Hi, I am unsure about this as I haven't seen it posted. When you get a fill, if it is too tight or not tight enough, do you pay the dr again, or is that part of the first charge? I get my first fill next monday (11-19). I haven't felt any constriction since about the middle of my third week. I think that is because the swelling went down. I have been trying to stay within the diet the dr gave me, but it is very hard. My job is pretty high stress and in the last 2 weeks I have lost 2 very dear friends, so I still have a memorial service and an interrment service to go to. I am an emotional eater. I was so upset this morning I ate half a snickers bar! My stomach was already hurting so now I am really frazzled! One good thing about having a private office, I can close the door and do several yoga routines to try to combat the stress. I have lost 14 lbs since the banding but nothing this last week. I am not too worried since I understood from the dr I might not lose much until after 6 wks when Ihave my first fill. Just wondering about the costs.

:)Laura

Laura, my doctor charges for both fills and unfills no matter how close they are. You need to ask.

I don't pay for fills, but once I required a fill, and an unfill 4 days later. Both were processed by my insurance company. Had I been self pay, I'm assuming I would have been charged for both.

This kinda sucks when you have a surgeon like mine who doesn't use fluoroscopy and "guesses" (allbeit an educated guess) how much fill you need. I understand that it's the surgeon's time either way, but you think they'd also accept some responsibility for it. *shrug*

I use fillcentersusa and pay for my fills. There is a 72hour window for an over fill. If you are too tight and notify them within the 72hour period the unfill is no extra cost. As far as not being filled enough, no such luck, I pay everytime I go for a fill. If you don't notify them within the 72 hour window you will be charge for an unfill. Keep in mind also that it takes some people several weeks to feel a fill. My first fill took 3 weeks to kick in and I still thought I needed more restriction so I went in for another fill and got way to tight. So I ended up having to get all of my 2nd fill taken out which brought me back to my first fill and now I am still feeling too tight. If I had it to do all over again I would wait AT LEAST a month between fills cause you never know when that restriction will kick in and being over filled SUCKS!!!

Hi everybody, I just had my 1st fill today with Dr. Susan Brinkley in Frederick, MD. She was really good! She is a lap band patient and knows what she is talking about. Very informative. She will see me back in 2 months. she also told me if I have too much fill and have to be drained, I do not have to pay! Thought that was great. No fluero, but she hit port on first try. No pain. She was very good about explaining everything she was going to do and what to expect. Traffic was a hassle, as usual around DC and NOVA. Can't wait to retire in 2 1/2 years and move home to a pokey little town in Florida where a traffic jam is if 4 JD tractors get to the 4way stop at once! I'm off for TG tomorrow so if anyone else is driving also, be safe, pay attention and leave early! :)Laura