WASaBubbleButt

Sooooo, IOW, you disagree with a majority of what Oprah spews?

Ahh, Smatyas.... I am so glad you posted. Anyone with a policy to overfill people ... well, that would be stupid and asking for erosion. I saw the previous post of the OP where she suggested that you guys keep changing your prices and you chimed in and explained that you have increased your prices ONE time in the history of your company. Truth... it always comes out.

Do you really want to play again? You still have declined to respond to my previous (many) posts where I challenged you on your education, history, and banding dates. Want to continue? I'm game. I am also willing to call the doctor that banded you and tell him what you are doing on the boards. Want to continue... Mr. 9 months of education, OR tech? Keep in mind, I have copies of your posts where you claim you have been banded for 2 months and later you claim you have been banded for over a year with poor weight loss... well, poor compared to mine. ;o)

A band is a band is a band. They all do the same thing. Erosion is no different considering NOBODY knows what causes erosion. Weight loss is the same if you disregard the BS each band company promotes. A band is a band is a band.

Oh great, it's back.... Our medical professional wannabe. Did you ever answer Elisabeth's question that she asked on your profile? ;o)

I think you'll find that if the mods closed every thread where people had differing opinions or the topic strayed, you wouldn't have any threads at all. It's okay that people don't agree, it's how the game works. I've been posting on message boards for a long time and one issue is typically standard and that is the threads tend to moderate themselves. Those posting usually do a pretty good job of moderating one another. When you get too much moderator "butting in" you lose members left and right. It makes for very boring boards when everyone has to agree with one another. They did it on OH until last year and they lost tons of people. Actually, many came over here where they were free to speak their minds.

I have a new phone #, I will PM it to you. Plz call me and keep me up to date.

Who are you responding to? Me?

Well said... written. ;o)

Miya.... Wow... I have to admit, I didn't read all of that. That was one long post. However, I have to say that there is a great deal of projection going on here. All the things you are accusing Mindy of, you are actually the one doing it. The rude behaviors, accusations, manipulation of words... and I didn't even read it all! I really don't see where Mindy has done any of the things you claim. She made no across the board statements. She never claimed her doctor is like every other doctor out there and to suggest that she find studies to support a claim she didn't make... are you serious? Look, bottom line here... I agree with you that some doctors charge a huge amount for fills. They do it because they can. It's that simple. Are some of them taking advantage of fat folks that will do damn near anything to lose weight? Of course. But you know what? This is the game you signed up for. It's a bit late to be complaining about it now. Please don't be so mean to Mindy anymore, she's been here a long time and is quite capable of speaking her own mind without your changing her words and THEN asking her to defend her stance with studies that you know very well do not exist for claims she did not make. Instead of complaining about this after the fact, why not set up your own fill business. Hire a nurse, rent an office, get the RN certified in fills, charge $20 a fill and not only can you turn a nice profit according to the numbers you posted earlier, you can get affordable fills for yourself. There, problem solved.

HA! What makes you think only men were in on the secret? ;o)

Are you eating or drinking within 3 hours of going to bed?

I agree, this has been my mantra from day #1. Remember Brad Wilcox, MD? He used to post here? He charges around $1,000 for a fill if you had your surgery in MX. He considers it a punishment for leaving the country. He claims it's his OM's decision. Right. But in comparison $165 is a bargain. ;o) Again, you are chanting my mantra. However... the real money is from surgery and if the fill doctors are not getting $ from surgery they will get it in fills. To be honest, I think that is fair to some degree. You didn't go to that person for your surgery but you want inexpensive aftercare. It doesn't work that way. These people are in business to make a living. Supply/demand. Same scenario holds true for many US banded people. Their doc dies, retires, moves, the person moves... they are in the same exact boat as MX banded folks. Just another reason to get a sleeve over a band. No aftercare and if you do need aftercare you can get it, you are not stuck with a band surgeon. But, you knew this going into banding that this is how the game is played... kinda not fair to be complaining about the rules now. While I agree with you in theory I also feel that these were the rules before you were banded. If you didn't agree with them then other options were available. I have never seen a specialist for under $300 for 20 minutes. You are getting a bargain if you are seeing a specialist for under $165. Amazingly, nurses do things that require training, too. ;o) Fills are not a science, they are an art. After you have done about 1000 of them you are likely 10x better than when you had done 10 of them. Interesting that you have the need to ask so many doctors the same question. I'd have to disagree with your three doctors and on this one I'd go to the actual source, the patients. Read the boards, it is not uncommon in the least for a fill not to kick in right away and some do indeed take 2 weeks. Mine always took three days, I could bank on it. If I could eat steak before my fill I could eat steak until my 3rd day after a fill then my world changed. I do agree with you that each person by the 8+ fill knows when theirs will kick in. No, not really. Ummm, they are a business and as a business they are there to make money? Then pay for Fluoro and it won't be nearly as much of an issue. I question why you would plan your aftercare, get a band, and THEN decide you don't agree with the rules. Find someone else to do your fills, go back to MX, get them done under fluoro, find an alternative.

I want permanent and forever, I never want to regain all that weight again.

I think you might have been seeing my sig repeatedly. One does not know if they will tolerate a band until they actually have one. Also, the band does not work for a good number of people and they typically revise to a sleeve or bypass in those cases. The idea is to pick a surgery type and stick with it, only when it does not work for whatever reason would you revise to a different procedure type.

Very interesting info. Thank you all, for posting.

Anyone posting that lost their band and revised to another procedure? What procedure? Do you like it? Planning on a revision if you haven't had it done yet?

Any special reason you came up with yet another ID to post this nonsense? Any reason you don't have the guts to use your usual ID? You've done this before, haven't you? How many IDs do you have now? Just on LBT alone? The lady that died... not quite as you explain it. Your version differs from the family of the person. Dr. Aceves was fixing a poor surgical outcome from another surgeon. You have insisted that you are right and the family, who was actually there, was wrong. The person with an infection from swimming... wasn't my doc's patient. It was someone else and it was an example of how not all infections are the fault of the doctor. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. That's why most post op instructions suggest showers, not tub baths. No swimming, etc. Care to try again? You can put your cash register sound effects away, just like every other time you have made these silly claims under a variety of IDs I have refuted what you claim. Instead of peeing in the thread of someone who is happy with her experience, why don't you get out there and so something productive instead of the same sorry line of crap. I'm surprised you don't copy and paste instead of rewriting your fantasies time and time again. Dr. Aceves doesn't want to do plastics. He wanted to at one time (in medical school) and changed his mind and wanted to do GI surgery. Your point? His "many" fatalities? SkinnyPlease (that is your other ID, one of them) is a load and you know it. You just got done trashing Ortiz and now you are starting on Aceves... again. Why do you spend so much time trashing the good doctors and pushing the bad? You know what the difference is between you and me? I don't just make claims without backing them up. When I refer to a person that had a bad surgical outcome I bring them over here to tell their own story. I don't just make up a load of crap and spew it around pretending that I have a clue such as you. If the only way you can change the poor surgical outcomes of your doctor is to redirect and lie about another, you have some serious issues. Perhaps you should have chosen a doctor with some amount of skill. Instead of just telling everyone how wonderful your doctor is (under your other IDs) why not do as I do and show people how to do their own research so they don't have to depend on coordinators posing as patients lying to people? I show people how to do their own research and verify information for themselves vs. depending on people like you. If you were being honest instead of throwing out accusations you can't begin to defend other than feetie stomping and pouting you wouldn't need to change your ID more often than you change your underdrawers.

I've wondered why a sleeve has better stats for higher BMI people than banding, they are both restrictive procedures. Do you supposed that considering there is a more gastric fat for a higher BMI person that when they start losing the band is actually too big and they can't get the right restriction after they lose a significant amount of weight? The other thing I have wondered is that banding is the hardest procedure out there meaning it requires the most effort. I'm not sure how much longer I could have done it. If I had another 100# to go I think I would have gotten sick of the weight loss routine and just said that I was down low enough. I'm not sure. For me, 132# was quite enough, I was over it, I wanted maintenance. ;o)

If someone is dying from complications of a VBG then obviously they have to do something, there is no choice. Technically any sleeve surgeon can do the surgery but the risk is the same regardless of who is doing it. None of the better doctors are going to sleeve someone with the mesh unless it is an extreme case such as you are suggesting. There is a person that was posting on OH revision boards that she had the mesh band and she had an inexperienced surgeon do a sleeve and she was quite ill for several months with a leak they could not fix. She was down for about 8 months. They never told her that the mesh meant she stood a good chance of a leak. Had she known, she wouldn't have done it. I have a hunch she is going to deal with that one through a lawsuit. :thumbup:( She almost died from that leak and due to the mesh it took a very long time to heal.

Hmmm, I haven't. I read those boards too and I haven't seen such a trend. I've seen the crappy doctors that don't do the right leak tests and they don't know they are sending someone home with a leak. Such as Pleatman, he does the OR leak test but he tests the portion of stomach he removed, not the portion remaining. He has a high leak stat. Contrerras sent someone home with a leak, but the docs that use the right tests and check for microperforations I haven't seen that at all. There are people who go home and eat the wrong diet and cause their own leak. Keep in mind, the microperforations are the leaks that might not show up right away (regarding symptoms) and if they had the fluoro exam it would very likely be caught before the symptoms were severe like Contreras' patient. My doc has done over 450 sleeves, does three leak tests, and has never had a leak so I tend to trust the testing a great deal. That's one of the reasons I went to him for my sleeve. Leaks are a risk of this surgery regardless of surgeon skill. I wanted to know if there was a problem before I went home, not after.

I wish I had better suggestions for you but I just don't. With that mesh around your stomach it makes your choices for revision verrrry limited. When I see people that are still looking at that procedure (the one you had) I cringe. If banding does not work they are amazingly limited in what they can do. I'm not concerned about my sleeve, if something happens I could do bypass (and I wouldn't) or I could do DS (damn sure wouldn't) but at least I have options. I could have more of my sleeve shaved off too. That, I would do. But when people get that damned mesh they just can't revise to anything but a band. But you know, banding does work for some people. Seems to me your choices are to do it on your own or revise to an adjustable band. Can you do it on your own? And maintain?

Totally agree.

There is a fill person in AZ that wouldn't be too far away from you but I have to say, I don't like her. But the distance from ABQ to her isn't bad. Not great, but not impossible. Some do fly back to their surgeon for fills. I really feel for you, you are in a situation that isn't great. Due to that crappy mesh - a sleeve or bypass would be soooo risky. Bands do require aftercare unless you want to go with minimal restriction which would be better than nothing at all. It would make the weight loss a bit easier. I know me and I know that I can't lose and maintain by myself, I can't do it. I am a person that has to have WLS to lose/maintain. Most of us are in the boat, if we weren't we wouldn't need WLS. If I were you I would rather have a band than nothing. Even minimal restriction is better than none at all. I can only tell you what I would do in your shoes. *I* cannot tolerate bands, I'm one that does have band intolerance. But if I were in your shoes you already know you can do it with a form of a band... the old procedure you had. I'd go for it. I'd have the surgeon look for the mesh, if it isn't there I'd get a sleeve, if it is there then I'd get a band. He won't be able to tell you until after surgery what he found, but something is better than nothing. At least then you'll know about that crappy mesh stuff they used. What if by chance they didn't use it? You can have your sleeve. If they did, you get a band and at least have some help losing weight. My opinion only.

Yours is a difficult one because of the timing of your surgery. Meaning, unless I'm mixing you up with another, didn't you have your original surgery in the 90s? You know, you might do well with a band. Even unfilled it is going to give you some restriction. Or a very small fill. I guess I'm thinking a band with little restriction is better than nothing at all. I spent the majority of my banded life underfilled or unfilled and lost 100% of my excess weight. So I know it is possible. If you go to have a band the surgeon can SEE if there is the mesh. I'm betting there is but on the off chance there isn't he could sleeve you. If there is mesh he could band you. I'd have to research bypass after your procedure to see if that is even an option. I'm guessing it isn't as I think through it but I'm not a surgeon so I don't know. Either way, especially in your case you'd have to go to the best of the best REVISION surgeons and there aren't many of them out there. There are plenty who do them, but that doesn't mean they are any good. I know of Pleatman but I just read an email he wrote to someone and it confirmed what I already knew. He has a 2.5% leak stat (global stats are less than 1%), he's had a death, very little experience in revisions, not much experience in bariatrics, and as someone else explained.... he came right out at his seminar and told them that people don't go to him because he's good, they go to him because he's cheap. His testimonials are some of the worst I have read. His patients plain don't like him. Just goes to show, people shop by price and not skill. Finding a good revision surgeon is hard.