Hey Group, just wanted to let you know how my fill trip went. I was
banded on 9/26/03 in Tijuana, MX by Dr. Lopez. He did an excellent
job by the way.
On Nov 4, 2003 was my first fill. I went to Texas Imaging and
Diagnostic Center in Dallas because at the time they were accepting
patients that were banded out of state/country. I only received ¾
cc. for my first fill by Dr. Jayalson, which did make a difference
without too much restriction, and as of January 16th, I had lost 27
lbs, but have been at 27 lbs for about 2 weeks. I called to make
another appt with them and was shocked to hear they had increased
their 15 minute procedure to $1,000.00 for patients that were banded
in Mexico, which was to me outrageous, but with the medical insurance
I guess they were not taking chances on others that they did not
perform the surgery on.
So after doing a lot of calling, and Internet searching, and
communicating through Mexican Bandsters (wonderful group) I found a
new place to get my fills, It is called Magnetic Imaging of Paris
(Texas) approx 2 ½ hrs East of Dallas, and they were accepting
patients. So I quickly made the call and spoke to Gail Parkhill, a
very friendly person (she schedules the fill appts). I had an appt
for the next week which was Jan 19th. My daughter and I drove down
on Monday morning, arrived to the Imaging place went in, filled out
the appropriate paper work, was called into the back where we changed
into a beautiful hospital gown, and was taken into the radiologist
room for the procedure. The technician located the port with the
fluro, then Dr. Clifford came in and chatted a minute asking
questions regarding when I had surgery, when I had my first fill, and
how many cc's were in the first fill. He then located the port with
the fluro, cleaned the area with iodine, deaden the area with a
little shot, then stuck in a needle and removed the ¾ cc., and then
added some fresh saline to the port. It was not painful, I could
just fill the pressure of the needle being inserted into the port.
Dr. Clifford then had the technician raise the table to an upright
position and had me drink some barium which was a bit chalky to say
the least, and to much was going through to fast, so he suggested
adding some additional saline, he did and then you could see on the
fluro screen it slowed up considerably. And he said that we should
leave it at that. Which totaled up to a 2 ¼cc saline fill, he also
said that after a few days if it felt like it was too restricted, or
not restricted enough to let him know and he would either remove, or
add more for no charge, which I thought was pretty nice of him. He
instructed me to stay with liquids for a few days and see how I did
and then continue like I had been instructed after my last fill which
was liquids/creamy soups/mushy food/soft food/solid food. I had
some broth last night for dinner, this a.m. for breakfast I had very
thin oatmeal, along with water. I also bought some more protein
drink from GNC which I buy the Designer Whey Protein Supplement
(chocolate) it taste good if you blend it with ice and some water.
I did have a bit of a problem this a.m. though I took some advil
which I should have taken the liquid Tylenol and it was a bit
uncomfortable but finally passed through, so be careful after your
fill to take pills as you might have some problems until your band
gets over the trauma of the new fill.
If anyone lives close enough to get their fills in Paris, TX I would
highly recommend Dr. Clifford as he has a great personality, and
makes you fill very comfortable and knows what he is doing. He is
also not bad to look at. He did tell me that he and his partners are
thinking about starting to schedule fills on Saturdays, so out of
town patients will not have to take off of work during the week,
which will help so many people. A big thank you to Dr. Clifford for
helping us bandsters out.
Deb
Dr. Lopez (Tijuana)
9/26/03
260/229/