Hi i am considering lapband surgury can someone please tell me some more about it how it works what is the cost ?? How much overweight you have to be to get it.. I wanna know everything!! Thanks

So much info to share but let me just say that I also am new. I had my band placed on 2/21,but I love it! I am down 20+ lbs and feel great. I was self pay because I did not meet my ins criteria and it cost me 10,000, but I would do it again...over and over again. Good luck to you.

can you make payments? Also what is the recovery like? I have 1 year old triplets and not much help so i cant be down to long. What is the criteria to even get this band?

talk teacher, congrats on the 20 lb loss (and counting). and with the new surgery, please read this forum and also research via the web different web pages that tell you of the lap band surgery. You can gather alot of information.

So what do i need to do to get this started? Who do i need to contact? Why does it take so long before the surgury?

I had to go my PCD to get a referral to my insurance for this lap band. Then I went to the seminar with the clinic I found to do the the lap band, and started all my pre-op requirements and bc of my insurance/clinic, I have to do a 6 month DR eval. I am working on my third month. Surgery is slated for me for August. I guess it depends on your insurance.

Hello!

It's not so much about taking so long before the surgery it's honestly about the doctor/staff making sure you have enough information about the surgery before actually doing it. They want to be sure that you know what you're getting yourself into. The office will also make sure you are in the right state of mind before being able to do the surgery (Psych Eval). You are also to meet with a Nutritionist as well so you know what kind of guidelines to follow after surgery. Most if not all doctors want to get clearance from the following: Family Doctor, GI, Cardiologist, Pulmonary and as mentioned the Nutritionist. The reason for those are to make sure you are not a high risk surgery, because the doctor doesn't want something to happen during or after surgery.

All things being considered it really isn't that long of a wait for surgery. You have to see all the doctors listed above and do all the test that they may order. As for payment/cost it's all about your insurance. If you have coverage for this kind of surgery is always a good thing, otherwise I believe in most cases it could cost upwards around $10,000. Not cheap, but could be very rewarding.

Thanks so much for the info... Have you had surgury??

I am scheduled on May 7th. But I work for a hospital in NJ on a surgical floor that performs it. I've personally weighed the option for more then a year. I've tried many other options including a gluten free lifestyle (which the first two weeks is basically the liquid diet for this surgery, fun fun...)