Hey fellow MA bandsters,

SherryW and I are interested in starting a thread for all our MA bandsters so we can get to know our neighbors! We hope you join in!

I'll start.....

My name is Chris, I am 32, have been overweight since I was 5 years old, although I am at an all-time high right now. My band date is October 2nd, and I cannot wait!! I am single and dating, I work in insurance, and I have a great and supportive family & group of friends - including SherryW and her DH. lol. Oh yeah, my mother is also getting banded, and she is having surgery one week before me.

I'd love to meet my other MA bandsters and hear about your progress!

Chris

Thanks for the info. Do they use the 14cc band for everyone there? I'm glad you have restriction right away. A friend of mine has had several fills with a little restriction for a day, then nothing. She was banded in September. I think she has finally hit the right amount of fill. Now she is loosing more steadily with restriction. Thanks for sharing, and keep up the good work! You'll be thin in no time! :tongue2:

Yes, they use a 14 cc band on everyone...Do you know when your friend was done? l was done 9/12 and l never saw anyone else there that day, although l believe they do several a day..My sister in law was done on 9/4 and has had 6 fills and still doesn't have any restriction..its so strange how it all works...l truly love my band..its almost a friend...actually l call it my two year old...you just never know when it will act up...When are you looking to have yours done? l started the process in April and was done in Sept, but Dr Haag was out on leave almost the 2whole month of Aug, so that put a stall on a lot of us...lt was frustrating..Now that its over, l can look back and say it really moved quickly..lts just so hard when you are holding your breath and waiting and waiting...l did have trouble with my insuance, but appartently they were missing some of the paperwork...be prepared for little bumps in your road...But, it is exciting and we have so much to look forward to...a whole new life....

Lisa

Hi Everyone,

My name is Heather. I was Banded on June 17th at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Is anyone from the Mansfield area? Or did anyone else go to Tufts Medical? I'd love to chat and get a local support group going!

Hello Heather...I'm from Taunton so not too far from you. I went to BIDMC though. I'm hoping to get a support group going...the weather so far is killing us. I'm hoping to get something going towards the end of this month.

Hello Heather...I'm from Taunton so not too far from you. I went to BIDMC though. I'm hoping to get a support group going...the weather so far is killing us. I'm hoping to get something going towards the end of this month.

I would love to join your group once it comes together. I know what you mean about the weather. I have a friend who was just Banded in December (He lives in Taunton) and I'm sure he would love to join as well. Are you going to post something here would you like my E-mail address?

Take care

I'll post it here and in the BIDMC thread. I just had revision surgery myself so I need to heal up and then I can start figuring out dates we can try to get together. I'd really love it if we could do a monthly or by-monthly meeting. Right now I'm looking at either the 24th or 31st of this month I think. Might have to do a snow-date kind of thing....knowing New England lol

Good luck with your healing. I'll look for the update in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully the snow we have it is for the time being. Something tells me it's not, but one can certainly hope lol

Hi everyone. My name is Kim. I am hopefully getting banded soon. I just submitted to my insurance after going thru a whole 6 month thing with Tufts. Anyone from Western Ma? I'm from the Springfield area.

Hi Kim, my name is Lori and I also have Tufts and did the 6 month program. Dr. Fiallo did my surgery in November. Which program do you have for 2009? Tufts offered 2 different ones this year.

My friend went thru another office. Since Dr. Haag was out, she didn't want to wait. She went thru a Ct doctor. I actually started the whole process in April also. then I had a 6 month thing to go thru with Tufts. So now I'm just waiting for the approval. Hopefully I'll be banded within about a month!! My friend had no restriction for a few months. Not sure how many cc's now, like 8 I think. But now she's loosing better, and finally has restriction. Hopefully I'll be done soon!

KDM where will you get your band? Hartford? l was one of those who had to wait for Dr Haag and let me tell you it was extremely frustration to sit an wait, knowing we were approved for over 6 weeks and not getting a return date for Dr Haag...and his staff leaves a whole lot to be desired...He only does 14 cc bands..l have great restiction with 5cc, yet my sister in law done at the same time as me has over 9cc in her band with NO restriction...she see's Haag today and is going to ask him to remove all the fluid, as l would think she has a hole in her tubing or something...she can eat like normal and eat and drink..you name it she can do it...

My friend went thru another office. Since Dr. Haag was out, she didn't want to wait. She went thru a Ct doctor. I actually started the whole process in April also. then I had a 6 month thing to go thru with Tufts. So now I'm just waiting for the approval. Hopefully I'll be banded within about a month!! My friend had no restriction for a few months. Not sure how many cc's now, like 8 I think. But now she's loosing better, and finally has restriction. Hopefully I'll be done soon! :wub:

KDM -

Not to worry you but my insurance was approved (by Tufts) on 10/3 and they couldn't get me in until 11/19th. I just assumed that I would be banded with-in 2-3 weeks of approval. I would have had to wait until December to have the band done at Baystate but they were doing "low risk patients banding" at Noble Hospital on Wednesday's. I go to Dr. Fiallo.

l got my approval in Mid July and had to wait untill 9/12....

I will be going thru Dr. Haag probably ay Baystate in Springfield. I have to wait and see when that will be, I guess. I finally am all done with Tufts requirements. Now it's up to them to get me approved, then I go from there.

Thanks for the info. Was 11/19 when Noble got you in? But Baystate would have been December? How was Noble? I've never heard anything about them. I know where they are, but I hear Baystate is good.

Kim~

l went to Bay state and they were very good to deal with..Dr Haag said to me that they love going to NOBLE, bec the staff at NOBLE is much nicer to work with than at Bay state...stay on their butts in the office..call call call....don't leave a message, they never call you back..instead, tell them you will wait on hold....they can be really rude...their office lacks a lot of kindness...he who makes the most nboise in that office gets things done...l was all done, may paper work submitted when my sister in law got her done..l was several weeks ahead of her, yet she got her surgery 2 weeks before me bec she kept calling them...l mean a couple of times a week until they told her what she wanted to hear..granted we had a strange case bec he was out for a month, but when you want something badly and you have to wait until who knows when you get very anxious....l didn't care if they gave me a surgery date of several months, as long as l had a date...Fortunately after my sister in law got booked, l called to find out how she jumpped ahead of me on the list...they told me, she has insurance issues...The only insurance issue was, l was paying for my health insurance and she wasn't.....l was so mad..meanwhile they told me they weren't booking any surgeries..when l told them is was BS they had booked hers, they immediately gave me a date..Funny how they go from one minute of saying they can't book anything, to giving me a date within the next week...Be on your toes with them...With all the money they have to be making, they should treat us patients far better than they do....stand up for yourself...