Starting My Journey

[Jatinsle21 1]

I am just beginning my journey thinking about lapband.

I have not picked a surgeon or hospital.

I'm beginning my research here...does anyone have any suggestions?

[Kitt3000 757]

Hi! I think there are many helpful folks on this site, but they will need a little info if you want specific info, like what city you live in... Good luck! Exciting journey!

[twohooz 44]

Hi Jatinsle21! Welcome. For background, I was banded 8 days ago, and am on my third week of liquid diet, two weeks pre-op and the 8 days since. It really has not been as bad as you might think (only having liquids, that is), and I have lost 31 pounds since I started. Like many/all of us, I went initially to an informative session at my bariatric surgeon's office, I actually went to 3 different sessions at a couple practices in town. I did not know what type of procedure I was looking at when I started, but I wound up focusing on the lap band, and in my case, had it along with stomach plication or fundoplasty. I know some of the statistics favor more rapid results with the RNY gastric bypass, but to me, I could not see the major and largely non reversible alterations to my entire digestive system that RNY entails. In a pinch down the road, if anything I have had done needs to be reversed, it can be. To me, that was a big positive. The combination of the band for restriction, and the smaller stomach with the plication, seemed the perfect combination.

A week out, I have been recovering very well. A couple twinges here and there when I try to get up from the bed or a chair? Yes. But 8 days in, the pain is gone. the discomfort gone, and I am pretty much back to normal. But the journey for me is just beginning. I am still on post op liquids, so I have not entered the part where I have to figure out how much 'real' food I can eat and how I will need to eat it. That starts with 'mushies' next week!

One of the biggest challenges in getting through the process, is just that ... getting through the process. If you are attempting to have insurance cover the procedure, every insurer seems to have different hoops you need to jump through. In my case, I was able to get approved on the first pass, but I had to go through the doctor visits, nutritionist, exercise physiologist, psych evaluation, approval from PCP, heart tests, and sleep study (which I did not have to do again since I already use a CPAP and they just had to forward the results of the last one I had). The bills have not even started to come in yet, but it would appear based on the estimates I have received that I will be out about $1500 out of pocket. A very small price to pay, IMHO, for something that has already started having a positive impact on my health and well being.

One of the debates I have had with myself has been about who to tell about what I am doing. I obviously told my wife and kids, also told my boss as I wanted him to know that there would be a significant number of doctor visits I would need to make in addition to the actual procedure down time and time out of office. For other coworkers that needed to know that I would be out of the office, I just told them I was having a 'minor procedure' and left it with that. Seems to be working so far. I had a hernia repair 'while they were in there', so for those that want to be nosier about what I had done, that is what I tell them I did. No need to get into the rest of it!

[terrydumont46 1,954]

i talked to my pcp who gave me my surgeons name. than i called the office and was set up for a seminar. at the seminar not only do i learn about the 3 different surgeries available but my insurance info was taken and verified, and this is the big part. i also checked the internet to try and find a place closer to my home. i went to their seminar too! but i chose the doctor that seemed to really take all my medical problems into consideration. he made me check each and every one of them out and get a clearance. i liked this approached instead of see a nutritionlist see our psychologist and we will have at it. lol , so start with your pcp and go from there. or just check the internet. good luck