Lapband Fills

I'm trying to locate a Dr. to do fills in the Cottonwood ,AZ area. Not ready for them yet but would like to research Dr.'s available in my area before hand. 

Did you already have your surgery?

you might have to consider Phoenix or Tucson.

If you were banded out of the Country, you might have to pay a Program Fee here, or have difficulty locating a source for fills.

Many doctors either charge more or won't take patients they did not band.

Yes I did have my surgery and yes it was out of the country. I wasn't aware that I would have a hard time finding a DR. to give me fills. You don't know of any that would do it do you? And what is a program fee?? Just a way to charge more money??

Many bariatric practices have support groups and dietary/nutrition education programs ... And they pay for them by charging 'programfees' ... Whether you attend or not.

The surgeon makes the bulk of his profit from performing surgery ... So, taking over maintenance for another surgeons is not profitable for them.

I am assuming you were self pay, if you went out of country for your surgery, so you will also be self pay for fills.

To be honest, I am not trying to be snarky, but it is hard to believe you did not get your aftercare arranged BEFORE you had surgery.

I saw my band doctor every month for the first 4 months, then every 6 weeks for 4 months.  I had about 6-7 fills the first year in order to reach my goals.

I was self pay and part of my package price included the first 4 months of fills for free .... Then, they wet 100.00 each after that.

Transfer patients pay 250.00 for fills.

Many people who thought that going to Mexico was going to save them money and in the long run, to be successful it costs them more to maintain their bands locally.

You might try to contact Scottsdale Bariatric or even google and call TrueResults, they are a Band 'mill' that had sprung up in the Phoenix area in the last year or so

Thank you for your help I will try them. And ya I am self pay and that is why I went out of the country. Hopefully everything will work out well for me....so far so good. Ive lost 20 lbs and it's only been a month. I can't even get fills for another 2 weeks but I feel like i need one for sure. Not feeling any restriction at all. But my surgery went very well and my recovery has been excellent. So i'm very hopeful that the rest will go just as smooth. Wish me luck and thank you again for replying. 

I can't help with fills as I am in the UK. But you need to find a doctor asap because fills are only one reason you need to see a medical professional regularly. Who would you go to if something went wrong?  I am a very successful and long term bandit and consider my eight years to have gone fairly smoothly, certainly without the intractable problems that many encounter.  But even I have had to have two defills, not emergencies but they can be for some people. And I had a leak repaired at around 4 years out.

You need to get this sorted now. Where would you go if you had problems tomorrow? The band needs monitoring.

Let me say I am not in AZ.  But when I had my band (done in Mexico), I did have a harder time finding a doctor to do my fills. But I did find one and insurance did cover them. So I would start calling around to different surgeons offices and your insurance to see if its covered.  No point in paying unless you have to.  Good luck in your search.  

Thank you. I plan on starting to make calls on Monday and see what I can find. I'm so ready for the weight to start coming off.