Hello! My name is Mojo. I attended an introductory meeting at Visalia Medical Clinic with Dr. Manuele last week, and am considering having the lap band surgery. I have my nutritional counseling appt tomorrow, my psychological evaluation next week, and will see my primary physician the next week for referral. Things are moving really fast.

Would be very interested in chatting with anyone in my area who has had the surgery, or considering having it.

I have been banded for 2 years and it is a constant battle. I would do it again but it is very time consuming. Right now I am over filled and have gained some weight back. I am trying to get in dr Manuele right now for an unfill, I had mine out of state. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me.

So Dr. Manuele didn't do your surgery, is that correct? Could you expand on what you mean by "time consuming"? Is it the doctor visits for fills, etc, or something else? Right now I'm struggling big time with whether or not I'm going to proceed with the surgery. I don't think it's fear, though it could be. I just really would prefer to lose the weight w/o the surgery, yet if I could, I probably would have already done it.

When you decided to have the surgery, did you have any reservations going into it, or were you sure from the start?

I had no reservations regarding the surgery, in fact I decided and booked it all in less than a month. I have contacted Dr Manuele's office and they are of no help to me. They did not return my call and they insist on files and records that I do not have access to. I am not impressed with their lack of enthusiasm with helping me even though they no that I am over-filled. They also advised me the Dr determines wether I would need a fill/unfill, I am sorry but I know my body better than he does. I am the only person that dictates that. Good luck to you and it does take time to find a sweet spot. I had my fill in March and it wasn't over tight until almost a month later.

I was just banded by Dr Manuele today. Even with the pain, I'm pretty happy. He's a great surgeon