Answers for a friend

I have a friend that is considering the Lap Band and she has some questions... 1) Is it less risky than the RNY? 2) What doctors in the Tri-City area do WLS? 3)Does anyone know what hoops have to be jumped through for Blue Cross Blue Sheild? Any help would be great.... Thanks Bridget

there are risks for any surgery, the lap band has its own risks.a lot of which you do can depend on what type of eater you are, i knew that if i were allowed to eat anything, it wouldnt work, that is why i chose rny. it limits the sugars and fats, i will not even attempt to eat them, dont want to do the famous dump.i am not familiar with your area, but i am sure there are others close. i had bcbs, and had to have 12 months supervised diet documented by the doctor, psyche eval and that was about it. hope that helped a little,teri

Thank you Teri...I will pass the information along. I found some other info online to help her discipher...I can only tell her about the RNY cause that is what I did and I never wanted to do anything else so I never researched anything else. I had my surgery in California and I was on state insurance (like Medicaid) and they paid for it...Thanks again for your help

Ha Bridgit I don,t know what Inc your friend has but if she has Medacaid the closes thay would let her have it done is Flint I had mine done sept of 2005 and lost 148 so far hope your friend does good A FRIEND MARY JO

Bridget, I had the duodenal switch and have been very happy with my progress of 98 pounds in just over 6 months. I think it would be great for her to look into this type of surgery too. You have a lot more food choices and for me that was big. There is a Duodenal switch forum her on OH.

Hi Bridget: My understanding is that Lap-Band has the SAME requirements for insurance coverage as any other type of WLS. For BCBS, it's as follows: - BMI of 40 or over OR - BMI of 35 with co-morbidities - Psych Eval - Medical clearance by your PCP - 12 months diet documentation In my research any surgeon in the Tri-City area who does RNY will also do the Band. I personally chose Hurley in Flint because of their good reputation. Dr. Obeid is wonderful. Risks? Well, it's still got the normal risks of it being an invasive surgery. But you don't have the risks of the staple-lines, intestinal leaks, etc. But you do have the risks of band slippage, port issues, etc. It's got a lower mortality rate, but that could just be because high-risk patients usually have more drastic forms of surgery (RNY or DS). I chose RNY over Lap-Band because: - self-sabotage was possible. With a band you can "drink" your calories with no dumping. Chocolate milkshakes, Mountain Dew, Ice Cream... you can have all those things and they just slide through your band opening and into your normal stomach. - the Band is only a restrictive surgery. Whereas gastric bypass is both restrictive AND malabsorption. So with RNY I'm not actually using all the calories I eat, with Band folks, they use up every single calorie they consume. - Even though after 3 years the weight loss results even out and are pretty equal ...the initial weight loss is much slower. A RNY patient will lose most of their weight in 12-18 months whereas it can take up to 3 full years for Banders to lose their weight. Statistics show that Banders can expect to lose 30-50% of their excess wieght. RNY can expect to lose 50-70% of the excess weight. - Fills. I didn't like the idea of having to go back to the doctor every couple months for a fill into the band. This is a lifelong process - just seemed to cumbersome to me. The main benefit I saw with the Lap-Band was that if you're going out of the country (where no immediate medical help would be available for an obstruction) or get pregnant or have some type of special cir****tance ... you can have your Band "un-filled" so it will leave a wider opening into your stomach. This feature allows for some really nice flexibility. Just some thoughts... Pam