Slimband?

[kurby 0]

Hi,

I just had my first consultation with Silvanna at slimband. she's very nice but i'm very overwhelmed with all the info and reading so much on the boards.

I thought i read last year that the procedure was going to be covered by our health card soon - i'm guessing it still isn't but does anyone know anything about OHIP covering the cost?

i did read that they did cover some people if they went to the States to get it doen - seems counterproductive to send the money out of country instead of keeping everything here.

i've got a lot of reading to do with all these threads.

[Doddie63 6]

Hi,

I just had my first consultation with Silvanna at slimband. she's very nice but i'm very overwhelmed with all the info and reading so much on the boards.

I thought i read last year that the procedure was going to be covered by our health card soon - i'm guessing it still isn't but does anyone know anything about OHIP covering the cost?

i did read that they did cover some people if they went to the States to get it doen - seems counterproductive to send the money out of country instead of keeping everything here.

i've got a lot of reading to do with all these threads.

Suggest you google OHHP to see what they are doing. I read out West here that they infact were covering the costs of lapband but when and the criteria is anyones guess. MY suggestion to you is join Canadianlapbanders on Yahoo and obtain meeting times and places. Attend as many meetings as possible and talk to bandsters who have had the band for a long time and some not so long.

I understand that Canadianlapbanders is owned by a Slimband employee but SWLC clients also post their meetings. You can go to either clinics sites and obtain meeting time and places. Everyone is welcome. Even if you are out west, come to our meetings and get as must upfront information that you would like. We have Meico, USA and Canadian clinics attending our meeting and I am sure the two eastern clinics do as well. Good luck and take your time researching.

[lisapkrenzi 0]

hi all! I am happy to see some people recommendng Slimband. I too spoke with Silvanna, and am in the process of trying to set up a date for june.

any other info on Slimband would be great to read!

[kurby 0]

I'm going to be banded at Slimband on Thursday.

right now i'm not nervous but come wednesday i bet i'll be up all night.

i have to spend the night since i've got a CPAC machine so i won't be in until the afternoon - plenty of time to get very nervous

[Buggie1369 0]

I had my band done through slimband, and it has been a pretty good experience. I'm from alberta, so i get my fills done in calgary- slimband calls and does some follow-up and then i call the fill clinic and set up a time that works for me. Dr.Cyriac did my surgery and he did a pretty good job.

[ohaw 2]

Dr. Cyriac performed my surgery on surgery day...but the whole time I was told I was having Dr. Yau. He did a great job but I was surprised to see him and questioned myself in the final moments before surgery. I did it and glad I did. I will be 4 months post op tomorrow and down 58 lbs. I travelled from Nova Scotia to Toronto for my surgery.

[Vicki-Sue 0]

Dr. Cyriac performed my surgery on surgery day...but the whole time I was told I was having Dr. Yau. He did a great job but I was surprised to see him and questioned myself in the final moments before surgery. I did it and glad I did. I will be 4 months post op tomorrow and down 58 lbs. I travelled from Nova Scotia to Toronto for my surgery.

Hello,

I have just joined this forum and find it most informative. I am very happy to see that most of you have had good experiences at the Slimband clinic in Toronto. I am visiting my own GP tomorrow to get his input and then I will hopefully be able to book my own surgery soon afterward. Best of luck to you all and I look forward to sharing my own experiences with you soon.

[RANDOUSH 0]

I'm in the process of booking my surgery with Slimband right now. My surgery is scheduled for April 16th and I'm really looking forward to it. So far my experience has been a bit of a roller coaster. It went like this:

1. First point of contact was with someone called Tara (I think). I'm not entirely sure what her name was but I'll tell you now she was super pushy and VERY rude to me. I was debating between having my surgery in the UK (where I'd been living for the last 7 years) and having it done in Canada. She was so rude to me about choosing some 'foreign' doctor to do my surgery and tried to scare me into believing that NO canadian doctor would take care of me after I'd had surgery abroad. I explained to her that I already had a doctor lined up as a family member had their lap band done abroad in January. She still didn't believe me. She told me she'd never heard of any doctor willing to clean up some other doctor's mess. VERY rude, very pushy and a complete liar. I was not impressed. BUT I wanted to know the cost and she wouldn't tell me so I asked to speak to a 'consultant'.

2. I spoke with a consultant called Niki. She's actually the woman from the TV ads and on the website. She was completely different to my first point of contact. She was pleasant and listened to all of my questions and answered them to my satisfaction. She explained that even though I'm based in Ottawa, they have 'outreach programs' and a doctor in Ottawa that does fills/defills for Slimband. Well, it seems it's the same doctor I was going to go to when I was thinking of getting my surgery in the UK. Anyway, Niki gave me plenty of information and helped me through the application process. That being said, when there was a delay with a fax I should have sent the sales person pressure came out of Niki as well. She pulled out classic sales tactics 101 and tried threats, fear, implying she did me a favour, and strict deadlines. I ended up sending her the information she was after and literally haven't heard from her since.

3. Now, the thing that's weird for me is that throughout Niki's sales pitch I was told that Dr Patrick Yau had completed over 3500 surgeries and that the rest of the staff had completed nearly another 1500. I made it clear from the start that if I was going to go with Slimband I wanted Dr Yau. I've tried on multiple occasions to get confirmation that Dr Yau will be performing my surgery and even suggested that if he's not available I'm prepared to wait and all communication has gone cold. No response.

4. I received the 'services agreement' and in the agreement it says that any member of their surgical staff that they deem suitable may perform my surgery. I wasn't told THAT during the whole sales pitch!

5. The services agreement also outlines an 'explanatory binder' and a 'surgery DVD' that I should receive but I haven't yet and when I've asked about it twice none of the contacts have provided an explanation.

6. I tried to join Myslimband.com and post questions and comments but for some reason I can't post anywhere. I sent a message to Amy the administrator a couple of days ago and haven't heard anything back. It seems pretty silly to me to have a 'forum' when only SOME people are allowed to be involved in the discussion.

So, here I am living in Ottawa awaiting a surgery from a COMPANY I'm not entirely sure I want to work with. All of their staff have told me to email them with questions or concerns and their website promotes their 'support' for their clients but since I've signed the $16,000 away, I haven't really had ANY real answers to my questions.

I'm trying to be balanced here so I will say that I've had my blood work done and it has Dr Yau's name on it but I wonder if any other Slimband patients have had his name on their forms and had their surgery done by another doctor. I've also got the pre-op diet information sheet which is easy to understand and follow. I've started today but I've got some questions and since non of the Slimband staff are replying to my emails and I don't have any permissions in the Slimband forum I came here.

Not only am I nervous about this life-changing surgery and the $16,000 debt I've just agreed to I'm totally confused because I've got plenty more questions AND I don't even know who my surgeon is going to be.

I've found some answers here so this forum has been a pretty big help. Keep looking around and you'll find more answers yourself.

I don't mean for this to discourage you or anyone else considering Slimband because when the contact silence finally ends I'm sure I'll end up happier but I guess I just feel a bit trapped now when I should be feeling anticipation and some relief for the life change ahead of me.

Good luck!

[RANDOUSH 0]

Hi

Im wondring how did your surgery go? im planning of booking mine next month and i read your post , did the surgery go well . Did you loose weight already . Did dr Yau do your surgery ? I will greatly appreciate it if you reply to my questions .

Thank you

[swansong 0]

Maybe you should ask some of the other clinics like CIBO or SWLC. Why wouldn't they respond

[so done with it all 1]

I don't quite understand why you would want to stick with them if this is how they are treating you already and you haven't even had surgery yet. This is going to be a huge indication of what post op follow up will be like if they can't handle some simple pre op questions. If there is any way you can get out of the contract, I'd be running as far and as fast as possible. And if you can't get out of,it hopefully, others thinking of going there can be extremely cautious about getting everything answered prior to the handing over of funds.

[telly01 0]

I'm in the process of booking my surgery with Slimband right now. My surgery is scheduled for April 16th and I'm really looking forward to it. So far my experience has been a bit of a roller coaster. It went like this:

1. First point of contact was with someone called Tara (I think). I'm not entirely sure what her name was but I'll tell you now she was super pushy and VERY rude to me. I was debating between having my surgery in the UK (where I'd been living for the last 7 years) and having it done in Canada. She was so rude to me about choosing some 'foreign' doctor to do my surgery and tried to scare me into believing that NO canadian doctor would take care of me after I'd had surgery abroad. I explained to her that I already had a doctor lined up as a family member had their lap band done abroad in January. She still didn't believe me. She told me she'd never heard of any doctor willing to clean up some other doctor's mess. VERY rude, very pushy and a complete liar. I was not impressed. BUT I wanted to know the cost and she wouldn't tell me so I asked to speak to a 'consultant'.

2. I spoke with a consultant called Niki. She's actually the woman from the TV ads and on the website. She was completely different to my first point of contact. She was pleasant and listened to all of my questions and answered them to my satisfaction. She explained that even though I'm based in Ottawa, they have 'outreach programs' and a doctor in Ottawa that does fills/defills for Slimband. Well, it seems it's the same doctor I was going to go to when I was thinking of getting my surgery in the UK. Anyway, Niki gave me plenty of information and helped me through the application process. That being said, when there was a delay with a fax I should have sent the sales person pressure came out of Niki as well. She pulled out classic sales tactics 101 and tried threats, fear, implying she did me a favour, and strict deadlines. I ended up sending her the information she was after and literally haven't heard from her since.

3. Now, the thing that's weird for me is that throughout Niki's sales pitch I was told that Dr Patrick Yau had completed over 3500 surgeries and that the rest of the staff had completed nearly another 1500. I made it clear from the start that if I was going to go with Slimband I wanted Dr Yau. I've tried on multiple occasions to get confirmation that Dr Yau will be performing my surgery and even suggested that if he's not available I'm prepared to wait and all communication has gone cold. No response.

4. I received the 'services agreement' and in the agreement it says that any member of their surgical staff that they deem suitable may perform my surgery. I wasn't told THAT during the whole sales pitch!

5. The services agreement also outlines an 'explanatory binder' and a 'surgery DVD' that I should receive but I haven't yet and when I've asked about it twice none of the contacts have provided an explanation.

6. I tried to join Myslimband.com and post questions and comments but for some reason I can't post anywhere. I sent a message to Amy the administrator a couple of days ago and haven't heard anything back. It seems pretty silly to me to have a 'forum' when only SOME people are allowed to be involved in the discussion.

So, here I am living in Ottawa awaiting a surgery from a COMPANY I'm not entirely sure I want to work with. All of their staff have told me to email them with questions or concerns and their website promotes their 'support' for their clients but since I've signed the $16,000 away, I haven't really had ANY real answers to my questions.

I'm trying to be balanced here so I will say that I've had my blood work done and it has Dr Yau's name on it but I wonder if any other Slimband patients have had his name on their forms and had their surgery done by another doctor. I've also got the pre-op diet information sheet which is easy to understand and follow. I've started today but I've got some questions and since non of the Slimband staff are replying to my emails and I don't have any permissions in the Slimband forum I came here.

Not only am I nervous about this life-changing surgery and the $16,000 debt I've just agreed to I'm totally confused because I've got plenty more questions AND I don't even know who my surgeon is going to be.

I've found some answers here so this forum has been a pretty big help. Keep looking around and you'll find more answers yourself.

I don't mean for this to discourage you or anyone else considering Slimband because when the contact silence finally ends I'm sure I'll end up happier but I guess I just feel a bit trapped now when I should be feeling anticipation and some relief for the life change ahead of me.

Good luck!

[Pain and Problems 0]

My name is Leah Davies I am 26 years old and i have been battling with my weight for my whole life,on august 20th 2010 i had the lapband procedure done at the slimband clinic in toronto the procedure was done by Dr. Pavi Kundhal. for the first 3 weeks i was on a strict liquid/soft pureed food diet then i was able to go to solid foods and i started having problems eating the very first day, the food would get stuck and this caused a great amount of pain and if i was lucky it would go down on its own after a few minutes but most of the time i had to bring the food back up in order to dislodge it. So the first time i contacted the Support staff at the Slimband clinic i was advised to go back to soft foods for another few days that maybe the swelling from surgery had still not gone down and once you vomit there is a good chance it will happen again because now that area is irritated. so i went back on soft foods for another week and i was still experience the same issues even with those.once i stared back on solid foods for the second try the problems persisted but i tried my best to get through it. i followed the advise of the support staff to the fullest i would have a hot drink before my meal like i was advised to try, i chewed my food until it was paste i took my time eating and still no relief from the food getting stuck. in October i had my first follow up with the doctor who asked me the same questions do i chew my food? do i take my time? and do i take small bites? and i answered yes to all these questions so he then sent me for my first defill the band was then loosened and even then i still could not eat with ease. i had phone appointments with nutritionalist Arlene who i was very honest with when telling her what i was eating and how i was eating and was advised by her that i was not eating enough to get the bennifit of the band although all the problems i had been having made me scared to eat why would i want to put myself in that kind of pain and discomfort? I was advised to eat 3 meals a day and 2 to 3 Snacks to get maximum weight loss well to be honest at this point i would have been more satisfied with not having to chock up everything i ate! i threw up everything from Water to meat and everything in between then in December i went for a second defill because this was the only solution and still no relief by the end of December i had my 3rd and final defill because as i was advised by the doctor who did the defill the band was nearly empty there was nothing left to take and the eating problems never got better the vomiting got so intense my nose would bleed and i would cry from the pain this was becoming a serious problem to me. and i had voiced my issues with everyone at the slimband clinic that would listen and still no one could offer me any resolution in this time i had visited to ER on 2 separate occasions because the pain was so excruciating i was concerned with all the vomiting i had done some real damage and i was just fluffed off as to having heartburn.My mother was so frustrated one day and so concerned that she emailed a letter to slimband insiting someone do something to help me i then got a call from Dr Kundhal who i again voiced my issues to he then advised me to go for an upper GI to get a view of the band to ensure it was placed properly so i made an appointment and had that done in February, the hospital did not send the results i did not know that so i sent the results myself through the mail and they were never received so i then had to drive them out to the slimband clinic to ensure they were received made an appointment for the doctor to call me to go over the results on the day of the appointment the doctor did not call so i called him waited on hold for 20 min so my appointment was past due by 40 min and when he answered the phone he had no idea who was calling and when i told him who i was he then had no idea why i was calling, i had to tell him i was calling for test results and he just bluntly said there was nothing wrong with the band.Although when i had a follow up with my family doctor to go over the same test results because she received them she advised me i had a hernia. a hernia which i was advised was repaired during surgery so i mentioned the hernia to Dr. Kundhal and asked him if there was a chance that was what could be causing my problems he advised me no that the hernia would not be causing these types of problems, i am not a doctor and have no idea but i was left to wonder if he even repaired it in the first place if it wouldn't cause problems why bother doing extra work? but i am still unsure as to that point if the hernia he said he repaired during surgery that showed up on my Upper GI would cause problems. so what were my options? i have been in pain and discomfort for 7 months at this point and no one could figure out why and to be honest every person i talked to didn't seem to have any information or answeres no one was familiar with why i was calling even though i had called the slimband clinic up to this time and spoke with a number of people but did not get the feeling of concern for my situation so the day the doctor gave me my test results he gave me one option to have exploritory surgery and i was not ok with this option i could not take time from a new job to recover and the fear of then having the same problems once he told me again there was nothing wrong i was affraid of choking all the time i have had to pull over to throw up i have thrown up in the car in the parking lot and bathroom of work this was not something that only happened once in a blue moon this is really a problem that had been going on for the entire time i had the band in so i decided to have it removed i decided this was the best option for me to reclaim my life i was not getting the assistance and support slimband promises and i feel and still do feel that i did my fair part in trying to get this resolved took time off work for appointments and took tripes out to the clinic on days off to deliver test results i gave them more than enough opportunity to at least try and help me and i have never felt that anyone cared enough to even try so i had the band removed on April 12th 2011so now i am trying to get a refund i spoke with the pre op administrator Robert Hollis who is really just the accountant and told him the reason i had the band removed and requested a refund on April 13th i then called in back today on april 18th and he advised me today they will not refund me my only option is to seek legal action so that is what i am going to be doing but i wanted it to be known whoever reads this that this is not right i did not remove the band because it didnt help me lose weight and i just wasnt happy with it i removed it because i was throwing up to the point my nose would bleed and coughing so hard to get the food to come out that i was affraid i might actually choke to death its scary to not beable to breath i was coughing so hard and painful so i took the band out so that i could stop those things from happening. and i really dont agree with slimband keeping my money or anyones money that has gone through something like that this surgery costs 16 thousand dollars i was really wanting it to work for me to help me lose weight if it had of worked the was it was supposed to i would have kept it in forever with no complaints but it did not help me all it caused was pain Slimband claims this surgery is the best option because it does not require you to make life altering changes to your eating habits except to eat less which is only expected with any weight loss method but the problems i had did not allow me to enjoy going to a restaurant because on 2 occasions i tried i ended up in the bathroom and once running out of the restaurant leaving my boyfriend sitting at the table to throw up in the parking lot i had to turn down lunch invitations from co workers and i was not able to even eat lunch at work because i simply did not have enough time to try to eat anything and in all honesty i was sparing myself the embarrassment of having to bring it up or explain whats is wrong with me so this did change my whole life for the time i had it in because eating less and eating more healthy was never my problem it was the pain and suffering the band caused. i do wish it would have worked for me and i hope to anyone who has it that it works for them but to anyone thinking of getting this surgery please do the research and really think about it and make sure you are aware of all the things that could go wrong because if you have problems like i did there might not be any other option for you either and if you take the band out you will be relieved from the pain and discomfort but the slimband clinic still made 16 thousand dollars off of your negative side effects.I am going to take legal action that is the next step and i will do whatever it takes to make it known that it is not right that slimband break all promises of support and assistance and when i was at my wits end with nowhere to turn for help i make the decision that is best for me and slimband thinks its right to keep the money i paid .

[Regret 1]

I am a former Slimband patient would would like to share my story so that I can help others avoid what I went through. At the end of the day, the decision is yours to make but having some honest perspective is important.

I had my Slimband surgery on March 30, 2011 and had it removed 5 days later. Biggest mistake and largest regret of my life. I was in constant agony and was nauseous from the moment I woke up from surgery to the point of having the band removed. Additionally, I had to fly back to Toronto to have the band removed as local ER's consider it a cosmetic procedure and they aren't interested in any of the literature that Slimband sends you home with.

During the 5 days I had the Slimband, I was unable to keep even Water down and was severely dehydrated. It was an incredibly traumatizing experience and not what I was expecting or was told to expect.

To add insult to injury, I am trying to work with Slimband on some kind of refund. I am not looking to get 100% of the $16,000 back or be reimbursed for my $2,000 travel/accommodations costs back to Toronto, but the surgery was just one piece of the total package. I will never have access to all of the support, doctors, require fills or take advantage of any of the items they sell you as part of the package. All of a sudden, the attentive folks that wanted my money will not return my calls or emails.

This is not a story of bitterness, this can happen and it can happen to you. I know very well all of the reasons why this surgery seems so appealing. All I am asking is for you to consider if this is really right for you and are you prepared to lose this much money if something goes wrong.

[ppmxxy 0]

Check out SWLC. They take a much more human approach. The after care is much better