so done with it all

I was there and thought it was really good. Had lots of fun meeting people from all over that I chat with online here. Always nice to put faces to the names.

SWLC has doctors/nurses trained all over the country to do fills for their patients. Since you were banded there, you should contact the nurses and find out where the nearest one to you is. They are always looking for more all over as well so if you happen to find one in your area, just let them know and they will train them.

The dinners are open to anyone. The clinic sent out emails on behalf of the patients that were organizing the dinners. They are being held at the Crooked Cue at 75 Lakeshore Rd. East. It's just around the corner from the hotel where the symposium is being held. There is a dinner both Friday and Saturday night. If you want more details, you can go to the SWLC forum at www.obesitysurger.ca/forum and look under General Discussions or you could email tracey112205@hotmail.com for more information since she is making the reservations. She needs to know how many are attending so she can make the reservation for the correct number of people. As of today, there were 39 on Friday and 50 on Saturday.

Changing your address every 3 to 5 years won't affect it. It's more of a change of address within 2 years. They won't tell you how the credit score is based since they are not supposed to. Since I no longer work in financial services, I am free to say anything I like now. LOL

It's actually FICO and it just means your credit rating score. All lenders use it and you have to hit a certain score to qualify for different products at different places. Lots of things can affect your score other than just credit alone. The more times people run a bureau on you, the lower the score. The more often you change addresses, the lower the score. FICO is short for Fair Isaac Co. They started this form of credit scoring.

I'll be there. There are over 200 people registered. A few of the others that post on here, I know are going as well. I'm going to the dinners on both Friday and Saturday as well with other bandsters. See you there.

Actually Andrew, I didn't out you so you could advertise your new venture in a patient based forum. I outed you because JAC said you were the only one that had a right to comment on Mexico and Canada since you have been to both. Your first post was already a sales pitch and that's why I looked into it further. It was far too obvious to me that you were now whoring yourself out to Dr. Ortiz to speak so highly of him and his clinic. It was very easy to find your link on this website and then I had proof right there that my gut instincts were correct. You said you wanted to keep your personal from your business yet you throw your link out there and basically advertise again. As one poster said in the CIBO thread where Nisrine made her sales pitch about her new job in her new clinic that it was unethical, the same stands for you. If you really wanted to keep the 2 separate, you could have simply stated, yes I do now have a referral agency and left it at that. This place is getting to be a real joke and they seem to be allowing self-promoting advertising within the patient support forums. What a shame!!

It was probably SWLC that told you about the one time fee of around $5000. I know they will take on other patients once they have spoken to them and if they meet their requirements for follow up....ie, have a band that they are familiar with. I doubt very much, she will find any place in Ontario that will just charge her per fill. She might want to consider going state side and going to a Fills Centre USA if there is one in a border town.

The person is North Bay is affiliated with the SWLC and will not do fills for any other patients from any other surgeons. They take the time to recruit these people and train them so why should they do other patients. My surgeon is always on the look out to find fill people all over the country to accomodate his patients. All I can is that I would think twice about going out of country, mostly because of the follow up that is required. I know I can move virtually anwhere in Canada and my clinic has a fill person not too far away. And if I have a major band issue, I can return to Toronto in no time flat and have my band surgeon fix me up. If you do choose to go out of country, make sure you have your follow up arranged before you get the band or you will be making numerous trips back to Mexico. If you can find a doctor or nurse that is willing to tak you on as patient to do fills/unfills, then at least you have that much available to you right here. If you have to put off being banded until you find that person or until you have enough funds to have it done closer to home, then I'd do that. I'm not against out of country at all, it's just that you have to ensure you have good follow up people in place here.

Hardly an unbiased opinion considering he is now the referral agency for Dr. Ortiz. His whole post about being able to watch 2 surgeries at Dr. Ortiz's office was a dead giveaway and after much research, I see he now has a referral service for Canadians wanting surgery in Mexico but strictly with Dr. Ortiz. Take it all with a grain of salt and exercise caution no matter where you go. In country or out of country, just be extremely informed.

If they operated on me standing up, it made no difference since I had no pain at all after surgery. I think pain and recovery are very individual and has nothing to do with the surgeon but moreso with the patient. I always recover quickly from surgery and have never had any problems and others seem to be full of pain for every single surgery they have.

Oh and since I love to be so negative apparently. If you have been researching for so long and read so much last night, did you just join today to make this comment? You'd think that you woud have joined instead of just viewing as a guest and ask questions in a far more supportive thread instead of picking out the one that has strong opinions for both sides. I think I would have ignored a thread like this and have made my very first post in a thread that was offering lots of advice and support. But hey that's just me!!! Have fun.

Thanks for picking out my name but since I have posted on perhaps 10 threads in the 2 years I have been on this forum and have about 60 posts total, I think perhaps you are quite incorrect. Yes I have very strong opinions but am very entitled to them. Good luck with your search for information and if you want some positive information on things, you will find plenty by all 3 names you have mentioned. And FYI, Donna is a volunteer that runs a support group, she is far from an employee.

PStevens, you are not the only person they would not divulge information to about their location. A friend of mine was in contact with them as well and she was told the same thing. She was also told that she'd only get to meet a surgeon once she put a downpayment and made a commitment to their clinic. I'm not so sure that everyone on here are friends either. I know 2 people from this board real life and I know a few others only from their posts on other groups I belong to. I just think we all have everyone's best interest at heart and when you hear stories like you experienced and like my friend experienced it really puts the red flags up. We all want everyone to succeed in their journey no matter where they go to get banded but you still want people to be cautious when someone new starts performing surgeries. You will love SWLC's staff, they have been nothing but wonderful to me. I met Dr. Yau long before TLBC ever existed and I thought he was wonderful as well. I actually was going to get him to band me but by the time I had made up my mind to have the surgery, he was at TLBC and I couldn't locate him since I had seen him pre-TLBC days and I started searching for another surgeon and found Dr. Cobourn. I thought he was wonderful from Day 1 just as I thought Dr. Yau was. By the time I found out Dr. Yau was at TLBC, I had already committed to Dr. Cobourn and don't regret my choice one bit. I think both clinics are wonderful and give excellent service to their patients. I'm still very apprehensive about CIBO only because of the experience my friend had and then seeing you had the same experience.

Being the ever so cynical b**** that I am known to be. I say they will be done before the end of 2008. I've heard nothing good about them. They don't even have surgical suites of their own. I'll reserve my opinion about the founder's own weight loss journey from how many years out now? HMMMMM makes me wonder that's for sure. I took a chance going to SWLC being only the 50th or so patient but they had a track record and their price was lower because they were new. The price wasn't my deciding factor but I"m sure it was many people's. A new clinic opens and charges 2k more for something that other clinics(at least 4) have a proven history to their patients. I can't see why anyone in their right mind would even take the chance. First they have no surgical suite, they are working out of an office that isn't theirs, they don't return calls or emails from everything we have read from actual patients who have dealt with them. If you are the exception to the rule, congrats to you but this is the first anyone has had anything good to say about them. A friend was willing to book with them and they told her no surgical suites but we can do it elsewhere and would not even tell her where it would be. Okay so let's hide the fact where they were doing them, no wonder she ran fast and told them to shove it. It's all way too conspiracy like that they want almost 20k but wont tell you where they are going to operate on you. That's insane!!! But good luck to you. :shades_smile:

As for lifetime fills vs 5 year fills, who really cares. That would not be the selling point for me. When I was banded, fills were only included for 2 years then they went to 5 years and by the time I'm at 5 years, they might in fact be included for life. If they aren't, I don't really care since a fill is not an expensive procedure, it cost me more to get to the clinic and stay overnight than the minimal cost of a fill would be. And hell most of us are all over the country and are paying for fills from Day 1 anyway so it's just all part and parcel of the band. I still say pick the clinic, you are comfortable with and gives you the best of what you really need from them. Lots need coddling and constant contact with them and others just need the clinic when they have a question that needs answering. Both are wonderful and you'll be in good hands in either one.

I know of one person who had the band, didn't feel successful with it and went to RNY and wasn't successful with that either. She was a Joffe/Yau patient and since they do both surgeries, she was able to have the RNY done by them.

You can lose as much as you want with LB. There's no window like there is with many of the other WLS. I am already down 159 lbs and want to lose another 55. It's coming off slowly now and I have really bumped up the exercise but I know I will get there even if it takes another 2 years. Our GP's usually know diddly about any WLS let alone the band. I have been educating mine since he thought I would fail at this "diet" too. I make him eat his words every time he sees me and I just keep losing weight.

Kat, SWLC does have fill doctors and nurses all over the country and they are always looking to find new ones to keep servicing their patients in the smaller communities as well. They do have a surgery bed that will accomodate very large patients. Don't quote me but I think when I was at the new clinic in November, he said it holds up to 550 lbs now. For those just investigating the band, why not book consultations at all the clinics and go from there. I know that TLBC and SWLC both offer free consultations so you have nothing to lose but your time. CIBO, TCC and HRRH, I have no idea if they have consultation fees or not but you could always ask. There are 5 options in the GTA and you will know when you find the right surgeon and clinic for you. Making sure you have a fill doctor available to you is a huge part of making the band a success. I live 6 hours from the clinic but have a surgeon locally that will do my fills so I only visit the actual clinic once a year just for the hell of it. I don't mind going down and seeing them and letting them see my progress in person.

Who in their right mind would want to be the guinea pig for an inexperienced band surgeon and that's exactly what you would get with CIBO. They have no proven follow up other than their verbal diarrhea they dish out. Ask for referrrals of previous patients, bet you they can't offer you that either. Nothing like hijacking a question to self-promote your own clinic!!! You joined today and are already dissing the 2 most known clinics. Why not go to TCC or HRRH since they do the band as well. Obviously the original posted was undecided between the 2 they asked about, no need to interject with a 3rd unknown choice.

A dinner in London was posted on the yahoo canadian lapbanders board. Here are the details if any of you are interested. February 11th at 6:00p.m, London and area bandsters are meeting at Kelsey's at Wellington and Southdale. Anybody in the area is more than welcome to join.

If you go to Oprah's website it tells you that it's all about teens that have lost weight and they mention a boy that had gastric banding and a young girl that had gastric bypass. It looks like from the website that they are going to discuss WLS in teens. Whether it's right or wrong to do them as teens. That's my take on what the show will be about from her website.

I don't think there's anything to agree to disagree on. Donna was simply stating that if 2 or 3 surgeons for that matter were all equal on every surgical aspect, she'd go with the surgeon with the personality. Surgically if all the same, then I'd want a personality as well. Banding requires far too much aftercare to have a surgeon that might we a wonderboi in the OR but an ass to deal with afterwards. And I'm not saying that any of the surgeons any of us have chosen are asses at all. It's a very generic statement.

I consulted with Dr. Yau 2 years before my consult with Dr. Cobourn. I was impressed with how well spoken he was and he didn't push me one way or the other as to having the band or the RNY. He did both and said he would do either on me. Took the time to explain pros and cons of both but in a very rushed manner. Dr. Cobourn was the opposite, very well spoken as well but he took all the time in the world to answer all my questions. I was impressed with both surgeons I met but just felt a lot more comfortable with Dr. Cobourn's demeanor and patience. I knew it was going to be better for me over the years and now that I'm over 2 years post op, I can say that I can still contact him anytime I want and he forgets nothing about me.

My port area hurts a bit now and then especially after them poking around trying to find it. Could it be that they manipulated it more than usual to put the fill back in? If it's not red around that area, then chances are it's not infected. I would keep an eye on it and if it keeps bothering you, why not go to Scarborough Grace, isn's that there Dr. Yau works out of and most people say they will page him if they think it's band related. In any event, if you make it through the weekend, I'd be calling TLBC first thing MOnday morning and let them know what is going on.