MacMadame

I was poking around various surgical group web sites and found one with a 73 old woman who has had her band for years, lost tons of weight and has never had a fill! :cursing:

Ooh, that must be frustrating! I'll cross my fingers for you that the approval letter is already in the mail.

Well I'm going to argue it, because you are wrong. (Period. :cursing: The Realize Band is not 1st generation. The first generation Swedish Band was invented in the 80s. The Realize Band that is being sold in the US was put on the market in 1996. That makes it 11-12 year old technology, not 14. You can't even get your basic facts straight and you accuse everyone who disagrees with you of being swayed by the J&J site or being stupid or lying or whatever, which is RUDE and also unnecessary. The idea that someone has done a lot of research and disagrees with you doesn't seem to have occurred to you, I guess. Well, I'm someone who does my research and I'm quite satisfied that the Realize band is a good one and that most of your complaints about it are off-base. The new Lap-band is modification to a 14-15 year old technology to make it more like the Realize band (and the French Midband that is not yet available in the US). I'm glad they are doing that as making the bands softer and wider seems to help them work better with less long-term complications. But it doesn't make the Realize band "crap" and the softness of the Realize band, that you knock, is actually a good thing IMO.

I lost my gallbladder 27 years ago. I was on Nutri/system and lost 70 lb. and that gave me gall stones. Of course I gained all the weight back and then some ...

Actually, that's not a lot of problems reported. It's an average of 8 a year during an approximate 4.5 year period. I don't know how many bands were installed during that period, but I imagine it's thousands. I also can't believe there were only 36 reports in all of Canada so I'm wondering exactly what sort of data is being reported. Also, the conclusion of the report is not that the Swedish (Realize) band shouldn't be used, but that "until reliable selection criteria for patients at low risk for long-term complications are determined, alternative treatment options should be considered and gastric banding should be performed only in carefully selected and fully informed patients." IOW, banding isn't for everyone. And to answer the original question, surgeons in Mexico use all sorts of bands including ones that aren't even approved in the US. I hope, since there are people here from all over the world, that we can get some reports on those other bands. In particular, I'm interested in the Midband (French) band as it's even newer than the Inamed and Realize and has some nice features. Does anyone know if it's being evaluated by the FDA yet?

It was first released in Europe in 1993, as I said. This is from Inamed's own site. The company that makes the Realize band was the first company to do bands at all, back in the early 80s. The band being sold now is not that same band however; they have made changes to it just like the Lap-band has evolved. The band has only been approved in the US since Oct/Nov. so it is not in wide use. OTOH, there are a lot of doctors who use both so you can have a choice and some that have switched to this new band entirely. So I don't see a big consensus of opinion in the medical community that this band is crap. And I live in the SF Bay Area which has some of the finest medical care in the US. As I said, the best bariatric surgeons here are starting to use the Realize Band. Luckily, I can't get surgery until the Fall so there is time for more data to accumulate. :cheers2:

Just think about going through the day not being hungry all the time but still losing weight.

But getting old is good... think of the alternative.

This is something I worry about. When I had my gallbladder out, they couldn't go in the normal way because my rib cage was in the way. This was before laparoscopic surgery and I have no idea what that did to that area. They split me open from just under my breasts down to my belly button. It's 28 years later and I still have some scarring.

Where are you getting this? This is not what my research shows. The Inamed band was first introduced in 1993, which is almost 15 years ago. It is older than the Realize band by several years. As for it being "crap" and "no doctor worth his salt" using it, all the top surgeons in my area are starting to use them in their practice. It also has better slip stats than the Inamed. Being around along time is not necessarily a bad thing, btw. It means the technology is proven. But of course that means that other companies have had time to make even more improvements. For example, there is now a 3rd band that is being used in other countries that has even better stats than either Inamed or Realize, but hasn't been approved by the FDA for use in the US. I guess that's the price we pay for living somewhere that's conservative about approving things.

Exactly! I have kids and I want to be around for their college graduations and weddings and first grandkids.

What JohnC said. As I get older, I find that the weight is harder on my body. I'm only 5 lb. over my max weight as a 30-something but this time I've got high blood pressure, my cholesterol is approaching 200 and my joints and feet are always hurting. I'm worried that Type II diabetes is next.

Well, I'm confused. In your very first post on this site you say "I am here to support realize band patients I know a fair amount the realize system, I also have a support group, on myspace under groups for the Realize band patients." This makes it seem like you are a rep for J&J available to support people who got this band. But your last post makes it seem like you are just another obese person thinking about WLS who hasn't even got a Realize band. How can you run a support group if you aren't either a banded person or someone who is in the WLS field in a professional capacity?

I second that. I've watched the first one and was totally fascinated. I had never heard about dissecting the muscle behind your stomach before I watched the video. (Or even knew I had one there. :biggrin: ) The other thing that struck me was how little blood or Fluid is involved. That was reassuring.

My breasts sag now and I haven't even gotten a band yet.

I'm going to make the argument that since they are what is called a self-insurer that WLS would end up being cheaper for them in the long run than paying to treat my high blood pressure, my inevitable diabetes, my plantar faciitis, weight loss pills (which are covered) to curb my appetite, plus anything else that comes up later on because of my obesity. A "self insurer" company is one that doesn't pay the insurance company premiums. Instead, they put the money they take out of our paycheck plus a whole bunch more and put it in a special account. Then, when the insurance company pays our doctors, they take the money out of this account. This means that if we go to the doctor less, have less prescriptions, etc. that it costs our company less. So they have a BIG incentive to approve the surgery IMO. In my case, they are spending about a $1000 a year just on my prescriptions for my blood pressure. Plus I have to go for a check up and blood work 2x a year instead of 1x because I'm also taking a potassium supplement. So that's another $1000 a year for the supplement, extra doctor's visit and two sets of lab work a year. That means in 5 years the surgery would pay for itself just by treating my high blood pressure! I'm not even 100% sure at this point that I want this surgery. But my company is enormous and if I get them to approve it, it should help a lot of people. And if I do go through with it, it will help me. Whee! :eek:

I talked to my insurance company about this. (Since my company excludes WLS from its coverage.) The Customer Service Rep I talked to said that if something was "medically necessary" that they would cover it. So if I was having some sort of medical emergency that required removing the lapband to treat, it would be covered. I am not sure how much I believe this. But it did set my mind at ease a bit. I wonder if this is because they do cover the surgery if your company includes the coverage. I.E., it's not that they don't think lap-bands should be covered at all, just that my company chose to cheap out on it. She also said that if I went through my PCP and she made a medical case for all the tests and stuff that were required to get the surgery ... i.e., that she was ordering these tests as part of treating my obesity, that they'd be covered even if the surgery wasn't.

I think it's interesting you put it this way because a few years ago I had a similar epiphany about dieting. If my dieting, losing weight but then gaining it all back and then some, was instead a "bad boy" boyfriend that I kept leaving and going back to, all my friend would be lecturing me and begging me to cut out this destructive behavior. But whenever you go on a diet, people get all excited for you and give you all kind of "atta boys". That is how ingrained it is in our society that fat people have brought their problems on themselves through their own bad behavior and all they have to do to not be fat is have a little bit of self-discipline. The idea that there is a biological component to our condition is rejected outright and us bringing it up is seen as "making excuses" and "not taking responsibility" for our actions. That's also why bariatric surgery is seen as "cheating" instead of a tool to break the destructive cycle of failed dieting.

It's definitely outdated. It was published before the Lap-Band was even approved for use in the US so it's years out of date. It's also shows a pretty overt bias IMO. For example "The Swedish Band will never be utilized in the USA". What a silly thing to say at the time and it looks even sillier when you know that that band *has* been approved by the FDA and has a very good outcome in clinical trials and actual use. The Realize Band (aka the Swedish Band) has been in use in the US less time than Imand's Lap-band. That may be a concern to some. But it's not some cheap product made by a fly-by-night "foreign" company with no hope of being approved for use in the US as that article makes it out to be.

Yes, I feel the same. My POV is that my doctor is an expert on the medicine part of it, but I am an expert on ME. I'm the one who knows my values, how risk adverse I am, what my limits are. So it's up to me to make the final choice once the doctor provides the medical knowledge I'm lacking. My PCP is great about that. I'm really sorry my medical group doesn't do lapband so I just stay with them. Maybe when I finally get the financials ducks in a row, they'll have started.

I did a search here and didn't find much. This doctor is near me and has some really good comments on ObesityHelp.com, plus she's in my insurance and has their Aexcel rating (which means I have smaller co-pays, I think). I'm looking for a doctor who recognizes that I research everything and I have strong opinions about some things and want some say in my health care. I'm also going to ask questions. Not all docs like that.

Hey, I just found out last night that my company* excludes this surgery from our plan even though the insurance company offers coverage. 6 months of a supervised diet is nothing compared to not being covered! (*I do have this tiny hope that I'm just reading the plan summary wrong, but I don't think I am.)

I have a lot of experience doing that. That site is so poorly designed... to the point where I couldn't find a search so I thought maybe they didn't have one. Anyway, thanks for the tip.

I have a dumb question. If you don't know the direct link to that document, how would you find it using the links on the Aetna site. Because I've never been able to find it that way and I've looked several times.

Just want to say that to some of us, that stat is not the least bit depressing! Especially when you compare it to traditional dieting, which has a success rate that is only a fraction of that. Anyway, pisses me off that insurance often won't pay if your BMI is slight under 40 unless you have a very specific set of co-morbidities. First of all, BMI is only an approximation of what you should weigh -- it takes into account no individual factors such as muscle to fat ratio or frame size. Secondly, a BMI of 35-39 is still pretty damn high! I think as the surgery gets safer and safer, the protocols will change. At least I can hope!