My dilemma....

chickb13 · July 17, 2008

Okay here is the situation: I go my lap band almost a year ago and I paid with out insurance so I got a year of fills with that payment. My question though is...I have gone to my fill appointments every month. This last fill was supposed to be my close to last one, and my fill nurse decided to check how much fill I have (which was supposed to 10.2) but when she checked it, it was only 7.5, she also gave me some that visit so now I am at 8.8cc. She said that it could be she may have missed some earlier on because it was difficult for her to find my port. My dilemma is that there were a couple of times she decided not to give me a fill because I was at 10 cc even though I told I really didn't feel that much restriction. So I now have one more visit before my time is up and I am not even close to where I need to be on my restriction and fills. They mentioned that if I wanted more that I could come in and pay but that is 250.00, which I can not afford. I feel that because it is not my fault of the fills that I should at least try to get close to what I was told before I have to pay even though my time is up. I paid 17500.00 to get a band and fills and not even get to the point in which I have restriction, which is the point of the band. It's really not about the weight I have lost it really is about the restriction that I should have. What would you suggest that I should do in this situation?

Mommie_of_4 · July 17, 2008

I would really bring this up with the dr.

It seems like you have had a slow weight loss over the last year. Have you asked you dr. about that or the nutritionist.

If you really feel as if you haven't been given the adequate amount of fills then I would have a 1 on 1 with them. No mind you...I'm not banded (yet), but my nature is not to sugar-coat things...I get to the point and let it be known that I am unhappy.

Hope this helps and good luck!

mtnman428 · July 17, 2008

I would try to speak to the Dr. and nurse about it too! If it get to the point that you have to, then tell them that you feel that they were stalling your fills on purpose just to get money out of you now.

If all else fails (because it may be hard to win that case, even if you are right), then you should definitely tell them that you will not be going back to them for a fill. Then find another Dr. or Fill Center in your area that will do your fills for you, and probably for cheaper. I'm self pay too. I'm going to Mexico, but I found a good Dr. in my home state, RI, that will do my fills for $165. Every state is diferent I'm sure, but just look around. Good Luck!

flowers · July 17, 2008

Make sure you go back for your last fill and tell them it needs to be more aggressive, since it still isnt up to where they told you the fills were. You should have a lot of resistance by now after getting fills for one year. I would not be happy with losing so little in a year.

I too have free fills for a year, but they tack on $100 fluoro charge, so its not really worth the cost to travel back to where I got banded, so Im going to be paying cash for each fill. Im just planning on sucking it up and paying.