manykids

You said that you had 1rst surgery 8/11 and too thick of a liver so you didn't get the band. Then on 8/29 you show that you had the surgery and it was successful. What did you do from 8/11 to 8/29 to shrink your liver? My Doctor just told me my BMI was too high for band surgery, 52 BMI at 325 lbs., and that I needed to lose 25 lbs to bring down the BMi under 50. I am wondering what you did to shrink your liver. Just wondering. You are doing great.

Hey my Doctor told me to choose either the lap band or the Realize band, he said it was up to me. Since the only thing I have read is that the REalize band is wider than the Realize band I am very interested in knowing if your REalize felt restricted after the first fill or not? What made you go with this instead of the lap band? You have done amazing if I am reading your ticker right. If you wouldn't mind telling me why you chose the REalize band over the regular lap band. Thanks.

Let me know how it goes, as if you need input with any insurance issues let me know. I do this for a living and I know that you can change your surgeon for getting fills from. MOst insurance carriers just want you to make sure you go to a Center of Excellence which is a higher quality of care in most cases, and they will work with you if you need to change facilities for fills. Good luck! You will lose and reach your goals, its guaranteed with the band!!!

I agree with parrothead Cathy, you need to check around your area and see if there are other surgeon's that do this surgery and have support groups. Don't know what State your in or insurance info but you can have your fills at any office, hospital that does this. There is ways you can do this even ifyou have an HMO. You just need to get help asap, so join a support group anywhere and if this Surgeon's office continues to be a problem you need to call your insurance company and ask for a different place to get fills. I have never heard of such a thing with Doctor offices blowing off fills like this, so it is very worrisome that you won't get what you need from this place. Something to think about!! WE are all in this together and you deserve to get what you need from your Doctor. Good luck.

Had to reply to this message. There is no way your a failure you just do not have enough cc's because you have had only 1 fill. I was worried that I wouldn't lose either and be in your same dilemma and my Doctor told me that the fills are the things that restrict you and get this weight off. You should have had a fill 6-8 weeks after your Jan 19th banding, which would be by March 19th. Then you should have had a fill last week for your 2nd one, 6 weeks later. Then you should be having a 3rd fill at the end of June. You don't start losing weight when you have the banding, you start with your fills where the restriction comes in. The post op diet of course helps us to lose weight but its the fills that kick in the weight loss. My Doctor told us that it isn't until the 3rd fill that you really start seeing the loss. So you are still at the starting gate and can't evaluate this until you have a few more fills. Its guaranteed to work, you won't be the only one in the world who can't lose. Thats the beauty of this band, it will work because you have the fills that are constantly tightening you up. You just have to make sure that the first year you go every 6 weeks. Good luck to you and just get to your fills every 6 weeks and your weight will be off in no time.

Thanks for the input. You have totally answered my questions. I had no idea it was used widely in Europe and wasn't just a new band. I will definitely go on Medline Plus and read the studies. Its sounds like from everyone that it is a matter of choice, and I agree that since the band is wider and not so rigid it might be a great alternative. My daughter has the regular band and even though no problems she always feels the port and always feels her band. I can see once the first initial weight comes off the online support would really keep you going. I know you had said you had the gastric sleeve, I don't even know if that is a band or what that is. I am glad you like it and obviously you have lost so much weight, something I envy at this point. Thanks to everyone for their help and info on this whole subject. I am a lot more educated because of all of you banders!:eek:

MacMadame, Forgot to ask you did you get theREALIZE band or the regular when you were banded? Your loss is quite impressive and I applaud your weight loss and efforts to get there.

I appreciate everyone's input on this, and of course after reading that the one surgeon will not do REalize band at all cause of issues, makes me very concerned. I am wondering what clinical data you have been able to access? However, since it is new,( not sure how new) how much statistical information can they really have so far. I love of course the cool web site and this would be a real plus in keeping you on course. Since my daughter had her lap band surgery with the regular band she has had a very smooth experience so of course I feel confident I would have the same, and all the experiences i read about are with the regular band, so any clinical data you have read I would greatly appreciate being able to look up with the REALIZE BAND.

Was so upset at reading your thread about your treatment at this office. I work for a large insurance carrier here in CA and I will tell you that for insurance approval you need with any insurance carrier to have your surgery at what is termed a hospital defined as "centers of excellence." This is a very distinguished certification of which sets apart surgeons and hospitals one from the other. Now I am just giving you some input on insurance approval, you need to go online and find out which hospitals fit this criteria because the surgeon's who are associated with them will be approved giving you the lapband surgery. I know many turned down at outside facilities and then approved at a Center of Excellence Hospital/Surgeon because most large insurance carrier's demand a certain level of quality control of which those facilities have met. Not only will that give you peace of mind but you will get your approval for this. Good luck!

Your insurance should be covering the fills at your copay amount since they approved of the surgery. You need to call the insurance company and find out if anything has been submitted to them. Of course the copay amount depends upon the type of insurance you have chosen. I Anthem and they pay 80% as long as it is with the same Doctor they approved the surgery with. Without insurance fills are very expensive. The total cost is $1500 without insurance with insurance I pay $80. Believe me your insurance will pay for the fills if they approved the surgery, as I work for an insurance carrier.

Thanks for posting the difference in the bands. My Doctor is giving me the option and I just don't know what to do. Now after reading your post about what it looks like, I definitely want the Realize Band being that you said it was wider. That will definitely have less slippage. And the other replies also seemed to indicate that you get to eating food sooner then the other. My daughter had the regular band over a year ago and she has had no problems at all. But being that I am older I realize I will have a different experience and have been worried about slippage etc. Choosing the REalize band thanks to everyone's input. Good luck!

Get a new Doctor. This Physician doesn't have enough experience to do this surgery with patient's that are your weight. You wouldn't want him doing it anyway as his comments show his inexperience. If your in Napa their are plenty of Physician's at the big hospitals that have that experience. Lots of people have posted who have been at a high starting weight so his comments are not reliable. You don't know what your skin is going to look like after losing that much weight. I have friends that look great and have lost 150 lbs so that is something you have to wait and see nothing is guaranteed as far as needing cosmetic surgery. At this point I will take hanging skin compared to my 150 pounds overweight. Good luck to you. Mine is in July!

Doctor has given me the option to choose between the realize band or the regular band they have used. Anybody have input on the differences between the two? I am probably going to have surgery beginning of July, doing all preliminary work now.

My Doctor gave me the option of choosing the regular lapband versus the realize band. I have been researching info on both and my daughter has had the regular with excellent results. So I am unsure which one to go with. The realize band I like because of the online support and tracking they give you. Does anyone have any input on this?? Surgery is probably going to be in beginning of July. Doing all the preliminary work now. :cool2:

Thanks for the input here. I am just glad I read about it from your post and now I know what is available and out there for all of us going through this journey. Appreciate your response. Its encouraging to see your progress because sometimes you feel like you are alone on this road. Have a great day and excellent progress on your weight loss. Its people like you that keep me going when I think I haven't lost enough. :omg_smile:

I live in California and banded 8 months ago. I just found out about the convention and I really want to come however, I may not be able to get airfare in time. I just found out today, so how can I make sure anything like this that comes up out of town I am notified of? I just signed up for your newsletter and will today subscribe to the magazine offered also. I have never heard of you but realize that you are just what I need to keep momentum up. Do you have these conventions only once a year or other meetings like this periodically through the year? Please advise. I would love to come to this conference but because it is so late in finding out may not be able to swing the airfare by then. So glad to know about that there are things like this, because banding really is a life changing experience of continued education and encouragement along this journey traveled. From Sunny Southern California!:biggrin:

Thank you so much for your comments. I read that article and did freak out since my first Doctor Visit to discuss banding was the day before. I have researched banding and it seems that complications are few. Most people seem to have a good results like yourself and have lost and are glad they were banded. So thanks for commenting on this very negative article truly one sided. I am starting all my tests and needed items to qualify for this operation.

To have lost that much weight is amazing in such a short amount of time. Can you respond and tell me if you are exercising everyday, how are you eating? I am assuming you are exercising everyday, and want to know what kind of exercise and lifestyle have you changed to have this kind of weight loss.

Incredible Doctors and Hospital for banding. Cedar Sinai with Dr. Cunnen. This is the Doctor group where Sharon Osbourne and her fam went to. You won't be disappointed with their manner and comforting ways. Hope that helps.

My surgeon here inCalifornia does teens at CedarsSinai, but he has to take a growth platelet x-ray which shows whether or not a person is still growing. That is why they use the age 18. But a lot of people stop growing years before their 18. I did mine at 17 and my growth platelets had already showed maximum growth so the surgeon was willing to do me. If the x-ray would have shown an open platelet then they wouldn't have been willing to do it as well as the insurance company. That is why they set the age of 18 for growth periods for your bones etc. Good luck

By the way I am using MOMS internet site on this, she wants me to go through her for being safe, so it will say manykids because our family is large

Yes here at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles on December 26th. You are so lucky you had it done at NYU with the original Doctor who brought it to the US Dr. Fielding. Does he see you regularly or just when you get an adjustment? Does he have classes after surgery? Hope you are doing well in NY

I really hope the best for you. You will be so glad you had it. My 17 year old daughter had it day after Christmas and already has lost 23 lbs. Hunger is very controllable now and she has been able to go to school with everyday more energy. Your Physician's office will always deal with the insurance, and any co-payments you will have with the insurance. Good luck. Many kids in California!

I understand your confusion and so many have asked this. They are different. BCBS being in Texas is basically one company. One takes care of hospitalization and the other takes care of everything outside of the hospital. Here in California they are totally different companies. They compete with each other for business. So we handle things differently. Since I am not totally famaliar with the procedures and protocol of the one company together BCBS I do not know what their criteria is for finding an approved center for bariatric surgery. I would either check my policy contract online or if you have a handy copy at home check this. Or you can call the eligbility department and find this out from BCBS. This will take away from alot of wasted time. They have guidelines that are set out in your type of policy and coverage and the choices of where you can have this done. Your Customer Service will help you with this. But again if you have your policy contract or access it online under you ID Member number you can read the criteria yourself. Hope that helps a little. Sorry we do things different here being that BC and BS are 2 different insurance carriers. Many Kids

I work for Blue Cross and my daughter got lap band. Depending upon whether you have a PPO or HMO you can be covered for this surgery. You need to go to your Primary Physician if you have an HMO and get a referral to a Blue Cross COE (Center of Expertise) to have your surgery at. Cedars Sinai is a COE with BlueCross of California. Any B.C. PPO member should be directed to make an appointment at any of these accredited centers. Refer to your policy contract under Bariatric Surgery. You won't have problems with authorizations as long as you go to a COE to have this surgery. Remember also in California we are lucky to be able to appeal with an outside Review BOard should Blue Cross decline an authorization by the Physician. Majority of times if you meet the criteria as listed in your policy contract, the REview Board will demand that Blue Cross pay for this surgery if they declined it. Where you go is pivotal to getting approved authorization for this surgery.