oktwigs

Question is...does he do fills for MX patients?

The gals at Northwest Fills don't use fluro, but I've been very happy with their fills, plus the price is so very reasonable. Great bedside manner too.

I called Dr. Trotter in Spokane...he's looking at MX patients as a moneytree. First he wants to have an appt. to 'check' things out and charges $320 for that. Can't get a fill that day either. Then a fill is $250 and isn't done under fluro. If you want fluro the nurse said the hospital charges $100 (she thought). Pretty pricy. I'm going to the ladies in Arlington and may have to go see Dr. Heap if I need a fill during the winter since I don't often travel over the Cascades in the winter. Twigs

I had the flu 10 days after my banding...it is recommended that you don't vomit because it could cause slippage, but it came on me so fast I had no chance to take meds to keep the nausea down. Dr. Ortiz recommends getting a prescription from your local doc to take just in case. I had no isses with slippage from it though -- went back to TJ for my first fill specifically because that worried me, but all was fine. I think it is repeated wretching and PBing that will cause you problems, not a one time illness. Twigs

1 cup soy vanilla soy milk 1 scoop chocolate Protein powder 1 T unsweetened cocoa 1 banana Zip together in blender. Excellent!

I went to Dr. Ortiz in TJ. Very good experience and I would recommend Dr. Ortiz to anyone. Going to Mexico turned out to be a non-issue. Twigs

A gal I know locally went to Dr. Joya and was very impressed. She works as the nurse for a surgeon and he actually came along and observed her procedure and was equally impressed. She commented she felt she should have stayed in PV an extra day though because the long flight was pretty miserable. I personally went to Dr. Ortiz in TJ and was extremely pleased and impressed, but wanted to pass along what I heard about Dr. Joya. He has a Yahoo groups message board too. Twigs

When I make flight reservations I go to www.seatguru.com and using my flight reservations (they always tell you what the plane is) I can see how the individual airlines have configured the seating in that airplane. Then I select my seats and avoid those narrower seats or ones without leg room (My DH is tall -- I'm short). I NEVER fly without it. On my flight home from Dr. Ortiz's office last week I selected the bulkhead seat along the window. I was very comfortable the whole trip...and that was two days post op. Also, save yourself line time by printing off your boarding pass at home or at the hotel before you go to the airport. Most of the airlines have specific lines for those who have already pre checked in that are always shorter! Also, I notice that many times the airline give me extra bonus miles just for using the preboarding option. Twigs

I hate protein shake thingys normally, but this is a recipe I got on one of these boards that Dr. Miranda from Dr. Ortiz's office passed along... 1 cup vanilla soy milk 1 T unsweetened cocoa 1 scoop choc. protein powder (I'm using Designer Whey) 1 Banana Blend like crazy in blender. Add ice cubes if desired.:clap2: I promise it really does taste good!!! (I'm a super picky eater) 7 Weight Watcher's points for the whole thing and 24 grams of protein. It's big enough that I had it for breakfast and my lunch yesterday. I can see using light vanilla soy later on after I am healed. BTW, I prefer the 8th continent light vanilla to Silk's light. On the other hand, Silk's Very Vanilla tastes like a milk shake. Twigs

I was with Donna on April 3rd in TJ at Dr. Ortiz's clinic and agree with her whole heartedly. The staff is excellent, the care was outstanding, and the experience as a whole was fairly painless. I'm back to work today teaching my kids and enjoying my first Protein shake. Really, it is good....I promise. (1 cup soy milk, 1 T unsweetened cocoa, 1 scoop choc. Protein powder, 1 banana -- all blended together in my Magic Bullet). I'm going to try it with frozen mango chunks tomorrow. After reading about other post op diets, I do think Dr. Ortiz is fairly strict, but he wants to be as safe as possible so you heal correctly and minimize the chances of a slip. He doesn't go to the extreme of expecting people to be on Clear liquids for two weeks like some docs do though. Twigs

I'm six days post op and doing well with my recovery, but then my son and DIL come over when they haven't been feeling well from the stomach flu! I'm now worried about having to deal with that and running to the doctor for an antinausea shot or something. What a pain! Twigs

Hi All, I had my surgery Tuesday, April 3 down in TJ with Dr. Ortiz. I can't say enough about him and his staff! They made it very easy for me...I was so close to balking at the last minute, but they got me through it just fine. I stayed overnight in their clinic with a nurse and a doctor on staff all night long to look after us. I can't remember the last time I stayed overnight at the hospital and had one RN and doctor to keep an eye on just six of us! Dr. Martinez and Carmelita are two wonderful staff members that I'll always hold dear in my heart. Amazingly I have little to no pain. Seriously.... I am hanging in there with the post op diet of clear liquids...tomorrow I'll start some liquid yogurt and some soy milk and by the time I go back to work on Monday I'll be able to add a protein shake in there to hold me over through some of the tougher parts of the day. Since my BMI wasn't too terribly high I didn't have to do a serious pre op diet...just lost 8 lbs. and they were very happy with that. No regrets, just looking forward to making it through the 3 week post op liquids phase...as I sip on my Better than Broth beef soup. Twigs 203/195 day of surgery/193