flowers

I went thru Juarez, Dr. Naketa. My surgery went well this July 9th. Dont forget they pick you up at the airport and they drive you to the hospital, which of course is in a good section of town. Star Medica was my hospital. Big nice mall across the street.

There are quite a few choices in the $7,00 range, include a night or two aftercare. You might read thru the thread on Mexican doctors. There is one that had a couple of bad comments, but has lots of followers, whom I wouldnt choose, but lots of others. Im in Texas so I went thru via El Paso which was closer for me. TCLEdge in Dallas and that surgeon in Colarado so many love to death are right under $10,000, I wouldnt pay extra just to be near my house if there was a wonderfull doctor. I choose the Mexican route, I had tons of nursing personnel and two doctors checking up on me. I did skip the extra night in a hotel, decided to change my flight and went on home, I got bored. I had a very good surgery experience in Mexico.

Actually, I went to a seminar and came home and cancelled the lapband procedure, I was that much more impressed with the sleeve. Im not sure why someone would claim the lapband is more tested. Both have been approved in the U.S. about 5 years. The sleeve has been in use in the U.S. for at least 30 years, for stomach cancer and when they need to remove part of the stomach. Actually both can be reversed. The lapband, builds up scar tissues, so its not as easy to remove as it is to put in and in a healthy person the sleeve can be reversed if you have a good surgeron, per a very excellent gastric surgeon. I think Ill believe him before some anomouyous poster. What is true is the sleeve hasnt been used as a weight loss surgery as long, what isnt true is that this procedure is less tested and been in use a shorter period of time. I did change back to the lapband, because I feel Im not that overweight, and it might help me manage keeping the weight off better in times of stress.

Yep, but he is the one who now makes you wait 3 months before he will fill you after the date of your surgery. lol. I feel like a leper. I did get a office # for True Results and the name of the office manager to talk to directly.

fillcenters usa also requires a payment of $88 each time for fluoro they told me. Not worth the drive to the closest one for me. Im feeling like a leper myself, most doctors wouldnt take me, or there is a 3 month wait if you were banded in Mexico, or they charge extra to fill you if you were banded in mexico, take your pick.

I called them and they will only take me if I am seeing a doctor that practices in that hospital who will refer me, so Id have to pay to see that doctor plus the fills. Tried calling Carter in Arlington, and got his answering service, they are already closed for the weekend, at 4 pm??!! lol

I can go back to my surgeon, just would have to fly to El Paso, but the price of the flight negates the free fills. Free fills except for $100 for fluro. Thats why Im hoping to find a doctor here in the DFW area. No, I havent tried the Richardson Center, I might try and find their phone number and call them. A doc at Presberterian said no, one at Medical City will do it, but charges an extra $100, so instead of $150 he charges $250, another after initial visit charges $200, but wouldnt see me for 3 months. So if anyone has phone number/contact info, Ill be glad to keep calling around. So far nothing $200 or less. Thanks for the info folks.

PS, I keep reading folks saying how you cant eat that much??? Remember you wouldnt have your first fill, you will have no more resistance to food than you have now. Some folks after surgery say they eat less, but I woke up asking when is dinner. IMO, I disagree with those saying how you wouldnt be able to eat. Heck I COULD eat anything now, Im just not allowed, but could I?? You bet. You will be in what is called bandster hell, where you have no fills or extra resistance, but supposed to be good with just will power. Im just hoping to maintain and not gain more than a couple of pounds and plan to be just as good as I can be. NOTE: several of the replies are from folks who went on a cruise after their first fill, they had some resistance from that. You wouldnt.

Not sure whom you ask asking why they are eating?? I was allowed full liquids and to start tasting mushy foods by my doctor after 3 days of Clear Liquids and thats what im on for a month. Your post op diet, just as the pre opt diets may vary of course.

I was banded 9 days ago, and going on a cruise Sept 7th - Sept 14. I am trying to find a cash fill doctor that doesnt charge extra for being banded in Mexico, might or might not before I cruise over Labor Day. I more or less probably breezed thru surgery, but I still have a stomach ache and my stiches are a tad itchy. I cant eat regular food for one whole month. I can eat mushy foods, like scrambled eggs, no sugar applesauce, chicken if its shredded and mayo. Im already eating mushy food. I could easily eat anything, but not allowed to. You will have time to get thru your 4 weeks of full liquids/mushy foods stage and be allowed to eat by the time of your cruise. Im worried too, about over eating. You get your salad first and then meat. Lapband way is to eat the Protein first. Not going to be a breeze, but Im doing it too. In fact I have another cruise in Jan 09 ... and then some more.

Im on full liquids and can taste mushy food and see how I do with it. My shakes are 230 calories. If you are having 3 - 5 shakes a day, how can you be at so low of calories? Mine might be too high in calories, but not that high. Im probably still under 1000 per day and my stomach is sore, so maybe Im rushing in too fast to try mushy food, I dont know if that is why my stomach is sore, but think its been sore since the surgery, so probably not the food. I am also drinking grape juice. I know its higher in calorie than apple juice, I just cant drink more apple juice. Im also trying a few spoons of no sugar added applesauce which goes down easily. Hence the extra calories. I dont think you want to stay at 400 calories a day, when you are into your second week past surgery? at least shake up the calories a little. Im still dropping weight and eating a lot more calories than you. I did gain 3 lbs after surgery, so it took me a few days to drop the extra Water weight from the IV and swelling. Im now down the extra plus about 7 lbs. Frankly Im surprised Im still dropping weight as fast as I am. Thats about one pound a day, especially if you include dropping the extra lbs I gained from surgery. Fast enough to me. I started a couple of weeks pre opt at 248 and now Im within sight of 230. Within a pound or less of 230 this morning.

I personally wouldnt stay at 400 calories a day for very long or your metabolism will drop and you will need to eat less to lose weight after a while. My stomach area where the port is, is also hurting and sore. I dont know exactly what is hurting me over there. Im tired of it too. (I too was banded July 9th, so Im right there with you in recovery). I personally think 6 lbs down is great in 9 days.

There is a thread somewhere I was reading last night about a poster who they had to slice open up and down. She was upset with her doctor for not him not requiring her to do more of a pre opt diet and giving her a warning if her liver was too fatty, they couldnt pull it out of the way. Scary post. If you are more overweight you need the pre opt to make your liver shrink enough they can pull it out of the way, you dont want to be sliced from top to bottom like a few have been.

3 - 4 weeks, I was self pay. The only reason it took that long was the first date I picked, the doctor was at a seminar, so I waited another week. Im still not positive how much it will help me. My problem is when I get stressed I eat. Right now Im not stressed, so Im losing. Im also a snacker. I did back out once, and knew that my BMI was already questionable, so if I lost more weight I wouldnt qualify, so I had it done, kind of as a back up to dieting. I probably wouldnt be aggressive in fills unless I feel I need them. I was 248 when I applied and now 233. I think thats great progress. I was 239 when I went for surgery, then popped back up to 242, then started down. whew...on my way.

Most people say it takes on average 3 fills to get to enough restriction to really feel it. Frankly, Im not expecting any restriction either after my first fill, and yep Im a self pay so its going to add up.

Yes, actually on another board a guy said he learned how to fill and unfill himself. So it is not unheard of. There are much cheaper places, even considering the cost to fly somewhere, I sure wouldnt pay $1000. Have you checked out all the doctors in your area and really asked around for other fill doctors?

Make sure you go back for your last fill and tell them it needs to be more aggressive, since it still isnt up to where they told you the fills were. You should have a lot of resistance by now after getting fills for one year. I would not be happy with losing so little in a year. I too have free fills for a year, but they tack on $100 fluoro charge, so its not really worth the cost to travel back to where I got banded, so Im going to be paying cash for each fill. Im just planning on sucking it up and paying.

I walked my mile last night. Im kinda afraid to push it too hard. I want to get back to walking in the morning and at night. Right now my disolving stiches havent dissolved so the waist of my pants rubs against the stiches and Im afraid of harming the stiches by too much activity yet. I asked if the stiches would come out by themselves, now I wish Id asked how long it takes for them to come out. I could email them, but guess Ill give it another week first. Im a self pay and no insurance to cover anything.

I went to Dr. Naketa in Juarez, its right across the border and you fly into El Paso. I think you need to decide which gateway city is the most conveinent and which price and doctor you like and weigh all the factors. Im in Texas, so El Paso was my choice. You can also go thru Larado, but I had heard too many bad things about that city and drugs and the hospital was a couple of hours over the border, so I refused to consider that gateway city. tons of good choices.

lol Im not sure I would describe the dress as anything but a balloon to cover me, its a size 24. But I cant go into the dining room on the ship and have lobster unless I get into a nice dress and dont want to buy yet another dress to wear one time. Right now seeing 235 lbs looks good and Im trying not to get upset about how much further I have to go in 2 months to not have my boobs bursting thru the top of the dress hahahhahahahahha

I came out of surgery asking when is dinner served. Been hungier than usual ever since, but Im losing. will power.

Im sustible to anything with sugar, so Im doing low gi (which is what the southbeach diet is based on). I am still on mushys, but I lost 9 pre opt and down 4 in the last week and will go back on low gi totally when I can eat what I want. Weightwatchers for me isnt as good.

Most say it takes approx 3 fills to hit your sweet spot, because they dont want to do the fills too aggressively, so after your first fill, you probably will have some resistance, but not as much as you need. I just got attacked elsewhere for having two SF popsicles and some V8, etc. ??!! At least I didnt eat something worse. I got lectured about not grazing and snacking and that I need to check my attitude. Easy to say after you are already at your sweetspot. ....from another in bandster heck.

Hi all, Im only planning on walking around the block here, approx 1.5 miles, I did maybe a mile last night, getting back to it. I didnt want to walk at all, but made myself get out and do it. Id been grazing all night and thought I needed some exercise. (SF stuff, but still nothing wrong with my appetite at this point). Yep, we can all give each other a kick in the butt.

I know Im insulin resistance and any sugars over react in my body. They have proven you can have up to a 300% insulin surge compared to a normal person but I get doubters too, everyone says Im just overeating. I too wasnt but at most 10 lbs overweight thru my 30s, and hit menopause. Saying having the surgery now is your last resort, is probably not true, I wanted it earlier and then finally sprang for it myself and am self pay. My BMI was in the 38s, about where yours is.