hagerteresa

Absolutely relieved considering the statistics for Lopez patients and erosion. The doctor did put me on Protonix to help the irritated esophogas. Otherwise pictures all looked good.

Congrats on your lack of erosion Alex!!! Hope the rest of the stuff clears up soon for you!

Hey Alex, I am going in for my first endoscopy on the 22nd of this month so I have all my fingers crossed for both of us!!! I have kind of a mild consistent sore throat but never any kind of reflux. Really I have had a very mellow band experience over all but based all of the other Lopez erosions, I too have my own worries. I'll post the results when I get mine and can't wait to hear how yours goes. Best wishes, Teresa

Hi Kelly, I too am sorry to hear about your slip. You will make the right decision either way when it comes time. What does the doctor think about it? I go in for my first endoscopy in a couple of weeks and am a bit nervous about the prospect of erosion (not because of symtoms but recent history of the surgeon) myself. Anyway wanted to send you warm hugs cyberstyle and wishing you the best. Teresa

Hi Jonathan, I too am sorry about your situation and certainly don't consider you a failure. If I were in your situation I would be looking at other weight loss options too. As it is I am anxious about my own condition being a Lopez patient and the current stats regarding his erosion rates on LBT. I go in and meet the gastroenterologists in a couple of weeks and hopefully get my endoscopy from there. Either that will relieve my poor mind (considering I feel fine) or it will confirm my dreads. If erosion is my case, I most certainly am going to push for a revision as well. I doubt my insurance would cover the revision but hopefully if it is done at the same time as the removal they would pick up most of the tab. I have no idea. Anyway want to wish you the best and want to hear how it all turns out. Best wishes, Teresa

Hi Vera, What an awful tragedy and I'm very sorry for your families loss. Sending lots of hugs to you, Teresa

See my signature stats for surgery date and doctor. No problems at this point. Endo coming very soon.

Hi Newsho, Most of the band surgeons in Oregon were in fact trained by Mexico surgeons. I'm sure there are others trained by european doctors but I don't know the percentages of U.S. doctors trained by Mexico vs. European doctors.

I would give it a shot. How do we want to start this? Teresa

Hi Kathy, My warm thoughts and hugs are being sent to you. I responded to your thread in the complications forum. I hope everything comes out negative and am praying for you. You still should get an endo if at all possible just to make sure the band is fine but otherwise keep in touch and let us know what you hear. Teresa XOXOXO

Sorry Bell, No offense meant if Dr. Neal is your doctor. He may treat his own patients very well. He certainly seemed nice when we went to see him, however; if he as a doctor is going to agree to take on a new patient even if he didn't do their surgery, he should treat them like he would his own patients. He should have seen her port problem and immediately required an endo. Instead he decided to take her to flouro and try to give her a fill which he was unable to do because of her port problem. Tracey had gone up for a consult and was charged $550 in all for absolutely nothing. And then the absolute neglect in regards to taking care of the problem was ridiculous.

Kathy, Dr. Neal sucks and did the same thing when my friend Tracey went to him to fix her port (he never even mentioned doing an endo on her even though that is one of the common symptoms of erosion) to my friend Tracey, then they said they would work with her insurance who were willing to pay a percentage of the work. They never called Tracey back EVER to schedule the fix, Tracey tried and tried to talk to them and they did everything from whine about the complications of working with insurance company billing to telling her to go back to Mexico. To this day 4 months later, she is still waiting for their belated phone call and I have suggested she file a better business complaint against that office. I had gone to her appt there with her so I could get established as a patient in their office and have long since decided he does NOT care for his patients. Dr. Tersigini in Coos Bay was the wise one who insisted she get an endo. She recently got the bill for that and it was right around $900 for the endo and anesthethia but her insurance is covering most of that I think. If you are having complications your insurance should cover it. I just went to my family practitioner last week to send me to get an endo thru a local gastrointerologist office. I think they should be able to see it if there was any erosion. Delarla was able to find out hers eroded from a non-band related endo office I think. Anyway email me or pm me if you have any questions. Tracey was actually really pleased with Tersigni's care.

Corn!!! Every time I try to eat frozen or fresh corn it always reacts poorly with the band. I can do bread and tortillas in very small slow amounts. Like Jack said its easy to lose interest in some of those old favorite dishes especially when you have problems. Pasta and rice often give me a hard time. I don't really mind. I get all the yummy stuff you put on the breads and pastas! It drives my husband crazy that I can justify eating JUST the toppings off the pizza or the stir fry meat and veggies without the rice... When I would typically smack his hand if I caught him doing that. LOL... I love salad and that is one of the things that always work well for me no matter what I put on it. I also love chicken and tuna type salads. Dry chicken kills me though. Anyway just my insight...

Susan, I called my insurance twice before I self payed and went to mexico about coverage if I were to have complications. They said yes both times. My local friend who had the band had complications immediately after returning from her surgery in Mexico and her insurance took care of that bill and will likely pay for the emergency surgery she had to have a couple of weeks ago to have the band removed due to erosion. Insurances are required to take care of emergency type needs regardless of the cause. Its the elective things they balk at. Best wishes, Teresa

My local friend was banded in Oct of 2003 by Dr. Lopez. After having port problems after a C-section she finally was able to get an endoscopy this past Monday. We were supposed to get together this evening but I was starting to freak out because I couldn't get a hold of her. I finally called the hospital to see if she was still there and sure enough she was. Evidently she had a very bad case of erosion with a bad infection. Aside from the constant port problems this past year she had absolutely no other symptoms and felt fine. We had asked several other band doctors about having an endoscopy done and none thought it was neccessary until she went to this particular doctor. Anyway I just wanted to let everyone know. She reads these boards frequently but rarely posts.

He didn't seem horrible at the time. I spent 6 months researching him, got a good report from Inamed about the doctor, talked to countless people who had both recently gotten their band from the same surgeon and had gotten it years before from the same surgeon. He was very nice and seemed very caring. On the other hand countless problems have been seen and heard about since right after I got my surgery. So indeed he must BE horrible. It just didn't seem like it at the time. I talked to my doctor today and he is sending me to a gastroenterologist to get an endo. I had a bad vomiting episode about a month ago and have had a sore throat ever since. He didn't see any problems by just looking at the back of my throat and he thinks it is high time I got an endo. It should be fine with my insurance. He also said that he has heard the erosion statistics are much higher for the band than initially predicted. He said many weren't apparent during the initial study because of the limited number of patients and the short duration of their band experience. Now that thousands have gotten the band more erosion cases are becoming apparent.

I don't think I'll have to lie for one. If I tell him its imperative and explain everything that has been going on with everyone else and myself he will probably happily send me for one. Hopefully anyway. I did have a bad boute of vomiting a few weeks ago and my throat hasn't been the same since.

I noticed the same phenomenon and love my collarbone. My husband was rubbing my shoulders awhile ago and felt my shoulder blades. He didn't know that is what they were and just thought I was really tense and had built up a mass of tense muscles. I nearly fell down laughing at his shock to find they were actual and true bones! Teresa

Me too Kathy... I feel the exact same way. It makes me nervous and then to hear that there was other tampering in her stomach makes me cringe. I see my family practitioner in a couple of hours and I'm going to beg for an endo just to relieve my mind or help me prepare for the next step either way. I absolutely don't want to lose my band without some backup plan. Let me know how the endo goes for you, Teresa

My friend got out of the hospital after 4 days and is still recovering. No solids for 14 days and packing of her port wound. Her band was 60% eroded and the worst case that surgeon had seen. It sounded like he has done several removals and hers took just over 2 hours she thought. Evidently there was a stitch left behind from the initial placement surgery that served no purpose. If it was a stitch that was supposed to help hold the band in place to keep it from slipping it wasn't placed in a useful spot and evidently there was some evidence that the surgeon worked on other lower parts of her stomach. I don't remember all the details but it could have been some sort of repair or ??? My friend was never told of any other work being done when she had the band placed and is mystified. Anyway hope she gets on here and fills in any detail I left out. Teresa

Congrats Penni!!! You must be a very proud grandma! Can't wait to see the pics. Teresa

Hi All, I am going to get an endo as soon as possible. I am going to make an appt with my family practitioner (who I really like and knows about my band) and insist he refer me to get one.

I took the old pic of me that Pat found on the forum and mixed it with a couple of the recent Mexico shots. We LOVED our cruise and can't wait to book another one. What a wonderful worry free way to vacation. I have never been treated better in my life.

Yes, Dr. Lopez of Mexico. I agree that he seemed absolutely professional and trustworthy when I was doing my research phase for getting my band, but this is one of many recently diagnosed erosions of patients of his. Its getting very distressing to other patients of his.

Hi Betty, No, its not me thank goodness but I wouldn't doubt it if I was eroded and didn't know it. I am going to HAVE to make a doctors appt and have an endoscopy done come hell or high Water. I get together with this girl almost weekly for the past year or so and have gotten very fond of her and her family so this is a hard blow for me. She absolutely felt fine internally and really didn't think she had eroded. She is about the same age as I am too so I can't be too comforted that I am young and therefore can avoid complications. Anyway hope everyone sends good healing vibes for her. She sounded pretty bad on the phone.