The Truth About Lap Bands and Fills

There’s a blog post that I’m sure a lot of people who are researching Lap Bands right now are seeing in which a young woman is telling her tale of getting Lap Band surgery in Mexico four years ago. At that point in time, surgeons weren’t doing fills for the patients of other surgeons, so she had to fly to Mexico everytime she needed a fill - a situation that has now changed. Anyway, she expresses the idea that had she not needed to fly to Mexico for a fill, she would have had fills several times a month, rather than over the course of several months. This isn’t accurate - you wouldn’t have fills several times a month. According to Dr. Paul O’Brien, who is the Director of The Centre For Obesity Research and Education at Monash University in Australia, you’ll have your first adjustment 4 weeks post op. At that point, you’ll have adjustments every two weeks or so, until you hit what he calls “the green zone”. It takes about a week to determine how the particular fill is affecting you and most physicians prefer to have a little more data before they proceed again. Once you hit the green zone, the time between adjustments stretches out from four weeks, to six weeks to three months, to six months. It just depends. I’ve talked to a few people who have lost all of their weight with four or five adjustments. Some people require more.

For those of you who are new to this - the port is located somewhere just to the side of your belly button. Fills are simple and painless. You lay down a table, put your hands behind your head and life your legs slightly. That causes your tummy muscles to tighten up and the physician feels for the port. Once found, they swab the area to clean it, spray a local anesthetic on it (no shot) and do a quick injection. They withdraw all the saline from your Lap Band so that they are sure how much is already there, and then inject the full new amount. It’s all over in under two minutes.

Here’s a video of a Lap Band fill being done:

Here’s Love My Lap Band Interviewee Lorraine Kay talking about her fill (among a few other things). Now, Lorraine’s experience involves a barrium X-ray so they can check things out a little more thoroughly, and that’s more likely to happen with someone whose procedure is being covered by insurance. Still, she makes the point quite well that it’s quick and simple.

And here is Becca getting a Lap Band fill in her physician’s office:

Fill Centers USA has 30 locations around the nation and has an entire post-operative support program. They handle fills, and provide the post-surgical support helping you learn to use your Lap Band to the most positive end possible. One of the things we know, is that people who have post-surgical support lose more weight, and have an all around happier experience. So, if you’re contemplating surgery in Mexico, this is an option you should consider.

If you’re just investigating Lap Band surgery, I’d encourage to read Dr. Paul O’Brien’s book THE LAP BAND SOLUTION. He covers all of the basic information in a clear, concise, easy-to-read manual. He’s one of the premier experts on Lap Bands in the world, and has been formally researching their efficacy since the early nineties.

Lap Bands, Red Wine and Fat Cells

Dr. Paul O’Brien is right! We do get to have our glass of red wine with a Lap Band! Not that I’m much of a drinker, but I would like to live longer. Being an American with no health insurance, I get scared sometimes.

I was googling “weight loss” + genetics + fat and found this study from researchers at Oregon State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Ottawa about SIRT-1 - a gene which can reduce the development of new fat cells and increase metabolism. Ooooo la la! Well, it seems this gene’s activities can be increased by resveratrol, a compound found in grape skins.

The study was done with mice as a research model, and a remaining challenge will be to see if the same results are observed in a higher vertebrate model, including humans.
The research outlined the processes of fat formation and usage at a cellular and genetic level. It also analyzed the metabolic function of resveratrol, a polyphenol and antioxidant found at high levels in grape skins.

“When cells were exposed to resveratrol, our studies showed a pretty dramatic reduction in the conversion to fat cells and a lesser but still significant increase in the mobilization of existing fat, or the rate at which the cells metabolized stored fat,” said Mark Leid, a professor of pharmacology in the OSU College of Pharmacy. “This clearly could be one of the explanations for the health benefits that some researchers believe can be linked to moderate red wine consumption.”

And…

n trying to determine the molecular basis for this genetic link to longevity, the new study found that SIRT1 increases the use of fat and reduces the formation of new fat cells – apparently it represses one or more fat-regulating proteins and other genes that drive fat storage following calorie restriction. This may have been an evolutionary adaptation for the body to sense short term famine and counter it by increasing the burning of stored body fat, researchers say.

So, there ya go - I get to have a glass of red wine while I’m blogging and you get to have a glass of red wine while you’re reading my blog.

One more in my series Why You Can’t (Or Don’t) Lose Weight and Keep It Off. I’ve got more to report comin’ up in the next few days.

Jaime’s Lost 50 Pounds In Just Over 2 Months!

Nice blog update. Jaime, of Jaime’s Journey, went to the doctor the other day and has officially lost 50 pounds! She started off at 350 and her doctor is now teasing her that she’s just melting away. She has before and after pictures up as well - pre-surgery, 1 month post and 2 months post.

Lise the Loser came back from her weekend at Langley, Washington to discover that she has officially lost 30 pounds and now weighs - dun da da da! - 199. She is in Onederland to stay!

Achieving Me has bought herself a fabulous black ruffled dress (it is dreamy) for the Winter Ball she will be attending this July! She got it in a size 8 (12 for our Aussie friends) so that it fits in a few months.

Lastly, I think Gwen has some new photos up of herself in her photo carousel.

Happy Mother’s Day to all. A documentary I co-produced a couple years ago on the training of opera singers is being screened for the board of the organization we worked for tomorrow night. I’m excited about that. My darling 29 year old son may, or may not, be aware of Mother’s Day but you know, a mother’s hope springs eternal.

Exercise, Weight Loss, and Metabolism

Here is a fascinating exchange from the New York Times’ head science writer, Gina Kolata about her book, RETHINKING THIN. Here is the book excerpt in question.

This excerpt makes that case that changing the body’s weight above (resp. below) some intrinsic value causes the body to increase (resp. decrease) its metabolism. The research seems good on this.

This doesn’t mean that people are powerless to reach their desired weight. There seem to be effective ways to increase a body’s metabolism beyond adjusting caloric intake. It seems like increasing muscle mass, doing aerobic exercise, drinking caffeine, and eating small amounts throughout the day all can increase your metabolism. Are any of these things known to be effective in counteracting the body’s use of metabolic rate to maintain some given weight?
— Posted by A. Johnson

2.
May 7th,
2007
11:49 pm
The real issue is, how realistic is the desired weight? In studies, many obese people state a dream weight but almost no one achieves it and of those who do, almost no one maintains it. It can be very difficult to become as thin as you might want to be and stay that thin. On the other hand, many people can successfully lose modest amounts of weight and keep those pounds off. But you asked about other methods to increase the metabolism. Exercise can increase the number of calories you need but it does not increase your metabolism. And the amount of calories most people burn, particularly with moderate exercise, is not very significant, 100 or 200 calories per session. Increasing muscle mass does nothing for metabolism – that’s an exercise myth. The reason is that any added muscle is minuscule compared with the total amount of skeletal muscle in the body and muscle has a very low metabolic rate when it is at rest, which is most of the time. A man who weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds, for example, has about 28 kilograms of muscle. His muscles, when he is at rest, burn 22 percent of his body’s calories — the brain uses the same amount and so does the liver. If the man lifts weights and gains 2 kilograms, or 4.4 pounds of muscles, his metabolic rate would increase by 24 calories a day. The average amount of muscle that men gain after a serious 12-week course of weight lifting is 2 kilograms.

— Posted by Gina Kolata

One more in a series on why you can’t (or don’t) lose weight and keep it off or what the diet and excercise industry doesn’t want you to know. This stuff really ticks me off.

Insurance Denials for Lap Band Surgery

I posted this a few months ago, and I think it’s worth a repeat. The Northwest Weight Loss Surgery site has a link to one of the best pages ever - Obesity Law And Advocacy Center. Attorney Walter Lindstrom is founder, and his firm focuses on issues of concern to obese people. Now, as I said before, if you’re reading this page, you don’t plan on being obese for long, so what is the relevance?

Well, Mr. Lindstrom has a lot of advice on what you need to do to get your insurance to cover your lap band procedure. For starters, a lot of insurance companies mandate that you establish that you were on a supervised diet program and require that you provide them with notes. He has an entire paper on the importance of doing this. His basic point is that for many of us, getting insurance approval isn’t that quick anyway. Most doctors want you to lose 10 pounds or so before surgery to make the liver smaller anyway, so Mr. Lindstrom says “do it”. It will get you a little farther down the road while you work through the insurance issues, and will make you healthier for the surgery.

There are lots of articles and FAQ page as well. There were two questions that particularly caught my eye and I think will be relevant to many of you.

I’VE BEEN DENIED OBESITY SURGERY BY MY INSURANCE COMPANY BECAUSE CLAIM IT ISN’T MEDICALLY NECESSARY. CAN YOU HELP ME?

We are fortunate to be able to help most anyone in this position and have a success rate overturning denials based on “medical necessity” or failure to meet criteria for surgery that is in excess of 90%. We can be most effective if we get the case or claim right at the time of the first denial. If you wish to inquire about us advocating for you in that type of case, click here.

Oooo la la! A success rate of over 90%! That’s what I want to hear!!!!!

And then this:

MY INSURANCE COMPANY DENIED ME BASED ON A LACK OF DOCUMENTATION OF WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS AND I DON’T HAVE ALOT OF THAT INFORMATION….CAN YOU HELP ME?

This is one of the areas we spend a great deal of time and have had very good success. While it is very, very important for patients to go back to their various medical providers to get whatever historical records are available, the fact is many people don’t have or cannot locate such records. That should not stop anyone from seeking surgery. First, you can always postpone the surgery until you comply with your company’s requirements, whether they are 6 months, 12 months, 18 months or more. However, we also understand that many of you have “been there, done that” and don’t want to wait anymore. We work successfully on a great many of those cases despite a client not having a great deal of documentation and we would urge you to give us a chance if this is the basis for denial you confront.

This was something I was wondering about. I live on a diet. I don’t think there are that many changes I could make to my diet that would allow me to lose weight. But after reading this site, tomorrow I’m going to be figuring out ways to get on a supervised diet, just in case I wind up with insurance coverage and use it for my surgery.

And in case you need help but you’re thinking you can’t afford Mr. Lindstrom, he says this:

ISN’T HIRING AN ADVOCATE GOING TO BE VERY EXPENSIVE?

Fear of professional fees are unfortunately one of the primary reasons why many Americans, in our opinion, are denied access to health care they require. Many people cannot afford costly fees and many attorneys and other types of advocates charge fees which are greater than the costs of the treatment being denied. Obviously, in that case, it would make no sense to hire such a person or firm.

Our office has worked very hard to make high quality services affordable to anyone who needs them. We have kept our overhead extremely low and have streamlined our file handling to maximize results for our clients. We’ll discuss our various fee options with you on an individual basis, but our current structure starts under $500, depending on what you require.

While it is important that this office charge and collect a fair fee for the work that we do, we have never allowed someone’s ability to pay fees to be the final deciding factor as to whether or not we can help them. We don’t want anyone to not contact us simply based on an erroneous assumption that hiring us is too expensive. We will work hard, if necessary, to create a payment plan which meets your personal situation.

And since most of you don’t live in California:

I DON’T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA - - - CAN YOU STILL HELP ME?

The answer to this question is generally “Yes,” but circumstances will differ from case to case. First of all, you must understand that you are retaining our services as a designated authorized “representative” to assist you with your appeal; we are not acting as an “attorney” on your behalf. In those instances, it is generally not necessary for us to be admitted to the bar for your state.

If we take on the matter as attorneys (rather than as lay advocates), we do have to be admitted to practice in the jurisdiction for that case. In those instances, we associate local counsel to assist with following the local rules and to sponsor our admission to that state’s bar for purposes of that particular case. That is called being admitted pro hac vice (for purposes of that case).

There are a few things to keep in mind. If you want us to help you with your appeal, you’re not going to be obligated to file any type of lawsuit or arbitration or other type of litigated solution to the dispute. You’re also never obligated to keep us as your attorneys if you wish to file such an action; in fact, we too retain the right to not move forward with a litigated case and, in some instances, we may be unable to take on that representation because we may be witnesses to the payer’s conduct.

So. yes, he might very well be able to help you even if you live out of state.

There is a lot of great stuff to read there, so I’d encourage you to spend some time at his site. He has an entire paper on getting your insurance carrier to approve you. I’m going to read that tomorrow and report back as well.

The Northwest Weight Loss Surgery site has a link to one of the best pages ever - Obesity Law And Advocacy Center. Attorney Walter Lindstrom is founder, and he is specializing in laws and discrimination that impact the obese. Now, if you’re reading this page, you’re not planning on being obese for long so you may wonder how this impacts you!

Well, Mr. Lindstrom has a lot of advice on what you need to do to get your insurance to cover your lap band procedure. For starters, a lot of insurance companies mandate that you establish that you were on a supervised diet program and require that you provide them with notes. He has an entire paper on the importance of doing this. His basic point is that for many of us, getting insurance approval isn’t that quick anyway. Most doctors want you to lose 10 pounds or so before surgery to make the liver smaller anyway, so Mr. Lindstrom says “do it”. It will get you a little farther down the road while you work through the insurance issues, and will make you healthier for the surgery.

There are lots of articles and FAQ page as well. There were two questions that particularly caught my eye and I think will be relevant to many of you.

I’VE BEEN DENIED OBESITY SURGERY BY MY INSURANCE COMPANY BECAUSE CLAIM IT ISN’T MEDICALLY NECESSARY. CAN YOU HELP ME?

We are fortunate to be able to help most anyone in this position and have a success rate overturning denials based on “medical necessity” or failure to meet criteria for surgery that is in excess of 90%. We can be most effective if we get the case or claim right at the time of the first denial. If you wish to inquire about us advocating for you in that type of case, click here.

Oooo la la! A success rate of over 90%! That’s what I want to hear!!!!!

And then this:

MY INSURANCE COMPANY DENIED ME BASED ON A LACK OF DOCUMENTATION OF WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS AND I DON’T HAVE ALOT OF THAT INFORMATION….CAN YOU HELP ME?

This is one of the areas we spend a great deal of time and have had very good success. While it is very, very important for patients to go back to their various medical providers to get whatever historical records are available, the fact is many people don’t have or cannot locate such records. That should not stop anyone from seeking surgery. First, you can always postpone the surgery until you comply with your company’s requirements, whether they are 6 months, 12 months, 18 months or more. However, we also understand that many of you have “been there, done that” and don’t want to wait anymore. We work successfully on a great many of those cases despite a client not having a great deal of documentation and we would urge you to give us a chance if this is the basis for denial you confront.

This was something I was wondering about. I live on a diet. I don’t think there are that many changes I could make to my diet that would allow me to lose weight. But after reading this site, tomorrow I’m going to be figuring out ways to get on a supervised diet, just in case I wind up with insurance coverage and use it for my surgery.

And in case you need help but you’re thinking you can’t afford Mr. Lindstrom, he says this:

ISN’T HIRING AN ADVOCATE GOING TO BE VERY EXPENSIVE?

Fear of professional fees are unfortunately one of the primary reasons why many Americans, in our opinion, are denied access to health care they require. Many people cannot afford costly fees and many attorneys and other types of advocates charge fees which are greater than the costs of the treatment being denied. Obviously, in that case, it would make no sense to hire such a person or firm.

Our office has worked very hard to make high quality services affordable to anyone who needs them. We have kept our overhead extremely low and have streamlined our file handling to maximize results for our clients. We’ll discuss our various fee options with you on an individual basis, but our current structure starts under $500, depending on what you require.

While it is important that this office charge and collect a fair fee for the work that we do, we have never allowed someone’s ability to pay fees to be the final deciding factor as to whether or not we can help them. We don’t want anyone to not contact us simply based on an erroneous assumption that hiring us is too expensive. We will work hard, if necessary, to create a payment plan which meets your personal situation.

And since most of you don’t live in California:

I DON’T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA - - - CAN YOU STILL HELP ME?

The answer to this question is generally “Yes,” but circumstances will differ from case to case. First of all, you must understand that you are retaining our services as a designated authorized “representative” to assist you with your appeal; we are not acting as an “attorney” on your behalf. In those instances, it is generally not necessary for us to be admitted to the bar for your state.

If we take on the matter as attorneys (rather than as lay advocates), we do have to be admitted to practice in the jurisdiction for that case. In those instances, we associate local counsel to assist with following the local rules and to sponsor our admission to that state’s bar for purposes of that particular case. That is called being admitted pro hac vice (for purposes of that case).

There are a few things to keep in mind. If you want us to help you with your appeal, you’re not going to be obligated to file any type of lawsuit or arbitration or other type of litigated solution to the dispute. You’re also never obligated to keep us as your attorneys if you wish to file such an action; in fact, we too retain the right to not move forward with a litigated case and, in some instances, we may be unable to take on that representation because we may be witnesses to the payer’s conduct.

So. yes, he might very well be able to help you even if you live out of state.

There is a lot of great stuff to read there, so I’d encourage you to spend some time at his site. He has an entire paper on getting your insurance carrier to approve you. I’m going to read that tomorrow and report back as well.

Deciding Between Gastric Bypass and Lap Bands

I want to put this last video from Dr. Simpson in a different post entirely. He talks a great deal about why he doesn’t do gastric bypasses anymore but instead prefers Lap Bands. Interestingly, he also talks briefly about why Lap Band patients are less likely to need plastic surgery after losing an equivalent amount of weight. As before, there is a silent animation during the first 40 seconds of the clip - nothing is wrong with your computer.

What You Can’t Eat With A Lap Band

Poking around YouTube today, I found these three videos for Dr. Terry Simpson in Phoenix, Arizona. You may recognize his name from my blog - previously I’ve linked a podcast to a radio show he did with Cher Ewing and Jeff Cadwell for Weight Loss Surgery radio. He’s an interesting guy and I’ve enjoyed listening to him. At his website, he has a lot of podcasts that he links on different aspects of life with a Lap Band.

This first YouTube video covers eating in the weeks following a Lap Band procedure. The first few days, it’s warm liquids. After that, you can have some soft food like mashed potatos. Then you move on to solid food, and he gives a run down of what you should avoid. Lastly, he talks about how much you should eat, and the fact that you should sit down and eat it when you do. There is always plenty of good information with him.

In this video, he talks about how the Lap Band works. He has a animation of a Lap Band when the video first opens that is silent - so nothing has gone wrong with your computer.

Great Before And After Lap Band Story!

This video is from a Fox News Affiliate in Florida with Dr. Joette Giovinco who is doing a weeklong series on weight loss. She’s profiling Lap Bandee Bette Gashler who has gone from a size 22 to a size 10. Best of all, Bette is now pain free. And in regard to the poll that I linked last night about whether bandees regret their choice, Ms. Gashler says she doesn’t regret it at all and that this is the smallest she’s been since her daughter was born. It’s a two minute video - very quick. It does have good, clear close ups of the Lap Band as well.

Live Longer With Weight Loss Surgery

I’ve written about this before, but I think it’s always good for a repeat. So many people hesitate to have weight loss surgery because they are concerned that there will be problems, and besides, surely they can lose the weight without such extremities.

To my mind, weight loss surgery is no more extreme than any other type of medical treatment. If I break my leg, I’m gonna get a cast on it, and I’m not going to engage in supersitious thinking that my broken leg is punishment for bad behavior and I therefore should heal without medical intervention. That’s just nonsense. It’s like the stigma against mental health treatment - schizophrenics can’t stop being schizophrenic. Depressed people can’t snap out of it. These are all medical conditions with medical treatments. Sometimes there are herbs that do the trick and sometimes accupuncture is the way to go. And most of us wind up with traditional western medicine of one kind or the other. The point is that if having a treatment will add years to your life - do it. Most of us have families who love us and want and need us around as long as they can have us. What’s wrong with giving your kids who love you an extra ten years? How many of us have grandparents or parents or even kids that we wish would have stayed among us longer?

So, obesity surgery extends your life.

From Dr. John Dixon’s paper Survival Advantage With Bariatric Surgery: report from the 10th
International Congress on Obesity.

A group from Monash University in Australia presented mortality data from two Melbourne cohorts [2]. A single surgical cohort of 1468 patients treated with laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) using the LapBand was compared with an established population-based cohort, the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Five deaths occurred in almost 6000 patient years in the surgical cohort, with vital status available for 98%. This group was compared with 2000 obese subjects in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Five deaths occurred in almost 6000 patient years in the surgical cohort, with vital status available for 98%. This group was compared with 2000 obese subjects in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study cohort in which 225 deaths occurred in 25,000 patient years. Adjusted Cox regression analysis revealed a 73% reduction in the mortality rate in the surgically treated cohort (hazard ratio 0.27, 95% confidence interval 0.09–0.81). The investigators concluded that LAGB surgery provided a significant survival advantage for this severely obese population.

Now, this study in Utah on gastric bypass found a 40% reduction in the risk of death, with a bizarre stipulation:

A collaborative research project conducted in Utah compared mortality in 8172 patients who had undergone gastric bypass surgery in a single practice with the same number of community controls matched for age, gender, and body mass index [3]. This latter cohort was matched with the surgical cohort using a community driving license data set. Vital status was assessed using the National Death Index. The gastric bypass cohort had a 40% reduction in mortality (P 0.001). Significant reductions in deaths related to coronary artery disease, diabetes, and cancer occurred, but deaths related to accidents, poisonings, and suicide were significantly greater in the surgically treated group. This long-term study, with 18 years of follow-up, represents the largest gastric bypass cohort followed for mortality.

I don’t even know what to say about that, but I’d love to hear what the doctors think.

Do You Regret Getting A Lap Band?

Here’s an interesting thread over at the Lap Band Talk Forum. Ramone asks:

How Do you feel about your choice to get banded ??? Please Vote !

Sorry i posted this by mistake in Intro section as well.

My Story

Hi, I’m new to the community and am scheduled to get banded on May the 13th !!! Soooo nervous and excited at the same time. Would really like to hear from some of you about your experiences. Does anyone here regret going through with the surgery ?

My biggest worries is that I may regret the surgery for the following reasons:

1) I may feel frustrated with having a foreign object telling me what I can and cannot eat (unable to eat foods like red meat, past and rice the rest of my life).

2) Feeling like an impostor in front of other people because I have something inside myself that I am hiding from other people. Like I will always be carrying around this embarrassing secret with me…

What do you think about my thoughts ?

BTW I am 23 years old and in college

And the answers are overwhelmingly positive. Well, I knew they would be. However, it’s an interesting read because everyone has their own reasons for being happy or regretful. As for the poll in question, 283 say it’s the best think they’ve ever done for themselves. 10 regret having been banded. And 51 haven’t made up their mind yet.

Weight Loss Surgery Radio: Obesity Help

Cher and Jeff’s guests this week are Nikki Johnson – Editor in Chief of OH Magazine, Cathy Wilson - Director of Support Groups and Joanna Fee – Events Manager. For those of you who don’t know Obesity Help, it’s a tremendous online support site with an enormous amount of information.

Last week, they had Dr. Trace Curry on, and I had really wanted to listen because I have questions for him. Mysteriously, it kept crashing my normally crash-proof Safari Browser so I didn’t get to ask. I know Cher is crazy about him and is very quick to tell people that he is an accessable and patient surgeon who answers emails. More like that, please. Anyway, I’ve linked the podcast of his chat. It starts about twenty minutes in to the show. I hope you enjoy it.

For Our Australian Readers: A Heads Up

GastricBandMan has this to say:

I had my fill appointment booked with my surgeon for next Thursday, so I went to my GP to get a referral to the Patient Assisted Transfer Scheme (PATS) so I could have my airfares booked.

(I’m sure I’ve talked about this in the past, but if you’re curious, PATS is a government scheme that subsidises travel and accommodation costs for remote patients who need to travel great distances in order to access specialist medical services.)

Before I sought the initial referral to even have the surgery, I checked with my doctor and made sure that the follow up visits would be covered by PATS, as dropping $600 every couple of months was just too much of a cost to bear. With his confirmation, I chose the surgeon and went ahead with the operation.

So, I submitted my application to go down next week for my fill, and then yesterday I had a message on my voicemail to contact the PATS office. No problem, I thought- I assumed they were just calling to confirm dates and details.

No such luck.

I returned the call today, and was told that my application had been declined. It seems that there is a surgeon that flies up to Karratha (the next town from us, about 240km away) once per month to both operate and conduct follow up appointments. Because of this, the scheme will only subsidise my fuel costs to drive to Karratha, rather than paying the airfare to Perth to see my surgeon.

Forewarned is forearmed. Make your surgeon decisions accordingly.

For Self-Pays: Spring Special On Lap Bands $9900

Great Lakes Weight Loss in Detroit, Michigan is having a special price on Lap Band procedures for self-pays. Through the end of May, their self-price is $9900.

Announcing Our $9,900 Self Pay Lap Band Spring Special!!!

The cost is $9,900 for a pre-operative evaluation, the surgery and all post-operative visits (including band adjustments) for 90 days.
For your pre-operative visit, if you have insurance, we will accept it (if you need a referral from your primary care doctor, you must get one beforehand). If your insurance will not cover the cost of the office visit, the self-pay price is $250, which can be applied to the cost of the surgery if you proceed. So, the average cost would be:
1. $250 for the pre-operative visit
2. $9,650 for the surgery ($9,900 minus the $250 from the pre-op visit)
3. $150 x 3 not-covered band adjustments

Average Total Cost: $10,350, including all the necessary adjustments. There are no additional hidden costs in this price!

Harper University Hospital, where Great Lakes Weight Loss performs its surgery, is the first in Michigan to receive a JCAHO certificate for their bariatric surgery division.

“The bariatric surgery program at Harper has clearly demonstrated a commitment to excellence that differentiates it from similar programs across the country,” states Brooks Bock, M.D., president of Harper University Hospital. “The Gold Seal of Approval is a coveted healthcare indicator that our bariatric surgery program effectively employs established clinical practice guidelines to manage and optimize care for the clinically severe obese. This program complies with a national set of standards, utilizing an organized approach to performance measurement and improvement activities.”

The bariatric program at Harper has helped thousands of patients successfully lose both weight and body fat. This program takes a comprehensive approach to managing weight loss before and after surgery through education, support, proper nutrition and exercise. Harper clinicians also provide effective pain assessment and management during recovery, resulting in early mobilization and a short length of stay.

It certainly looks like a good deal. If you’re interested, call Jackie at 313-966-7491.

Lap Band YouTube Blogger Ashley’s Amazingly Well Documented Before and After Lap Band Story

I’ve had Ashley’s Lap Band blog, The Band In Me, linked on my blogroll for several weeks now. She’s a twenty-something Lap Bandee in Seattle, Washington who has amassed a pretty amazing series of videos on YouTube. She starts 1.5 weeks before surgery. She weighs 235 and has just lost five pounds.

Cut to a year later. Here she is two weeks ago, talking about her progress.

The amazing thing is that she has a total of 51 videos online in addition to her blog. Here’s the link to her channel at YouTube where you can see all of her videos. Ashley certainly doesn’t pull her punches on the complications of a Lap Band but talks about how worthwhile she has found it to be.

FYI, she had her surgery done at Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Everett, Washington. These people have a great site with a lot of information available to prospective patients although a lot of it is applicable to everyone regardless of where you’re having surgery. Here’s their page on how to approach your insurance company for coverage. They have an active study going on about adolescents and Lap Bands and accept teenagers for surgery starting at age fourteen. They have offices in Yakima, Bellingham and Spokane as well.

There’s a lot of information here. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Dr. Terry Simpson on Reaching Your Lap Band Goal Weight

I discovered Phoenix, Arizona surgeon Dr. Terry Simpson of Southwest Weight Loss from Weight Loss Surgery Radio. Jeff and Cher have a fantastic podcast with him which I linked previously. He was late calling in so his interview doesn’t start until about 40 minutes in. It’s well worth the listen.

He has a series of podcasts linked on his own site that I’ve been listening to. The one that really caught my attention was entitled GETTING TO GOAL - it’s all the way down at the bottom of the page. He’s got a lot to say about the habits you need to form to be successful - none of which are unreasonable or at odds with your basic biology. His practice took a look at their patients that got to their goal weight and figured out what they had in common with eatch other. The number one thing was that they had a goal weight; and the number two thing was that they adjusted their behavior to get there. For instance, Dr. Simpson suggests adjusting your calorie intake to match the calorie intake of the size you want to be and has a BMR table to help you calculate that. As an example, someone who is in their early fifties, is 5′3″ and weighs 235 needs to consume about 1800 calories to maintain that weight. If you want to get down to 120, you’re going to need to drop your calorie intake to about 1100 per day - right about where the average Lap Bandee is already.

Dr. Simpson has a lot of video on his site that I haven’t even begun to dig into. He’s a bright, appealing guy and I think you’ll enjoy the time you spend there. He has two books for sale in my bookstore - LOSING THE LAST THIRTY POUNDS: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF WEIGHT LOSS and WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY - A LIGHTER LOOK AT A HEAVY SUBJECT. When you’re through looking around, if you want to read more, come on back and buy a book. Mama is still saving to buy that new tripod!