OneMoreTime

I live near Corpus Christi and decided on Dr. Rodriguez, across from Del Rio, Texas. My hospital experience was very good, he sent me home with a full course of liquid antibiotics and pain meds (never needed them). Barbara L of San Antonio drives people to Del Rio and stays with them during surgery and afterwards, and arranges for the hotel and such. She does so much teaching on the way down and the way back. She has care packages of foods safe for the first days until you can get what you need (if you haven't yet). Fills are a bargain once you get to San Antonio. Barbara picks you up at the airport or nearby hotels, or drive straight to her house for safe all-day parking in her driveway. You pay her $25 and she takes care of you all day - including lunch after the fills and then pharmacy and tourist shopping! And the fills are done under fluoroscopy (you get to watch it all) and are only $100. You can be on your way home within a few hours. Dr. Jose Rodriguez in a Gastro-Intestinal surgeon, has been installing bands for over 8 years, is multiply boarded and certified. His website is http://www.JoseBand.com He charges $6800 for the surgery, last time I checked. OneMoreTime

My mother had this happen - a large quantity of bright red blood. Found out she had an intestinal polyp that had had a ruptured blood vessel. Her bleeding was so severe, her hematocrit dropped to 7.4. She had to have colon surgery (nowadays they would do a colonoscopy - no incisions and almost immediat recovery. But IF it had bled again, she could very well have bled to death. Definitely something for an ER. As it was, she went into her GP the next day and he refused to believe her when she was telling him how much she bled. And the polyp was SO large, they made her take 3 barium enemas til someone got bright enough to compare all three films - and realized it wasn't fecal matter, it was a GROWTH. OneMoreTime

No, the fill needle cannot puncture the BAND (located in totally different parts of the body, the band circling your stomach, the port close under the skin, under the fat but on top of the muscle).. But a fill needle CAN accidently puncture the TUBE that carries the fill Fluid from the port into the band. That is why it is so important for the port to be exactly located before any needle gets involved - and why fluoroscopy is so important during the procedure. Now, in more recent years, the Inamed band has used a metal sleeve over the portion of the tubing closest to the port, so accidental punctures without fluoroscopy have become less common. When the tubing is punctured, it must be replaced. It is surprising how tough the scar tissue covering the port can become after several months - which is why the flexible needle can bend during the insertion as it is forced in. SOMETIMES people with little fill experience CAN damage the port's semi-permeable membrane -rip it some- and that can cause so much damage that the port has to be replaced. OneMoreTime

South TX Fill Trip Opening - $125 w/fluoroscope There is an unexpected opening on a fill trip to Mexico this Saturday (July 22nd). Travel from San Antonio is $25, Fill with long-lasting solution is $50, Mandated Fluoroscopy is $50. Transportation is also available with me from deeper South Texas (near Corpus Christi/Alice/Beeville/George West - along the 281/I 37 corridor) Starts early, home that evening. If interested, call area code 210 and then 789-1434 Cell # and say Miss Teri told you about the opening. Contact me directly if you want to share a ride with me to SA. Teri

South TX Fill Trip Opening - $125 w/fluoroscope There is an unexpected opening on a fill trip to Mexico this Saturday (July 22nd). Travel from San Antonio is $25, Fill with long-lasting solution is $50, Mandated Fluoroscopy is $50. Transportation is also available with me from deeper South Texas (near Corpus Christi/Alice/Beeville/George West - along the 281/I 37 corridor) Starts early, home that evening. If interested, call area code 210 and then 789-1434 Cell # and say Miss Teri told you about the opening. Contact me directly if you want to share a ride with me to SA. Teri

I am moving to North Carolina and will be in Piedmont Traid area, but am willing to travel within the state or to adjoining state. Need to have a doctor who will follow someone banded in Mexico.. Need to have a doctor where I won't be paying a fortune (I am on disability and Medicaid, so it takes a real effort to save up the money) Thank you for your help

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MexicanBandsters/ Join ... directly or by sending a blank email to MexicanBandsters-subscribe@YahooGroups.com -- then follow the directions in the email that will soon be sent to you. This is to confirm your intent to join the group... after that you can post your questions directly at the website or mail them in by sending an email to MexicanBandsters@YahooGroups.com from the same email address that you signed up with. Do not be upset when your post doesn't show up right away. Sometimes it can take a day or two before the moderators have a chance to approve it. Another great group is http://www.YahooGroups.com/SmartBandsters/ which is run by an RN (Seattle Bariatric Practice) who was banded in Mexico years ago. It is one of the LARGEST groups available for prospective and newbie bandsters. Now, to read what those doctors who pay for listings have to say about their practices and to read the feedback their patients have submitted to day, go here --- http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/professionals/showdocs-international-all.php -- Be aware about this fact --- the doctors at the top with flashing stars and plain stars -- that only means they pay ObesityHelp.com money to promote their practices by listing them at the top & drawing attention to their names. The countries are all mixed together, so you will have to search the list for the cities closest to you. They have links to more info and websites .. and to patient testimonials. ObesityHelp.com is mostly used by patients with traditional bypass surgeries... Plus they make it VERY difficult to find the section for Mexican physicians... BUT they do have an active support forum for Mexican Physicians here - http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/south-of-the-border/posts.html I post the link here for after their website changes, it became nearly impossible to locate. Good Luck ..

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MexicanBandsters/ Join ... directly or by sending a blank email to MexicanBandsters-subscribe@YahooGroups.com -- then follow the directions in the email that will soon be sent to you. This is to confirm your intent to join the group... after that you can post your questions directly at the website or mail them in by sending an email to MexicanBandsters@YahooGroups.com from the same email address that you signed up with. Do not be upset when your post doesn't show up right away. Sometimes it can take a day or two before the moderators have a chance to approve it. Another great group is http://www.YahooGroups.com/SmartBandsters/ which is run by an RN (Seattle Bariatric Practice) who was banded in Mexico years ago. It is one of the LARGEST groups available for prospective and newbie bandsters. Now, to read what those doctors who pay for listings have to say about their practices and to read the feedback their patients have submitted to day, go here --- http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/professionals/showdocs-international-all.php -- Be aware about this fact --- the doctors at the top with flashing stars and plain stars -- that only means they pay ObesityHelp.com money to promote their practices by listing them at the top & drawing attention to their names. The countries are all mixed together, so you will have to search the list for the cities closest to you. They have links to more info and websites .. and to patient testimonials. ObesityHelp.com is mostly used by patients with traditional bypass surgeries... Plus they make it VERY difficult to find the section for Mexican physicians... BUT they do have an active support forum for Mexican Physicians here - http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/south-of-the-border/posts.html I post the link here for after their website changes, it became nearly impossible to locate. Good Luck ..

I am going to be living with one of my two daughters, but wanted to see whether either state, North Carolina or Maryland, approved LapBand bariatric surgery. Thank you OneMoreTime

Dear Mel... My insurance won't cover my lapband, either, and my credit has been shot in the past and tho enough years have passed for it to mostly to have dropped off my record, I don't have enough income, and all I have is a Visa check card. So I've scrabbled together $8,000 plus bus fare for a trip to Monterrey Mexico. Free fills for life of the appliance, and bus fare will only be $80/trip. And I will have free housing. I looked into doctors in Texas who were offering lapband surgery for $10,000 to $12,000, but they still mostly do stomach chop jobs, and only had maybe 2 lap bands a week. In Europe, Mexico and Latin America, they've been doing these surgeries for a long time and the surgeons are very skilled and the Monterrey hospitals are great. Keep your chin up and, in the meantime, try to keep up as much physical activity as you can so your health doesn't crash like mine did. OneMoreTime ps: for somewhat more, you can get airfare from anywhere in the continental US, too, plus free airfare and housing for the first fill.