snowbird

Dr Martinez often assists Dr Ortiz, but has been doing surgeries on his own for some time. He assisted on my surgery, my husband's, and my daughter's. From all reports I have heard as well as my own experience, he is capable and caring. I have not needed any significant post op care, but have heard his patients say that he is very good about getting back to you if you call him or need to see him post op. If you want information on the OCC (which is a clinic, not a hospital) search under Dr Ortiz on this forum as it is his clinic. My experiences there have been great.

I truly believe that those of us who are most successful do not continue to participate on this board after they reach goal. They go on with their lives. The band is no longer the center of their lives. My participation here has decreased hugely since I came close to goal. And yes, I'm happier. I'm happier with myself. I enjoy social events much more. I get a charge out of meeting men and having them flirt a little with me. My personality has opened up quite a bit, because I am not fearful of strangers judging me for my weight. I eat normal food, even pizza sometimes, but I have ONE small slice and often don't finish it. Once in a while, maybe once a month, I might throw up because I ate too fast or too much, but it isn't a big deal to me. I just slap myself upside my head and say, "that was stupid." I have pretty much learned how to eat sensibly with the band. My husband needed five fills before he hit good restriction, and my daughter has had about six. It really sounds to me that you need one or two more fills before you can say the band doesn't work, or start rationalizing that you would be more miserable thin than you are fat. I realize I'm being a bit blunt, but I think you need to do some self examination and figure out how to be your own best friend and do what you need to do to be happy with yourself and your band. I wish you well.

There is no way you can gather meaningful statistics on a forum like this, or any other. All you can get is anecdotal evidence. How many patients does the doctor have in total? How many still have a band? Without ALL information, any numbers you gather mean nothing, unless you are an attorney just looking for clients. I don't think it is out of line for anyone of us to ask why you are looking for this information, but I do find it suspicious that you won't tell us.

It's traditional to give gifts to those who perform services for you that are not in highly paid fields, like the paper boy or the guy who does your yard work. I don't see a very well paid surgeon falling into that category. My surgeon has a nice yacht sitting in the marina in San Diego; I don't think I need to give him anything further than the big chunk of change I already gave him for his work. I could see sending him a card--maybe with before and after photos of myself to show how well he did his job??? If I really felt that I wanted to do anything further, I would take a plate of Christmas goodies to his office for his staff to share, but nothing more.

Not necessarily, but don't believe your friends either! I had a friend guess my weight at 120 when it was 150. I don't know if she was serious or just trying to be nice/manipulative. Take photos of yourself if you think you look fat or don't believe your friends. If possible, have a photo taken with other people who you feel are the "right" size, and compare yourself to them. People are usually so used to looking at us fat that they don't feel we SHOULD look "normal" and therefore tell us we are fine, when we really are not!

Ummm . . . my doctor, in a video he did about band slippage, warned that there is NOTHING you can do to chicken that makes it liquid. I suppose baby food is technically a liquid, but liquid meat really doesn't appeal too much.

OOOOHHHH those crab cakes were so yummy last time. Or actually, the one crab cake. I took my husband for lunch there a couple weeks ago, but he is no fun at all. Well, not much, anyway. I'm always up for Pappadeaux's! You're the working girl; name the date and I'll be there.

1.5 CC is a small fill in a 4 cc band. My first fill was 1.7, and my doctor usually does 2.0 for the first fill in a 4 cc band. Your doctor is just taking things slow, which isn't a bad idea as long as the cost of your fills is included in the cost of your band surgery! The band isn't something that works immediately for everyone. My husband has a larger band and it took 5 fills and nearly a year before he hit a good restriction level. Just be patient, and get another fill if it has been a few weeks since the last one.

I'm in the West Valley and Bubblebutt is in the Phoenix area too.

Husband and I were banded the same day. I needed two fills to essentially get to goal; he's needed 5 and has about 20 lb left to lose. He may need another or may not. I haven't had a fill in nearly a year.

My point is that we don't really know she has been trying to contact him for a year. I'm saying my experiences with this clinic have been very different from what she describes, and I've been there five or six times. You can walk right in there anytime, and they will help you and you can talk to a doctor.

I was 53 when I was banded. I was just about at goal within a year. My BMI was under 35 at the time of surgery; the BMI on my ticker was prior to my pre op diet. I am never hungry. I take chewable Vitamins and chewable calcium. I can't say what your experience will be like, but I can say you shouldn't necessarily trust generalizations about this process. I DO exercise. I ride my bike 15 miles a day. I worked up to that distance over the course of a year, and miss it if I skip a day. I was a definite couch potato before. Your weight loss will be harder without regular exercise, I can say that. Liz, I hate to say this, but 25 minutes three times a week is a pretty low exercise level. You might want to see what happens if you step it up a bit. If you are losing weight with that amount, I'm betting you will see some real results when you increase your exercise time. I just checked and walking 25 minutes at a medium pace burns a paltry 125 calories. Since a pound of fat consists of 3600 calories, you would need to increase that by quite a bit before you will see a real weight loss resulting from exercise.

You will note that the US doctor does not say the band was placed incorrectly; that is an assumption the reporter made. The MD only noted that it had slipped. That does happen, and only rarely because the surgeon has made a mistake. So I'm not sure what he is supposed to be owning up to. She didn't go back to him, so I don't see what he was supposed to "fix" either. There's a lot we don't know that we are given to believe we do know about what has happened. For instance, we don't know if Dr Ortiz has talked to this patient numerous times already. I have had no difficulty in getting my medical records from his office for insurance purposes. They don't always call me back right away, and I have to follow up sometimes, but neither do my US doctors. My husband has gone through hell and about 10 phone calls just trying to get a prescription renewed that his US doctor messed up, for thyroid medication (not like it was a controlled substance he was trying to get!) he absolutely has to take in a timely manner. And finally, I don't know of any US doctors that will just fork the money for surgery back over to the patient because there is a complication. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way, in the US or anywhere else. And it doesn't sound like she went back down to his clinic to have him check out her problems. Dr Ortiz gives out his cell phone number to his patients. I'm wondering why they didn't try to call him directly. Like most TV news stories, this is lacking in information and is trying to be sensational. I used to work for the government and have seen a number of news stories that are incredibly full of incorrect information, so I'm not entirely buying this one without a lot more info. As someone said before, I have seen very, very few negative stories about Dr Ortiz, and he has done thousands of lap bands. The bad surgeons seem to leave a trail of horror stories on the internet, and I haven't seen that with Ortiz.

Thanks! Here's a link to the instructions for the ticker: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f5/ticker-tutorial-pictures-41782/

You're welcome here anytime, Jacqui!

There's a forum divided by age groups. I know the fifties are pretty active, and there are quite a few sixties too! Sixties - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum

There was a study that came out recently about how the body reacts to artificial sweeteners. However, I was on a low carb diet for three years before I was banded, and artificial sweeteners never made me hungry the way sugar and white carbs did (does). Even now, a year after surgery, if I had to live without artificial sweeteners, I would probably fail miserably. How long post op is he supposed to be on the liquid diet? Every doctor is different with their dietary rules. Mine said I had to lose 5% of my body weight pre op, and could use a variety of diets to achieve that depending on how much time I had to diet before surgery. After surgery, I was on Clear Liquids for 7 days, then two weeks of "full liquids" which included yogurt drinks, cream Soups, and Protein shakes. I didn't use slim fast, but I did have a Protein shake mix that contained artificial sweeteners. I still use it occasionally when I think I am shorting myself on protein. Some doctors say no caffeine after surgery, and some (like mine) said coffee is fine. I don't really know what to add about the slurping down liquids to test for a good fill level. I found that my own sensations of fullness or "backing up" were more reliable than what the doctor saw on the fluoroscope to determine a correct fill level. I wouldn't think drinking rapidly once or twice would cause damage, but on the other hand, I always would have problems drinking quickly without having some real discomfort, so I don't think it would provide a reliable indication of correct fill level. The problem with a doctor presenting a patient with too strict and too limiting a post op diet is that it makes it that much harder for the patient to stick to it. I would think he would get VERY hungry on just broth after more than a week, when the stomach swelling from surgery goes down. However, I realize we all often think our own doctors are the wisest and give the best advice, while any deviation from that is questionable.

Hey, kcarr. Welcome. I'm not from Tucson; I live in Surprise and was banded October 2007 by Dr Ortiz. My husband was banded the same day. I thought I would jump in here because you resurrected an old thread from four or five years ago, and the people on it have not been around the forum for a long time and probably wouldn't be responding. Anyway, welcome to the forum and best wishes on a great outcome for your surgery. Dr Ortiz is highly respected. He has his own forum at lapbandforum.com if you want to talk to more of his patients. I only have needed two fills and have had them both in Tijuana. I think Wasabubblebutt answered you on another thread and recommmended Dr Aceves in Mexicali for a shorter drive to get a fill. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns before or after your surgery.

I don't get severe pains from bananas, but have always had trouble eating them with my band. They seem to get stuck, not enough to cause pbing, but enough to make me feel yucky. My daughter has said the same thing and avoids bananas too.

I have never seen a price much below $10,000 in the US. $6000 is low even for Mexico. I would be very wary of that pricing. Low price in the US is $9500-$12,000. In Mexico, prices for reputable surgeons are around $7000-$8500. This is based on my reading this website for over a year.

I started at a 16/18 pant and a 2X top. I'm down to a 6 pant and a M or L top, depending on the fit in the bust and arms, both of which need surgery to match the rest of my body.

2 fills, total of 1.9 cc. I've been at that fill level since January.

If you don't have one already, find a primary care physician who will sit down with you and go over your health in tiny detail. He/she may find things that you do not consider to be co-morbidities, but they really are. My doctor wrote up borderline hypertension, borderline high blood sugar, a history of knee problems, skin rashes, reflux, everything he could think of that I had, as co morbidities, and my insurance paid for my surgery. I went to Tijuana too, and had a wonderful experience. My BMI was 35-37 before my preop diet. I am now in the "normal" BMI range, a size 6 pants, and thinner than I have been in the past 30 years. This surgery was a wonderful thing for me.

There is an additional reason to avoid drinking liquids after eating, so my doctor recommends waiting an hour before drinking. If you drink liquids right after you have eaten, the Fluid has nowhere to go as the stoma is blocked with food. You can stretch your pouch and cause band slippage by drinking after eating. The upper stomach contents can back up into your esophagus and cause damage. The time before eating doesn't really matter. Warm liquids can relax the stoma and allow you to eat more, and cold liquids can constrict it so you can't eat enough, but generally speaking, liquids prior to eating don't make a big difference.

I've been banded for over a year and only have 1.9 cc in my 4 cc band. I could not tolerate any more, and was actually too tight for several months. My husband, on the other hand, took 5 fills in his 10 cc band before he had any restriction. My daughter, who has a 4 cc band, has had at least 7 fills, trying to find just the right amount of restriction. Her boyfriend has had NO fills and has lost 165 lb with his band. No one knows how you will react to the band or the amount of your fill. It may take a whole lot of fine tuning, or it may not. Overfilling to start with can be dangerous and harmful, so most doctors go fairly slowly until the right level for you is reached.