This is my experience with my surgery recently in Tijuana Mexico.Before embarking in this surgery I did a lot of research about the surgery and then about the Self-pay option in Mexico. I did not get approved by my insurance due to my insurance saying that my co-morbidities are not sever enough in their opinion. I could have appealed this decision and still had my surgery in the US, but after a lot of research I became convinced that I would be doing myself a disservice by using the Us doctors with very little experience in the procedure. I wanted to give this background so that it is understood that I did not go into this naively. Also I do have a medical background, I am a registered Nurse in procedural nursing, ICU nursing and recovery nursing experience.
That said, first I want to emphasize that every encounter with the ALighterMe staff was extremely professional and I felt taken care of and protect by them, everyone in your organization far exceeded my expectations and the events I am to describe have no bearing on the company. Let me start with another piece of important background information, I am an active member Of three Gastric sleeve forums you can go an see my profile and posts: Karen12345, healthandstrong, and mathea are the user names I use.
My flight across the United States and drive across the boarder to the Marriott in Tijuana Mexica pre-surgery went with out event. The Marriott was as expected and I was very pleased with the staff and service. I came unaccompanied for the surgery. On the afternoon of April 4th Eduardo, Mexican patient coordinator, informed me of a problem of overbooking at Mi Doctor Hospital, that of which I already knew from reading the forums earlier that week, but I did not think it was going to affect my surgery. This overbooking was done by the owner of the hospital with other companies. Eduardo explained that ALghterMe has secured another hospital to do surgeries this week until they meet with the hospital owner and that I had a choice he said it was essentially an upgrade due to the cost being higher for ALighterMe. I of course thought that would be better quality of service. Also I did not want to be the patient that causes a family member to not be with their loved one even though it was not our company that overbooked. I also was thinking about the nurses at Mi Doctor Hospital being overworked due to the doubled number of patients they were now caring for post surgically, and the impact of quality of patient care. I arrived at Cemiq Qualidad hospital and met another patient from our group who was one day post op and this person seemed to be recovering well. I immediately was concerned about the size. There did not seem to be anywhere to walk, the whole facility was very compact. I did notice that there seemed to be some maintenance workers fixing things in the building. I was taken back for pre-tests (blood work, pre surgery weigh-in, 230 pounds, and vital signs) and preparation for surgery at around 0430 PM.
At approximately 630 pm I was taken back for surgery. There was a single bed room that I was prepped in and I was told is where I would recover and spend my first day until the other patient was discharged due to having oxygen on the wall if needed for the first day of recovery. My first concern was when I was asked to urinate before surgery and discovered the toilet was in the main hallway in a closet under the stairs, I could not stand in there, I could not sit forward on the toilet because my knees where pressed against wall and there was no light in this closet. I could not close the door completely for privacy. After I had to use the sink in the hall to wash my hands, so that meant touching the door and closing it to get to the sink because it was behind the door, and of course no soap and towels initially, they got soap there later but still no towels.I had surgery and remember waking in the hall way before my room on a stretcher which is supposed to the Post-anesthesia care area of the hospital. They rolled me to the single bed room which was on a few feet away and I scooted over to the bed. I told them I had some pain and talked to Dr Ortiz before he left for the night. I think this was around 2330 at night.
The nurses changed shifts and up until that time I was getting regular pain medication and was being looked in on regularly. I insisted on leaving the three doors that lead to the bathroom I had to use open all night. I did not want to fuss with heavy doors and an IV pole at the same time. I was not given an gown to throw on my backside but that was OK during the night. This was a different story in the day time when the construction workers were back and they frequently were in the hallway that I could not close the door of the bathroom of and I had to walk down with my backside exposed. During that first night I was experiencing pain and pushed the call bell for nursing assistance and no one came, I could hear the nurse snoring loudly wherever she was. I decided I needed to try to wake her by pushing the call button more. After at least 5 attempt she wakes up and goes into Cheri's room. Then I push again and she again goes into the other patient's room, from what I could hear. I did this a third time and again she went into the other patient's room and I think the other patient probably told her that it was probably me. The nurse forgot that I was a patient. I told her the problem and she brought a bunch of medications as if she forgot to give them as scheduled. I know this because the nurse after her seemed to be following a regular schedule for the medication. I had to disturb that first night nurse again due the the IV fluids running out and backing up. The second night was wonderful I had a very professional nurse and the care was excellent from everyone except that one nurse, that smallness of the hospital so it was hard to walk, and that toilet situation. One minor problem that did not result in any real problem was that my personal belonging were not secured in a safe while I was in surgery like they would be at Mi Doctor Hospital. Another issue that bothered me about the small hospital was that they did not really do any type of assessment on me post surgery, no vitals signs, no looking at wounds, or listening to lungs. I had developed an expiratory wheeze that I could not clear until after the drain was removed due to inability to cough forcefully enough and there was no incentive spirometer devices offered either. For me the gas pains were rather minor, I had gas-x strips and walked in circles in the room. The drain on the other hands caused intense burning whenever I changed position in bed, stood up to walk, bent over or twisted. A couple of times the burning pain was so bad it floored me.
However the worst part of being in that hospital was the lack of ability to communicate with my family. The WiFi barely worked in the front lobby and in the room I was in the first night it did not work at all, there was not a 1-800 number for my family to call or an American phone line I could use to call them. My husband found that the 1-800 number given to use for the MI Doctor Hospital was not working and he tried calling my Stateside Coordinator, Janese, but she did not recognize his phone number. I gave my husband's phone number as my emergency contact and it was not being recognized? My husband finally was able to reach Rhonda, my other Stateside coordinator who said to him if something went wrong she would know so do not worry. I should have given my husband's phone number to Eduardo, Mexican coordinator, and told him to call my husband, but I thought I would be able to text my husband post surgery and when I found I could not it was in the middle of the night. My husband went over 16 hours of not knowing how I was due to my inability to contact him.
The rest of my stay at the Marriott was excellent and I can not say enough for how attentive Eduardo, Abraham and Dr Ortiz were, checking on me (physically coming to my room wherever I was) and calling me several times a day.
Another issue I would like to warn those going to Mexico is beware of the shops there. I found after getting home that the second shop (Ray's Shop) that Abraham took us to for shopping robbed me, I bought chess pieces and they left out the white KING (I believe purposefully), and the black KING was broken into many pieces due to poor packaging. They told me they were packing the pieces safely for the flight and would not let me watch that, when in fact they were all thrown in a box with nothing in between them. I should have insisted on watching the packing and checked it before leaving the shop or giving any money. I have pictures of that shop and I will post online heavily to other patients to not buy from them.
Please take this information in consideration before going to Mexico especially those without a support person.
I am now a week out from my surgery, I feel great. My drain site is still leaking, that bothers me because I have not seen anyone talk about that. I am told it may leak another week but should get less daily, and it is getting less. This is just going delay my ability to return to the pool.
I am anxious to start pureed diet. I am not really hungry just want food with flavor. I am getting 64-80 ounces of water in daily, 50-70 gram of protein in daily, and I am taking my chewable vitamins. Dr. Ortiz has us on two weeks of antibiotics and what amounts to as Maalox. When I am done with that I will start prilosec and my actigall per my PCP. I am walking 4-6 times daily 15-30 minutes at a time. Dr. Ortiz says not to walk to the point of sweating, until after weeks two. I did have diarrhea from before surgery due to clear liquid diet until today even, which I think will resolve as my diet progresses to more solid foods. I have added probiotics to my vitamin regime to help resolve this sooner, seems to be working.
I have got to say the Mexican jello, pudding and popsicles are really gross. The soup at the Marriott was good sometime and horrible other times. I did bring the isopure clear drinks with me, downloaded the TSA card for medically necessary liquids and got my PCP to write a letter stating that the liquid protein and other liquid medicines were needed for my well being. I also brought unflavored protein powder to add to the broth and brought broth cubes in case the broth was intolerable. In hind site I think I would have brought an abdominal binder to keep the drain from moving inside me when I moved, and maybe asked for an incentive spirometer from my PCP. I am glad I wore anti embolism stocking for the flight to and from Mexico.
