cisco29

I am looking for a good fill doctor in the Houston TX area. My doctor is here but to be honest I was not impressed with his office. Until my last appt I had only seen my doctor through a company called NeWeigh (they are wonderful). My doctor's office was not impressive. No nurse on staff, just a receptionist. The office is dirty and rundown. I even had to get a wet paper towel to wipe blood off the chair in the examination room so that my husband could sit down. I am 8 weeks post op and have not had a fill yet. I would like to find a good doctor with good facilities that I can trust. Thanks!

Hello, I just had my lap band surgery on 12/12/07. Everything has been going good until this past Sat. I started noticing some pain off and on in my chest and back. I didn't think much about it but decided I needed to start paying attention to the signs. Now for going on 3 days I have had intense pain in my chest and back and pain in my throat. I have not eaten in a couple of days. I have been doing some liquids. It hurts to take a deep breath and to burp. Can anyone give me any tips on what to do??

I chose the lap band for the same reasons as Long2BFree. I did not want my plumbing re-routed. I have a couple of friends that have had the RNY and a couple that had the lapband prior to me. There is really not much difference in the rate of weight loss between the ones with lapband or RNY. The RNY friends did tend to lose faster at first, however, they do have more loose skin than the lapband friends. I am not a doctor or nurse this is just from my observation. In the end this is a personal choice and you will make the right choice for you. I suggest you look at all of the pro's and con's of both surgeries and see which con's bother you the most. I wish you the very best of luck!!:thumbs_down:

I have always had a problem with constipation. I have even gotten impacted a few times. So far everyone has given very good advice. I can tell you that I tried many things, however the only thing that seems to work for me is a tablespoon of benefiber in 1/2 cup of orange juice twice a day. I do this faithfully now to keep myself going. If I miss one day I am constipated. My constipation was so severe that I was having to do an enema atleast two times a week just to relieve the pain. I hope the benefiber works for you! Lots of luck!

Thanks Kat!! I appreciate the encouragement.

Has anyone had trouble with their hair falling out? It has been 4 mos since my surgery and my hair is really thinning. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Darlene: We are in Houston Texas as you have probably figured out by now. I actually live east of Houston. I have been to Dr. Garwood in College Station one time. It takes me a little over 2hrs one way but I will gladly endure the drive for an exceptional Dr. Dr. Garwood did not do my surgery, however he has given me more information and truly appeared to be concerned with me than my original Dr. I would highly recommend Dr. Garwood. I would never recommend the Dr. that did my surgery.

Dr. Garwood did mine and my sisters fill. We are both extremely happy with the whole entire staff.

My sister and I just recently received our first fill with Dr. Gerald Garwood. He was awesome. His whole staff was wonderful. I was very impressed with the entire experience. I would highly recommend them to anyone for fills!!

My sister and I received our very first fill from Dr. Garwood in College Station this past Saturday. Dr. Garwood is wonderful. He was very informative and professional. The whole staff was pleasant and made us feel very important. I would highly recommend them to anyone for fills.

Marivi - Good Luck! I hope you have a wonderful experience. I have not had a fill yet, however, my sister will be getting her first fill on March 8. She is using Dr. Garwood. I will let everyone know how it goes for her.

If you read the post on this site you will be better prepared to ask the right questions. My advice would be ask lots of questions and do research on your doctor. Some questions might be...where will you place my port? What kind of band will you be using and what size? Do you charge for fills and how much? These are all questions I thought I knew the answers to but I was wrong. Good Luck!!

Does anyone know a doctor that will do fills in the Houston TX area even if someone else did the surgery?

Thanks for the information. I called Dr. Spiegel's office. They said he only does his own patients. I think I might have found a place that will do fills. I'm not sure how good they are but I will probably give them a try. Thanks again!

DJ, yes the pain was in my chest and in the very same spot in my back. I had very severe reflux prior to surgery and I was under the impression I would no longer need meds after surgery. After my incident the dr finally said it could be reflux and put me on protonix becaue I can break it in half. I have taken it faithfully since and had no problems. I have had some moments where I hurt in my chest because I didn't chew enough but it doisn't feel like the same kind of pain. I had my gallbladder removed before surgery so I'm pretty convinced that it was the reflux. Great job on the 68lb weight loss!

renec : I am finally feeling better after being back on acid reflux medication. I am still having to be very careful. It doesn't seem to take much to irritate my band area and then I just go back to doing liquids for a couple of days. I still have never had a fill. I will be 8 weeks post op and I can still only eat a couple of bites of meat in one meal. I'm not sure with the acid reflux if I will ever be able to get a fill and not be in pain. I understand where you are coming from about how long you can keep dealing with this. My dr. kept acting like my pain was just from overeating. I don't see how that could be when I rarely take in more than 600 to 800 calories a day (200 of which is from chocolate milk). This is what I normally have for breakfast. I hope you figure everything out and keep losing weight. Best of Luck!

I don't want to sound discouraging. I have BCBS TX also. I have sleep apnea, arthritis, high cholesterol and back problems and the insurance still insisted on a 6 month dr supervised diet. My whole process took 9 months. On the bright side I had a low BMI, if you can call it that. My BMI was 36 or 37. If I can get approved, anybody can. I guess my point is don't give up. It can take some time! When I started my process I was not aware of how long it would take. The time does truly fly by. Before you know it you will be eating liquids and mushies. I wish you the very best of luck!!!

I am six weeks post op. Before surgery I was addicted to diet coke. I pretty much only drank diet coke. Love the taste. I know I am not supposed to drink it for several reasons. The bloating and caffiene being the most important. I have not been brave enough to try it since I have already had trouble with acid reflux. I was wondering if anyone could share their views on carbondated drinks. Has anyone experienced bad things? Has anyone found that they can drink diet coke? In moderation of course. Any advice would be appreciated.

My port incision is just below my left breast on my rib. It is about 3 to 4 inches long. I had seven incisions total, 1 very small one, 5 between 1/2 to 1 inch and then the port.

My Dr. put my port on my rib just underneath my left breast. From my experience I would suggest not putting it there. It was a more painful recovery and I can fill it easily. Actually the elastic on the bottom of bra cup rubs this area constantly. It is uncomfortable to lay certain ways because I can feel the hard plastic pushing on my rib. I am only six weeks post op so I have not had a fill yet. The only advantage I can see at this point is that it will be easy to find for the fills. Good Luck! Dr. Kodali Houston, TX

I just had an episode last week where my doc thought my band had slipped. He sent me to the emergency room for x-rays and a barium swallow. I hadn't eaten anything all day, however, I had drank milk and crystal light. It might have just been because it was the emergency room but they didn't even ask me if I had eaten anything. Good luck!!!

Thanks! I hope to someday not have acid reflux. Tomorrow will be six weeks post op for me. Does anyone have any suggestions for food once I go back to real food. I have been living on choc milk, really creamy mashed potatoes and soup. I just dying to have something really good to eat. Thanks again for all the support and advice.:tongue:

My Doc finally called me back 27 hours after my initial call. His advice was for me to go to the emergency room. I sat in the ER for 7 hours. They did xrays and a barium swallow. They said the band did not appear to have slipped, however the barium swallow showed a 12 second delay for the water to go down. The band is too tight. Keep in mind I have never had a fill and why would the band just all of a sudden be too tight. They did not find any obstruction. I mentioned Acid reflux. The ER Doc said that could be all or part of the probelm. He gave me meds through an IV for the acid reflux and told me to go see my Doc the next day. The next day the pain in my back was still there but had eased considerably. It is now 4 days later and I have been taking protonix (split in 1/2 of course) for the acid reflux. I am feeling better and better each day. I still have pain in my chest but it is not constant. My doc suggested that I go back to liquids for two weeks to allow the swelling to reduce. The upsetting part of all of this is that I had been lead to believe by my Doc's office that after surgery I would no longer need acid reflux meds.

I had my gallbladder removed 3mo prior to surgery and the doc fixed my hernia during my lap band surgery. I did have acid reflux prior to surgery to the point of taking Nexium daily. I haven't taken any medicine for it since surgery. Maybe it is reflux. I have been trying to contact my doc for the past two days but he has not returned my phone call yet. I have a pretty high pain tolerance. After my surgery I did not take any pain medication for fear of stomach upset. However, this pain is relentless and it is driving me crazy.