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Hello. I was looking into gastric bypass surgery 2 years ago, however at the time I was 18 and felt that a permenant operation like that was not what I truly wanted. Anyway I was told briefly about Lap Banding by the specialist I saw who also does gastric bypasses and he sort of ruled it out seeing as at that time it was $15,000 CDN. I am trying to find out if there is anyway possible to cover the expenses for a LB procedure? I am not sure if there are any other Canadians on here that might know but I figured it was worth a shot. I already know that OHIP does not cover it, and I believe I was told that health benefits are also not covering it here. At any rate any help or comments are greatly appreciated. I am essentially in a state where the surgery would turn my life around as I am 20, 6'3 and either reaching or surpassing the 500lb plateau :straight...take care! Oh and I will be discussing this with my family doctor on Thursday, but I wanted to get a move on my research.

hello thin dolphin, I can totally understand what you have gone thru your entire life. that pretty much sums me up in a nutshell the reason i went with lapband VS gastic bypass is because its less invasive and less revovery time compared to bypass and i didnt feel like them hackin me to peices and stapling me up and so forth and them in for some reason that comes undone then your stomach is open and infection happens and possibly death with the band its just a band wrapped around you . and its reversible. though you may not get fast weight loss as you do with the bypass, but thats the way its designed to be and reason being is so your skin can re adjust to the new body so you may not have much excess skin after weightloss but everyone is different. but what ever choice you make you will do great. i was banded 12/12/07 and i feel great and im only 8 days post op and i feel way different.

I had plastics in Monterrey, MX and lap band last week with Dr. Aceves in MX. I had PS here at home one time, and RNY several years ago here at home. I still talk with my Mexican PS surgeon. He was caring and I had a daily personal nurse come to my hotel before I could go home. After my LB in MX I was motoring around with my IV pole the same day. The have different rules about anesthesia- for me it was MUCH better than surgery at home. I will say I have a 4cc band, but I didn't argue. They had the AP and realize. 4cc have higher complication but better restriction sensation. Since mine is band over my bypass pouch, I figured higher pressure was better. What do I know! But I know I have a band and port. Fluro to prove it. I can't imagine where people are getting gauze instead. I believe bad things happen everywhere.

Oh man tig, so sorry to hear that...but you've got a great attitude, it's a good thing that you found out now and then you'll get good restriction. I wish I remembered what it's called, not sure if it's barium or fluro or something else, but anyway, they can inject something into your port and then look at it on a scan and it will show up where the leak is. I'd certainly ask about that as there was someone here recently (self-pay) that paid for a port revision only to find out it was a defective band. I've also heard of docs putting a blue die into the saline so when they draw it back out they know they're in the port and not just pulling fluid from your tissues...doesn't sound like that would help though if he's not getting anything out of the port at all. Well, at least it sounds like a short easy procedure. Good luck next week and keep us posted! -BG

First of all, what does he mean by "the band failed"? Does that mean it eroded, or slipped, or does it mean that the patients simply did not lose weight as they had expected? It's not a magic bullet and it does fail when people don't follow the rules, but so does the bypass. I'm not all that familiar with your culture, but it sounds like your husband is relying on the advice of your friend/surgeon primarily because he is a man and a physician, and dismissing your logic and preferences out of hand. Is there another doctor you might get to bolster your argument? Can you point out to your husband that you are an intelligent woman and ultimately, choices regarding your health should be made by you? At the end of the day, it's still your body and you are the one who has to live with the consequences of your decision.

Check this site out - maybe it will help your decision: Compare Gastric Bypass Surgery to the LAP-BAND Procedure For me: 1. Lower risk death risk with surgery and afterwards 2. Minimal hospital stay 3. No dumping syndrom -- I can eat sugar! 4. Reversable & Adjustable. I haven't regretted my decision - todate.

I need to create a macro where I can assign the phrase "Restless Monkey is Correct" to ONE key....because I'm tired of typing it....I type it ALL the time. But she is. And I'll chime in here about the idea of not being able to lose weight on a sub-1000 calorie diet. That would REALLY indicate a super-absorbtion problem. Some people simply cannot eat very much without gaining. Those are the superabsorbers. And those people are candidates for Bypass, rather than a restrictive procedure like the Band. The Band simply RESTRICTS your intake. The Bypass does that as well, BUT it keeps you from absorbing a certain portion of what you DO eat. So, if this is the problem you think you may have, talk to your Doctor. Bypass is not the "boogeyman" some people have made it out to be. They have been performing it quite successfully for nearly 50 years, and if the patient follows the prescribed protocol, then they can almost always predict exactly what the outcome will be. But DO talk to your Doctor about it. AFTER you've listened to Restless, that is... :biggrin: HH

No did not research bypass - i stopped at the point which talked about resecting intestines and malapsorption... that is too drastic for me - plus there seem to be many effects I would rather not deal with. If lap band doesn't work i would consider it.... but lap band will work just slower than others. I am severely insulin resistant w/ PCOS. THe heavier you are the more your body works to keep fat. Its a vicious circle. If i lose weight and not rebound (and the lap band will help that cuz i rebound when i slip and eat too many carbs... then i end up eating out of control).. I'm good. To me losing something is better than nothing or continuously gaining. Two doctors told me to do lap band they would not advise on bypass as the first thing in my case. I didn't really get into it w/ my surgeon because she doesn't know my history as well as my endocrine doctor and GP. I didn't say I don't lose on 1300 cals a day - i just don't lose a lot or quickly. If I end up losing more - then great. Maybe i lost my sense of calorie counting - thats always possible too as the other poster mentioned people's perception's are off. The lap band will keep me honest. My issue is not really behavioral but physical - I don't plan on eating icecream to cheat the band. I just need the ability to keep to really tiny portions and very low cal diet indefinitely. I can prob be disciplined enough on my own for a few months till full restriction.

Congratulations. I had a revision of lapband to sleeve on Dec 11 with Dr Garcia in Tijuana. I am currently down 38 pounds and still losing slowly. Some of this is my fault as I continue to find ways of talking myself out of going to the gym. I am getting some exercise as I take my dog out for a nice long walk daily when weather permits. I just need to start back to the gym so that my weight drops a little faster. I know that the rest will not just fall off over night but I have made a committment to this and want to follow through and reach my goal. For those who have set a goal and can not seem to reach it do not be so hard on yourselves. Maybe if you are at a weight close and have been there for 3 months or more your body is trying to tell you something. I know we all have an idea of what we want to weigh but lets face it........if we have lost 50, 80, 100 or more we are still better off than we were before we had the surgery and much healthier. Congratulations to all of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im from Rochester NY i got banded feb 2009 im looking for a support group for lapband i have been to monarch and odyssey support groups but they focus on gastric bypass. anyone interested in forming a support group for lap band ?? feel free to email me bren270@aol.com im trying to get a list together to form group...:tt1:

Hi Mike! Congratulations on getting your date. I am 16 months post-op from Gastric Bypass, and so happy I made the decision to do the surgery. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Best of luck to you!

I'm waiting to be sleeved, but a good friend of mine was revised from the band to RNY because of complications. My surgeon does a lot of revisions and said he doesn't think the band will be around in 5 years. Who knows if that's true or not but on these boards, it seems like a lit of people are considering revision. Good luck to you in whatever you choose:)

Hello everyone. Today I am 9 days post of from lap roux n y. However 18 months ago I had gastric sleeve. I struggled with weight loss after about 40 pounds. After trying everything to loose weight, one year out the dr and I decided that it was time to discuss doing the surgery again. I tried for 4 month to get insurance to pay for a resleeve and they denied it Everytime. So as june approached I told the doc to try to get bypass approved. It was. I had my bypass on June 28. I am still really sore, tired, and in WAY more pain than I was with the sleeve. I never joined a forum or read on one after sleeve. I also never really had a support group. This time I'm doing it different. This time I will succeed and hit my goal weight. :-)

I would listen to your surgeon. I never even considered the band because I known a few people in the family one had a few slips and they both gained some of the weight back. Then I come on here and see so many revisions .

Dear Alexandra, Our meeting, mostly made up of Dr. Borao's WLS patients and prospective patients, is at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ. We meet on the 4th Thursday each month, from 7 to 9. Anyone interested in joining our group (please do!) can call the surgery center for info: call 732-923-6070. We do have one Dr. Abkin patient who comes to our meeting. She lives in Toms River; so, this one is closer for her. She also likes our meetings. We had Gary, too, and a woman named Susan at our meeting. Yes, I think it's kind of neat that we USA bandsters are in on the early stages of the band in our country, and we're getting a lot of necesary attention from INAMED who wants to make certain their product is well-supported. Gary and Susan provided a wealth of information supporting our choice to have the band vs. bypass. And I was so comforted to hear that everywhere else in the world, the band is the "gold standard" for WLS. It is only in America that bypass is still considered the "gold standard". Did Gary tell your group that there are bypassers who have gained back their weight and have added a band to their bypass so that they can lose weight? That blew my mind! I always thought it might work the other way around. I feel so good about my choice now. Thanks for your consistent support, Candy

I live in the Winston-salem, NC area and I am looking for a surgeron in this area. My husbands insurance will pay for weight loss surgery, I am kinda scared of the bypass surgery. Does anyone know who I can go to here in Winston-Salem, NC. And is this surgery faily safe? And I read something about the hiatal (sp) hernia on this can you still have the surgery if you have on? Please advise, Anyone? And thank you for anyadvise you have. sincerely, Donna

The "male" part of this is interesting, isn't it? Ok, I realize that many of the non-males in this forum may not think it's interesting But the fact is, there is that aspect of this decision that might feel like failure. If I was enough of a man, I would just choose to be thinner and healthier - and it would happen. After all, I am master of my domain - not an intentional Seinfeld reference, but since it's there, we'll go with it! When I chose to have the band surgery, there was definitely some of that 'maleness' I needed to overcome. One of the aspects of 'maleness' that kept jumping out at me was the (misguided) belief that I needed to have more control over my circumstances. I needed to be able to just 'decide' and things would immediately start getting better. But it didn't really take me very long to change my thinking a little. I came to the conclusion that my decision to have the band was a choice - a way for me to re-assert myself, to impose some control over the situation. As you said, our choices at this point are fairly limited. For many years, I demonstrated that I was either unable or unwilling to make the necessary changes on my own. So, as you said, I had to realistically look at a reduced set of choices: something fairly direct and drastic (like this band surgery), or something even more direct and drastic (heart attack or stroke or...). I know the statistics show that the majority of patients for this type of procedure are female. And I know that the majority of the members of this forum community are female. But there are quite a few men on this board - and many of us actually post on occasion. In my own personal opinion (as one who is not a medical professional or a mental health professional or a Inamed Lap Band sales person - but as a male) the lap band surgery is a better choice for men... all things being equal. In general, the band forces us to make conscious changes in the way that we do things - pretty much permanently. In general, RNY or other gastric bypasses will allow you to lose weight without making any real changes. (I do realize that's a generalization - and that the right choices and changes would help the RNY's effectiveness.) Already - I've only been banded for a month - I can see the difference in my life. I've made changes in my habits, and I can see changes in my body. This simple cause-and-effect scenario is very appealing to my simple male mind - and as my wife said a couple of posts back, I definitely don't regret my decision to have this surgery... I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm down almost 100 pounds in 5 1/2 months, and it's been easy. Whatever you've tried so far hasn't worked; this will, if you let it. And it IS reversible - you can have the band unfilled, you can even have the band removed. This ain't gastric bypass surgery. And it's an extremely safe surgical procedure.

You are right that sleeve is considered major surgery and brings with it some additional risks, however, there are plenty or "horror stories" w lap-band as well. My surgeon, who admittedly was slow to adopt the sleeve, now says that he can only recommend the lap-band with serious reservations...he says what he likes about the sleeve is that his patients have great outcomes while saying it is easy to live with (the latter not being something that either bypass or lap-band patients tend to say)

Does anyone have any information on lapband after VSG surgery or have had it done and can share the experience? MGB or RNY was suggested as possible revisions but I fear these options due to the malabsorption. Thanks for any comments.

@@JamieLogical explained it very well. There are actually YouTube videos that kind of demonstrate it. I say "kind of", because the video uses a funnel with no simulated pyloric valve, so it's more in line with a bypass stomach. Sleevers have a pyloric valve, so there is something preventing the stomach contents from just pouring into the intestines. All that being said and despite all the scientific explanations and surgeon recommendations, I have drank with my meals since about 6 months out. And I eat Soup all the time. I still lost over 100% of my excess weight and at 27 months out have kept it off. So no, although probably helpful for many, due to all the reasons listed above, it is not a totally necessary rule that you HAVE to follow. I found drinking with meals didn't make me too full or less full or hungry sooner. Besides, at this point in my journey it's my brain that decides what and how much and how often to eat, not my sleeve.

Judy, people have band to sleeve revisions all the time who have not yet regained all their weight. But the band becomes a problem and they need to remove it...and they know that if they simply remove that and do nothing else the weight will come back on in a hurry due to the change in metabolism. In those cases I'm all for it. On the other hand, you've got a young 20 something who is 15 pounds overweight and doesn't want to have to fight weight problems in the future so she has WLS...I'm not sure I support that. Because as you say, she still will have to do the same things to keep the weight off in the future regardless of whether or not she has the surgery. I think the surgery is great for people who already have the weight and are having trouble getting it off. The sleeve gives you a chance to lose it but you have to do the work to keep it off. For people who simply see the weight gain as inevitable, and want to prevent obsesity related problems in the future....I truly believe those people can prevent those issues with the same attention to health and nutrition without having surgery if they commit before the weight gain has gotten out of control.... UNLESS...there are diagnosed, underlying medical conditions which will lead to obesity regardless.....like disorders of the thyroid. Ought these people have WLS as a preventative measure when they know obesity is coming regardless of what they do? I don't know enough about thyroid disorders to know how likely that scenario is, but I'm willing to at least consider the possibility in these cirucumstances.

The main issue is that if you drink while eating, the Water mixes with the food and flushes through your stomach more quickly and therefor you won't feel full as long and will be able to eat much more. It's basically a way of bypassing your restriction, making it easier for you to eat more food. Drinking before eating can allegedly fill you up and make you eat less, and therefore not get ENOUGH food, but I find that theory to be pretty much BS, because I watched my post-op leak test and saw how fast liquid moved through my stomach. It was through in a matter of seconds, so the rule of not drinking for 20+ minutes before eating just seems like a surefire way to NOT get enough liquids in. I drink right up to the time I start eating. Drinking after eating will just make you overfull and uncomfortable. If your stomach is full of food, there's nowhere for the liquid to go and it'll just sit on top of the food and possibly get backed up into your esophagus, which is NOT good. But as I said, drinking WHILE eating is the most dangerous. Because when the food mixes with liquid to become a more apple-sauce like consistently, it passes through more quickly and makes it easier to eat more, defeating the whole purpose of the restriction.

I can give you a referral. Dr. Ramos Kelly in Tijuana did mine (revision from lapband to VSG) and my niece's vsg and was great, the whole experience was great. They treat you wonderful and you can talk directly to the doctor if you want, that isn't a big deal at all. I did a lot of research before going down there and there were about 3 I had decided on and narrowed it down to him. I have heard about many good ones in Mexico. After doing research get on all the forums you want and search out that doctor's name and communicate with people who have actually had it done by the doctor you are considering...that is the best referral system, a testimony! There might be people not satisfied with him, I don't know. Everyone has there on priorities and needs look into who fits their wants and needs. I appreciated all the names and numbers I could get when I was doing research. Try and book directly through the doctor not an agency if possible. Here is their email for information: wls-clinic@hotmail.com or website http://www.ramoskellymd.com/ the coordinator there is name Omar and he is exceptionally nice and helpful. I am not saying just go to him but I'm just giving you a start on your research. everyone needs to pick their own doctor of course. Here is my video of our time there. Good luck with your research and decision. feel free to ask me any questions.

so far okay. Having issues with a metallic taste in my mouth messing with my ability to consume my shakes (makes me gag!). I'm a little too focused in the now to worry about five years ahead, I think. Especially since I'm so very much in the beginning of my journey. However, I do know a girl about 2.5 years out from bypass and another 3 years out from sleeve and both are doing very well. Sent from my electric toaster using the BariatricPal App.