Really patient, answers all questions, takes his time, you never feel rushed. He is very nice and pretty funny. His office staff is great too. Everyone in his practice is helpful and kind. 100% the right choice
First it was a lot of work just to get approved to have lap Band surgery. I have Medicare as my primary and Humana as my 2nd insurance. Medicare will pay part of it if you fit into the guidelines of it being a medical necessary. Humana at that time, I don't know if it has changed, pay nothing. Was not covered at all. So I start the testing and the process. At the time I first started this my weight was 260. I am 5'3". And am presently 53 years old. My weight loss has changed. I am now at 189. But that goes up and down. Within 5 or 6 pounds. Updated on 21 Jun 2013: I still have not reached my goal as far as weight goes. I am not gaining so that's good. But it seems like losing is impossible. I want to lose at least 40lbs. but would be happy with 20 for now. The saying nothing tastes as good as being thin feels, ha. That's hard to beleive at times. Updated on 4 Aug 2013: I just don't know, I can not lose weight no matter how hare I try. Went back to my lapband doctor. He added a little more to my band to help me get my eating under control. I just don't really think that's the problem. I do not eat that much, ever. I try to exercise as much as possible. Since knee surger 2 weeks ago I can't do much. Help me if you have any ideas that have worked for you after lapband. You get so far and then get stuck. Updated on 7 Oct 2013: I know this is a little late, but I just found the pictures that my Lap Band doc took before and a year after my lap band surgery. I thought it was interesting so I called his office and they had all the dates for me, I wasn't real sure about any dates, but know now. The actual surgery was 09-12-2008.
i had a patient with the exact same scenario. She had lost a lot of weight to where the abdominal wall adjustment port was visible. This is actually more common in men, because men have less fat under the skin, where women tend to carry their fat there. My patient was thrilled with her weight loss but her port was visible even prior to abdominoplasty and requested port removal without band removal. My recommendation was actually port and band removal without conversion to gastric bypass to protect her from weight regain. After a long discussion, I removed all of the fluid from her port so she could experience what it would be like to have an empty band. If you just removed the port, there would be no way to adjust the band and the band would be empty. After a week or two like this the patient’s appetite had returned and she was starting to gain weight and requested fluid be put back in the band. I do see that your port/band is empty so this advice may not apply. It is not typical for females to lose enough weight for the port to be visible, but in people that lose more than average I have seen it. Lap-Band makes a smaller port, and it may be possible to exchange the port, but I have both ports in my office and even the smaller port would have been visible. Realize band is a lower profile port but much wider. Congratulations on your weight loss journey. One more point, is what to do long term with GLP-1’s. Most clinicians would say you need to be on them forever to prevent weight regain, maybe at same or lower doses. Ozempic has only been available since 2017 and Mounjaro since 2022, so there isn’t a lot of long term data following patients 5-10 years and beyond.
At your height of 5'5" and weight of 180 pounds, your BMI (body mass index) is 30.0 kg/m^2. this is too low to qualify for bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery guidelines, for surgeries like gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric band, biliopancreatic diversion, the minimum BMI is 35-40 if there are co-exisiting medical problems, such as heart disease, sleep apnea, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes. If the BMI is over 40, then most insurance policies would not require a co-existing medical problem. A new option for your BMI is the intra-gastric balloon. There are two brands of this balloon, Orbera and ReShape. Basically it is a balloon that is fluid filled and remains in your stomach for a period of about 6 months, and then is deflated and removed. It is recently FDA approved but not covered by insurance.
I calculated your BMI as 44.85 based on your current height and weight. Weight loss after bariatric surgery is expressed as percent of excess body weight lost. Your ideal weight is between 121 (=BMI 18.5) and 164 (=BMI 25). Then your excess weight is 131, meaning the amount over 164 (295-164=131). To lose 70% of 131 is losing down to 203 pounds. At 203 pounds your BMI would be 30.9. I am not saying it is impossible to lose down to 130-140, but losing about 100 pounds is more realistic. I tell my patients to wait and see where there lose skin is before pursuing plastic surgery. David Geller, MDBariatric Surgery
yes it is true that patients with auto-immune disease like lupus should not have a gastric band placed. This is either Lap-Band or Realize band. It is thought to cause an increased risk of complications, mainly erosion of the band. I recommend patients with those contraindications to the band undergo sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass. In doing either of these stapling procedures, the staples are left in the GI tract forever, but are non-reactive and do not cause problems in patients with auto-immune disease. David Geller, MD
Yes. at a BMI of 43 you are eligible. Unfortunately, long term studies suggest at this BMI the chances of significant weight loss are very low with treatments other than surgery. There are several surgical options for weight loss, including banding, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass, and biliopancreatic diversion. I list in increasing order of effectiveness and risk. In the last few years sleeve gastrectomy has become very popular, and if these trends continue, it will likely become the most commonly performed bariatric surgery.
