Montreal operations?????

[orcidgrl 0]

Hi! I had my band installed by Dr. Christou at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. I did it privately and it cost $17,500 and I could've had the surgery within 3 weeks! the surgery went super well, and so have the post-op visits even though I live in Gatineau QC, near Ottawa, and have to drive 2 hours to get a fill. The surgery was done at a private hospital in Montreal where they do plastic surgery and sex-change operations (gasp!) The clinic where the did the surgery was great...I received excellent care, and stayed 1 night. What I also liked was that his nutritionist came to visit me after the surgery to review my nutritional needs.

What I liked the most about Dr. Christou is that he does both the gastric bypass and the Lapband, so I could really choose what was right for me, instead of what he offered. I think he is one of the surgeons in Montreal that has been doing the procedure for the longest, and in fact other surgeons get trained by him. I also like that he is perfectly bilingual.

The only downside is that the Royal victoria hospital, where I get my fills, is super old and frankly, looks like one of the dirtiest hospitals that I have ever seen!

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

hey orcidgrl best of luck with ur weightloss journey. i really hope u reach your goal in no time. Actually i am also interested in the lapband and have been searching for almost a month now. i have booked my appointment with dr miller on the 28th may. i hav also send the patient questionaire with the fee to dr christou.

i jus wanted to know what procedures you has to go through before preop with dr christou and how long they took for you to give a surgery date??

[orcidgrl 0]

hey orcidgrl best of luck with ur weightloss journey. i really hope u reach your goal in no time. Actually i am also interested in the lapband and have been searching for almost a month now. i have booked my appointment with dr miller on the 28th may. i hav also send the patient questionaire with the fee to dr christou.

i jus wanted to know what procedures you has to go through before preop with dr christou and how long they took for you to give a surgery date??

Hi!

I went to my first visit with Dr. Christou on November 26th, and I did all my tests that same day, because I live 2 hours away from Montreal, and did not want to do more than 1 trip. I did the following tests:

at the Hospital...a blood test, a lung Xray and an electro-cardiogram

Then I met with the surgeon, who answered all my questions, and we booked a surgery date...he was about 3 week early, meaning that I could have booked as early as 3 week from that day, but I wanted more time to prepare myself.

Thn they sent me to the Psychesoma clinic, where I had a Psychological evaluation, an "exercise" evaluation and met with a Dietician for 1.5 hours.

And finally the dietician gave me my pre-surgery Diet kit with is basically some milk shakes, that I had to live on for 14 days before the surgery.

It was a long and tiring day, but it was very well organized.

then 2 weeks before my surgery (once they had received my cheque!) I got a detailed email with instruction for the surgery itself. It can go very fast if you want it to.

Good luck!

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

thanks for all the infos...i also want to chose the private system. i jus wanna know did you pay extra for those tests??

i have seen a lot of comments on dr christou's postop services. most of them complaints that dr christou was ignorant after the postop.and no one called from the clinic to inquire about the patient. Did you go through any of these problems??

Jus last question how did you feel when u wake up jus after the surgery?? was it really painful?? did you feel the band inside your stomach??

[orcidgrl 0]

thanks for all the infos...i also want to chose the private system. i jus wanna know did you pay extra for those tests??

i have seen a lot of comments on dr christou's postop services. most of them complaints that dr christou was ignorant after the postop.and no one called from the clinic to inquire about the patient. Did you go through any of these problems??

Jus last question how did you feel when u wake up jus after the surgery?? was it really painful?? did you feel the band inside your stomach??

Hi! The cost of the tests & everything else is ALL included in the price (which was $17,500 for me). It also includes all fills for the first year.

Post-op services were good. The surgeon and his assistant gave me their direct page number and told me to call anytime if I had any problems. But that was not necessary. The Surgeon and the dietician came to visit me the day after the surgery, and I had to call the surgeon's assistant before I left town to go back home (since I was 2 hours away from Montreal). I had a post-op appointment 2 weeks later, then I booked a fill appointment for 5 weeks after that. The care in the private hospital was excellent. I have a feeling that if I needed help post-op, they would have given it to me, but they didn't call me to ask me how I was, they were expecting me to call them...which was fine by me.

As for how I felt when I woke up...much better than I thought I was....I was making jokes and didn't feel any pain at all. I was groggy. I got up about 1 hour after I awoke and managed to walk around, and that make everything better. I couldnt feel the band, but I did feel tightness, say like if I had done 30 sit-ups the nite before...sore like that. And I felt SUPER bloated! that was the worst. I had trouble breathing that nite, because I had to sleep on my back and am not used to it. Not much other pain except the expected gas pain in the shoulder and the back pain, but this started 2-3 days post-op.

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

hey tanxz once again...i think i 'll bug u time to time...for now i m jus waiting for my first appointment date with dr christou...

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

hey

hope u r doing well....jus wanna knoe if u hav done the preop diet ...wat did u eat & for how long??

[orcidgrl 0]

hey

hope u r doing well....jus wanna knoe if u hav done the preop diet ...wat did u eat & for how long??

Hey...sorry it took so long to answer. Yes I did a preop diet, it was a liquid diet provided by my surgeon called Optifast. It was very hard to do this because it was right in the middle of Xmas...but I never cheated and lost 15 pounds before surgery.

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

hey

tanxz for replying. Good to know you have lost so much weight.Today is my last day of Optifast & my surgery is tomorrow.

[orcidgrl 0]

hey

tanxz for replying. Good to know you have lost so much weight.Today is my last day of Optifast & my surgery is tomorrow.

Good luck Kash!...please let us know how it went...I will be thinking of you!

xox

[kashhotmail.comfiaz09 0]

hey

tanxz for all ur good wishes. i was in so much pain i didn't feel like going online . annyways mary (dr chritou's assistant) was an angel she helped me so much. so howz your WLS journey going??do u go for the support group meeting??

goodluck

[gmdod 0]

Hi,

I just had a Consultation with Dr Miller of Spa Diva Medical in Montreal. Since I have gotten a lot of usefull information from this forum, I thought I would give some back.

I live in Ottawa, I found Spa Diva through the Internet and found out that Dr Miller was an old Colleague of a Surgeon friend of mine here in Ottawa - He came highly recommended by this friend as well as my Family Dr.

I am 30yrs old, with Hypertension, Depression and lately some serious low back pain, as well as all the other pains that come with being 376lbs

Spa Diva is a really nice facility, very posh if you like that kinda thing. I do. Another plus is that it is surrounded by great shopping so your Wife or Husband can keep themselves busy during your surgery.

The staff is very friendly and proffessional.

Dr Miller is a typical Surgeon, he is very direct and no nonsense. He did a thorough investigation of my medical history, explained the benefits of the Lap-Band and discussed how I was a good candidate. I decided to go ahead with the Surg and booked for the 3rd of Dec. (i had decided pretty much before I got there)

I then met with the Nutritionist - very bright and informative. This is where you get most of the answers to questions you may have about what to excpect and what to eat, etc.....

The surgery cost's $16,000 - I am sure they have some type of financing if this is needed.

Pre-Op diet is X6 Boost (diabetic formula) shakes a day and one cup of vegetables. last's 14 days.

Like a lot of other people I am going to post how it went, and what happens after. If anyone has any info about Dr Miller or Spa Diva they would like to share - that would be great.

GM