Amayqt

I noticed the same type of pain about three days ago. I'm very concerned because it feels like my port is moving around. Normally its directly under my incision scar on my left side, now it moves above and to the side of it.... not normal. I'm trying to find out if this is dire and requires immediate action (more due to the pain I'm in than the movement) because I'm self pay and I don't want to waste money and time going back to TJ if its not necessary. Any thougths?

Thanks. I've had my thyroid checked a million times and each time they come back saying its normal. For some reason I just don't feel like it is. I'm constantly tired and seem to have a lot of symptoms for hypothyroidism. I will speak to my dr. about the meds and the BMR scale for overweight patients. Thanks for the advice.

I can't seem to loose anything. I was banded 5 months ago and initially lost 10 pounds, then regained 12. I'm currently down 6 pounds but that's due to my starting back on my metformen for insulin resistance. My band is only at 2.5cc's but feels tight enough that I get stuck quite a bit, so I don't think I could stand anymore. Any advice?:thumbup:

I feel your pain and fustration. I've been banded now for 5 months now, had two fills and can hardly go a day without throwing up. I know my band isn't overfilled because I'm only at 2.5 cc's. I have lost a total of 6 pounds. I lost about 10 right after the surgery and then gained back 12. Recently I started back on Metformen for insulin resistance and was able to loose the 6 pounds so that weight isn't really attributed to the band. I'm really fustrated as it appears that no matter how much I exercise, eat/don't eat, diet etc. nothing seems to work.

I believe that total is for his surgery center, which consist of three surgeons.

I believe that number if for his entire center, which has 3 surgeons.

Well, like I said, I wasn't sure about the exact percentages but the national average for band complications is 3 to 5%. I looked all over for the email the coordinator sent me with their stats on it, and must have deleted it, but it was 2-4%. These of course are the patients that he's aware of. I don't think that any doctor (U.S or international) can be expected to know and/or apply other complication numbers to their stats if they're not aware of the problem. You can email the center directly if you want more information, lori@obesitycontrolcenter.com, which I would recommend to anyone looking for a surgeon simply for their own peace of mind.

That's funny. I'm having surgery in three days and hope to be loosing a leg and brain soon too! Funny stuff.

I'll send you the information on an email. I hate bad mouthing centers on these types of forums because you never know who got their surgeries done where and I don't want to offend anyone.

Wow, a lot of great questions. I'll try to answer them the best I can. Your situation with your boys sounds very familiar. I've had, and still have, a lot of worries about my daughter and how I'm going to take care of her after the surgery. She's three and loves to be picked up and carried everywhere, but she's a big girl. I read that you're not supposed to pick up anything over 10 pounds for a few weeks after surgery so I struggled with decided whether to even go through with the surgery, but decided I had to do this for me. My husband and I decided that he would stay behind and tend to my daughter and that I would go have my surgery with my sister (she decided to get banded on the same day so it worked out great). I know it would be ideal to have your husband there, but maybe you can take someone else or have a grand-parent watch the boys? I asked Lori (pc) if anyone ever came alone and she said 50% of the patients that have surgery there come alone simple due to logistics or not wanted to share this experience with anyone else. I haven't told anyone, other than my sister and husband, that I'm having surgery in Mexico. Funny, but I know what they're reaction will be "OMG, Mexico??? Have you lost your mind?" and frankly I don't want to hear it. Its not going to change my decision either way, and I don't feel like going through all the research with each and every person to prove Dr. Ortiz's abilities. I'd love to be able to share this time in my life with them and have their support, but I doubt they'd understand anyway since I come from a long line of extremely skinny asian women (people who've never had a weight problem have a really hard time empathizing with those who struggle everyday with it). So that's kind of how I handled that situation. Probably not ideal, but I figure this is private to me and on a "need to know basis". Thank you for offering to keep me posted. Its great that your husband is going to talk to Dr. Ortiz, please do keep me posted! They didn't require copies of my medical records. That's something I thought would be a basic too, but sent me a big packet of information I needed to fill out. Health summaries, medications etc. It pretty much covered everything. If you're over 40BMI's they require a doctor's note and an exact weigh in at a Dr. office. My BMI is 34, so I got away with the paperwork. The stress test, EKG's, psychological evaluation etc. will all be done the day before my surgery. Did you ever find any stats regarding complications? Yes, the average complications rate is 3 or 5%, I can't remember exactly. I asked for all of Dr. Ortiz's stats and was emailed an answer of <2% for slippages,errosion, infection and 0% fatalities due to the band and if I can recall correctly, I believe they stated that Dr. Ortiz has done over 450 band this year alone (2008), don't quote me on the exact number because I'm sure its not an exact, but it was somewhere around there. I know that almost sounds a little crazy! But regardless, I was relieved to hear that you made direct contact with some of the people behind the "testimonials." There are peopel right on this site that you could email and ask for reference from, not just the people they give you names to. I didn't want to go with just those indiviuals because, of course, they're not going to give you the names of people with issues. I found my own people to reference, and you should do the same. It brings a lot of peace of mind to hear other people's thoughts, feelings and experiences with the man who's going to have your life in his hands. I'll definately let you know everything that happens with me and my sister. If you don't mind, I'd love to add you to my friends list so we can keep in touch regarding our progress.

Really? I'm so excited! I'm having surgery this Friday so its almost here! Thanks for your input!!

Well I did a lot of research and it came down to Dr. Ortiz and one other doctor. I spoke to their patient coordinators several times and wrote all the patients I could who had testimonials or could be used as references. In the end, Dr. Ortiz kept coming up on top. ALL his reference wrote back and had great things to say, while none of the others replied, and no matter how many questions I came up with, I always got a quick reply from all his staff and they never got tired of me (and believe me, I was a pain, and wrote and bugged them non-stop for weeks), the other office, took a couple days to get back to me each time I wrote and was very blasé. So far, I'm really pleased. I finally decided to go for it, when I went through his credentials and read that he actually teaches American doctors how to use the band, fixes other doctor's botched up work, and is one of a few that can do the band on young people. It doesn't hurt either that he was on Oprah recently and, I don't know about you, but I love Oprah and her philosophies on dieting, and if she’s cool with him enough to have him on her nationally syndicated show, then I think that puts him at a higher level, in my book. Anyway, yes, I’m flying to San Diego. I live near Sacramento in California so it’s a short one hour flight. Are you local or where are you coming out of? I’m also like you where my BMI isn’t high enough to have my surgery in the states but I have diabetes and high blood pressure so if I don’t do something now, it’s only going to get worse. I wanted surgery in the states but other than the money, I think I feel more comfortable with Dr. Ortiz than any of the doctors in my local area. In fact, when I was Googling “lapband” I saw some nasty articles about some of the band centers around Sacramento/S.F, never saw anything like that w/ Dr. Ortiz’s name on it. ….HMMMM. Sorry this was such a long reply.

Hi. I'm having surgery with Dr. Ortiz this Friday! I'll let you know how it goes and how I felt about him and his staff. I've been the skeptic since the beginning so you don't have to worry about any sugar-coating here. So far, they've all been great and extremly helpful.

Hi, I haven't had my surgery yet, but am scheduled for surgery next week with Dr. Ortiz in TJ. I'm really excited and nervous at the same time. I have done a lot of research and feel that I've picked one of the best LapBand surgeons available to me. I too have set up the emergency after care, but will keep going to Dr. Ortiz for my fills because, like CCar50 said, your doctor is going to be personally vested in you, so of course will take better care of you than someone else who actually benefits from "Mexico horror stories". Lets face it, they're all in business and even if they wish everyone the best, I'm sure US doctors hate the idea of their business going to MX. Also, my insurance is through Tricare Military (hubby is military) and they will cover emergency related problems due to the band, regardless of where its installed. If you're insurance doesn't, you may want to conveniently forget when and where it was installed. (J/K)

Thanks, that's really good advice because I knew that fills should occur every 8-10 weeks or so, but I should really be looking at it more in the sense of "when my hunger become uncontrollable again" rather than a time-frame. Thank you.

Iwood, Hi. I'm having my surgery done in two weeks and worry about the hunger you mentioned in your thread reply. After reading a lot of the other discussions of people talking about how they can only eat a few bites of this or that, I wonder how I'm going to be able to handle my hunger. Is the hunger like it was before the surgery when you hadn't eaten all day? I'm nervous that I'm going to botch up the whole thing because I can't control my hunger pains.:eek:

Hi there. I'm currently doing the exact same thing as you. Researching, worrying, obessing, etc. MY BMI is lower than the required 40 for the states and my insurance wouldn't cover the surgery so I decided, enough was enough and that I wasn't going to let money stop me from my ultimate goals, so decided to pay out of pocket and go to Mexico. I obessed about whether my loans would go through, then when they did, if the money would get there in time and still feel like something is going to go wrong and I won't be able to get my surgery. I guess that comes from a life-time of dissapointments when it comes to weight loss. If your insurance doesn't go through (which I'm sure it will) consider your options, such as Mexico. I know it sounds crazy to go to another country for surgery, but Dr. Ortiz is actually one of the leading Lapband surgeons around. I'm scheduled for surgery w/ Dr. Ortiz on Feb.29 and am excited and scared at the same time. I worry about if I'm going to feel like I'm suffercating due to the band because I'm closterphobic and even worry about whether or not the band will actually work for me. On top of that, after reading a lot of the threads and hearing people say that they can only get down a few sips of this or a couple licks of that, I worry about the hunger I'll feel and if I'll be able to control it/ how strong the need to eat will be. I think its in our nature to worry and therefore am so grateful for this site and all the feedback on it.