Clynn

Send an email to fills@obesitycontrolcenter.com and let them know you are interested in scheduling a fill and give them your contact information. Someone will call you back and set it up. I didn't take the shuttle when I went down there but to pay for the fill itself I wrote a check before I left. If you take the shuttle you should have no problems but if you decide to walk across the border be sure to bring American quarters and contact numbers for the OCC. If you get lost the payphones in Mexico take American quarters.

Most of the people getting many fills are the ones who have the larger VG band which requires more fine tuning in order to hit the sweet spot. Dr Ortiz will decide when you get into surgery which band you receive.

When I was a little girl and was getting braces installed my dentist told me to wiggle my toes and concentrate on wiggling my little piggies. It has served me well through many exams, minor surgeries, shots, and my dentist muttering "whoops" to himself from time to time.

I think another part of it is hope. Every time I started a new diet no matter what it was, how jazzed up I got over it, and what I did to prepare at the back of my mind was the thought of "what makes this different from the 1,000's of other diets I've tried and failed?" In the end, the answer was nothing. With the band it's not about willpower but about the outside (well, inside actually) influence imposing itself on me and encouraging me to be good and change my eating habits permanently. That is what made this different from all those diets and gave me the hope that this could actually work.

The cost for the surgery with Dr Ortiz when I had it was $8500. Traveling to Tijuana was totally safe and I felt well taken care of at all times. Dr Ortiz is a great surgeon and I felt 90% back to normal in about a week. So far I am about 9 months out and have lost 98 lbs and still going down at a good clip. If you are going to get it it is best done when you are young as you will recover from the surgery faster and adapt to the new way of eating which the band will require. To be very clear, you will need to adjust your eating habits for this to work. It's different for everyone but for me I have had to give up bread and pasta altogether. I've also cut most carbs out of my diet to help facilitate the weight coming off. Here is how the things will happen when you make your appointment: You'll be put on a pre-op diet by the OCC's nutritionist. It's different for everyone depending on the situation and she'll craft one just for you. You and your guest will fly down the day before your surgery to the San Diego Airport. A drive from OCC will pick you up and take you across the border to the clinic. At the clinic they will do some pre-op tests which include a lung capacity and EKG. Then you'll be taken to the hotel and checked in. The next morning the driver will pick you up and take you to the clinic. They'll get you prepared for surgery. The doctors will come by and talk to you and answer any questions you may have and then it will be your turn. My memory gets a little fuzzy after that (good drugs) but you'll be encouraged to walk around the clinic afterwards to get your blood pumping which will aid in recovery. You'll spend the night at the clinic with an IV drip to keep you hydrated and administer any further medications. Your guest will spend the night at the hotel. The next day you'll be taken back to the hotel where you can bask by the pool, eat at the restaurant, and go shopping in town if you wish. After that you fly home. I flew home alone and no problems other than being tired and a little sore. You'll be surprised how easy recover will be, it really didn't feel like I'd had major surgery, though I did find it easier to sleep sitting up for a couple of days. For a week after surgery you will be eating clear liquids only like gatorade and broth. Week two and three you can eat full liquids. Basically anything that will go through a straw. After that it is normal foods again. Six to eight weeks later you will get your first fill and be on liquids for three days after that. Hope this answers your questions. You or your parents can send me an email through the forum if they have more questions or just want to talk. Good luck.

I was told pretty much all you want. Since you are on clear liquids you aren't getting very much nutrition from them, so as long as you are hungry, go nuts. As for water, staying hydrated is very important. Just ask the woman who got kidney stones post-op because she didn't drink enough. This is a time of healing, don't worry about loosing weight.

Of course, don't take my earlier statement as an admonishment or otherwise indicating you should go someplace else. We're happy to hear from and talk to anyone about banding issues regardless of who their doctor is. I just wanted you to understand why someone would ask us about what to bring for their surgery in Mexico.

Since this forum is set up by Dr Ortiz's clinic in Tijuana, most of the posters here have gone out of the country. There are several benefits to going to Dr Ortiz including expertise and cost. Since he is so well known among lap-band surgeons there are many US clinics who will see and treat his patients should local follow-ups be necessary. He also makes his cell number available to patients so we can speak to him whenever we have any questions or concerns.

I'm up for getting together if the timing works out with my schedule. Sundays are best for me right now.

Ahhhhhh, that could definatly explain things. Stress was enough to make me throw up even before I got banded. Good luck to you and try to take it easy as much as possible then.

I agree with Pammie. You should be able to eat solids without feeling ill so long as you chew throughly. Soft foods like refried beans shouldn't need much chewing in order to be ok. Just give whoever did your fill a call and see what they think about the situation.

Ok, so at what point can people go in to get banded and have the dentist working on them at the same time while they're under anesthesia? Seems like that would be the ultimate to me. . .

Can't help you with telling if your band has slipped but if you are still vomiting, call your doctor asap and have him give you some anti-nausea medication. I got some from my doc called Promethegan to keep around just in case I come down with the flu or food poisoning. Was easy to get and not at all expensive. Good luck with your flu and I hopefully everything is ok with your band. Once you flu calms down if you are still able to eat and drink ok I would think you are fine.

This wasn't the dentist at OCC but my mom had a root canal while I was having surgery by a dentist down the road. She said it was the best root canal she ever had. Mrs Ortiz recommended him so you can probably call and ask who they would recommend.

Oh sweetie bless your heart!!

The lapband is for people who have 50 pounds or more to loose. People who start out with lower BMI's have a harder time of it that people who want to loose more. I started out at 318 and am currently at 226, so that's 92 lbs gone and still loosing. At 300 pounds you are an excellent candidate. I choose not to do the bypass for several reasons. First it is irreversible so if it causes me any problems I am stuck. Secondly, it seems a bad idea to remove perfectly good body parts and people who have the bypass often have food absorption problems and nutritional issues. Thirdly, unlike the band, bypass is not adjustable. My body is going through alot of changes and the band can be adjusted to best fit the situation whereas bypass is what it is. Band adjustments vary depending on the person. Once you reach your goal weight you probably won't need to be adjusted often, but if you are loosing weight quickly you will need them more often. If you get banded by Dr Ortiz fills with flouroscopy are $100 for life. Fills elsewhere without flouroscopy typically run $125 - $150. I just got filled two weeks ago with flouroscopy and it ran $375. Price will vary depending on the doctor so look around for the best price. Haven't heard those percentages anywhere so I can't speak to them. I'm over 50% excess weight loss and I don't think I would qualify as a statistical outlier so I would think those numbers are either flawed or don't tell the whole story.

You're young enough that sagging skin won't be as big a worry as if you were older. I'm surprised how much I've firmed up and lifting weights seems to help my problem areas. Course you won't know for sure until you get there. I'm thinking that as the lap band becomes more and more popular the aftercare surgeries will also gain popularity and come down in price.

Yup, mine started around there. Now that I think about it some more I wonder if she meant my ribs were getting in the way of her seeing it clearly on the flouroscopy rather than it actually going under my ribs.

To answer your questions: 1) Since the surgery is done laproscopically you'll bounce right back. The nurses had me on my feet and walking around minutes after coming out of the OR. I took pain meds twice to help me sleep, and didn't even feel the need to bring them home with me. Mrs Ortiz said youth was on my side as far as recovery, and you are three years younger than me so you'll bounce right back. Scarring is minimal. There are five incisions, four small ones for instruments and one that started out three or four inches long. As I've lost weight those scars have gotten smaller. The four small ones now look like minor acne scars and the larger one is about an inch long. I'm told as time goes on they'll diminish more as the body continues to heal. 2) As the weight comes off your confidence will skyrocket. People who know me tell me my walk has changed since the surgery and it is all down to me being more confident and knowing that my $8500 butt looks fabulous! Once you gain this confidence doubt will fall away, and if it doesn't you can always come talk to us about it. 3) This is going to be a difficult answer to explain but I'll do my best. Food tastes different now. Some foods like doughnuts, pasta, and bread tastes like styrofoam while other foods like steak and bell peppers have become more flavorful and delicious. I think part of it has to do with the fact that there's less room for me to put food after I eat it so I'm gravitating towards foods with more flavor per square inch. I spoke to my doctor about this and he told me that from what the medical community is starting to learn about obesity is that there is actually a chemical change in the body that occurs alongside excess weight gain. Now that I'm loosing the weight the chemicals in my body are adjusting and that's influencing what kind of foods I like. I still love food and delicious food is still wonderful, it's just that I classify different foods as delicious now. 4) Most of the people on this forum go to Dr Ortiz and are self pay either because insurance won't cover it or they don't want to jump through the insurance hoops. My advice here is to get a doctor you have a history with and have a conversation with them about it. They will be able to get the insurance ball rolling or refer you to someone who can. 5) The time from start to finish will be determined by your insurance. Some self-pay patients for Dr Ortiz can make their appointment and have their surgery within days. Some patients who go through insurance have several hoops to jump through and it can be months. One girl's insurance company made her diet six months before they would ok the surgery. The official explanation was that they wanted to make sure dieting would not work but I think they just wanted to get her to loose enough weight to not qualify anymore. They band's greatest power is not helping people loose weight but helping people keep it off. Once you get your referral you'll have a better idea of how long the process will be. Whew! Ok, I don't think I left anything out. Good luck to you.

Couple of things: 1) You don't need to eat baby food. Some people choose to eat baby food during the post-op diet, but this is not required and once you are back onto normal foods you can eat, well, normal foods. 2) Nobody said you can't eat chicken. Some people have said that THEY can't eat chicken. We all have different foods that don't work with us. For me it is bread and pasta but I shouldn't be eating those things anyway, and since the consequences with the band are severe, I have no desire for these foods. I had a fill last week so I am quite tight right now and was able to have chicken for dinner last night (with pesto, it was yummy!) Your results will vary but if you chew enough you will probably be able to eat chicken just fine. 3) Yes you will need to "chew to goo" but it sounds much much worse than it is. It is no big deal once you get used to it. 4) You should not drink liquids for an hour after eating but before eating you are fine. In fact I usually make sure to drink something before eating so I don't get thirsty afterwards. 5) Gas and burping is most associated with the week post-op since they pump your system full of gas while they are operating. This gas goes away and things are fine. I do find when I eat I need to burp more than before, but it is not severe and I still cannot compete with my (not-banded) guy friends when it comes to belching. Probably the biggest question to ask on whether it will work for you is how much do you want to loose? Those of us who need to be halved or even quartered seem to have the biggest success stories. People with smaller bmi's seem to have to work for it more, but even still the response from them is quite positive. Is it worth it? Check out my signature, even though I'm less than a year out I'm almost to 100 pounds lost so YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES. . .YES!

Last week I went in for my 3rd fill. The doctor had some trouble getting the port because it kept "slipping behind my ribs." She didn't seem too concerned about it and I didn't even think too much about it until last night but is this something anyone has experienced? Is it something that could turn into more of a problem as I continue to loose weight and my body shifts around? So far the new fill level is going very well and things are working as they should again, so I'm not particularly worried at this point in time just curious.

Sounds like if anything you are actually too tight. If you don't eat anything until the evening your body goes into starvation mode and won't let go of fat for anything. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day as it will set the tone of your metabolism. However, if you cannot eat anything at all in the morning it may be because your stomach is becoming inflamed while you sleep. Try not to eat anything for the few hours before bedtime as food will just sit in your stomach when you fall asleep and can cause irritation. If you have allergies, get some medicine so you don't have stuff dripping down into your stomach all night. Some types of coffee can also cause irritation, experiment around and see if this helps. Good luck

Go to http://www.lapband.com - It's Inamed's (now Allergan btw) website for the lab-band. You can find all sorts of information there and there is a contact us page where you can ask questions.

If your band had slipped you would probably feel it. Consider yourself as being lucky so far, but you need to stop now and go back to your prescribed pre-op diet before you do some serious damage. In order to do that effectively you'll need to deal with the current situation in a healthier manner. If there's someone in your life you trust, talk to them and be as open and honest as you can. Samia has an excellent idea by walking, I can tell you that exercise is an excellent treatment for depression! Remember, you can always come back and talk to us if you need to.

If I recall correctly, you should be able to start yogurt right about now. I never liked yogurt but when I was able to have it, it was the most wonderful thing I'd ever tasted in my life. For broth I would buy packets of Ramen noodles and throw the noodles away. That way I was able to have several different flavors of broth. Lori has suggested making your own broth since it tastes much better than the canned stuff. Not now but in a week or two when you're on full liquids you can get regular soups, then blend them until they are the consistency of milk. Low-carb Popsicles are good since you'll actually be able to feel like you're chewing something. Just remember to let it melt in your mouth completely before you swallow.