WASaBubbleButt

Yep, threw in the towel and got a revision. No more band! No clue about Terridoodle, I don't pay attention.

If your stomach hurts this far out and you have a potential infection, something is wrong and you need to contact your doctor. I will tell you that many believe they might have an infection and instead it is a seroma. This is something your doc can take a look at and tell you one way or another. A seroma will drain clear to "port wine" colored stuff and be annoying, an infection will drain in color usually. But your doc will be able to tell the difference. As for not eating, it isn't that nobody has empathy for you, we do. Been there twice myself through a pre op diet. I'll just tell you that it is possible to get through this and it will be worth it in the end. Nobody said this would be easy, it isn't. But it is necessary.

Oh geez.... Probiotics?? >>Post Date: 7/20/08 12:14 pm Hi all, I started taking a probiotic pre DS just to see its effectiveness. I have smelly poos now and sometimes bad ones like a RnY poo since I have RNy in my system. I started taking 2 a day and last week increased to 3. Sometimes I do think it works great; poos not smelling bad, and then other times not workiing so well so I don't really know. Well so I am thinking maybe just wait till I do get the DS to see how it works? It has 1 billion live cells and is acidophilus. It was the only one at Walgreens. Maybe there was another; I am not sure. I am going to get to GNC and check out some there and to check on the D and I do need calcium citrate so I really do need to get some of that.<< The drugs aren't working PRE DS but that's okay, she's going to wait until AFTER DS to see what happens. Holy crap... she's in for a surprise. ;o)

I'm so sorry about your Mom but it's sure good to have you back!

Thanks for the nice words. When I was doing my research I had someone helping me and I realized after my own surgery that not everyone has a Mexican Trauma surgeon helping with research issues. ;o) So I wrote it down one day and it kinda grew from there. Good luck to you!

Rumbaut is very good, he's one of the 2-3 best in Mexico. You won't go wrong in that direction.

I had band complications and revised my surgery type to a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. ;o)

Not me. That's not necessarily the only kind of doctor I would want to use. I went to a Mexican trained doctor that teaches US doctors various surgical procedures and techniques. The US is a great place but we don't necessarily do the best in everything and quite frankly, I prefer Mexican doctors over US doctors. I like the culture better, I like the respect they have for patients. I like that they typically give you a home phone and a cell phone number so if you have questions you can reach them anytime. I like that they don't tower over their patients and intimidate them, they tend to sit at eye level and talk to you, not at you. They don't usually have the white coat syndrome ("I wear a white coat therefore I am better than you." attitude). US trained doesn't mean superior to Mexican trained.

I'm a medical professional and I'll grant you some amazingly stupid things happen but I cannot honestly say that I have ever heard of a doctor stealing a vital body part during lap band surgery via lap procedure due to theft for an unknown patient. Do you have an example? You know as well as I do that WOULD be in the papers in a nanosecond.

The sleeve cannot be reversed, it is forever. But at this stage of the game I want forever. The excess stomach is actually removed from the body so there is no going back. That's what I like about it, I don't want to regain 130#. ;o)

If the OP would have eaten before bedtime that's a huge risk for reflux. Remember, no eating 3 hours before bedtime.

I don't know, spreading around this kind of misinformation and urban legends about an entire country is insulting to those in that country who worked very hard for their education and reputations. If there was a single news article, media attention, anything other than my friend had a friend that knew someone that said something... that's not really fair to the medical professionals that work very hard for a living. Just think how insulting that would be if someone suggested your doctor couldn't be trusted not to kill people because he was stealing their organs for profit, it wouldn't be very flattering. This kind of story needs to be somewhat verified before posting. In this country we are already so amazingly ignorant of the countries outside the US and what they have to offer, this kind of urban legend just makes it worse. We already have media spoon feeding us information, if one doctor does something stupid from another country we believe the media that the entire country is not to be trusted. Yet we have the SAME thing happening in THIS country but somehow that is excused because not all US docs are stupid. But ONE doctor from Mexico does something ignorant and we blame every doctor in Mexico. It is insulting to them and makes us look like the real idiots. Perhaps if we would start picking up a book and doing actual research, educating ourselves about places outside the US we wouldn't need the media teaching us about cultures based on sensationalism.

I'd go to bed. No value in the extra calories.

Mexico is a great option WITH proper research! Same with US docs. Just because a doc is in the US doesn't make him any good. This holds true with any country. Yes, yes... absolutely an urban legend. The story is absolutely impossible on many levels.

Gastrectomies have been done since the 1800s. Not exactly new. For weight loss, that's new. Since about the 70s, longer than the band. Cheers.

No, you are in error. The sleeve and the bypass procedure are two totally different procedures. Bypass is not something I would ever do. Too risky, too much potential for complications. The sleeve is safer than banding. The initial surgery risk is a hair higher than with banding, but long term the sleeve is 10x safer than banding. With banding you can slip, erode, dilate your pouch, dilate your esophagus, port pain, port infections, esophageal spasms, esophageal motility issues, etc. None of that with the sleeve. This is why the sleeve is less risky than the band. Your stomach is most certainly not protected from band problems, erosion is risky business, same with serious slips. Reoperation is not exactly rare where it is for sleeves, very rare. Your stomach builds tons of adhesions and scar tissue after a band, it is not the same at all. Why would you want to reverse a lap band? I think it is a good thing that people have all their options available to them, don't you?

Actually, it's a pretty good suggestion and long term a sleeve is safer than a band. A band can do one heck of a lot of damage to your stomach and your esophagus. Why would you want to reverse a lap band? The only reason to remove a band is because the band itself is causing problems. For what reason would you care to regain your excess weight?

If you go to a doctor you are asking for his advice. If he gives you his opinion...the thing you are paying for, why would you go to a different doctor? In this case the OP didn't know much about the sleeve. It's a GOOD thing that he is telling her about her options. We need to know about all our options. With a band you will average 1-2 pounds weekly. With the sleeve you will average 2-3 pounds weekly. With a band you will average 50-70% of your excess weight. With the sleeve you will average 70-80% of your excess weight. If someone has a higher BMI they have more to lose, right? So for round numbers lets say that someone weighs 300# and they want to lose 150#. With a band they are going to (on the average) lose about 90#. With the sleeve they are going to average about a 113# weight loss. For a higher BMI a sleeve does indeed make more sense. It will get the person closer to a healthy BMI and by the way, a sleeve has fewer long term risks and complications than a band does. So why in the world shouldn't her MD tell her about the sleeve? I'd be angry if I got one procedure and after it was all done and over THEN the doc told me about the rest of my options.

I had both procedures done in Mexico and my doc requires 2 nights in the hospital after a band and 3 nights after a sleeve.

There is nothing wrong with going to a surgeon that has done 500 bands. I wouldn't go to anyone with less than 250, so 500 is totally acceptable. Good luck to you!

Can you imagine Dr. Aceves ... of all people ... stealing your pancreas? He would be insulted at the mere suggestion, as would any medical professional.

That doctor that used to post here charges $1K for a fill, Brad Wilcox... I think that was his name. He told me in a PM that it was a punishment of sorts for going to Mexico. Creep.

I had to have mine removed at 18 months.