Finding affordable fills in North Carolina...

Hello Everyone....Need your help. I hope to have my lapband surgery in September. I live at Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I plan to attend a seminar in July for a group of surgeons out of Conway, SC. It is my understanding, he will do fills for $250.00, which I think is still somewhat high although less than some other doctors. My daughter had her lapband surgery done in April, in Monterrey, Mexico. I'm trying to help her find someone who will do her fills and not cost an arm and a leg. She travels with her job throughout NC and surrouding areas. I have printed out the list of NC doctors from this website and called all of them. These are problems I'm encountering: - They will not fill a patient banded outside the US - They are veeerrry expensive. - Some require a consult with the patient. And, it isn't cheap. There is no guarantee they will accept you as a patient after the consult. - Some require a "patient transfer fee" of $500.00 The list goes on and on. I do plan to ask the doctor I hope to do my surgery if he will accept her as a patient for her fills. I have called surgeons in Raleigh, Pine Hurst, Fayetteville, Greenville, Charlotte, Concord, Wilmington, etc..... She had her first fill done by a doctor in W-S and it cost her over $500.00 (flouro.) We are both lower BMI 34.5. We were told they should be able to do the fills in the office since the port is usually easier to locate in a lower BMI patient. I truly feel that doctors are taking advantage of lapband patients when it comes to fills. Like another poster said, fills should be free the first year!! There is a doctor in Wilmington who will do your fills free fro the first 6 months but he has done only a few lapband surgeries. I'm not about to let someone do surgery on me who has only done about 6 or so lapbands. Does anyone have any advise or know of any doctors I may have missed when I did all my calling. Again, I printed them out from the this site. Any help will be most appreciated...Carol Slate

Good Luck Carol...I work for my surgeon and he is one that doesn't do fills for patients banded outside the US. Can her doc in MX give her a list of fills docs in the US that will accept patients? I have a friend from another board that was banded in MX and she was giving a list of docs that would fill her. Again Good Luck!!! Kim