Hi

I'm interested to know if anyone has had Lap Band surgery done in N Ireland or is about to get it done. Has anyone had a consultation with Dr Kennedy in the Royal Hospital in Belfast? I know of one person who has had a consultation but want to hear of any others.

Edited April 9, 200818 yr by WRIGGLE

Hi

I'm interested to know if anyone has had Lap Band surgery done in N Ireland or is about to get it done. Has anyone had a consultation with Dr Kennedy in the Royal Hospital in Belfast? I know of one person who has had a consultation but want to hear of any others.

hi there!

i haven't had surgery but am seriously considering a private consultation with Dr Kennedy. i heard that the operation is no longer available in this country on NHS and has to be done in england - some newspaper article i read online that was published in Feb 2008. not sure if this has been changed though! seriously considering going private here but not sure what the cost is and if payment plans are available? would love to know if you have seen Dr Kennedy and can answer any of my many many LOL! queries!! my doctor supports me which is great and has referred me for a consultation in belfast, but this could take upto 6 months alone! angie xx

Hi - I'm from NI and got my band fitted on 11 Sept privately in England - I paid £5k. As far as I am aware, there was a waiting list for about 150 persons on the NHS from a few years back - but they no longer do the surgery (band or bypass) here and are sending the patients over to England to clear the list. And again, I think, no new patients are being added to the list.

It would be interesting to know if Dr Kennedy did private ops here because, I was told there was no way I could get my band done anywhere in Ireland!

Julie

Hi Julesni

Good to hear you have your banding done. Where did you go to? I had mine done in Leeds privately in was £7950 with Prof McMahon on 17 July 2008. I had my first fill done on 17 Sept but dont feel any different - I'm still hungry and eat loads. I have requested another fill so hopefully it will make a difference. I get filled the next time in Hollywood. Have you lost much weight yet altho I suppose its early days for you. I lost about 20 lbs on the pre-op diet but it was pergutory!! Where do you get your fills? Dr Kennedy doesn't do any gastric ops here in N Ireland but I was told he may start in about a year or so. Its a bit of a nuisance having to go England for ours!!!! I know of a Doctor from Liverpool who is starting up in Blackrock, Dublin soon. Its also not fair that we cant get in done under NHS as well!!

Well I wish you well with your 'journey' its a big step for us all but it still takes a lot of motivation on our end and will power!! Do keep in touch about your progress.

Regards

Wriggle

Hi

Sorry I havent been on here for a while. Update - i got my first fill done by Dr Kennedy in Fitzwilliam Clinic, Belfast - paid privately of course £175 first visit and £150 for subsequent visits.

He told me that some bureaucracy here prevents him from doing WLS on NHS in NI but that he hopes that sometime in the future he will be able to set up privately and do them in NI.

Although I feel some restriction, I can still eat loads and I haven't lost no even 1lb since my op (did lose a few but put them back on).

Dr Kennedy said not to come back for at least 6 weeks but I could be a stone heavier by then.

So I'm going to go to Wendy WLS Group who comes here once a month and get my fills with her - 2nd fill booked for this Tues.

Cheers Julie

hi Julesni

i haven't been on here for ages either!! i went ahead and got banded in Brussels by dr Chris de bruyne on 25/sept/08 have to say that it all went smoothly and i returned to brussels 2 weeks ago to get my first fill. i feel abolutely no restriction and have 3.5mls in my 10ml band. i have booked to get my next fill on the 4th dec in Dublin (dr chris flies over once a month). i am really struggling to maintain weightloss and have lost only 2lb since my fill. i have lost a total of about 1 stone and 8lb but the 8lb was on the pre-op diet, so really only a stone since the operation 6weeks ago. not great!

How much did you get put into your band on your first fill? and do you know when Wendys next visit will be after this week? Is she expensive? Dr Chris comes to Dublin on the 4th December and charges 120 euro per fill so about £100 sterling.

good luck with you next fill on Tuesday! i would love to hear from you as to how you are getting on.

Angie324

Hi Angie

I'm a bit confused as to how much fill I have in my band as Dr Kennedy just put in 2ml and said its unlikely anything was put in at time of op but since then, I've heard that the 2 girls I met from NI who got op on same day as me got 4ml put in at time of op!! So I'm hoping Wendy who apparently always takes out all the fill first before refilling will enlighten me tomorrow night. If I had 4ml at op stage and another 2ml, I'm getting a bit worried.

I lost 11lb pre-op and another 6lb in the week after op so it was a total of 17lb. Between then and first fill I put 3-4lb back on. In first week after fill, I went up another 3-4lb (was on holiday in Prague tho) and this 2nd week, I lost that again. So sitting today with total of about 15lb off. I do have some restriction, it comes and goes. One day I can hardly eat 2 bites and another I can eat everything!

Hope Wendy sheds some light on situation tomorrow night. She comes here every 4 weeks on a Tuesday so I reckon her next date here will be 9 Dec. First visit is £125, then £85 and it goes down to £75 after that. She gets great reviews. I belong to the Anne Diamond site "fat happens" and she is talked about a lot on there. She works for WLS Group - look them up and read about them.

Cheers and keep in touch. Julie

hi julesni!

thanks for getting back to me! what time are you going to see Wendy tonight? i would be tempted to go myself tonight!! and where abouts do you have to go to get it done? i am so nervous about letting anyone else near my port incase they cause a leak!! but if wls are using her then she must be very experienced. Did you get a private message the other day from some man saying that fills are now available in Lisburn? apparantly this man (Robbie) was trained by dr chris de bruyne (my surgeon) and lives in Lisburn so is available 24 - 7 !! i have emailed dr chris though just to make sure cause i don't want to let some amature near my band!! it costs too much to fix it if something goes wrong!! not heard back from him yet though! good luck tonight!! i really wish i had booked her tonight too!! i will have to wait til beginning of December instead now!

Angie x

Hi Angie

Sorry I missed your message to tell you the time I was going but it was 4pm yesterday. She recommended me to make an appt for the next one in December though. It was at the start of the Lisburn Road, Belfast near the City Hospital. I had my first fill with Dr Kennedy and I had about 7 puncture marks with him trying to find the port and said that the port was at an angle. Wendy said yesterday that my post wasn't angled and that I could've had my tubing punctured with so many attampts - but it wasn't thankfully.

Wendy was excellent, very caring and kind and does these fills day and daily so is excellent at her job. She takes all the Fluid out first to check what is there before she returns it and adds some more. I thought I only had 2mls in but she was able to bring out 4.5mls so I must have had 2.5mls added at the time of the op. She added a further 1ml so I now have a total of 5.5mls.

This Robbie guy sounds interesting though because if you were overfilled you could at least get him 24/7 for a defill. I didn't get any email though - can you forward it to me?

I go to a support group in Jurys Hotel first Saturday of every month between 2-4pm. It is run by wlsinfo (a charity and also a web site) but so far, I have only met 1 bandster there, most of them have had bypasses. It would be great to get a few more bandsters to go to share experiences and make contacts etc. I think I'll start a new thread to tell folks on this site from NI who may wish to go. I did notice some had mentioned in though in previous posts.

Cheers Julie x

PS - I have only lost 13-14lb so far and 11 of those were on pre-op diet!!

HI Julesni

glad to hear that your fill went well! i don't mean to be rude, but did she say why she only put 1ml in? it seems a bit measly? i would expect to get at least 2mls if i was to go to her cos it so expensive for us bandsters! i can't seem to forward his email, but if you go on the wlsinfo site look at the members list. His name is Joss (he the only Joss on the list) he is the one that sent the message so it would be worth emailing him. i mailed him today re information, so if i hear anything i will let you know!

How are you feeling after the fill? any more restriction? if i don't get a fill soon i think i will scream!! i need to feel some kind of restriction to justify the thousands i have spent on this band!! :tongue2:

Ange xx

HI Wriggle!!

how are you doing now? i went to Belgium for my first fill a couple of weeks ago but no restriction!! i had 3.5mls put in and nothing!!!

feelling frustrated and annoyed at myself!! i really hope this band works.

angie xx

Hi Angie

I didn't know how much I had in the band - as far as I knew it was only 2ml put in bt Dr Kennedy but when she checked, I actually had 4.5 in there (2.5 put in a op stage). As there were some days when I got restriction, like all of last weekend (it comes and goes) she thought it wise to only put in a further 1ml as that brought me up to 5.5ml. I was ok about that. I didn't want to be overfilled and going back to Dr Kennedy with my tail between my legs!! LOL

Restriction is pretty good at moment - its only been 3 days though so I hope it keeps up - but my problem is that when I cant eat, I treat myself to a few glasses of vino hence why I'm still not losing any weight. Hope there will be some weight loss this week though coz my food intake is pretty small. I'm making another appt for DEc anyway coz I know this restriction doesn't always last!

Cheers Julie

Edited November 14, 200817 yr by julesni

sounds like you are getting some restriction! thats great. and also means that she was probably wise to put in 1ml¬

i just got an email back re the fills in Lisburn! it reads.

HI Angie, its my husband who does the fills, Dr Chris trained him to do his emergency unfills when he used to come to our Clinic, the cost is £100 with appointments evenings and saturdays.

irishanna from this site came here a few weeks ago if you want a reference but I can personnally say he is very good.

i am so tempted to go there this weekend!! just so nervous about it! must try and find out a bit more!

angie xx

Hi

I emailed Joss on the WLSInfo site and got the same reply - no telephone number though.

PM irish anna and see what she thought. It would be very handy for you and I though as it means you cud get fill when you choose and not waiting on appt all the time. It also solves the defill problem if it ever arises - something that has worried me coz I have heard of severe restriction coming on suddenly (various reasons) and not even being able to keep water down - and A&E Depts cant/dont know how to treat you!!

Julie

hi julesni

i have already pm'd irishanna but no reply as yet. it will be interesting to hear from her. i am shocked that dr chris hasn't got back to me about this. on the other hand that may mean that he did train him but isn't happy about him taking his business!! do you know when wendy is next here for fills?

angie x

hi julesni

i got another message back from Joss. she has given me her telephone number and email address. she says that the clinic is at their home. i will pm you the number and email address if you like. i not sure what to do though! another girl i talk to on here from dundalk said that she heard dr. chris coming to dublin on the 4th dec. so i might book that and wait to see him first and ask him if it's ok and safe to get fills from this othe guy!.