WASaBubbleButt

Well, you weren't exactly complementary when you wrote in a thread about leaving the country for surgery: Considering the topic of this thread, how should we take this? Does that say, "Congrats to you for doing your research!"? Doesn't sound like it to me. And when I tell you that I get the same thing as you do with my doctor and I tell you we all need to do what is right for us you respond: In order to receive support you have to offer something other than insults to those that didn't make the same choices as you. Again, we all have to do what is right for us. If that is local or traveling it does not matter. It is a matter of doing what is right for us.

Actually, I never wrote that everyone has to travel to MX for surgery. What I wrote is that we all need to find what is right for us and do it. I will tell you that I'm getting a little tired of posters coming here pushing your doctor to the point that we had to delete a thread from an employee advertising on the boards. Doctors are free to contact the owner of the forum and pay for advertising but what his staff person did was breaking the rules. She came here for the mere purpose of adverting your surgeon. Her thread was deleted. This is a support board for patients, not a place for free advertising. Then another person comes along and starts this thread with just a ridiculous post about traveling out of the country for surgery and it was beyond silly with silly and inaccurate information. Then you come along, same doctor... and tell us how wonderful your doctor is because he does the same exact thing as the better doctors that people travel to see such as Mac's doc, Cirangle and my doc, Aceves. You guys are pushing this "travel" thing and "no doctor is good unless they are in the US" routine a little too far. You need to understand that we all like our surgeons, that's why we chose them. Traveling for surgery it absolutely fine and perhaps safer in some ways. The farther you travel the more the doc tends to keep you in a hospital. There are pros and cons to traveling vs. local. As long as you guys keep pushing how it is only good to have surgery locally then you are going to have to realize that we are going to challenge you on that. You found what works for you, we found what works for us. To imply that your journey is better because your doctor is local... it doesn't wash over here. We look for stats, experience, track records, reputation AND the issues you guys are discussing. We want it all. I think you will find that the more invasive the surgery the more digging people do for research. We know what we are/were looking for in a surgeon, that's okay. We have the right. Once again, we all need to find what works for us. But please do not claim that you somehow have a better program because you choose to stay locally. You really don't know what other doctors are offering. I am also tired of the bigotry some folks show. If they are in the US they are surely better than doctors outside of the country. I have news for folks, there are great docs all over the world and they aren't all flocking to the US to practice their trade. They stay in their home country. According to your surgeon's profile he has done 0 sleeves. My doctor has done over 600. Your surgeon has done 300 lap bypass, mine has done over 500. Your surgeon has done 1025 bands, mine has done over 2200. I considered these kinds of issues when I was researching, not just what his address is. Did you ever consider that perhaps those who travel out of the country do MORE research because they are out of the country? It's insulting when someone comes here and makes it sound as though they have a better doctor because they are local. You did your research, we did ours. You went to the doc of your choice, we went to the doc of our choice. Sometimes that is local, sometimes it's not. Local does NOT mean better skilled, more experience, and better stats.

My Schnauzer was without a doubt the smartest dog I have ever had the pleasure of sharing my home. She was great, she was that "once in a lifetime" dog. Don't get me wrong, I adore my other dogs to pieces but she was special. She had me figured out. ;o) I really want another dog, I can't decide between a Shih Tzu (not so bright lap dog) or a Mini Schnauzer (smarter than me). I adore them both.

I've never thought about how fats affect my hunger, just carbs. If I cut out carbs I have no desire to eat. Carbs are what triggers my desire to eat. Yes, according to this article certain types of fat cause increased Ghrelin AND the storage of body fat. Every study that comes out has different outcomes.

((((hugs))))

Weight Loss Surgery Works Even For Moderately Obese 4/15/09 Surgeons once recommended weight-loss surgery only for severely obese patients who failed to drop pounds with conventional weight-loss methods, but a review now finds that bariatric surgery helps the moderately obese lose more weight, too. "Until recently, only people with severe obesity with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 were considered for bariatric surgery," said review author Jill Colquitt, Ph.D. But studies, such as those included in this review, now examine the effects of surgery on people with a BMI of 30 to 40 who have diseases such as type 2 diabetes or hypertension that potentially could improve, said Colquitt, a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, in England. "We see a wide range of patients who consider surgery. The majority are people that attempted medical weight loss for years and decades without success, and they have an intimate understanding of what morbid obesity means to them in their life. They're looking for a therapy that can give them some help," said Peter Hallowell, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Virginia. He has no affiliation with the review. In the new review the third update of a 2002 review researchers led by Colquitt examined 26 previously published studies on bariatric surgery involving 5,766 patients. Five of the included trials took place in the United States. Six studies compared bariatric surgery outcomes to those from conventional weight loss management. Twenty studies compared different bariatric surgery procedures. The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews like this one draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic. The conclusions of the new review were broadly similar to previous research, Colquitt said. Researchers found that weight reduction surgery in obese patients led to more weight loss than conventional methods, such as dieting and exercise. However, "since we conducted the first review, we made changes to the inclusion criteria to include people with a lower threshold of obesity," Colquitt said. Specifically, two trials examined people of moderate obesity with BMIs between 30 and 40 who had weight-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes. In these patients, weight reduction was greater two years after surgery and conditions like diabetes and metabolic syndrome improved, compared to those in the conventional management group. For example, one study found that moderately obese people who received weight-loss surgery dropped 87.2 percent of excess weight. In comparison, those who used drugs, diet and exercise only lost 21.8 percent of excess weight. The review evidence also suggested that the type of surgery a patient had affected their weight-loss results. In gastric bypass, surgeons make the stomach smaller and shorten the length of the small intestine, whereas gastric banding involves using silicone bands that the physician can adjust to reduce the stomach's size. Researchers found that gastric bypass led to greater weight loss than vertical banded gastroplasty or adjustable gastric banding. The results were similar for gastric bypass and two techniques called isolated sleeve gastrectomy and banded gastric bypass. However, it is not possible to draw any conclusions because of the small number of studies comparing each procedure and the risk of bias in some of the trials, Colquitt said. Some complications from surgery did occur, such as pulmonary embolism and post-operative death. Most studies had no deaths and those that did had one or two. Although they aimed to update the review with information about bariatric surgery in patients younger than 18 years, researchers found no studies that compared surgery with conventional management in this group of patients, so they could not comment, Colquitt said. They also excluded older trials that examined surgical techniques no longer used "to keep the review as relevant and helpful as possible," Colquitt said. "The frontline question is, 'Is surgery better for patients with lower levels of obesity?' Those are areas of research that are just beginning to come to light," Hallowell said. "Their findings are very important. In the small number of randomized controlled trials to look at, there's clear evidence that surgery is better than not having surgery," Hallowell said. "There are risks to surgery we don't want to minimize that to any degree but the health benefits noted in these studies certainly outweigh the risks for patients who undergo it," Hallowell said. This project received funding from the UK's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme. The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Source: Health Behavior News Service

Amazing. I still think WLS stats are horrible, bypass is successful if you lose 50% of your excess weight. How is that a success? I mean, it's better than nothing, sure! But I wouldn't be happy with that.

Congrats to you! It's a good feeling to see that scale moving in the right direction!

Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. I also wasn't allowed to go home before my surgeon thought I was ready, that was four days after surgery... no extra cost for the extra day of hospitalization. Usually it's three nights, I stayed four. I haven't had a need to see my surgeon. My incisions healed well, no problems. Ditto. My doc has a nutritionist on staff available when we need her. We just call. My doc does not have that. But I used the services of a guy on line that works with obese folks and he was fantastic, no charge. I'm part of a life long program. Ditto. Congrats to you! For you I am quite sure that is true. Not so much for others. My doc has a PhD on staff, she's the aftercare person. Available free of charge. I have my docs cell phone number, the assistant surgeon's cell phone. Aftercare appts are free for life and since I'm driving distance from my surgeon that's pretty nice should I ever need it but since I'm a year post op, I probably won't. I have a good rapport with my surgeon and his staff. I can call for any reason at all and talk to any person I want. His experience is fantastic, his stats are better than any US surgeon I have heard of, he's well respected in the bariatric community, he trains surgeons in these procedures all over including the US. I guess my point here is that these services can be available to those that travel for surgery too. We all have to find what we need and what works for us and take it from there. You want to stay local, that's great! I wanted the specific surgeon I went to and that meant travel and for me it was 100% totally worth it. Congrats on your weight loss!

I didn't have bypass done but a sleeve. I did have it done at the same time he removed my band. It's the best way to go when it is possible to have it done all at once. One more surgery instead of two, less surgical risk having one surgery vs. two, etc.

I relate to having furkids! And those breeds are my two very favorite breeds! I used to have a mini Schnauzer, she was so funny! She had SARDS and ended up going blind. I was far more upset about it than she was. But it was funny, when someone would knock on the door she'd go bark at the closet. ;o)

Religion tells people how to behave, spirituality tells them if they are right or not. I think religion is one of the biggest problems historically throughout society. It is the #1 reason we are not more advanced in science, medicine, and culture. Religion has caused countless deaths and the slaughter of people. Then you have the abuse of humans.... all due to religion and namely the Christian religion. It is a primitive myth that should have gone out the window a long time ago. It has in other societies and amazingly, they are a much kinder people. Less judgmental, hateful, and far more open to people doing their own thing in life as long as it isn't hurting anyone. Spirituality is a whole different ball game. Spirituality I am all for. If someone wants to believe in a God, all the power to them! If that gives them comfort then I'm glad they found what works. But religion is nothing short of a horror.

Not necessarily. Assuming religion and spirituality are different concepts.

Infection and rejection of a band are two very different things. Did you have a fill within a few weeks of the problems starting? Please understand, we all believe you that you were told it was rejection. I have no doubt about that. But I think the FDA would be most interested to know there is a case out there... if you get my drift. ;o)

Many people develop reflux with the band. If your reflux is due to the band then you are not likely to have reflux with the sleeve. Just removing the band fixes it. I'd even venture a guess that most have reflux with a band after a couple of years or more. It's not that the band is restrictive that causes reflux, it's the BAND that causes reflux. The only thing that is different about restrictive is the quantity of food you can eat, it does not really change the way food travels through the rest of your GI system. It does change some hormones and such but not the way food is moved. If you aren't at least half way to goal with a band (even with band problems) you likely need more than restriction. In my personal opinion I think those of us that are good to go with restriction only are lucky. I mean that sincerely. It isn't always a matter of DOING the lifestyle change, it's being ABLE to do it. Some can, some can't. I don't view it as a personal success that I can do it with restriction alone, I view it as being damned lucky. Obesity is a disease, it isn't something we caused and it isn't a character flaw. It's a disease every bit as much as diabetes. There are many reasons we eat the way we do and it is not all within our control. The WLS types are a tool to help get it under control. Between WLS and hard work we can do it. Without the tool there is no way we can do it. There is a risk of reflux with a sleeve. Not a huge risk, but it's there. The way my doc explained it to me is that some continue producing enough stomach acid for an entire stomach. This *does* happen a great deal of the time for the first month or two. Most doctors put their patients on PPIs (Nexium, Protonix, etc.) for a short time after surgery so this doesn't cause a problem. But long term... it's possible but unlikely.

It's going to vary in the US just like it does for a band placement. In Mexico it is $5K.

DS does have much better stats than bypass for long term weight loss but it is mega malabsorptive and you HAVE to take supplements and watch your labs. It's a life long issue, not short term. But the weight loss is indeed better with DS.

I'm going to be really honest here. I had a band and many problems with it and due to those problems I revised to a sleeve. Even with band problems we still have to watch food choices. If you lost 20# in all that time maybe restriction alone isn't going to cut it for you. A sleeve is just another restrictive procedure. Sounds like you might want to consider bypass for a few reasons. If your reflux is due to the band then removing the band will help. If your reflux is not due to the band than a sleeve could make it worse. Bypass will fix the weight issue as well as reflux.

I'm glad you are doing well. Bands do not cause infection and the human body does not reject them. There has never been a proven case of band rejection. Poor sterile technique during band placement or fills cause infections, bands do not cause infection. I know how you feel about losing your band. For me... I knew when I had my band removed that if I did not revise to something else I would regain so I was lucky, I was able to do the revision at the same time I had my band removed. You might want to start researching options such as the sleeve. Alex (owner of this forum) just started a new forum and the link is in my sig. A sleeve is like a band that actually works without all the risks and complications.

This is not a good sign at all. You have a few choices in doctors, you can see Berger in Flag, Aceves in Mexicali, or you can go to your original surgeon in TJ. Do not let this go on! Sometimes people are too tight, sometimes it's a slip, sometimes it's the beginning of band intolerance.

Walking is very good and usually suggested by most docs immediately after surgery. What you want to avoid is lifting due to a possible incisional hernia.

Per the FDA there has never been a reported case of someone rejecting a band. Did you have an infection as a result of the band?

You can be in ketosis and not have it show up on the strips. Matter of fact, the longer you are in ketosis the more likely it is not to show up on the strips. Reflux doesn't always show symptoms. Some have excess acid and are not aware. Sorry, wish I could be of more help.

Welcome to the forum! Sleeves are great, much MUCH easier than banding. Banding is a great way to lose half your excess weight short term. Good for you for researching all your options!

Flax Seed Oil.... It is safe as long as you do not take it with other supplements. It tends to DEcrease absorption of other supplements if you take it at the same time.