I decided to go to support group tonight. I love my support group but my band dr. does not do sleeves. He does a lot of RNY and bands. Last I heard, he was going to start doing sleeves soon, cause people are requesting them. I sure didn't want to be his first one even though he is a great surgeon.

I am going to tell them while I was in Arizona I started having band problems again and just decided I was sick of all the band problems and decided it was time for a revision. Every time I got on an airplane, my band tightened up and I was miserable for several days. I was doing a lot of flying right around that time too.

I am sure everyone is going to be shocked. I have been going to that support group for over 2 years and we have all gotten to be a pretty close group.

You back yet? What happened?

They were all really surprised. They had a lot of questions. My dr. is always there answering questions. He said he has done some sleeves now, and he wishes more ins. companies would cover them because it's a very good surgery. He said most ins. companies are still considering it experimental. He said so far, he has only had one patient who got it covered by ins.

I am just curious...why would being in an airplane make your band hurt? Was it because of the air pressure changes?

From what I have read about bands in my "pre VSG research", I would never let anyone put one in me.

It won't be long before insurance companies will pay for VSG. I found some excellent professional publications that attest to this fact:

I've been doing a lot of research on VSG and found great news coming out of the Second Internationa Consensus Summit for Sleeve Gastrectomy in March, 2009. "During the consensus part, the audience responded that there was enough evidence published to support the use of VSG as a primary procedure to treat morbid obesity and indicated that it is on par with adjustable gastric banding and Roux- en-Y gastric bypass, with a yes vote at 77%. CONCLUSION: SG for morbid obesity is very promising as a primary operation."

*The Second International Consensus Summit for Sleeve Gastrectomy, March 19-21, 2009. (2009) Q-Sensei

Another article stated that: "There are signs of progress with multiple insurance companies. It should be expected that in 2010 sleeve gastrectomy have its own code and a formal acceptance."

http://bariatrictimes.com/2009/06/18/laparoscopic-sleeve-gastrectomy/

CAJUN

I don't know why the band tightens up after flying. I have heard a lot of people say it though. It must have something to do with the air pressure and altitude. That is all I can think of.