So i took that first step and had the 15 minute consultation with the doctor and he was looking me over allot :phanvan lol anyways they had a scale taht goes up to 500lbs and i guess i weight more than that because they cant get a accurate reading >< i step forward andit goes higher i lean back and it goes lighter POS if u ask me ..now im concerned here i am thinking i weigh 350-370 and its possible i could weigth 500+ and the doctor said it was possible WTF? oh well w/e so now i have to go on a 3 month diet prior to surgeory and wait for a call from teh nutritionist who might just have a scale for me and then wait for a call from a pyschologist when i have the meeting with her and the nutritionist im good to go.:clap2: now this 500 pound thing is eating at me :think

I was supposed to go to the doctor for my first appointment today. I had all of my things ready and my coat on waiting for my ride when the Doctor's office called me not to come in because the doctor was looking over the patient charts and found that my BMI is 70. He said that that is too high for them to opperate laproscopicly. I was crushed. It took me three weeks to arrange the appointment. They said that I could have a gastric bypass if I wished it. I declined because I feel it is non reversible and very invasive. If I loose 70 lbs they will take me back into the system. I am viewing this as a mere delay. I do, however, wish that they could have told us at the initial presentation that if we had a body mass above 60 that it would require a weight loss before the lap band could be accomplished.

yeah Kara I have never heard that before about it not being able to be above 60. weird? Maybe you should talk to another doc and see!

BigThunder I had the same experience as you and I've never told anyone this story. For as long as I've been a patient at my PCP I was never officially been weighed in because their scale only went to 300 and they could never really tell how much I weighed. So, finally about a year ago I was at an appointment there and the doctor told me that they had a new scale that went up to 400 and asked if I wanted to get weighed. I said "OK" fully expecting to be maybe 315-330. Nope...396. Only 4 friggin more pounds and I would've not fit on the new scale either. It creeped me out so bad that I went home and called the bariatric center within 15 minutes of being home. The good news??? It was the best decision I ever made. I've lost a lot of weight in this past year and I actually think I have a chance at reaching a normal weight....absolutely amazing for someone who has been obese my entire life. So, I can relate to your story but want to encourage you on your journey because it won't be this way for much longer! Good luck!

I wouldn't say it is odd. Some surgeons will not do a LapBand on someone whose BMI is over a certain number, or whose weight is over a given amount. It is a provider's choice. I'm sure they have their reasons which could range from concern about being able to do a safe laparascopic surgery on someone who has such a large amount of adipose tissue in the operative area and probably a huge liver, to perhaps having been taught, or having a belief that someone over a certain size is a bad choice for a LapBand because of the likely eating habits that caused them to reach that size. Also, if someone is older, some surgeons feel that if the weight needs to come off quickly either for comorbidities or age, they will do the RNY because of the speed of the loss. My surgeon told us in our information session that there are certain patients he simply will not Band because he feels they won't be successful either because of past habits or the reason they are overweight (he doesn't like to band "grazers" because they have a tendency to be able to eat through the Band), or those who are very large. He mentioned 400 lbs as where he really starts thinking about whether or not to Band. I went to the info session at 371 so I kind of worried a bit. I immediately started on a big change in how I eat (NOT a diet, but a lifestyle change) and at this point have lost 20lbs or so. I don't want him to tell me no. But if he does, I will simply go find someone who will band a high BMI patient. I might have to borrow against every little thing I own, but I won't have RNY as I do not have any comorbidities. If I did and HAD to lose the weight fast, I guess I'd seriously consider the RNY.

Thank you for the replies, my friends. I am very limited in choice of physicians because I must use my medicaid insurance and, to my knowledge, Mercy Hospital in Chicago is the only beriatric center which will accept medicaid. Medicaid itself does not have a good list of bariatric surgeons who will accept medicaid. They tried to get me a list of thoracic surgeons!

My friends and I have formed a wellness group and are going to try to loose weight together. We meet every Sunday night and encourage each other.

Mercy hospital will see me again.

BigThunder, if yoiu feel you are in the 300 range you probably are. You probably wouldn't be mobile if you were in the 500 range so relax. Just do the 3 month preop and get the surgery. You will have a whole new life. Good luck.

ok...I will put my 2 cents in then. From what I have been reading on two different boards including here is if your doctor doesn't want to do a lap band surgery on a higher BMI patient, then that doctor doesn't have enough surgeries or experience with the surgery as most do. I am planning on having my surgery with Dr. Ortiz in MX and he has done high BMI's and low ones as well...all adding up to over 4000. Not to mention, he has trained many US docs on the surgery.

Judy

ya the reason i think im 350 is because i had a scale b4 that went to 320 and when i weighed myself on that it woudl go past the limit by about 20-30more pounds and ya i mean i see on tv these k1 fighters or boxers and they say their 320 or 330 and i look similar to them in body size so thats where im getting the 350 from if i really am 500 then wow i sure can get around pretty well for that size and plus i have not one medical condition that i know of ^knock on wood^ i will deffinately let u guys know how things go with the dietician and shrink