TheFox

Tulip... I will say that when taken as directed, that stuff really does work. Even during that experience it was impressive to me how it managed to really, ah, clear out the grease. :rolleyes MusicalMomma.... Not sounding harsh at all. I think it is a good product. It was my bad for confusing the directions and adding to it that I made the drastic misjudgement of eating Sonic for breakfast. ...Which is a drastic misjudgement anytime of the day, let alone at 6am with Alli.

I am not banded, but have tried Alli. I got so caught up in reading all of the literature it comes with, about a novel's worth, that I somehow managed to mis-read the directions. ONE pill. Just ONE pill. ONLY prior to a meal with LESS than 15g of fat. I took two pills after eating at Sonic.:omg: I realize that eating at Sonic in and of itself is enough to cause explosive bowel movments, but the combination of the two were rather....startling. And lasted for three days.

Don't mean to spam the thread, but I'm closing in on my surgery details. As of right now it looks like I'll be having surgery Dec 28th with Dr. Aceves. EEP!:faint: How is everyone else coming along?

Wasa prefers her Doctor. She does promote him within her own experience. However, even during several lengthy emails with myself she has never, ever tried to persuade me to use her doctor over Ortiz or Rumbaut and NEVER requested that I use her name as any sort of referal even after I started to plan my surgery with Aceves. Now for the love of christ on a cracker, stop spamming the thread unless it's relavent to the OP! TO NOAH'SMOM! Rumbaut is highly reccomended, he was on my "short list" (Kuri, Aceves, Ortiz, Rumbaut). I would pick him over Ortiz because of a general uneasiness I've heard from recent patients over lack of aftercare. Rumbaut has had the surgery himself, is a skilled surgeon, and I've yet to hear of a complaint or complication. I don't think you'll be disapointed.

Sghat, that rocks! I'm with you. Maintaining is always a problem. Hell, I can't seem to maintain weightloss for a week. I've lost and gained 15lbs this week. (208...204.5...209...202.5) The scale is just toying with my emotions. Hungry - Where are you flying from, if you don't mind my asking? I'd be flying from Philly and it's kinda pricey. My Mom is trying to beg me into giving a low carb Atkin's type diet another try before having the surgery. But like we all know, all to well, diet's don't work long term. I can't Atkin's forever and as soon as I stop the pounds will come back...and they'll probably bring some of their friends with it too... Of course, even though she knows it she doesn't want to hear it. I don't know why she thinks that if she struggled with her weight all of her life that I'll be any different. In fact, I'm heavier then she was until she was in her late 40's. In the same conversation where she's trying to get me to do another diet she's telling me how she was always overweight her entire life, struggled to lose, etc. argh.

Or we are brain sharing. *cues twilightzone music* :car: I've got the info in pricing, if you're interested: Dr. Rumbaut it's $10,600. It's $9,500 on special "fare saver" days, days the hospital offers the surgereons a lower cost, but its only a couple of days out of every month. Or, if two people schedule the surgery at the same time it's $9,500. Dr. Aceves is $8,200. I know that in some ways he's lot easier to reach since he's so close to San Diego. I'm really pretty torn about who to go to myself. Let me know what you find out about aftercare, I'm not exactly sure how I can pan that information out. And, call me a baby, but I *HATE* calling the Doc's or their patient co-ords.

Hey Hungry, what Doc's are you looking into? We should definitely compare notes. Right now I'm floating between Aceves and Rumbaut. I'd considered Ortiz but have been hearing complaints from recent patients about a factory style of care, and a lack of help with follow up care. I was all aimed up to go to Kuri, because he's very well reccomended but then I found out my BMI is too low for him. He won't do anyone below 35, I'm 33.3. I think it's the only time in my life I've been disapointed to not weigh more! Aceves and Rumbaut come highly reccomended, and from what I can tell have very low complication rates (including slippage/erosion). Who are you looking into?

Hola everyone. I'm aiming for Dec/Jan, inbetween semesters. I was hoping to get it done in October, but it's not going to work out with school. I'm a self pay, low BMI bandster, headed for Mexico. I'm trying to pick my surgeon. Anyone else going to Mexico for their surgery? I believe the next order of business is to pick a nickname for our group, so we can get glittery graphics for our forum sigs.:confused: Anyone have any suggestions? The Merry Losers? The Chanukkah Half-Weights? Kwanza...ah...ah...Hm. Ah, any other suggestions?

How much does Dr. Fielding charge for fills/visits? And how was your experience with Dr. Rumbaut? Did he help you set up aftercare?

Hey, how did your surgery go? I'm interested in hearing about Dr. Trevino.

Amen, Kacee. I'm so happy to hear this. Before I heard "NO alcohol with the band!Ever!" .....And frankly...I'm a bit of a wine snot/slut. The idea of not being able to wind down with a nice glass of Pinot Noir or Reisling makes me want to weep.

You wouldn't happen to have a link to that study, would you? I'm still in research mode.

Gummi- If your nose is really dried out to the medication, use a Q-tip to rub vasaline around the INSIDE of your nose. It sounds wonky, and feels kind of icky but it really does work. I had to do that when I was on accutane as a teenager.

Word to that. The dude is advertising himself on YOUTUBE for crissakes! Not to mention that his "informational" videos have a heavy dose of alarmist propaganda to them.

In particular, a patient called him with a problem/question and he said that they are no longer doing/providing aftercare, because it's not cost efficiant. That combined with a lot of other rumblings I've heard about him being difficult to get ahold of. not returning calls, generally being very cold/uncaring. It's only been in the last few weeks that I've heard things like this, but it really startled me.

Hello everyone. I'm directing this at everyone, but I'd especially like to hear input from lower BMI bandsters on this, although I think the point of my question is pretty broad scale. I've been researching the band for about 9 months now. I'm on the fence everyday about it. I'm afraid I'll regret it, afraid I'm taking the easy way out, afraid of complications, and because I'm a low BMI bandster I'm afraid I'm taking the "easy" way out. Truth is, I sincerely need to lose 60lbs before I can be considered a "normal" weight. I've been overweight for 20 out of my 24 years. I just can't kick that feeling that I'm just doing it for vanity's sake. That I'm doing it to take a short cut, that I could do it on my own, that it's just me being lazy, etc etc. I can almost convince myself I don't need to lose the weight until I see a photo of myself and realize that I really am that large...and getting bigger. In some ways coming to this board make those feelings worse, because I see so many of you that have had such incredibly hard journeys to get your LapBands. I mean this in the most respectful way possible, but I see so many that have had 100+lbs to lose with severe co-morbidities, and STILL had to fight with insurance or self pay. With struggles like that, I should just shut my whiny yap! There's also a feeling that is hard to describe, but almost like betrayal. After years of being the poster girl for the "love your body the way it is" I'm cashing in all my chips at the shot to finally be normal. Or even, dare I say it, skinny. I feel like I've betrayed my empowered, confident fat girl, roots. I'm a wannabeskinny sellout. It's not that I haven't felt confident, or sexy, or empowered, but I've finally reached the point were I no longer feel...comfortable. How did you overcome your last hurdle of self doubt? How did you know that this was the right thing for you? Tell me your stories. Where did your gumption to go for it come from? What did it take to get rid of that nagging voice in your head that said you were only doing it because you were giving up, too lazy, cheating, taking the easy way out, etc? Because I just can't shut that bitch up, and it's driving me crazy. :help:

Dr. Kuri, the doctor that trained Dr. Ortiz which is one of the reasons I took it to heart so much. I've been debating between Rumbaut, Ortiz, Aceves and Kuri for a while. At this point I'm not a canidate for Kuri, and I've heard some things coming from recent patients of Dr. Ortiz that do not make me feel comfortable going to him at this point (we no longer provide aftercare, for example).

*bows* My happiest duty is to provide laughter during such solemn times such as these. Once you reach goal, take a photo of yourself and send it to her with "I went to a filthy mexican doctor for a botched procedure and complications, and all I got was this lousy weight loss" captioned on the front. I haven't had an unsupportive relative yet because the only one I've told is me Mum. Who got quiet, acted rather distracted, and then hurried to get off the phone. She has since avoided my phone calls. :rolleyes

I'd like to take a moment to offer my condolences, Wasa, on your impending untimely demise. ...And on having a sister, that by all accounts is a dizzy twat.

Hi Lower BMI Bandsters! I'm researching LapBanding, and everytime I get to the point where I feel like I'm committed to getting the surgery done, something happens to make me second guess my choice. My BMI wasn't as high as I thought it was, I got distracted with other medical issues, I tried losing by myself again, and finally my most recent setback. I thought I'd found my surgeon only to find out that he wouldn't do low BMI's because he believed that the risk of slipping was too great in low BMI patients. Has anyone else heard of this? It seems strange to me, seeing as how the whole point to getting LapBand done is to have a lower BMI, and if low BMI patients are so prone to slips wouldnt that mean that almost ALL bandsters would exprience slips once they lost weight? Low BMI'ers, please fill me with your wisdom!

Nan, I emailed Kuri and found out through his patient co-ordinator that he'll only band someone with a miniumum BMI of 35, no matter what co-morbid's you may have. He believe the risk of a slip on a lower BMI patient is too high. Which seems odd to me, because if your BMI is 36, and you want to get it to 28....you have to eventually be a BMI of under 35, and what then? Ortiz will do a BMI as low as 30 if there are assosiated health risks/co-morbids/history. I'm also not looking into Aceves. I'm also now reconsidering the surgery all together. I'm very afraid I'll go through this trouble, pain, and expense only to have the band fail on me. Of course, I'd rather go through all of that and more if it would mean finally being a healthy weight, for good.

What is the difference between Inamed, Vanguard, and the Swedish Band? I've heard them all mentioned but am quite confunsed! What about the different capacities? How do the Doctor's decide on what is the right "size" for you?

<p> <p><img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/faint.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Faint" smilieid="236" class="inlineimg" />Ahahaha! NanaRenan, that made my day.</p> I've been worried myself about how my relationship with my SO will change after I lose the weight. He's not a jealous type, but I fear it will bring out his insecurities in his own body and our relationship. Or worse, that I'll get caught up in the new attention and begin to wander.

Wendell, you are a saint! That was above and beyond, thank you so much for your help!

I am scared out of my wits! :omg: lol. It's really not that bad, but I have the same fears as you. What if I shell out $8k and the band doesn't work, and even worse: what happens if I have to have it removed? The only thing I've heard about Ortiz negatively is that he doesn't operate out of a hospital, but a clinic, and that his aftercare/followup can leave something to be desired. However I also understand that there is only so much follow up aftercare that can be done when you're going to another country to get your surgery done. I'm still considering having Dr. Kuri do my prodecure, as I hear he is really good and also works out of a hospital. On the flip side, Ortiz also has an assosiation with a local plastic surgeon there as well which would be nice if I decide to get post-op work done. I'm 24, I've been overweight for..oh....20 years now