Hi I had my lapband done by Dr Park in Richmond CA on 9/30/08. I can only tell you how it goes in Richmond. I went to the all day seminar (bring food and water) they don't feed you.. Anyway, that was May 26, 08, once I completed that, they make 2 appointments. One with a surgeon and one with a physciatrist. Each appt is about one month apart. Hopefully you get your surgeon appt first, she will tell you to loose approx 20 pounds before surgery. So 3 months later you will likey get an appointment to go to a group meeting, it was very similar to a weight watchers meeting. Once you have lost your 20, you can call for an appt for a case manager. The case manager will schedule you for your surgery. YOU CAN NOT GAIN EVEN AN OUNCE OF THAT WEIGHT BACK. I have to say, I often wondered if the snails pace of appointments was actually to discourage me from the surgery. They give you lots of time to decide if you want the surgery, and which procedure you want.
I chose the lapband because there are less restrictions on the foods you can eat. I guess you have to be realll careful with sugar if you have the other procedure. I also heard that you may loose a little slower on the lapband. This was a plus to me, because I wanted my skin to have a chance to shrink back up. If you loose to fast the skin sags.
Anyway I started my adventure in May 08 and finaly had the surgery 9/30/08. I think I lost the 20 pretty quickly so it wasn't me that slowed down the process, it was their appt schedule that kept me from having the surgery sooner.