fraudulent claims by five insurance companies that agreed to take part in the investigation, including Aetna U.S. HealthCare, Blue Cross of California and Blue Shield of California. After interviewing patients who received care in Mexico and verifying that the medical claims were fraudulent, the agent approached the doctors, pretending to be a corrupt investigator. The agent offered to take a financial kickback in return for recommending to the insurance companies that the claims be paid. Doctors who agreed to go along with the scheme were also given the opportunity to submit claims for fictitious or "phantom" patients, using patient identification and insurance policy information that the undercover agent claimed to have obtained during other foreign insurance claim investigations. And: Those arrested in the sting operation include Dr. Carlos Alessandrini, Dr. Carlos Jaime Herrera and Dr. Severo Rios Ornelas, all Mexican citizens who also have U.S. legal permanent resident status. Alessandrini and Herrera both live in Chula Vista, while Ornelas lives in Tijuana. Also arrested were Dr. Elia Judith Cerecer, Dr. Ricardo Vega Montiel and Dr. José Sergio verboonen Sotelo, all Mexican citizens living in Tijuana. Doesn't sound fake to me. Of course, you are free to call Dr. Verboonan and attempt to convince him the time he spent in jail didn't really happen but I think you'll both feel a little silly. ;o)

Whoa... that's not fair. I didn't like the "moron" statements and such either but do you have anything to defend your claim that Isuzu was trying to be deceptive about identity? NOWHERE does s/he do that. That poster never attempted to pretend they were someone they were not. People change IDs here all the darn time and there are MANY good reasons for doing that. You believe Isuzu has misconceptions about the band, they believe you have misconceptions about the band. I have seen the band, I have seen the band surgically placed. As for the triangular shape the more full the band is, the more it bends to a triangle. I don't see how this is much different from the bubbles in the Inamed band. So what? Who cares if the darn thing bends? If you want to talk physics then you need to remember that the outside of the bubble part of the band does not shrink as it grows tighter around a rounded surface so it SHOULD bend a bit. If you don't like the info presented, don't read it. Simple. But it's really not fair to make claims about changing IDs when the writing style has not changed one bit, there has been NO effort to be deceptive about who they are, the opinions are exactly the same... there is simply nothing to support your theory on an ID change. There is nothing to support this person is being paid to write about this band, if a person is going to be banded I would hope they have strong opinions about which product they will have implanted in their body. If a company was going to hire someone to write about their product does it make an ounce of sense to have someone like Isuzu write about it? Is writing their forte? Of course not. Presentation isn't my thing either, I am a horrible writer. I can try to flower it up and it doesn't work but my information is very good. People can choose to read it or not, it's their choice. Most banded folks want the facts more than the want the facts flowered up. There is just too much information we all need to learn to choose banding and maintain a band to worry about if someone was nice or not in presentation. If presentation is that important to you, block all the people who bottom line their thoughts and stick to those that have more refined writing styles. But you never know what kind of info you might be passing up because you want everything nice and pretty. And Elisabeth... not giving out details of schools and other personal information is the right thing to do. Many tend to give out wayyyy too much information on line. I'd like to see more people giving out less information. I don't have photos posted for a reason, I don't wanna. That's my reason and it's a good one. Internet privacy is not a horror.

Might want to track down MissMonaAZ here on LBT. She was banded in CO and had some complications and they took care of her. I'm not sure about this, but I *think* she told me they really specialize in bypass, not banding.

Be careful of those pushing belite pretty hard. They are all making it a point to use coordinator names and push a specific doc. Think about it. Sounds to me like they are trying to clean up a reputation on the boards. Problem is, they are being too obvious about it and giving themselves away. Lots of patient coordinators posting while posing as patients. Just be careful and DO your research!

Already done. See my sig link, post #3. ;o)

Dr. Verboonan is NOT one of the quality surgeons in Mexico. Actually, he's on the other end of quality. Besides, he's not one of the more ethical people today. He was in prison and not for being an angel but for screwing the US insurance industry. I think he should have gotten more time than he did but I wasn't his court room judge and I don't always get my own way. ;o)

It's really not hard to research doctors, what is hard is taking the time to verify everything you are told about doctors. You can't just depend on what patient coordinators (posing as patients, not telling you they get a commission if you have surgery by their doctor) to tell you what you want to know. They will tell you what you want to hear. The average person can begin the research process with the link in my sig. In the US the board will only give out certain information on the phone. However, if you drive to their office you can typically view the entire file they have on the doctor. People asking about doctors on boards like this do get responses. The problem is that they have no way of knowing if it is a skanky patient coordinator responding or an actual patient. The other problem is that most patients seem to go through a honeymoon phase after surgery. It's typical with all WLS types. They love their doc and love their surgery type. I wouldn't listen to how much someone loves their doctor until they are a year out or so. Then they have had a year to lose weight and see what kind of support they get from their MD office. Any doc is on his best behavior before surgery, he wants your business. The real test is the year following surgery. How supportive was he? Was he available to you? Could you go to the office and see the doctor vs. his staff? Were they there through thick and thin? That's the key to asking patients about their doctors. Don't ask them when they are in the honeymoon stage, ask people that have been dealing with the same doc and staff a year following their surgery. Incompetent doctors... hard telling. Some patients are very high risk, if they don't get surgery they will eat themselves to death. Yet they are still high risk. Some docs only take the easy low risk cases. Some docs CAN do the high risk as safely as it can be done, they are going to have a mortality stat. If someone dies they didn't necessarily do anything wrong, sometimes the patient just didn't make it. The docs can't control every aspect of patient care, if they could nobody would ever die. So you kind of have to know both sides of the story before you can determine if a doctor was bad or not, or if he was at fault or not. I am one that exposes the bad docs, look at my posts. I get hammered by the patient coordinators for doing it. But I keep coming back and doing it anyway. I tell the horror stories, I offer the backgrounds, I tell everything I know, I provide a link to start the research process. I get hammered for it. Makes no difference to me, I don't give a rat's behind what a bunch of skanky patient coordinators think of me. They can kiss my newly skinny back side. ;o) I figure we are all in this together and if we don't take care of each other, who will? If we don't share information and expose the bad doctors then people will not be able to research well and they will end up victims as well. You are right, your feelings about surgery out of the country is your hang up and not based on facts. The water doesn't have a darn thing to do with the quality of skill or ability to keep an OR clean. We have problems in the US and patients don't bat an eye at that, we have doctors doing surgery drunk. We have nurses and doctors having sex on the OR table you will be having surgery on. Wet spot anyone??? We have doctors doing surgery that shouldn't be working in a restaurant let alone an OR. We have convicted pedophiles working as licensed pediatricians in Phoenix, Arizona. We have one horror after another in the good 'ol USA. That doesn't phase us. But they drink bottled water in other countries and to us, that is an absolute horror. Let me tell you, some hospitals in Mexico and other countries have lower infection stats than the US. You are free to risk infection in the US (comparatively speaking) yet you won't have to drink your water out of a bottle. It's a choice.

What information? How to research doctors? Nope, they do not do that. Inamed will not get overly involved in which doctor you go to, just like every other banding company they want you to buy a band from any doctor.

I agree about band co's needing competition. Inamed had their way for far too many years and J&J is taking a good share of the market and this is a good thing. I think bands are like mustard. One likes one brand, another likes another brand. I'm totally happy with my Inamed band and wouldn't want to trade it for J&J, but others prefer J&J. The more brands available to choose from the better for the consumer. Maybe the next band on the market will have the best of both companies. Not sure about your question on paragraphs.