im approved but may have to wait

andielmt · September 21, 2007

i got approved on the 14th but may have to wait. my surgeon who is new to the area needs two lapband patients to operate because he needs a proctor to supervise his operation to become certified in maine, so i will be his first patient here. the problem is there is no one else who wants the band right now and my husband will be losing his insurance in a month or two so i dont have much time. ive come this far and now i dont know what to do

andrea

faithmd · September 21, 2007

Andie please go read my response in your other thread. I will try to go pull it from there and copy and paste it here, too.

faithmd · September 21, 2007

Andrea,

I understand you may have to travel, but I'd consider finding another surgeon. If your surgeon needs proctor, it MIGHT be that he hasn't placed the new AP band and he needs a proctor to go over placement with him (it's a little different), but it most likely is because he isn't certified by Allergan/Inamed yet, period. And that's okay, he's not necessarily incompetent, he's may just be brand new to banding. He may have done tons of various laparascopic procedures and maybe has done hundreds of bypasses, but he likely hasn't done many bands. But that's a consideration.

Given the history of his pushing and pushing you to have bypass done, I'm leaning toward him not having done many bands. Do you want to be someone's first or second band ever? I *might* if I was comfortable and confident with the surgeon when I interviewed him. Based on what you've told us of your conversations with him, I would NOT be comfortable with his confidence in his own abilities or his own willingness to learn and try the latest advancements.

Seriously, GO FIND ANOTHER SURGEON. I know you have kids, many of us do. I understand you may work, many of us do, I know it must be hard to arrange, but Andrea, this is your body and your new life you are dealing with here. Find a day or two that you can set aside to travel to an appt. Really think about this, please.

From what I understand being Allergan/Inamed (Allergan is the newer name) certified to place the band is not state by state. It's one time. You can call Allergan and ask them if your surgeon is certified. The website is lapband.com and you should be able to find a link to look him up. What is his name, BTW? You can look him up on obesityhelp.com and on tha American Society of Bariatric Surgeons (asbs.org) to see if he's a member. Please do these things, or PM me the name or post it here and we'll see what we can find out about him to see how much experience he has.