Livin' out on the frontier

terrriho · May 11, 2006

Greeting Bandlanders,

I am new, in the research phase, been noodling around this site for a couple of days, my story is your story, weight control struggle, successful dieting/unsuccessful maintenance, wits end, looking at an unhealthy future, I just want to fit in (and I you'all know what I mean here).

From my research, I have found the success rate of the surgery goes up dramatically the more procedures a doctor has done. And here is my dilemma. :Banane13: I live in Montana and the only lap band surgeon I have found in the state has only done a total of 25 procedures and I don't know of any fill doctors here. I want to know how important/dependent you are on having your lap band doc nearby. I would like to have the surgery performed by someone who has had a ton of experience but that is a days drive from home. I know some of you go to Mexico for your surgery. I would expect some conditions need attention fairy quickly. Have you had any complications and, if so, how did you get medical advice/help?

You all seem so supportive and are a wealth of experience and information I look forward "posting" with you.

Many thanks,

Terri

FunnyDuddies · May 11, 2006

If you cannot find a doctor nearby at all that you are comfortable, i would suggest (if you have to travel for it no matter what) going out of the country where the lapband docs have much more experience. I am going to Mexico and my doc has done over 5000 lapband surgeries. I, too, was conserned about how little the docs around us had done. Follow up care is really important. But until a doc is nearby you you will have to travel anyways, so why not buy a package from a doc out of the country, save some money, and go back to them for free fills and evaluations. Your PCP can handle some of it. I know there are even some PCP's that are learning how to do fills just to help their lonely patients who are without fill docs. If I decide to go back to my doc for fills in mexico it would cost a plane ticket. The fills are free once I am there. And the ticket costs approx 500. So do fills in most place. So to me it is a wash.

Just an idea.