Lapband Doctor in Alberta

CIBCSlayer · December 18, 2007

Hello all.

My name is Joel and I weigh 430 lbs. I am looking for a good surgeon in Alberta as our only option in Saskatchewan was a Duodenal Switch, which has been cancelled as of June of 2007, leaving myself and about 300 other patients with no options in our Province. :angry

Anyone know of a good doctor in Alberta? I've heard Alberta has a great history of lap band surgery's...

Thanks!

juliegeraci · December 20, 2007

Dr. Davey/Birch's clinic at the Royal Alex in Edmonton.

I got this off of the internet for you. Hope it helps.

Gaffer · January 18, 2008

Hello all.
My name is Joel and I weigh 430 lbs. I am looking for a good surgeon in Alberta as our only option in Saskatchewan was a Duodenal Switch, which has been cancelled as of June of 2007, leaving myself and about 300 other patients with no options in our Province. :angry

Anyone know of a good doctor in Alberta? I've heard Alberta has a great history of lap band surgery's...

Thanks!

Maybe a little late, but I will give you the info anyway since I am Calgary.

Here is the scoop. For Lap-band there are 2 surgeons in Calgary, but they are only allowed to do a certain number per year, 25 IIRC. All of those bands are placed under a program and the band is paid for by Alberta health care. You are not able to self pay in Alberta at this time.

I was in the line to get a Alberta health care band, but it was going to be 3-5 years before I was eligible due to the waiting list being so long.

If you want to self pay, there are a number of options, but none of them are in Alberta. I chose to fly to Toronto and have mine done by Dr. Coburn, but I know plenty of others that have gone to Mexico and other clinics in Canada.

Look at the Canada section of this forum and you will find a bunch of Canadians there.

Andrew

jjsmiles · January 19, 2008

Edmonton has a "Weight Wise" program, which is run by the Capitol Health Region. My understanding is that this program does both gastric bypass and lap band surgeries.

Calgary has the Weight Managament Clinic, run by the Calgary Health Region. Calgary only does the lap band surgery and has four general surgeons associated with the program (DesCoteaux, Church, Mitchell and Debru). Calgary only started doing this surgery in the last year or 18 months.

My understanding is that both programs are funded through Alberta Health Care, so you cannot access the programs by self-pay. The wait lists for both programs are very long, and I am not sure if either would consider out of province patients. You would need to get your family physician to check it out.

I was one of the lucky ones who was banded (free to me) through the Calgary health region on September 25, 2007. When my doc referred me to the Weight Management Clinic, it took about 6 months to receive my "inviation" to go to the clinic. From there is took me about 9 months before banding. This may sound like a long time, but in our current system, I think I negotiated the system at light speed. I am not sure if this is true, but I have heard rumors that the process is now looking at at least 3 years (both Edmonton and Calgary).

A few years back I was referred to a Dr. in Medicine Hat who was doing Gastric Bypass - it took me about 2 years from referral to initial appointment and I have to tell you that I wouldn't recommend that process to anyone. It was very humiliating (the doc's clinic didn't have a scale that went above 250 pounds so I had to take a side trip to the local hospital and go to one of the wards and explain my situation to a nurse, so I could get weighed). He also wasn't doing surgeries for people above a certain BMI - at the time I weighed in at 365 and I was about 65 pounds above the BMI I would need to be in order for him to consider me. All in all a horrible experience that traumatized me for quite a while.

The good news is that there are Dr's in Calgary who may do your fills if you choose to get the lap band done in Canada (don't know about foreign) if you can get them all of your history and surgical info. I am not sure if there are any fill docs in Edmonton, if you don't get surgery there.

Word of warning - don't get lap band surgery if you haven't made prior arrangements to have a fill dr.

Good Luck!