AlienBandit

Interested to know where you had surgery and how you got it covered by OHIP

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Hey gang,

Well i have been on here forever but now I really need your help. I have been without a fill doctor for over 2 years. When i left Korea I had no money and am just now getting myself organized. I finally have a job with benefits but alas nothing covers my band.

I have been trying to stay at my lowest weight of 150lbs but have gone up to about 170 and really need to get on a north american band wagon. Anyone got room?

If anyone has a doctor (or knows a doctor) that does fills for people banded outside of Canada, please let me know

I lived and was banded abroad and now in Toronto so I'd love to join in

Does anyone know of or have a doc in Spain that accepts patients not banded by him? I was banded in Korea but will be in La Rioja for a while and want to make sure I have a what if kind of doc. Anything up north or towards Madrid would be ok.

Or anyone have any idea where I can search for a doc?

There is a doctor in Missisauga that does fills and not the outragous thousands post op plans. Heres the info info@creditvalleyclinic.ca Tel: (905) 820-0282 $500 first visit and $250 per fill after

There is a doctor in Missisauga that does fills and not the outragous thousands post op plans. Heres the info info@creditvalleyclinic.ca Tel: (905) 820-0282 $500 first visit and $250 per fill after

My BMI was 33 when I was banded. I am now at 26 and hoping to someday get to 22-23 BMI. It was def worth it as my BMI and weight was only climbing so I bit the bullet before it got bigger.

Congrats! Speaking to a group can be nerve racking but so much fun. I was a guest speaker at all medical conferences held by my hospital for 3 years. Most of the people I spoke in front of were doctors and nurses (and the majority barely spoke English) so if you would like you can send me your email addy and I can forward you my speeches if you would like to see what sorts of things I talked bout

I def would NOT get a reduction before losing the weight. I started a DD at 220lbs years ago and lost some weight and went down to a b (150lbs) then i gained weight, was at 200 lbs and was a D. Then I lost weight again and at 150lbs I was a b again and my boobs looked terrible. I went in for a lift and implants and I am now a d again.

You will lose a lot in your boobs during weight loss so I would wait to see how you end up. You dont want to get a reduction and then lose weight and lose more boobs and then be saggy and super small.

I had strange pains once. It was above my belly button in the middle of my body. I started feeling around the area when it hurt ( on and off) and realized I could feel my tubing from my band to my port. I went to the doctor who said I needed a port revision to move the tubing because it had migrated towards the surface of my skin. We did a full check up just to be safe and accidently found that my band had eroded into my stomach a bit. It wasnt causing pain but I had the band removed to let my stomach heal and then got a new band 5 months later. That was over 2 years ago. THings are fine now.

I was banded outside of Canada (please spare me the why did you do that, that was stupid etc comments I simply couldnt afford the surgery in Canada ) and now I am searching for a fill doctor in Ontario.

However it appears that Slimband (how is that place even still operating with all the bad reviews seriously?!) and other big companies seem to have complete control over Ontario when it comes to post op fill stuff. I do not have $5,000 for a post op care plan nor do I want to pay that and no one seems to do just fills on a pay per visit system.

Ontario is where I am from but not where I will be living for the rest of my life, so it would be a waste of money to spend the $5,000 on a post op plan and then in a year or 2 move again ( most likely to the States) where I will need yet another doctor ( or post op plan) or travel back to Ontario. Totally not worth it.

I have been searching and searching with no luck. I have a doctor in Montreal who will take me as a patient, but I am just hoping to find someone closer.

I have read past posts about doctors in Ottawa, Toronto and Sudbury but everyone I have tried said they only offer the post op care plans. I found a place in Orilla but wouldnt give me any info about costs told me I must come before they can discuss that (wtf).

Anybody have a doc that charges per fill in Ontario?

Thanks! and happy weight loss

Ive flown a ton and never really had a problem.

The first time I felt a little sore the morning after flying like I did some sit ups the night before but during the flight I was ok eating.

I generally take really long flights so I do sometimes find that through the flight I get tighter but never tight enough that I cant drink.

Also if you are worried about food on the flight, order a special meal instead of the regular one. I find that the low calorie meal is like our soft diet, fruit meal is good for foods that wont get stuck, low carb ones dont include bread etc.

I used to get a shot of freezing because I was so afraid of the pain but I am also afraid of needles. Just getting that shot would take 10 minutes of me freaking out.

After a few fills my doc got tired of it and tried to convince me to try just once with no freezing. It took about 20 minutes to convince me but I tried it ( his nurses had to hold me down a bit so I would move) but it didnt hurt at all.

I skipped the freezing from there on in to avoid the extra needle poking

I had plastics done but I could have survived without it. The extra sin and such I had wasnt hanging or causing infections but I did not find my body attractive and I didnt like the skin waving and such.M

My plastics was a now or never thing because I won't be able to be in this country again where the price is lower so I just went for it.

OMG!! You ate!!!!!! bread? !?!?!?!?

.......

I am jealous! hahahahhaha

Honestly like said before the pre op diet is for your liver. In all honesty I would just tell your doctor for a better peace of mind but food food is not a deal breaker here.

He will prob say he hears that all the commonas pre op diets can be hard. I didnt have to do one but I spent enough time on the liquid diet post op I know how can that can be.

I am up front with my doctor all the time (hey doc I swallow gum, should I worry, hey doc I ate a bagel this morning think its time for a fill etc) and that is better then lying or not telling him because he is there to help his patients post op.

Take this time to learn and move on from it.

I have traveled a lot even in remote places like Lesotho and Laos with my band. I never got an unfill but I was never in those places for one year.

Many countries do have doctors who knows what they are doing with the band, so South Africa isnt exactly close but you could see a doctor there is there was a problem.

I would suggest talking to your doctor but if it were me I would go with a special needle, and have Fluid in my band but not be at a really good restriction. A complete unfill might not be a good idea because that could give your band TOO much room to move.

I was banded in Asia and have lived in Korea the entire time ( and traveled around) and have met others banded in Japan, Thailand, India etc. So even though you might feel out of your comfort zone seeing a doc in a different country, there are ones that exist and have experience.

Have you searched to see if there are any docs in Africa? It isnt all 3rd world.

I am interested to hear everyones results. My doc was doing something similar to this ( stitching horizontally and not vertically) so that bands couldnt slip but after a year of doing some patients who requested this and most of them having complications ( band removal, erosion, infection) etc he has stopped doing plication, he hates it really.

the iband is similar to something he does sometimes ( he does the sleeve with the band) so I would love to give him insight on plication vertically and the band working together.

My PS also uses.... no drains. I heard that the drains are very painful. And no staples, staples some times cause infection. I stayed one night in the hospital with a Morphine pump. went home with Percocet and lovanox injections that i had to get twice a day to prevent blood clots. I would say most of the "discomfort" was from the Lipo. He removed about 2-3lbs of skin and 1 liter of fat with LIPO.

The pain was no more than my C-Sections.

First of all congrats for no drains. They are a pain in the ass or err hip'? depends where they are.

Second yes drains can be painful coming out I screamed the first time but I have also accidentally cut off my drain different surgery a year later( well cut the tubing was trying to cut tape + big scissors = oohhh ****) Since I didnt think duct tape was a good idea I text my doc who told me to pull out my drain ( he was in a meeting it was 9pm I live 2 hours from him) so I did thankfully no pain!

Surgery saturday, work on Monday. my boss never knew I had surgery lol

Im a teacher and didnt take any time off. My co teacher (controller of students in my class at the time) knew of my surgery and I went back to work on Monday (surg was sat left hos on sunday) and "took it easy". I taught at the front of the class so on my feet all day but she got the students to help ie handing out papers so I wasnt running around.

I spent 4 hours on my feet 4 hours at my desk so it wasnt that bad. Post op my biggest challenge was stairs and the 10 walk up and down the hill to my house to and from work.

My doc said I should take a few days off ( actually I had so much gas in my lungs he wanted to keep me a few days but I went home against his wishes, since im still here 3 years later things worked out ok) but turned out ok. Now most of his patients follow my lead and go back to work asap helping with recovery because moving = gas going faster

I would suggest 1-2 days off work and then when back at work walk 5 mintues every hour and 10 deep breathes every hour

There are different kind of band surgeries.

There is the TUBA where all the instruments go through your belly button or your doc might not have that tool and need the make small incisions around your belly button.

For me my first band surgery I came out with 4 incisions. The port went thru my bb, then there was the incision to move my liver (under my rib cage) then 2 more incisions right side left side for the camera and tool to band me etc.

My second surgery I only had 3 incisions ( my liver was good that day).

I have heard of people coming out with 3-7 incisions. Sometimes that liver isnt nice to the doc and they need some extra "hands" in there to move it etc.

So moral of the lesson: don't get tattooed anywhere near your port. It turned out it's likely I caused the leak myself. I'm a little peeved about it now. BUT the good news is he checked the liquid he put in at the op (4cc) and all of it was still there so it looks like the leak is fixed now. I've now got 5cc in there and am hopefully back on my way to health and to some restriction!

This is def good for me to know! I have a Tummy Tuck scar that is one ugly b***h so I want to cover it but my surgery a few weeks ago ( to answer ur question Lellow) was a scar revision feb 4 and then a port revision feb 18( my doc moved my port to an easier to hit location for Canadian doctors)

Now my port is right at my left hip. I wanted a tat to cover it so it wasnt so obvious, scrap that idea. Guess I am telling the world I got the band cuz there is no explanation for that bump (yes its low profile and still sticks out)

Anyways so I am walking behind the band wagon but not yet on it. My scar revision surgery from Feb4 th seems to be a waste because the incision has a hole that won't heal in it. Not only that but it has now ripped horizontal and vertically making it bigger. I will never get a scar revision again ( 99% of the scar revision was perfect this little bugger of a spot is the only problem so ok scar revision was ok for the most part).

Hopefully by April I can hop on the wagon. For now I am just trying to eat better but no gyming *tear* what a waste of 4 month membership when I only went 3 times before surgery and i leave the country in a month grrrr

Hope everything is healing good Lellow

I am Canadian too and I wanted the band so bad for years before I got it (researched for 8 years). When I asked some docs it was 20-25,000!!

I have a sweet tooth too, but I could usually control it. I was overweight because of my portion sizes and not so much cuz I ate sweets non-stop.

Doctors usually suggest that if you are a sweets kind of person the band is not the best idea because sweets are sliders. That is when they more suggest the sleeve for people because it makes the over all stomach smaller and not just giving you a pouch.

Maybe see a doc and see what he suggests but the sleeve might be a good idea too. If you are freaked out by the whole cutting your stomach there is sleeve plication where they just stitch the stomach smaller.

Either way, even if you talk to docs in Canada I would look into places like Mexico too because it is way cheaper. I got banded in Korea because I have lived here for some years now and the price was so much more affordable.

Yea my doc said my pouch was a little stretched but still gave me a fill ?? He doesnt seem concerned and since the liquid we watched went thru my band fast clearly I needed a fill..... idk

when I was rebanded, I had sex a week post op and a few days later someone asked this question and I was like ohhh yea I had sex without even worrying like a week after.

Sometimes, other things are more on your mind