Thank you all! :-)

Thank you all for your input. I have been leaning more towards the RNY specificly for the problems with eatting your way out of the band. I need something that will give me a sucure tool with my weight loss. Now I have to decide to have an open or lap procedure. Is this something that the doctor will suggest which is better for you? Or is this a decision that I need to make? I would like to have the lap just because of the recovery time, but I am a bit concerned with leakage and other complications that may occur. Do you know if one is safer than the other? It seems, from what I have seen, the doctors in Mexico actually have more experience with these procedures than many in the U.S. I would appreciate anyone that has had the lap or open RNY in Mexico to let me know what doctor you used and if it was on a cash basis, how much it cost you. Thank you all for your help. It's a life decision and I want to make certain that I choose a very good doctor with a great reputation, a facility that can deal with emergencies should one occur, and one that has had patient satisfaction. Thanks again. Ally

HI. I chose Dr. Agurrie to perform an OPEN RNY. 1) Because he is VERY experienced at OPEN RNY. 2) Because of the number of successful surgeries he performed out numbered the number of successful surgeries performed around me locally. 3) I would rather have a surgeon who performed XXX number of open RNY's rather than a surgeon who performed X number of LAP RNY's. (I think experience prevents leakage and other complications. You know, even doctor's have to learn, so there is a learning curve. The question, then, is where are you going to be in their learning curve? ) I felt Dr. Aguirre performed a successful surgery on me, and as a matter of fact, probably in all likelihood better I experienced a better surgery than would have received locally here in the states. Cash Payment With expenses including hotel, airfare, anesthesiologist, doctor fees less than 12,000 USD HOWEVER, I read about some doctors performing a regular RNY but adding a "band" around the base to ensure the size of the stoma doesn't increase... I probably misunderstood the article, but the idea of it is something I wish I had on my stoma. In any case, Best Wishes

Pat, You have read it right about the plastic like piece that some surgeions are using around the stoma. Ive heard great things about it.