Anyone out there been banded by Dr. Johnell in Greeley, Colorado? I'd like to hear about your experience if you're willing to share.

hopeful1

hopeful 1......i live in canon city but have not heard of anyone having surgery w/johnell. my surgery was done by dr wagner, but he has now left to do bariatric surgery in st louis, mo. have you heard of dr smith in pueblo? i have heard great things about him. has not done a lot of lap bands (approx. 4 months now). Have met a few people at our support grps that have gone to him and really like him and his staff a lot. he was accepting insurance last time i heard, but that can all change after they get a few under their belt. his # is 719-564-0210.....his surgeries are done at parkwest surgical ctr. dr brown in canon was one of the first surgeons in co to do the lap band. while his surgical skills are as good as any, his bedside manner is not the best. his # is 719-275-4061. he does not accept ins at all. his surgeries are done at either parkwest or st thomas more hosp in canon. good luck and if you have any other questions....let me know. we have all had great success down here with the band and happy to answer any questions. good luck

Thanks for replying barelythere. When did you have your surgery? I am waiting for an answer from my insurance. Dr. Johnell's office is probably going to have to resend all my records as it seems Great West has "misplaced" them.

Let me know how you're doing.

hopeful1

hey hopeful 1....you will do great !!! i lost 95 lbs in 15 months and feel great. i don't regret anything.....all of us in canon have learned a lot. my surgery was june 13, 02 and i have 3.1 cc in my band. the band is a very strange thing. some days i am able to eat more & some days not. but the tighter you are the more limited your choices become. i am practically (other than a bite here and there) a vegetarian. the meat doesn't doesn't sit well with me & most other things. i still have my 'bad eating habits' that i have to deal with. like eating to fast, to big of bites and ice cream..... seems like i can always eat A LOT of ice cream. so i really have to watch that. i can go without chocolate, but breyers neopolitan is something else. lol ..... how much weight do you want to lose? we had a lot of people meet their goals with the band.

Thanks for your reply and encouragement. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Sometimes it's a few weeks between visits with the "group". 95 lbs is wonderful! You should be extremely proud of yourself. I'm 120 lbs. overweight and would be happy with about 75 off - who am I kidding I'd be thrilled with 75! :banana I'd be happy to just see the underside of 200! If you have any tips you'd like to share I'd love to hear them.

Denise

Hi Denise,

I haven't been to this site for a while and just happened to click here and found your post. I guess it was meant to be!

I was banded by Dr. Johnell on April 6, 2004. It's the best thing I've done for myself in years - maybe ever! I am very pleased with the program they offer. I don't know how far you are in this whole process, but I felt like the education I received pre-op was outstanding. I read this and other boards and realize how great the information and classes I took were. The nutritional info they give you is really good and the notebook you'll get is packed full of stuff too. Anytime I had a question, the information was at my fingertips.

To be honest, I had very little contact with Dr. Johnell. I met with him before surgery one time, saw him immediately after surgery and then again the day after when he released me from the hospital. Most of my other contact has been with his office staff. His wife, Patrice, is a nurse and does some of the pre-op classes. She's great. Paula, a Nurse Practitioner, does my fills. I also like her very much. They did have a PA who was wonderful, but when they moved from the medical center into the hospital, they had to let him go.

Insurance approval took forever! I have United Healthcare and they took about 8 weeks to get back to me. I called them and Dr. Johnell's office about once a week. They were pretty good about it, but the waiting was hell!

Dr. Johnell's philosophy on fills is to be pretty conservative, which works pretty well for me. I have had three so far and am at 1.7 cc and feeling very good restriction. Paula was going to add .4 last time, but after talking to me added just .3. At the time I was worried it wouldn't be enough, but now I'm glad she was conservative. They get you in quick too, which I like since I am such an impatient person. Speaking of quick, once I had insurance approval, they scheduled surgery in two weeks. Be prepared!

I know this was long, but I wanted to give you whatever info you're looking for. Please contact me if you have any questions or just want to talk. It's a pretty intense time and it's always good to know that you're not alone.

Becky

Banded April 6, 2004

Dr. Johnell

-53 pounds

its more than ok that your reply was late....you will do really well. sounds like dr johnell has a great program and i believe that its really important. at our support grp we have lots of people who have lost 100+ lbs and you can do it to. myself, i am kind of the rebel of the grp, and i don't want to steer you in any wrong direction. everyone is different. most of my friends drink lots of protein. i never was able to get into that stuff. we are getting ready to move to the denver area next month so maybe we could get together. does dr johnell see people that were banded by other physicians??? does he have a support grp? thanks....

barelythere

I'm not sure Dr. Johnell does fills for other doctor's patients. I think one of his other prospective patients told me he doesn't. But he's not the only doctor in the Denver area that does the lapband. He's just the closest one to me (he's in Greeley) and the one I've heard the most about. You could sure check with his office and see though. Where are you moving near Denver? He does have many support group meetings too. They want you to feel really prepared and supported when you have surgery with him so that you're ready to change and then keep your habits changed!

Chickadee

It's so nice to hear from a Johnell lapbander I have only heard good things about him. I had a co-worker who had gastric bypass with him and he has done really well too. 53 lbs. since April is really impressive! I hope I can be so successful. You know I'm one of those that thinks I'll be the only one who doesn't lose weight. How hard was it for you to curtail your previous eating habits? Did you have to lose some lbs. prior to surgery? Were you on liquids immediately after? I've been waiting since July for an answer from my insurance. I actually had my visits with Dr. Johnell's office in June!! It seems somewhere in the shuffle the insurance misplaced all my test records, psych eval, etc. so Karen had to refax it all over to them just a week or so ago. I am now very impatient I'll tell ya. Especially since I hear all these success stories. I want to be one of them too! Do you live near Greeley?

Keep in touch ladies,

Denise

More questions,

I forgot to ask what physical tests you have to have done prior to the surgery? I have only had a glucose, thyroid, and some test for the stomach. I've heard some horror stories about some pretty awful tests. Scary. :sick

thanks

Denise

hopeful1....hopefully moving in the lakewood area. its so expensive around there, and it seems more in line to what were used to. hope everything works out for us. its been really hard to concentrate on me and my weight loss with being unemployed & things so up in the air. just have to think positive thoughts. i don't know if i will need another fill. its such a strange thing. some days i feel like i can eat anything and some days not!!!! as far as testing. i just had some lab and a barium swallow. then another swallow after the band was placed. call your ins. co to verify that they rec'd all your records. keep on them. that always helps. talk to you soon.

Hi Hopeful and Barelythere,

Hopeful, you sound like you're doing great with the band. Sorry about the unemployment situation, but hopefully it improves soon!

Denise, I'll try to answer your questions the best I can. I was also really worried that I'd be the patient who didn't lose a single pound with the band. I think it's very common to worry!

1. It hasn't been that difficult to change my eating habits. I am a dedicated non-dieter though! I know a lot of people follow diets after they are banded, but that just doesn't work for me. I eat what I want (always following the Protein first, veggies second, everything else after that rule). If I want some ice cream I have a little. The great thing is that I just don't want very much crap anymore.

2. I lost about 5 pounds before surgery. Dr. Johnell was not really specific on how much I was supposed to lose, but did say not to gain any.

3. I think I was on liquids for two weeks following surgery. It wasn't that difficult and I was surprised. I bought powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury Protein powder (which I highly recommend) and had a lot of shakes, juice, broth, etc. I thought the pureed stage was harder than liquids in some ways.

4. I live in Lyons, which is a small town about 17 miles north of Boulder.

5. The tests! I had an EKG, full blood tests, pulmonary function, AGB (arterial blood gas - which is probably the one you've heard horror stores about) and somethine else I can't remember right now. The scheduled them all in one day and it wasn't too bad. Even the AGB wasn't as bad as I feared. Trust me, it was definitely worth it!

I hope the insurance nightmare comes to an end soon. I thought 8 weeks was horrible. Hang in there!

Becky

Banded April 6, 2004

Dr. Johnell

-55 pounds (two more!)

Hi Becky,

I know where Lyons is - it's very pretty there. I live in Berthoud so we're not too far apart. I actually have some customers there.

That arterial blood gas test doesn't sound like fun. Did they numb the area for you first? It certainly sounds like you are very happy with your decision. You are doing just awesome. I think your "no diet" tactic sounds great. For once in your life to not have to really think about a "diet" would be wonderful. I've been thinking I'd try to stick to Weight Watchers or something and I may still. I'm one of those that needs some kind of plan for what I'm doing. (If I ever get there!)

I got no answers from either Dr. Johnell's office or the insurance yesterday and it's getting rather worrisome. I'll just keep bugging them I guess until I get the hoped for answer.

Thanks

Denise:)

ginni

Where are you working when you move to Denver - or are you here already? Lakewood can be pretty expensive. Do you have any other options? The further out of the city the less expensive usually. Let me know how you're doing with your move.

Denise

Hello everyone! :mad:

I have been reading this site off and on since June and have learned soooo much from others who have been banded, as a matter of fact this site has been about the ONLY thing that has kept me motivated!

I too will be a Dr. Johnell patient...... I hope.......

I had a consultation w/ Dr. Johnell June 28th, found out from my ins. co. that Dr. Johnells letter was recieved July 15th and that it would be in review for 30 day's......Aug.25th I called the ins. co. and was told I was approved, I was shaking with excitment as I was put on hold while United Health Care called Dr. Johnell's office to set me up with a surgery date of Sept. 14th. After my phone conversation with my ins. co. I called Karen at Dr. Johnell's office and set up my lab work, psych eval. and classes.

Aug 26th Karen at Johnell's office called and said that when she called the ins. co. they denied having said I was approved....... Ok, so where did I get a surgery date??? I called the ins.co. back and for ever ( 2 weeks) couldn't find a shred of info on me! I called them over and over and finally one gal said she found all of my info but that they started the review process all over again as of the 25th of Aug! so maybe another 30 to 45 day's she had given me a notification number and had also given me an issue number that would pull up all my records, then she said she would have a manager call me...... No one called me, so I called back, I was determined to get some answers, I was tired of being nice and waiting for everything to go through it's ' process' I called UHC and asked for the lady's ext and of course they couldn't put me through because it was another department. The lady said could I help you?? I said you know I really doubt it but here goes, and please don't interrupt me while I tell you my story. I was rambling on, she tried to interrupt me...I said " PLEASE! don't talk, just listen!" I finished and I said " can you help me?" she said well..... I was trying to tell you, you have been approved. I said are you sure? she said yes I said "for sure?" she said uh hum!..... Sooooo I am due to go for testing and classes Sept. 28th and 29th. and surgery Oct. 5th.

I missed a call from Karen yesterday (17th) I hope when I call back on Monday things haven't changed again! I realize Dr. Johnell's office went through a move, and they have lot's of other patients besides myself but I sure felt like I was fighting this battle alone, maybe that's the way it's suppose to be but if I wouldn't have called and bugged people to death who know's where it all would be? I know the fight will be worth it......

On the bright side I am excited, nervous and overjoyed that my life is going to go through a change, I am 5'2", 42 years old and I need to lose about 120 lbs. I have heard good things about Johnell and his staff, I will be travelling from Grand junction and am thrilled to find people who have had or will be having surgery with Dr. Johnell

Maurine

Hi Maurine,

It's me, Denise. I 'm glad you're logging in to this site. As you can see Chickadee/Becky has shared lots of info about her procedures with Dr. Johnell and seems to be very happy (and successful too!). I just want a positive answer so I can join the group! :mad:

Keep me posted.

Hi,

Maurine, I hope you got the good news you were looking for yesterday! Like I already said, I was really pleased with my experience at Dr. Johnell's and even more pleased that I decided to be banded. After doing lots of research I felt like it was the only surgery for me. I thought dealing with UHC was a nightmare too, but at least they came back with the answer I was hoping for.

Denise,

We are nearly neighbors! I filled in as editor of the Berthoud Recorder for one summer as a favor to a boss/friend. I spent a lot of time up there - loved your police chief. As a matter of fact, my daughter is playing competitive softball on a Berthoud team this summer. Small world! I hope you've heard something by now. I wish insurance companies could look at the long-term instead of just immediate payment out, but I know that's not the way it's done.

If there's anything I can do to help either of you, please let me know. I really, really hope you're both able to have this done. It's giving me my life back - dramatic, but very, very true!

Becky