WASaBubbleButt

Oh my goodness, toot away! YOU are the one doing the work, you are the one deserving of credit. The sleeve is much much easier than banding in so many different ways. I know, I've had both. ;o) You did it the right way the first time, I did not. Congrats to you!

OMG! This is fantastic! I know you are thrilled! I am sincerely happy for you. When the band does not work it makes life a sheer horror. I know exactly what you are going through and I'm thrilled you decided to go with the sleeve. Weight loss is faster, it's better, complications are few in number and rare, you'll be able to eat healthy foods again... you get your life back. Congrats to you, 4/2/09 really will be the first day of the rest of your life. You'll see! And... Dr. Aceves rocks! I am glad you are going to him. Revisions do carry more risk than working on a virgin stomach. He's done over 500 sleeves and never had a sleeve leak. So you really are in good hands. He's done a bunch of bypass too so he has about a 1000 staple lines. You are giving yourself every opportunity for a safe surgery here, good for you!

In a way it is good that you are prepared for the worse case scenario, then nothing will come as a surprise. But in reality I don't think it will be as bad as you think. I'm just waiting for the "other one" to announce the .... announcement! ;o) Sooo.... "other one"... when are you making the huge announcement? We are excited for you, SPEAK UP DAMNIT! ;o))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Hey GuiyMontag... Is this the kind of adult discussion you refer to? Heh.... Amella... Aren't you just miffed because you were called on the carpet by a number of posters and mods for your behaviors on another board? Want links? You were throwing a fit about FillCentersUSA charging a whopping $150 for fills? Why aren't you throwing the same temper tantrum over $1K fills? Darl'en, your colors are shining through. Not to mention your agenda.

Actually Dr. Watkins and I had an email discussion about fills for MX banded patients several months ago. Lucky for me I save all PMs on my hard drive. He explained that fills for MX banded patients are $1K or more and his reasoning was that someone needed to punish them for leaving the country for surgery. WTH? Now seriously, could you have respect for someone that says that? He was talking on the boards about how he would fill anyone regardless of where they were banded. Another poster PMed me asking if I was aware of his fees. I had no clue. She explained that she called the office and they told her it would be $1+K. That IS the $1,000 that you write of above. I PMed Dr. Watkins and at first he claimed he did not know what he charges, he'd have to ask him office manager. (Riiiiiiight) He did get back to me and explained the above. As for his not getting in the mix... no, I don't blame him but that's not what the post is about that you refer to. The post you refer to is where he claims that after care comes WITH surgery if done in the US. I specifically asked if that means he does fills, unfills, etc. for free for his patients after surgery as he claims. From your post, that claim wasn't true either. With all your feetie stomping you did a fine job of proving my point. Amazingly, being civil does not mean agreeing with your every word. Just because you don't like the reality does not make this less than an adult conversation.

Hey M.... On that thread did you notice that Pompa has the biggest sleeves... to the point that her patients aren't even losing weight after 4 months? They can eat like a heifer. No wonder they aren't losing weight. I'm not short, I'm 5/5.5. My surgeon just makes tight sleeves. That's a good thing. ;o)

Good to see you! I think I had just about every complication of banding short of dilation and slips when I was banded. ;o) I should have it down pat now. Heh... Don't stay tight too long, that's a great way to get a slip or erosion. As long as it's loosening up, that's a good thing!

Each time you hurl you cause stoma swelling. If you barf you swell, when you eat you barf and swell some more. Each time you barf go on liquids for the rest of the day. Sounds like it took a few days for the fill to kick in. Go on Clear Liquids for a day, if that goes well full liquids for a day, if that works soft foods for a day. If oatmeal doesn't go down then a sandwich darn sure isn't going to go down. You have to break the hurling/swelling cycle. You have to stay on liquids until the swelling is gone. Also, you just had a fill. Pizza and bread may well be a thing of the past.

He's back now.

The great Dr. Watkins? He's explained sleeves incorrectly, he charges $1+K for fills, "great" is subjective.

Just as I wrote, clinically. By asking you questions and ruling out other issues. I've had gastritis a couple of times and neither time was I scoped.

If anyone wants to join our bandster lunches (not just Dr. Aceves folks, all doctor's patients) you are most welcome to join us. Just PM me your email address and I'll add you to the Phoenix list. Most important, we go to Mexico for fills together. Kind of a group thing. If Dr. A is your doc and you want to join us for fills so you don't have to make the three hour drive alone, you are welcome to join us. We make it a bit of fun. Sometimes we go for the day and sometimes we spend the night. He sees patients of other doctors as well for fills but it's kind of expensive, I believe $170-180 if he didn't band you. If you have had surgery and want to join us for group fills please PM me and I'll add you to the Phoenix email list. We are planning another trip and have one seat left. I know there are a couple of newbies posting. If you want to see what it is like to have a fill and live in AZ or on the way to Mexico (AZ, Yuma, Calexico, CA) you are welcome to join us. You can watch my fill and I know at least one other person going wouldn't care if people watched.

Oh my goodness I did NOT go to Alvarez, I went to Aceves. Alvarez is not my pick of surgeons. You are right, some border cities are a horror. But not all. Mexicali is just fine. I found a plastics guy in Tijuana that I was interested in for a bit but decided there is no way I wanted to go to TJ so I found another in Mexicali and I like him a great deal. Yes, I was banded and then sleeved by Dr. Aceves. Stats... yep, it's hard to determine stats. You have to look at the bigger picture. There is one doc in TJ that claims he's never had a complication of any sort yet if you read the boards he's got patients posting with one complication after another. Infections, ports so infected they are bubbling out of their skin. Bands placed wrong and having the band removed via emergency surgery upon return to the US, erosions, slips left and right, deaths, hospitalizations to undo the mistakes made by the original surgeon. This is why research and reading everything is important. One doctor keeps changing his clinic name because he trashes one rep and goes on to find a new name so people won't know where they are going. Research is critical. I've never heard of Laurado. No clue where that is. Mexicali is on the border with Calexico, California. You don't drive through any city to get to Mexicali. I do believe you have your geography wrong. ;o)

Very rarely does a doctor diagnose gastritis with an upper endo. It's typically diagnosed clinically. When it doesn't respond to various forms of treatment then endo is indicated.

Like I told you, I'm going to make every effort to be there for you during your surgery. I need to get my 3 month post op barium swallow anyway! Better late than never. ;o)

The band will last forever but how many people do you personally know that have had the band 10 years or longer? How many people posting have had it 10 years or longer? I know one person on OH that has had hers for 7 years and loves it, the longest I have met is someone that PMed me. She's had it for 9 years and wants a revision to a sleeve. Theoretically, the band is supposed to be forever but that's not what is turning into reality. Doctors are doing more band revisions today than ever before. The sleeve is permanent, why wouldn't anyone want permanent weight loss? Have you ever been on a diet that you only wanted temporary weight loss? ;o)

You need a barium swallow at the very least. Have you called your doctor?

Was the fill under fluoro?

I'm not really sure how I can explain this to you in a manner you can comprehend. I don't agree with McDummy and the way he votes. What is so difficult about this for you to understand? It has nothing to do with who he hangs with, I couldn't care less. It has nothing to do with what anyone else has to say about him. It's his VOTING record. Is there some weird air where you are? Why is your thinking so foggy? Where did I ever make such a claim? Where did I say it was a cheap trick regarding Obama? Post the quote. I'll wait. Again, it's not who McDummy hangs with, it's not who he associates with. It's his own track record. He's a danger to the US. Well, your track record isn't so hot for comprehending what I have explained to you repeatedly, at least that you understand.

I don't know what the answer is for health care. Things were great when doctors owned insurance companies. We all had good medical care. Today... it pretty much sucks. I am not for socialize medicine in the least. But you know what? We basically have it now. We have everyone using the ERs as their doctor's office and then they just don't pay their bills. Tax money is going to help the hospitals so ... don't we have it already? It worries me about socialized medicine. I look at our VA system and realize that is the US gov'ts best shot at socialized medicine. They can't even handle that let alone the entire country. Medical care is going to suck more than it does today.

WTH are you talking about? If McDummy voted with Bush over 90% of the time it stands to reason that they favor the same political actions. I disagree with much of what McDummy voted for. I hate what he's done regarding illegals. I resent what he did with our NICU beds in AZ. I can't stand the man. To imagine him doing to the entire country what he's done to AZ... it boggles the mind. We aren't talking about a single issue here such as your lame example of a dog. We have a voting history that sucks big time. We aren't talking about Bush and McDummy voting on a single issue the same way, it was MANY times. McDummy is a Bush mini me. Palin.. what a twatwaffle! She couldn't dig herself out of her own panty hose without help. She was a bigger embarrassment to the US than Bush was in many ways.

Yep, he did my band and my revision. A revision surgeon is someone who does a LOT of revisions and I"m not referring to port replacements. If you look on OH MD boards you'll see someone doing 1000 revisions. Those are not true revisions. Fixing a port is not a true revision although some doctors claim it to improve their stats. A revision surgeon is someone who revises you from one surgery type to another. The best docs for revisions in MX are Rumbaut and Aceves.

Depends on if the surgeon did your original surgery they usually give you a bit of a break. Otherwise $12,500. Revisions are a LOT trickier to do than a virgin sleeve. Leak risks are x3 for a revision. So you really can't go to just anyone, you have to go to a revision surgeon so the cost is more. You need to be in a hospital and not a clinic for a revision, you need to have 3 leak tests, you need to be monitored closely. That really holds true for any sleeve or bypass but especially true for a revision.

It's a choice for all of us. This is why research is so critical before WLS. Know ALL your options and know why you are choosing one procedure over another. No, it doesn't stretch. They remove the elastic portion of your stomach and maintain the muscular portion. Muscle just doesn't stretch much. I can take any tablet of any size. ;o) When I was banded the long term stats of (US studies) band and sleeve were not out yet. We didn't hold a lot of hope for the sleeve. Turns out, the stats for sleeves are better than for bands. Far fewer long term complications, too.

Now you know why they say the actual surgery is the easiest part and the head stuff down the road is the hard part. ;o) If you can't adjust to the smaller portions you are going to have to do something, therapy, something. As for the body dysmorphia... totally normal. It will take a long time before your head catches up with your weight loss. Others will see your weight loss, you won't. It's all part of the game. I still experience it and I've been at goal well over a year. Now instead of seeing that I have 130# to lose I only see 40# I need to lose. Of course, that would put me at 80# and that is not realistic but at least I KNOW that and I am not trying to lose. My head is still slowly catching up with my weight loss. It will for you too, someday. ;o)