PomMom

Laura, Dr. Anderson did my Lap-Band procedure the Friday before Memorial Day and I am very pleased with my results. Dr. Anderson's very professional and gets right to the point, but he will take all the time you need to answer questions, etc. He's Vice-chair of general surgery at Presby Dallas and been voted as best doctor by his peers for the last 4-5 years [D magazine]. He is part of the Southwest General Surgical Associates, whose offices are located at the Presby Dallas. One of his partners, Dr. Hagood did a Lap-Band procedure for a friend that was a Medicare patient [early June], so I do believe both doctors will accept Medicare patients. FYI, Medicare will require the Lap-Band procedure be done at a hospital and not at a surgical center and you will have to have an overnight stay. The LapBand procedure was a breeze! [i had it done as an outpatient] Honest, all I had was some minor discomfort for 1-2 days... I was back to work on the Tuesday after Memorial day. My weight loss can probably be called 'average', but I can't brag enough about the overall increase in my general health and energy levels as well as all those inches that are gone forever. Within weeks of the Lap-Band procedure, my Primary Care Physician [internist] removed me from all my prescription meds [blood pressure, GERD, etc]. So far I've gone from a size 26W to between a 16W-18W. The Lap-Band was truly the best decision I have ever made. I wish you the very best as you decide on your surgeon and then have the Lap-Band procedure. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Dr. Hagood of Southwest General Surgical Associates did the LapBand procedure for a friend that was on Medicare in June 2005. Dr. Anderson, who did my Lap-Band procedure is also in that practice, so I suspect he takes Medicare as well. Dr. Hagood and Anderson's offices are located at Presbytarian Hospital in Dallas. FYI... Medicare patients must have the Lap-Band procedure preformed at a hospital rather than a surgical center and Medicare requires and overnight stay. Hope this helps!

The 'Bandbuddies' monthly support meeting scheduled to be held at SCOR [surgical Center of Richardson] at 2:00pm this Sunday, Oct. 16th will include a clothing swap. Please note all clothing that is not exchanged is donated to a local shelter. Hope this information helps!

Just a friendly reminder that the Terrell area support group will be meeting at 9:00am Saturday, August 20th at the Starbucks coffee located on Highway 34 [next to the I20 West entrance ramp]. For those of you familiar with the area, the Starbucks used to be a Burger King. Hope to see you there! Barbara

Just a friendly reminder that the Terrell area support group will be meeting at 9:00am Saturday, August 6th at the Starbucks coffee located on Highway 34 [next to the I20 West entrance ramp]. For those of you familiar with the area, the Starbucks used to be a Burger King. Hope to see you there!

Hello everyone, Several weeks ago I was contacted by a couple of members of Obesity Help. They have formed a WLS Support Group for any in the Terrell TX area. So far they have held 2 meetings, so the group is still very new. All are welcome, pre-ops, post-ops or no-ops [spouses/friends]! Meetings are be held every other Saturday [9am 'til ??] at the new Starbuck's at I-20 & Hwy.34 in Terrell (Exit #501 off I-20). Starbuck's used to be a Burger King & is on the Northwest corner of Highway 34 and Interstate 20. The next two meetings will scheduled for Saturday, July 23rd and then August 6th. At this point most of the Terrell Support Group is comprised Gastric By-Pass patients. So far everybody has been very supportive of each other and respected each others surgical choices. I thought if we could get some more Lap-Band patients to come to the Saturday morning meetings that we could decide at a later date if it would make more sense to hold separate "Bandster" meetings. At least this would provide us Terrell / Kaufman / Willis Point "Bandsters" an alternate Support Meeting location that did not require a drive all the way into Dallas and the time was convenient. So why not stop by for a morning cup of coffee or tea and then continue with your normal weekend activities... Hope to see you there!

Road Queen, I am having surgery Friday morning May 27th and it has been my plan all along to be back in the office on Tuesday morning. I figured that I would heal faster if I kept somewhat active (I have a desk job), rather than laying in bed for an extra day or two. Just my humble opinion, but then again I have a pretty high threshold for pain... I've had root canals done in the AM and then headed back to the office. I had gall bladder surgery 2 years ago and I had recouped enough after 3 days to return to work. My surgeon made me wait a week and I was bored stiff. It will be just fine... Good luck with your surgery!

Mandy, The Yahoo Group BandstersInsurance has a database with Insurance information. It currently contains 357 lines of data including names of Insurance companies. states, approved or not, appeals, Doctors, etc. Can't tell how 'complete' the information is, but it does represent other people's experiences with their respective insurance companies. Good Luck!

Mandy, Just a quick followup on my previous post. I would suggest that you take a look at some of the old Posts for the Yahoo Group named "BandstersInsurance". A post made by April 28th contains a link to a PDF file. The person that posted it contacted the FDA and received a person letter indicating that the LapBand was not experimental. Maybe you could contact the cooperative person at the FDA and have her send you the same type of letter. Her name was Bonnie J Alderton and here is a link to the cover letter that she provided: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BandstersInsurance/files/FDA%20Letter.pdf Please note that I think you have to be a member of the Group to get the Link to work, but they add members pretty quickly. I found other posts on this Group list most helpful. Hang in there - Things WILL get better!

Mandy, I was recently approved by EmpireBlue PPO [a BC/BS of TX company]. When I was was waiting for approvals I noticed that people on other support Yahoo groups that I joined indicated that Inamed has also been helpful in rectifying the 'experimental' classification. I'll see if I can find the Inamed person's name that can get you information to overrule the experimental excuse. Good Luck and do not give up!

Estefania, May I suggest that you go to the Inamed website [www.inamed.com], look under Lap-Band then use the "Surgeon Locator" to find a surgeon in the area of Texas where you reside. When you do the search, it will tell you when the next information seminar is scheduled for the surgeon you select. In the meantime, check with your insurance to see if the procedure is covered. If the Lap-Band procedure is covered, then I would proceed to check to see whether the surgeon's names you got from the Inamed website, or those that were recommended by others in this support group, as well as the surgical facilities/hospitals they doctors use are considered 'in network' by your insurance. The reason I suggest this is many surgeons are doing the Lap-Band procedures at what many consider state of the art facilities that unfortunately are 'out-of-network'. The surgeon I selected performs the Lap-Band surgery at SCOR [surgical Center of Richardson] as well as Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He and the Hospital are 'in network' SCOR is not, so we asked for approval for surgery at Presby Hospital. If you find that your insurance policy contains an exclusion for WLS, then you can choose to fight it, or you can check Inamed's International surgeon information, which should provide links to Doctors in other countries, like Mexico, as well as their websites. I would also go to the website obesityhelp.com, which contains information on various Weight Loss Surgeries. They have a nice database, created by members, that provide information on various insurance companies, as well as comments on the doctors they used, which WLS procedures they do, and reviews of Hospitals/Surgical Centers. Reading old posts on this and other Lap-Band Support Group sites will also contain a wealth of information. Good Luck on your journey! Barbara

Yippee!!! FINALLY I can have my name added to a 'list' instead of just envying those that have been banded before me. I just received a call from my surgeon's office and I have my date. Friday, May 27, 2005 at 8:00am. Dr. Anderson will be banding me at Presbytarian Hospital Dallas. I am picking up the Protein powder he insists I use for the pre-op tomorrow morning. Can hardly wait to join all the happy 'losers' on this list.

Love the ceramics... I breed and show Pomeranians. Most people think of them as 'lap dogs', but as you can see you can raise them to be a working breed.

Hello, Just wanted thank Cammy, Kristen, Maureen and Banded&Happy for their contributions to this thread. I used the link on thinforlife.med.nyu.edu to email Rhonnie to get details on how to order "How to Live with the Lap-Band". I subscribed to the ObesityHelp magazine about a month agao and am still waiting for the first issue, and back issues, to arrive. I had not heard of WLSLifestyles.com, so I'm checking into that next, as well as the other books that Kristen mentioned. I really do apprecuate the input - this group is the very best!