Hi

I have decided to get the procedure done - just have to save up for it. I live in uk and want to go to Brussels as it seems cheapest and safest there. Anyone know of the above?

Thanks

Oh my God!!! Just had confirmation Iam booked for the26th of June. Fear is really consuming me now, but I am more scared of getting heavier and having a heart attack or someother weight related illness.

My husband thinks I should tell my boys but I dont want to. I know what you mean big sis an innocent word here and before you know it everyone knows. I am not telling my mother (she would worry and then tell wee mary down the road, who would go on to tell big jean etc) I am also not telling my sister as she tempts me with things when I go on a diet and tries to sabotage my efforts. It is pretty stressful keeping it to yourself and husband and one friend. Thank goodness for this site its like a release valve. J x

well done good on ye

gx

FAO Garrymcfall!

hi you can possibly help me with a question or two i was needing answered mate?

i am hoping to get banded in june or july just waiting on confirmation,where did you find was best(cheapest) to fly from in scotland?

so you can still drink alcohol after the band is inserted??

cheers and well done so far!

hi

fire away with the questions, i went from edinburgh although i stay in east kilbride as its a direct flight, going from glasgow you have to go through manchester or london and the ryanair from prestwick does not really work with timings and the distance from the hotel. I will offer the same to you as i have some of the scottish girls, i will be happy to meet you for a chat and answer anyquestions you may have.On the bevvy front, i stopped for 3 months prior to op, the reason was i had to loose a hello f a lot to get my weight to a level that dr chris would do the op and i would reccomend 4-6 wks after op before you star again, if your a lager driker then staert changing as when you have proper restriciton the gassy drinks are oot, i fortuantely drank vodka but i do enjoy a wee guiness the now but again when fully restricted you wont get the pints down.

Hope this starts helping, where do you live and whats ur name.

G

Hi Penny

Any questions I can help with I will do.

Flying was great, I do wish that I had booked an earler flight, our flight was not till 6.15 on Sunday nite. You have to be out of ur room 4 11.30, so it can be a long day if you have a evening flight. You can eat anything and drink beer, wine etc the day b4 the op. After that you cant eat, after your op, your can have sips of water, the day after, the day you go bk to hotel the hossi give you soup and rice bread with jam, b4 you leave. I would advise that you take, slimfast and cupasoups because once you have left the hossi you can start 2 drink. also we wish we had taken some snacks 4 hubby casuse there is not alot near the hotel and hossi

Hope the info helps xxx mandy:thumbup:

Thanks Mandy, That's some great info! Did you manage to sleep ok in the hospital? What did you feel like when you came around? What was the pain like etc?

Also, when you went to the airport, were you able to walk ok and how did you feel then, for travelling?

:crying:

Thanks again!

Penny

x

Thanks Mandy, That's some great info! Did you manage to sleep ok in the hospital? What did you feel like when you came around? What was the pain like etc?

Also, when you went to the airport, were you able to walk ok and how did you feel then, for travelling?

:crying:

Thanks again!

Penny

x

hey penny

whens your op date as we need to meet, i met one of jthe other girls today and i think i helped answer some questions but also added more but that normal.

Gx

OMG!!! So much is happening in this thread, I cant keep up.

I meant to ask Sammy how long she waited for her 2nd/3rd fill, I know it wasnt long, but she's gone to her in-laws now. Whats the least time between fills anyone has had here, cos I'm bricking it a bit now.

Its ok, I found Sammy's post, she actually waited 2 weeks. Ahh well maybe i'll be the first one to go just 5 days between fills.

Thanks Mandy, That's some great info! Did you manage to sleep ok in the hospital? What did you feel like when you came around? What was the pain like etc?

Also, when you went to the airport, were you able to walk ok and how did you feel then, for travelling?

:crying:

Thanks again!

Penny

x

Hi Penny,

I was realy groggy when I was taken back to my room, I slept most of the day and night, I didnt have any problems with sleeping. The worse pain is the wind, otherwise just a bit of pain were the port is situatied. On the saturday evening, me and hubby went into brussels for a walk, only a couple of hours, same on Sunday b4 we came home, dont get me wrong, I was sore, but I just ploddied on slowly, I was ok at the airport as well. Hope the info helps you Mandy xx

Hi Andy here....cheers Garry for the reply and i have loads o questions!

im from a village in the perthshire area so edinburgh would suit me fine and easier to get to than Glasgow etc.

what sort of prices were you able to get your flights for(were they direct) and who did you actually fly with?

were you told of any more difficulties/problems with the op and aftercare because you are male?

re the operation i sent an email today asking what happens if you DO need to go to intensive care,blood tranfusion etc is their insurance you take out to cover that?

is it as they say you can have the fills carried out in Edinburgh too and how much do they cost?

cheers A

Hi Andy here....cheers Garry for the reply and i have loads o questions!

im from a village in the perthshire area so edinburgh would suit me fine and easier to get to than Glasgow etc.

what sort of prices were you able to get your flights for(were they direct) and who did you actually fly with?

were you told of any more difficulties/problems with the op and aftercare because you are male?

re the operation i sent an email today asking what happens if you DO need to go to intensive care,blood tranfusion etc is their insurance you take out to cover that?

is it as they say you can have the fills carried out in Edinburgh too and how much do they cost?

cheers A

my flights were with BMI and i think were £200 per person, there is no difference with the op for guys the only difference and is that we get 6 incisions and not 5 like ladies oh and we moan a lot more about it I am sure i hear the cheer of women agreeing.Dr chris has had few complications as i researched them and actually mailed olne of the ladies, she had a internal bleed after being closed and throught the night she was in pain. Dr Chris came to check on her in morning and decided to operate again and clotterise the bleed, to which he charged nothing for and the hospital did not charge either. Of course there is a risk but very minimal as they take every precaution and if your blood results or ecg are off slightly then he will always err on the side of caution. its like my situation he would not operate when my bmi was 57, he wanted it 50 or below which i did. Going back to the problem woman she also said she would go through it again and does not blame the doc for anything and only had good words to say about him. You may not know but Dr c has done over 4000 bands with no deaths and a handful of infections and bleeds which is fantastic stats. I think you will struggle to get insurance as you are classed as obese and having general surgery abroad for obesity. Dr chris does a clinic once per month in edinburgh and a fill cost £90 , he also has a sidekick that does glasgow as edinburgh can get pretty busy. PPPPhhheeeewwwwww!!!!!! Keep them coming.

G

hey penny

whens your op date as we need to meet, i met one of jthe other girls today and i think i helped answer some questions but also added more but that normal.

Gx

Hey Garry, Got your msg, My Op is on the 3rd July. I wish it was tomorrow, all this waiting's driving me insane! I can't wait to hear how Odge gets on.

Mandy, thanks so much. Really good to hear you were kinda up and about. you got much pain now? How you doing with food etc?

Umm, can't remember your name, guy from Perthshire, I got BMI flights too from Edinburgh about £200 each for me and My Mum. My whole op including flights, hotels, taxi's everything is about £4000. Which is amazing! :crying:

Did anyone answer about the flight thing? Do you need to get your band deflated to go on a long haul flight? As I was thinking that maybe that would mean many of us might end up back at square one if that's the case? Any update on this would be fab, also, what Vitamins have people been advised on taking pre and post op?

I read back about the Milk Thistle, but dunno what else I should be going for..Also struggling to find a low fat diet plan, one I can just follow, so Im not haivng to think about it, anyone any ideas?

Thanks All!

Penny

x

thanks again Garry had carried out some research re the flights just wanted to know if i was on the right track and not missed out any special airline deals etc??

great info there from you helps with the piece of mind hearing it from folk that have been and done it much appreciated.

Sent an email with the Hotel address on it but doesnt actually show the room etc Garry or any banded folk who have used it got an insight into what its like??

also got a email back from Frederick and he said that any problems during the op my insurance would cover it??is their not a form you can fill in for nhs treatment abroad that would cover a patient if anything went wrong.....E1???? or something??

anyone out their got an answer to the insurance cover question and the NHS letter stuff would be much appreciated?

heads buzzing with all the questions etc i need to ask but heading in the right direction i think...lol!

cheers all

The E1111 has now been replaced by a European Health Insurance Card, health related travel advise can be obtained at www.dh.gov.uk/travellers or on +44(0)2072104850, I'm not convinced that you are covered because you will be travelling for elective surgery, but you can find out more info just to be sure.

Thanks Mandy, That's some great info! Did you manage to sleep ok in the hospital? What did you feel like when you came around? What was the pain like etc?

Also, when you went to the airport, were you able to walk ok and how did you feel then, for travelling?

Thanks again!

Penny

x

Hi Penny. The post surgery pain/discomfort varies so much for each individual. For myself, I felt quite rough for the first 18/20 hours or so and didn't get much sleep but one of the pain relief drips I had didn't go through and so could've probably felt better if it had. But then some feel fine and hardly have anything other than mild discomfort - you won't know how it's going to be for you until after, but rest assured, pain relief is there on request if you need it. Despite a rough start, once I got out of bed and started moving around, I felt fine and when it came to leaving hospital around 1.30pm, I could almost skip out! I was ok at the airport too but my sister was suffering a fair bit and should really have asked for a wheelchair but did manage without. If you possibly can, stay an extra night in Belgium and you will feel the benefit when travelling home. If not, then try and get a flight that is not too early in the morning as every hour can see an improvement at this stage. I never really had any pain from my incision sites ever, just a bit of tightness/pulling which was due to stitches and this can be relieved after a few days by snipping the long threads which are usually causing this. Hope this helps, bigsister x.

If you go onto utube and search miss flump she has posted a video of both the hotel and hospital and her journey post op.

The hotel is comfortable with good beds but is very basic more like a travel lodge with restaurant, hope this helps

thanks again Garry had carried out some research re the flights just wanted to know if i was on the right track and not missed out any special airline deals etc??

great info there from you helps with the piece of mind hearing it from folk that have been and done it much appreciated.

Sent an email with the Hotel address on it but doesnt actually show the room etc Garry or any banded folk who have used it got an insight into what its like??

also got a email back from Frederick and he said that any problems during the op my insurance would cover it??is their not a form you can fill in for nhs treatment abroad that would cover a patient if anything went wrong.....E1???? or something??

anyone out their got an answer to the insurance cover question and the NHS letter stuff would be much appreciated?

heads buzzing with all the questions etc i need to ask but heading in the right direction i think...lol!

cheers all

Hi TIN/Andy - I looked into getting insurance and while I managed to find a company which could insure me for the usual loss of baggage etc while travelling for elective surgery, it does not cover you for anything linked to the surgery or any arising complications and I doubt you would find an insurance company to offer this - I couldn't anyway. Also, I found out if you have ordinary travel insurance and needed to make a claim and they discover you have been abroad for surgery, they would consider your insurance invalid, even for an unrelated claim such as lost/stolen items of value. I felt a bit vulnerable not being covered for any surgical matters but in the end, you just have to weigh up the fact that it doesn't appear that anyone has needed this with Dr Chris and trust in that. Perhaps worth checking out the website Mmm has posted tho? Bigsister x.