12277 DePaul Drive, Suite 200
St Louis, MO 63044

DePaul Hospital is on St. Charles Rock Road and McKelvey off of 270. Sort of near the airport. The group is open to anyone and is free. If you want to talk to them about their services call Patsy Beason 314 344-6800. patsy is wonder, friendly and very outgoing. gives out girl hugs like there is no tomorrow. Sometime we all just gotta have a hug to make the day right.

Group meets 1st and 3rd Wednesdays in the May Building by parking 2 from 5:30 - 7:00.

I am also in St. Louis, Maryland Heights to be exact. I had the band done at De Paul also May 2006 and I have lost about 60 lbs.

I however do not feel like part of a family at DePaul. They NEVER answer the phone and everytime I have an appt. it takes up at LEAST 1/2 a day if not my whole day. When I go to the dr, I don't expect to have to wait for 3 hours and then talk to the for 3 minutes.
I think that the customer service or whatever you want to call it is horrible! I don't understand why because the ladies are so nice. They need to get it together over there, especially on fill days.

I have no clue how De Paul is but I Go to Dr. Wagner and anytime i've gone to his office i get in and get out. I think the longest I spent there was an hour and that was because he had to run to the hospital to do a floro. He doesnt rush me out of the office and Sarah--the office manager is AWESOME. She answers any and all questions that you may have forgotten.

I need a good support group to go to thats not too far away. Im in South County. Anyone know of any?

Thats quite a drive for me being over here in south county area.... jeeze i wish there was something closer.

My name is Chris and I live in Florissant and looking into lap band. i have been doing this for a while now. Iam looking at Dr. Marrium (sp). I have the paper and in process of putting a letter fro my doc to him etc. you can e-mail me at vcw61@excite.com

Chris

Hey Chris!! Where is Dr. Marrium out of?? It is great to be prepared. Best of luck...come back and post anytime!! :)

Shawnna

Hey Krystal - how are things going for you??? Haven't heard in a bit!

Things are going ok. I been kind of down lately because my scale is not moving......i been busint my butt on the treadmill and watching my food intake...but i STILL havnt lost much at all....

Check out my Journal...i been keeping some longs of my food and exercise on there.

I dont know what im doing wrong. I am not fully restricted yet so maybe thats whats causing problems.:(

I am looking at going to Dr. Darrin Minkin at Des Peres Hosp. This corrects my post from last night.

Chris
VCW61@Excite.com

Dr. Minkin did my band on Feb. 8, 2007. He is great! No problems with the band at all. He will answer any questions that you have. He's very pleasant. Everyone that I've spoken to that he has done has nothing but the best to say about him. Good luck!!

Hi! I am scheduled to have my lap band surgery on June 7th! I am very excited! Dr. Minkin is doing the surgery. Any good tips? Thanks.

Congrats to you! :cheer2:

If you go to the Shrinking Violet thread there is lots of support for you and G-R-E-A-t tips

Well Monday 7/16/07 will be a day for my wife and me. We are both going to meet with Dr. Minkin at Des Peres Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri to get approval for Lap Band Surgery. From everything we have heard he is very good. We have also heard that his patients have had a lot of success with the Lap Band. We are hoping to get the new advance Lap Band.

I have been on here for a very long time and after a lot of research and things changing in our lives we have both decided to this together. We have all the paper work together for the insurance company submittal and are ready to do this. However the only problem that I for see will be that I am overly knowledgeable for this and might bust the doctor’s bubble.

I just want to thank you all for all your help and advice over the years. Will let you know how it goes next week.

Thanks

Chris
Pre-Band 250lbs BMI 40 with co-issues
St. Louis, Mo
VCW61@excite.com

I also met with Dr Minkin before I met with the Dr.'s at De Paul. I grew up in Des Peres and I used to work at that hospital acutally. Dr. Minkin had a lot of in my opinion really strange rules. He told me I COULDN'T (not might not be able to) but COULDN'T do a bunch of things that I do do. ( I had lap band put on June 06 and have lost 72 lbs) He also told me that I could never drink alcohol again!!! Put it this way----I was really excited to do the lap band, after I met with Dr. Minkin I didn't want to do it- AT ALL!!! He basically talked me out of it.
I then went to De Paul hospital and totally changed my mind. I still wonder about some of that stuff that Minkin told me....doesn't seem right. I hope you have better luck, because I am so glad that I did it!

Do you go to group at DePaul? Perhaps I've seen you there.

My wife and I meet with Dr. Minkin and things went very well. He explain a few things and showed us both the old lap band and the New AP Band. It sure looked neet and felt differant. He did say that when he puts it in he also puts a couple of stiches in also. The week before he place the New AP band for the first time in St. Louis with a husband and wife team that had surgery at the same time. He did explain some of the requirements that he has with the band etc. We did ask some questions, and gave very straight answers. He also saw that we were prepared since I had the Lap Band book by Jessie. I did ask if there was a warrenty on the band and he did not really know what to say. However he did say that the new band cost about 4,000 to 5,000 each. He approved for us to have the medical test done so that they could submit the paper work to the insurance company.

Because of doing my reasearch and having things ready when we came to the office his staff was surpised at what I had and then they said they did not need it all. The biggest problem that my wife and I was with are own doctors in trying to get them to put together all the information. Even with the letter that I wrote as an example neither office was able to get it right. We have been working with both of them to get it right. My doctor has sent the corrected verison to them. My wife is still working with heres.

We did the one stop shopping yesterday at the hospital and things went well. My wife had the psych today as he was not in yesterday and I have mine next Tuesday. Then we will go to see Dr. Minkin on the 13th of Aug. and hope at that time he will then submit the paper work and we get approved. We are looking at the last quarter of 07. We will not do it together at the same time. She will go first and then I will go a couple of weeks later.

So for know thats all I know. I will let you know more in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for all the help.

Chris
Pre Band
St. Louis