Elise_London

I am probably more cynical than you are. I feel that there seem to be plenty of doctors doing lap band surgery to make a quick and easy buck. I say that judging by the lack of preparation some of the patients I'm reading posts from are given. Also, the doctors could cost an overnight hospital stay into their charges and adjust their profits accordingly, but they make far more doing it in their own offices on an outpatient basis, so that's what they do. Oh well, it's not going to change because I find it crazy, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get worse before it got better! Again, I'm not really "Blaming" anyone in particular, it's a combination of things and people including those getting the surgery, I'm simply a little amazed by it and not surprised by the complication rates.

Nice to "Meet" you all, thanks for the nice welcome!

Hi Everyone, this is my first post on this board and I wanted to say hello to everyone and introduce myself. I am a new bandster, I had it done on November 8th in Italy by the wonderful Drs Favretti & Segato. My follow up care will be near my home in London with Dr Ashton, I'm very happy with my group. I'll be going for my first fill on the 8th of January and I'm looking forward to it! Looking forward to posting and getting to know everyone here, I post on another board which is UK based and everyone is very helpful and friendly.

My post said that this surgery seems to be taken lightly in the States and that it didn't surprise me therefore that US slip stats are so much higher than Europe for example. Nowhere in my post did I mention doctors or nurses.

Yes, I know, it's unbelievable, isn't it? Having said that, I paid for my surgery myself as well. My BMI was not high enough to qualify for surgery on the NHS, which is fair enough, I understand there has to be a cut off.

I must say that this surgery seems to be taken pretty lightly in the States....It may explain that 7% slippage rate. I hate to sound harsh, but I've been genuinely shocked by so many of the posts I've read here in the last few days. When I had my wisdom teeth out, I was in there longer than you were with your lapband...and that wasn't even with a general, I had twighlight sleep! Oh and please don't take this to be an anti American post, I was born in LA and lived in the States until after I finished University.

Well, I'm glad that suited you, it certainly would not have suited me. I wanted to be in the hospital where I could be monitored, so if there was any bleeding and if there were any complications they could address them immediately. I have my whole life to be in my own bed, I want proper hospital care after what is, after all, fairly invasive, major surgery requiring general anesthetic...it's not like a filling at the dentist! Please tell me that you didn't drive yourself right after having general, that someone else was there with you?

I had my band done on Nov 8th and I'll be getting my first fill on Jan 8th. I moaned a bit because my doctor will not do first fills until 8 weeks out and I'm not losing any weight, but I am so greatful now when I read things like this. My surgeon is one of the pioneers of laprascopic lapband surgery, he's done more than 3500 of them and my follow up group in the UK is conservative with fills and I am never going to moan about it again! I wish you good luck with your band, I hope it all goes smoothly from now on. I will say one last thing, I am completely freaked out that you were chucked out of the hospital 5 hours after surgery! I had a lot of pain after my op, due to having a low pain threshold and my doctor kept me in for an extra day so the nurses could take care of me, so I had a 2 day stay and it didn't cost me an extra cent!