Gaffer

Sorry I did not see you post sooner, anyway it looks like you are up to speed with the pics. You are doing great Lelsie, I can really see the difference from when we met at Dr. Botha's office. I am jealous of all you guys that can have more access to aftercare with Dr.C. Not only is he great, I am sure he could throw a needle like a dart and hit my port from across the room. Not to mention the price is right with him. Keep up the good work Leslie. I have had to take a bit of a hiatus from the hardcore weight loss while we figure out what is going on with my back. I have been having back problems which I thought was due to the weight loss. Bone scans & bone densitometer found compression fractures in 6 thoracis vertbrae. They are consistant with some injury or osteoporosis. I have had to stay away from the gym, which means I am in a holding pattern right now. Andrew

You may want to try a heating pad. With me at least that seemed to help alot. I also had to sleep pretty much upright. I was also taking Gas-Ex strips beyond what the box reccomended and that seemed to help. Sounds like you are trying all the right things, it is just a matter of time now before it gets better Andrew

It does to some extent here as well. When I was in university one my first degree my parents helped, but I was finding my indepence and wanted to pay for some too. When I applied my parents made too much. On my second degree though I had lived independent of my parents long enough that their financial standing did not come into the picture. I am not sure how long it is now to be consdered indepedent from your parents though. Andrew

Welcome aboard. I found that a heating pad really helped with the sore shoulder. I used the Gas-Ex strips as well. If for nothing else they helpes with the gross tatse in my mouth. Andrew

I am from Calgary, and I will try to answer as many questions as I can. You have come to a great place to get information. Read through as many posts as you can in the Canada forum as they will be the most relevant for you. In Calgary there are a couple of routes that you can go. You can enter the health care system and try to get one paid for by the CHR, or you can go privately. If you want to go privately you can't get it done in Alberta, you will have to travel to Ontario, BC, USA or Mexico. If you want to go the public route, you can refer yourself to the Weight Management Clinic which is part of the U of C. I am not sure what the wait times are like, but when I was waiting I waited about 6 month before I heard from them (I was refered by my Dr.). After that there was a 2-3 month waiting to get into the program. After that there are some courses that you go to. From there, you have to enter the 6 month supervised weight loss program before you can see a surgeon. After you see the surgeon you ahve to wait to get a surgery date. When I was looking is was about 3 years start to finish. I opted to go the self pay route with the Surgical Weight Loss Clinic in Missasauga (Dr.Coburn & Dr. Mumford). It was time for me to get bust living instead of killing myslef with food. From the time I called the clininc to the time I had my surgery was about 3 months. If you want to go private, just phone the clinic or email them Toronto Weight Loss Obesity Surgery Lap Band Bariatric Surgeon Gastric Bypass. I emailed them through thier web site asking for additional information. Low and behold I got a call from Dr. Coburn one night that week. I was impressed with that level of service and did not look elsewhere. The nice thing about Dr. Coburn is that he has a network of fill providers here in Calgary who can look after you. As well he comes out to Calgary occasionally so you can make an appointment to see him when he is in Calgary. Basically your options are wait and hopefully qualify for CHR band or pay for it yourself somewhere else. I would look for a new Dr. I know there is Dr.s at the MacKenzie Lake medical clinic that are taking new patients (257-6669). My Dr. is based out of that clinic and he is totally supprotive of my surgery to the point where he wants to see me on a monthly basis to see how it is going. He is the one that proposed publically funded surgery to me. Unfortunately he is not taking any more patients, but all the Dr.s that me and my wife have seen at the clinic are great. I am sure if you tell the new Dr. that you are intereted in Lap-band he can talk Dr. Folwler about it. Check you PM's Andrew

Medicard is a company that finances surgery for people in Canada. They either give loans or have a credit card type plan Medicard Finance Inc :: Canada's Patient financing Company The interest rate that is being paid on that loan is criminal, assuming the info is correct. If so, I cant belive it. The only thing I can think of is there is some sort of compounding interest on the loan. There must be a better option whether it be traditional CC which ONLY charges 18ish% or some form of unsecured credit line, or HELOC. Andrew

I am not sure what your overall financial picture looks like. Do you have any student loans as well? Be careful with SLC. I had a large one when I finished university a while back. If you do go with the SLC make sure that you are only having to make the interest payments while you are in school and the make the principle payments once you are finished school & hopefully gainfully employed. If you financial situation allows, and you are not already too deep in debt look in to student loans. They are some of the cheapest money you can get and they have pretty decent repayment terms. The "nice" things about student loans is that they do not impact you as much when you are looking to get a mortgage or other loans down the road. The interest you pay on them is tax deductable, and the interest is about the same as what you would pay on a SLC. If I were to do what you were proposing I would use the SLC to pay for the surgery up front, and then apply for student loans (ie OSAP) and use them to pay down the SLC assuming you dont need them to pay for your schooling. I would be concerned though about your financial picture if you were already deep in debt with student loans, plus looking at financial a surgery with a SLC. That is a really big hole to dig yourself out of so early in your life. I was about $30K in debt when I finished my second degree, and I am still paying it off. Luckily I have been able to offset that by marrying a wife with, and having a decent paying job my myself and hitting the jackpot by buying a house that doubled in value in 3 years. Andrew

I used a HELOC to finance my surgery. If you have a house & have equity in it this is your best way to go. Interest is at prime (currently 6.25%) usually. With HELOCs and you can pay it off on your terms. You can even use 0% balance transfers etc. from CC to pay it down while borrowing money interest free or at low interest to save interest costs. Andrew

Call me what ever you want. Andrew

Sounds like you are on the right path. Getting you head around things is the hard part. Really the surgery is the easy part. It is after that is the real work. Go to USERCP located at the top of the page, go to the control panel in the middle of the page and click on "edit signature". Once you are there copy and paste your signature from Ticker Factory or where ever in to the box. Save it and you should be done. I hope that your surgery goes well tomorow. Andrew

I had to do 3 weeks pf Optifast. I was not too fond of the vanilla. I got half or each, but I think I would get 2/3 chocolate, 1/3 vanilla. It is not too bad when mixed with plenty of ice. There are lots of suggestions around hear about how to get it to taste better. Andrew

This is totally normal. Part of it may also be the effects to the Optifast diet. You will go through a bit of a "withdrawl" when you stop eating all the white flour & sugar that was likely part of your diet before. The first couple of days of Optifast are the worst, but stick with it. It is so worth it in the end. Andrew

I think that you ahve made a wise decision to go with Dr.C over Dr. Tin. The consult is pretty straight forward, it is basically a time for him to outline the surgery in more detail & to pick a date & time. I can tell you that Dr.C is a great guy who really understands where his patients are coming from. He is gentle an approachable while instilling a sense of confidence in his patients. Good luck, Andrew

JJ, Congrats on getting one oh the CHR bands. There are not any people here who have had thier bands paid for. I am from Calgary, & was on the waiting list to get one, but did not want to wait as long due to where I was at in my life. I wa banded by Dr. Coburn in February. I am not sure what you are looking for advice on, but you have come to a good place because there are plenty of experienced people here. Ask as many questions as you can. I am interested to hear how your experience went with the CHR. I have a friend who just completed the Weight Management Clinic part of the requirements, and I am interested to hear how long you had to wait after that to get your band. Andrew

Thats what it is all about Leslie, getting off the weight loss treadmill and making that permenant change. Throughout my life I have lost lots of weight, but I have always had that monkey on my back, thinking about not if, but when you will regain it. What will be the event that will derail all my hard work and send me back to where I was before or higher. Now I dont feel that way, it is refreshing to know that this time it is forever. I know about emotional eating, I think I was actuallly an all-emotion eater. I learned at a young age that there was nothing that a cookie or 12 could not make you feel better about. Take care of yourself and focus on the postive changes you have made and think about the where you would have been without the band at this point in your life. Andrew

Lizzie, It sounds like you are really well informed about the band, and from what you have mentioned you seem to be a good candidate. You sounds like you have really considered this, and you seem to have a very realistic & mature outlook regarding this Although I dont know much about you situation your Dad's opposition to the band could just be his way of telling you that he is concerned about you, both from the medical/surgical side and about the financial implications that having the band could have. Parents always worry about what is best for thier children, and men especially older men are not the best at telling people what they are feeling. Instead they become irrational. I think that if you can get your Dad to go with you to one or more of the consults that would be helpful. With the surgery there is always that chance that something will happen, but he should also be reminded that complications from obesity can be far worse and effect you qulaity of life. At 21, I wish I could have had my band. It has been such a positive experience for me. In terms of what you can expect from the pain, it is not that bad. The shouder pain and gas pains can be a little rough the first couple of days, but that goes away and can be controlled with meds and walking. Your midsection will feel sore for a while, but nothing that is unbearable. I would go through all that pain again and again to have the other outcomes I have had. My body does not ache anymore, I sleep less and better, my blood pressure is normal, and I have more energy that ever. Andrew

Insurance companies are weasels and will try to get out of anything. Maybe try your credit card that you are booking the trip with. Many of them have trip cancellation insurance built into the card. I know the Avion card does. Andrew

From what you have said here I would wonder about Dr.Tin. I am not saying that he is a bad Dr. but already there are a couple of warning bells here. Firstly, you mentioned that he did not get back to you about a consult. Secondly, you mentioned that he works out of a plastic surgery clinic. Thirdly, no one hear has heard of him. All this would lead me to wonder how many bands he has done, and if he is as well set up to deal with the aftercare for banders. Your aftercare is the most important aspect of living with the band. Dr.Coburn's and Dr. Yau's clinic are well established, and have many patient under thier belts with access to nutritionists and nurses who are there to help you along. I would proceed with caution reagrding Dr. Tin. I can tell you that my experience with Dr. Coburn's office has been great and there are several her who you tell you the same about Dr. Yau's office. Andrew

Thanks Greene. Welcome Bob, It is nice to have another guy in these parts. I did not have to have a full physical, but there was some blood work and a medical history that my Dr. filled out for Dr. Coburn. Dr. Coburn's office will also send a letter to your family Dr. outlining some stuff. I was in pretty good condition other that high BP and being morbidly obese so the questions were pretty stright forward. I terms of time from consult to surgery, mine was about 6 weeks, but that was becasue Christmas fell in between my consult & surgery. I am not sure what the times are like now. The clinic could tell you. Andrew

Sounds like you are working it too Leslie. I looked at you avatar & did not recognize you. Andrew

..and dont pick up the cards/flyers/magazines that the people on the street are handing out. :embarassed: A

Like the others have said the band will work for you if you work with it. It has worked well for me, and I would not give it up for many things. I have had some pasta after my banding, but when I am really tight pasta is a no go. I have had spaghetti, tortilinni, ravioli, fetachini and some giant pasta shells. You may want to look at switching to a whole wheat pasta if you must eat pasta. Really, pasta is not the best food choice, but it is nice as the ocasional treat. You want it to be cooked well, not el denta. Only you will be able to tell after but make sure you are good and healed before you progress to some of the more potentially problematic foods. As for the sandwiches, they are a no go for me. I was never really big into sanwiches anyway. The bread is another food that does not work well for me. Also I have to be careful with sandwich meats, but something like tuna/ham/egg salad would be fine. I guess I will put it to you this way, what are you willing to give up to lose the weight and change your life for the better? Trust me, the trade offs are worth it. Andrew

I am not sure if we get the Hormel Turkey Pepperoni here in Canada, but I will have to take a look for that. It sounds awesome. mmmmmmm Turkey Pepperoni chips. Andrew

The NxCare IsoXp has about 45g of protien per scoop when mixed with Water, and about 60 when mixed with milk. I modify mine a little by using a smaller scoop, so with the milk it is about 50g of protien. I mix it with 300mL of skim milk. Some people on this board say that the body can only absorb about 30g of protien at a time, but I have never been able to find solid evidence to back that up so I think it is a myth. I dont worry about getting too much protien in one serving. Also consider that they NxCare IsoXP is a whey isolate which is a higher quality, more digestible protien. I have found that cheaper whey blends give me wicked gas. Here is the nutritional info on it here, as well as place to order it online. It may look expensive, but the big 6lb bucket last me forever, and I dont think I could find a cheaper breakfast that is that high quality. I drink mine in the car on the way to work. NxCare IsoXP Whey Isolate -- chocolate Andrew

That is great. I too have the large AP band and from what I can tell of it, it is a pretty good thing. Andrew