denverbrodie

I had my first fill here in Denver by Dr. Kirshenbaum http://www.lapbandrockies.com/ and was very happy with him. He doesn't use a fluoroscope. Instead he just feels for the port and he used an ultrasound to confirm we knew where it was. Rather than drinking barium he had me just sit up, while the syringe was still in my port, and drink water. I let him know how the water felt going through and he adjusted the amount of saline as we went. It worked out just fine.

turns out i am one of the unfortunate 1 out of 500 or so who's body really doesn't want to cooperate with getting banded. inflammation caused my stomach to swell so much that i couldn't even get my saliva past the band for 4 days and had to stay in the hospital an extra day and stay at the Dr's guest house for 4 days after that. the whole time they kept me on IV and gave me shots for inflammation and antibiotics, some through the IV, some in my hip. i got excellent care and was only charged $500 extra for 5 days of 24hr care. i don't want to think what that would have cost in the states. being in that condition made me lose too much too fast but i've actually put a couple lbs back on so that's a good sign that i'm hydrated again and hopefully the weight will start coming off slowly but steadily from here on out. i'm keeping liquids down now and may try some thicker soups and thin mashed potatoes in another week or two and maybe solid food in another month.

I'm heading to Monterrey on the 7th, surgery on the 8th with Dr. Sanchez. http://www.ready4achange.com/ I decided to do the liquid diet for 2 weeks even thought the doc doesn't require it. I fell of the wagon 10 days into it with some natchos but got right back on again. I've got Dr. Kirshenbaum http://lapbandrockies.com/ all lined up for post op care including fills for when I get back to Denver.

I am just starting the researching part of this but was also curious about fills in the states after surgery in Mexico. I called Dr. Sanchez's www.ready4achange.com hot line and was told that a Dr. kirschbaum (sp?) in Aurora Co. is doing fills for Dr. Sanchez's patients. However fills are free (does not include fluoroscopy charge of $130.00) by Dr. Sanchez so if you've got air miles it may be worth the trip back to sunny old Mexico?