Please help me, I have been trying to find a doctor who will do a fill in Florida. The only doctors that I had found are extremely expensive and way out of my budget. I was planning on flying back to MX to get a fill next month, but cannot take the time off work, bummer. So I started my search again, for a fill doctor, I came across Dr. Joya support Group and it had two doctors listed, one of them is Dr. Eddie Gomes in Coral Gables Florida, I called and they do band patients like myself that were banded in Mexico. The cost of the fill is $300 w/out flouru, is it dangerous or bad to get a fill without this??? PLease --Please give me your opinion. If I get a fill with flouru its done at the hospital and the cost of a fill doubles, which at this time is a bit much for me. Boy oh Boy, what to do? So does anyone have an excessive amount of frequent flyer miles that could get me a plane ticket to Mexico, LOL or maybe I should make donation jars and put my picture on them and put them in the local convenience stores -- the message would say ""Fat girl is in dying need of a fill adjustment in order to get restriction and get to goal weight"" hey if the little pageant girls can ask for money at the Handy store, why can't I... LOL OH well I have scheduled a fill appointment for March 1 w/out the flouru, I am two and a half hours away from Coral Gables, but its a nice drive. Well please let me know if you have heard of this doc and if I should go ahead and get the fill with out flouru or if I should just wait and fly to Mx at a later time. So many questions, but I have very little restriction and because I have not lost any weight I am getting discouraged and doing some bAD EATING HABITS, HELP PLEASE!!!

Hey I am in Florida... I go out tomorrow to mx and I get my band on Friday.. I don't know about flouru, but I wrote it on my list of questions for the Dr. and can let you know when I get home.. You can get fills at the cleavland clinic in Weston Florida... Where are you.. I have never heard of the Dr's you mentioned but I might need to use them...Thanks for the information...

Tara

Estela -

I don't know anything about the doc, but lots of people (most?) get fills without fluoro.

You may want to ask if you get a window of free tweeks after the fill - for example, if 2 days later you find you are waaaay too tight, can you have them take a bit out for free? Or, if after two weeks you STILL don't feel restriction, can you have them add more for free?

Make sure you understand their policy. Also, make sure you understand their fill process - do they fill you up and back it off while you're drinking? Or do they only give you a set amount?

Good luck!

Tara do you have a phone # for the Cleveland Clinic? Have you consulted with any doctors there and is that where you are planning to have your fills? What is the cost of a fill? Are you excited about going to get your band surgery? Who is going with you? Don't be scared it is not painful, just be very careful to follow your doctors instructions to the Tee... I learned the hard way, took a bite of some food when I was supposed to be on liquids and boy did I pay for it. I was really sick after my surgery, I got very swollen and couldn't keep anything down, last month I started reminiscing about my surgery and I rememberd my aunt gave my mom some home cooked tamales and my mom gave me a bite of one, she said a tiny little bit won't hury you, well it did, that's why I had so many problems after I was back home, so please be sure to follow your doctor's instructions. Let me tell you something funny the hardest thing for me has been that I can't drink soda, well on the plane on the way back a little old man that was sitting right next to me asked the flight attendant for a glass of coke, OMG did I suffer, I could hear it fizzle while she was pouring it, and I could smell it, it was tough, so let the old men that are sitting next to you that they have to drink juice, so that they don't tempt you...

Donali, thanks for the information and for the great advice to ask the doctor, you hit some very important points, I am calling the doctor's office back and getting my answers before I head out there.. YOu are wonderful, wonderful, wonderfulllllll.

Love,

Estela, I had a fill without flouro for the first time today. I was pretty uneasy about it, but it all went ok. I felt a lot better when the dr actually drew out the saline that was already in the band to measure it, that was when I knew the needle had really hit my port. If I were you, I would ask if that dr. will do that. You don't wanna go paying big bucks for a fill only to have him miss the port! Good luck!

Estela and Blossom

Every good doctor or radiologist, blind fill or done under flouroscopy should remove all the previous saline (or air if it's your first fill).

My opinion is I like my fills doen under flouro, it gives me a certain peace of mind to see my band and port and to see the baruim flowing through..I have never had one done without flouro so I have nothing to compare it to..My doc only uses flouro, he feels it is much more accurate,he can see if anything is going on with the band and port like pouch dialation, slippage, erosion, if the port is tilted etc.. but then again Mexican Docs take a much more aggressive approach to fills then U.S. docs..

Vera, up until today, I had only seen the radiologists at the hosp. for fills and they never removed the previous saline. I don't think they knew how, LOL!!! From now on only my surgeon will do my fills and I am very happy about that. He did pretty good with a blind fill in his office, but if need be, he also has a 'fill room' set up at the hosp. so he can do it under flouro. Of course, I will have to pay co-pays when we use that room.

I am glad to hear that it is safe to do it without flour and that some of you have done it successfully. I would much prefer to have it done under flouru but budget does not permit at this time. I will call the doctor in the morning to make sure that he does remove the saline that's already in the port and Donali suggested I ask what his procedure in case I am overfilled and need to be unfilled or in case I don't have restriction that he take care of me at no additional cost. What woud I do without you guys.

L,

That has been the question of the day. My office told me that there is a Dr. Kim in Orlando. I do not know the price, but I should know tomorrow. It all depends where you live in Florida. If you live in the south, you may not want to travel to central or north.

Estela,

I had a fill with Dr. Gomez on 2/15. He was really nice. Dr. Jessee in Tampa recommended him to me. She said he taught several local doctors to do fills and the actual lap band surgery. I had no problem with him at all (and he's not bad to look at either!)

Marsha

Marsha,

Thank you, very much for the info, I will make sure to slap on some lipstick before I see him. I was reallly nervous, but you have eased my nerves. I am scheduled for March 1, I hope to get some restriction, because with the way my life has been going I have been stuffing my face with all sorts of things, I even managed to drink a coke last night, It was a horrible experience. I have gained five pounds in the last week and I am so terrible disappointed with myself. Hopefull my fill will give me the restriction I need. Who is Dr. Jesse? Is he a bariatric doctor, is he your doctor? And if so, why isn't he doing your fills? Just curious. Talk to you later.

Thanks for the info.

I called Emilio at Dr. Gomez's office and asked him if they would take care of me at no additional charge in the event I needed to get unfilled (if filled too much) or filled more if I did not have enough of a restriction. I also asked if he removes all the saline that is in there now before doing the fill and he said that they do, so I am glad to hear all of this. Thank you all for helping on this matter and for your great advice. This is what is so gret about this site, I wouldn't have thought to ask those things myself, thanks ya'll.

Hey Estela I'm back and a "BANDED" girl now!!! Everything went great and I did not have an old guy next to me with a coke but let me tell you walking through the airport to catch my conection I had to pass pizza, ice cream, starbucks, sub shops ect. ect.ect.ect. I was feeling a tad depressed at that moment!!! I called my Husband and he said hey it's not just because you have the band and now you can't, It's that way anytime you try to diet!!! Sometimes that man saves my life, He has been my rock through this... Anyways, I have to look up that number for you and hey I asked my surgon about doing it without and he said that he would not!!! It's like guessing??? I hope to hear back from you real soon...

Tara

Estella,

Dr. Jessee is located in Largo, FLorida (near Tampa). She was the first doctor I used for a fill because I didn't know of anyone closer (I live in Boca Raton). Dr. Jessee was trained by Dr. Gomez and she recommended that I see him since he was closer (it took me 5 hours to drive to Dr. Jessee). They were both soooo nice. Dr. Gomez actually thinks I may have a leak in my band. Dr. Jessee filled me to 2.6 cc's (under fluro). I was restricted for about 3 months then suddenly, I lost my restriction. I tried for another 3 months to stick to the plan but I just had no restriction. When I saw Dr. GOmez, he started by removing my previous fill and he could only get out 1.5cc's. He refilled me to 2.5cc's and told me to try this for a while. Right now, I'm still very restricted. I'm hoping to stay that way!

Marsha