xenus7850

I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your day to post as you have. Lots of good info in here, most good, some concerning. I was about 1 day from booking with Dr. Garcia in Tijuana until I read the one lady’s post form Seattle I think in which she stated that the Dr. was not bad, but the nurses and facility at Mi hospital were not so good. I pulled Hospital MI up on Google Maps and while the building itself seemed fine and new, the location around it, not so much and the empty lot next to it was full of trash. Not sure if it is still like that. On the other hand, I have read several positive reviews on the staff and hospital as well. Thus is the internet, we can read 100 good things, but the one bad thing is what we fixate on. That having been said, we chose Dr. Zapata in Monterrey, MX. I have heard many good things about Dr. Zapata, but mostly on sites that in one way or another he has affiliations with. I am a skeptic by nature, so I always wonder would the site post a negative review, I assume not. The wife and I will be having surgery the same day, looking for feedback on anyone that has used this doctor. Any concerns with Ready4Change? Any concerns with going into Monterrey? Any tips? Anyone have any real issue 1-5 years post op? My concern is since this procedure is somewhat new, with no real long-term data; I don’t want to end up having many complications in the future. The wife and I definitely have to so something, both of our BMI's are right around 43. I am 320 and she is around 270. It’s really my fault; I have really fattened her up over the years with my bad habits. Any advice will be greatly appreciated, very nervous about doing this, not really for myself. Her parents are coming with us; I am concerned for their safety in Monterrey while I am in the hospital, concerned about complications for the wife, in short, really just worried about them. Thanks,

I wanted to give everyone a quick update, so far everything has been great. I started at around 325 and my wife around 270. we had our sleeve surgery on 2/16/2012. I am currently 173 pounds and the wife is at 170 pounds. I am 20 pounds under my target weight and she still wants to lose another 20. So far I have lost about 150 and she has lost about 100. Funny problem to have, but I dont want to lose anymore. Never thought I would have that problem. The first three months or so was a challange, still had the mindset to eat. Now its no big deal, used to it. Need to work out more, lost a lot of my muscle mass.

Ok, I had my surgery in Mexico, everything went great. I had no problems and very little pain. I actually felt pretty good. I did not have any nausua or anything. I felt this way for almost 2 weeks. I was really surprised at how well things were going. Over the last 4 days or so, I have been getting more tender in the area of the incisions and the area of the stomach. Sometimes it just feels sore, other times it is just a very mild pain / sornes right below the rib cage and just a bit on the left side. I do not have any fever, food is ok, still restricted on what I can eat. The first 10 days or so I got in and out of a car no problem, now when I do it, I feel the soreness. Confused why I did not feel anything the first 10 days, but now I feel the tenderness/soreness. How do I know if something is wrong. I dont want to make a trip to the hospital if this is normal as all 100% of the expense would be out of pocket. My concern is a leak or infection.

Well, I am going on 4 months now, actually about 15 weeks. 6/16/2012 will be 4 months. I am down to 235 from 321, 86 pounds lost overall. To answer some of your question New Orleans Lady, I do not regret the surgery, but if I had to do it all over again, I am not sure that I would do it, most likely yes, but I would really weigh in on what I know now. As far as eating, I used to really really enjoy eating, now I eat to stay alive so to speak. I get relly no enjoyment from eating and the taste of found is not relly appealing to me. Bread and dense meats still sit heavy on me and the amount that I can eat is really small. I usually stop eating after about 5-6 teaspoons of food, any more than that it feels like the food is backed up and/or stuck and I get really burpy. I guess losing the masive atraction to food is not really a bad thing, but I would like to have some enjoyment from eating, which as of now is very minimal and nothing really seems to taste relly good like it used to. Actuelly, I have noticed that I have started craving healthier foods, had a massive craving for an orange the other night and i banana tonight. It took me about 2 months to return to normal, meaning not worrying about a leak, pain, discomfort, mental, etc. I have not had any scid or reflux issue that I have noteticed, I did have a bit the first 2-4 weeks, but then they went away. The reason why I said I would maybe not go forward with the surgery again is only because it is a BIG lifstyle change and there are sacrifices that get made whether you like it or not. I somewhat thought that it would just reduce the amount that I could eat, make me get full faster and stay full longer, I never thought that I would lose the interest or attraction in eating. This also may be normal to only being 4 months out, you may want to check with people that are 1-2 years post op, maybe it is different the futher out you get, not really sure. My wife also had the surgery, we got it done together, she seems to have adapted better than I, her weight lost is a bit slower, she started at 270 and is now at 209. Hope this helps, good luck.

All is better so far. 2 months out tomorrow. I am down 55 LBS., the wife is down around 43LBS. I tell you what, I still sometimes get buyers remorse, mostly because I miss the comfort of food at times. I am never hungry, I dont eat much at all and when I do, I have to make sure that I eat slow and chew alot, otherwise I feel like the food is stuck or backing up my throat. I hope that months from now I can eat a bit more freely, meaning that I dont get the discomfort when I eat. Threw up the other day after eat maybe 1-2 oz of steak, did not sit well and came right back up. The first month was a bit rough, no bad pain or anything, just pariniod a bit that I had a leak. The new tendeness here and the slight discomfort there had me reading into things more than what I should have. 2 months out and no more pains, just adjusting to food, hopefully it gets easier. I use to get enjoyment out of eating, no I only eat because I know I should and that I need to. Hope some of the enjoyment comes back, not too much of it though. For you new sleevers that are struggling a bit, it took me around 6 weeks to start feeling normal again and to feel really good about my decision. I cannot say YET that it is the best decision that I ever made, maybe in another month or two I can. I can say that it was a good and wise decision at this point. For you long-time sleevers, does eating get better, how far out do you have to be before you a fully healed and really no longer have any threats from the surgery? Starting: 321 Surgery: 315 Current: 265 Goal: 195 6'1 Male

Ok, I had my surgery in Mexico, everything went great. I had no problems and very little pain. I actually felt pretty good. I did not have any nausua or anything. I felt this way for almost 2 weeks. I was really surprised at how well things were going. Over the last 4 days or so, I have been getting more tender in the area of the incisions and the area of the stomach. Sometimes it just feels sore, other times it is just a very mild pain / sornes right below the rib cage and just a bit on the left side. I do not have any fever, food is ok, still restricted on what I can eat. The first 10 days or so I got in and out of a car no problem, now when I do it, I feel the soreness. Confused why I did not feel anything the first 10 days, but now I feel the tenderness/soreness. How do I know if something is wrong. I dont want to make a trip to the hospital if this is normal as all 100% of the expense would be out of pocket. My concern is a leak or infection.

Thanks for all of your replies, they have helped. I am feeling better today and everyday is a bit better. Got concerned becuase I felt really no pain or discomfort (other than when I ate) for the first 10-12 days. Then I started to have a dull ache / discomfort on the left side just under the rib cage area. I occassionally feel strage feeling throughout the left side, but on I scale of 1-10 pain wise, it is like a 2-3. I feel pretty good today, down 25 pounds since surgery (319 DOS, 294 today). Contacted the DR. in Mexico, he told me all was normal, that I would have the tender/discomfor for around 8-10 weeks post op. food is starting to go down a bit easier. No having a problem getting the 80-100G of Protein in each day, sometimes I struggle with the liquid though. I really have to almost force myself to eat, I have no appetite and some things I eat feels like it gets stuck, just adjusting to samller bites and eating/chewing my food more thoughouly. Cant wait to get over the hump where I fell normal again.

Ok, I have more time and I feel better, so I figured I would give an overall view of my experience. A few things to be desired, but overall very impressed with the level of service and medical attention that my wife and I have received. I truly feel that it meets, if not exceeds in some areas of what we would have gotten in the US. We came down to Monterrey on Wednesday 2/15/2012 and were met at the airport by a driver (don’t remember name) and he took us to the area medical district. In this area we were taken to 3 different areas for test. First area for blood work, second area for an ultra-sound and the last are was actually to Dr. Zapata’s office to meet with a cardiologist for a heart exam. This is one area that I though could be a bit better. I think this was a last minute change, I was under the impression that all the test would be done the same day as the surgery and the test done at the hospital. There was nothing wrong with anything or quality of the test just did not seem to be well organized. At one point we were waiting out on the sidewalk (15 minutes) in public waiting for a ride. This made us a bit nervous to not have anyone with us, nervous just because we were foreigners and in Mexico. Nothing happened; we were fine, I am sure that we were just being paranoid. The three locations in which the test were done were in older building, clean and well kept, but aged. Once again the service and attention were great. I have no complaints, other than at this stage I started to question my decision on Dr. Zapata and Monterrey. We met with Dr. Zapata later that night and after meeting with him, my wife, her parents and I no longer had any doubts that we made the right decision with Dr. Zapata and Monterrey. How gave us as much of his time as we wanted to answer all of the question we had. Very nice doctor, seems to go out of his way to make his patients comfortable, The next day was the day of the surgery. No complaints here. The anesthesiologist was great; actually I woke up asking how much longer the wait was going to be for my surgery to learn that it was done. I stayed in the recovery room for around 2 hours I believe, and then off to my room. I wanted to walk immediately, as well as get something to drink, driest mouth I have ever had. They did not want me to walk at that point and Water / ice chips were not allowed until after a leak test, which was the next day. I was able to rinse my mouth with water though. About 2 hours later my wife is brought up to the hospital room. She had a different reaction to the surgery. While I woke up in almost no pain, she had mild pain. While she was sleepy and slept most of that day, I was awake, wide awake at times. We are about 5 hours away from being discharged and she is pretty much pain free, while I am still have some gas pains. None of the pain has been bad though; I would describe it more as discomfort. The hospital has been great, the doctors and nurses have been great as well. At time there have been communication issues as I do not speak Spanish and most of the nurses do not speak English. This was a minimal problem though, there was always someone available that could speak English and translate if need be. To be honest, I was really impressed by their professionalism, dress and care to what I would have received in the US. I feel much more like a person here, whereas in the US I think I would have felt more like a number. I cannot speak for the success of the operation on if it was right for us as it is too early to tell, I am sure it is, but only being 2 days post op, that would be a premature statement. I can say this, if you are considering Dr. Zapata and Monterrey and have concerns about anything don't. Very pleased with all aspects, like I said there are a few areas that could be changed to cater to the American business, but that aside, all was good. My biggest complaint would be some of the forms were in Spanish, would have been nice to have them in English. I was originally going to with Dr. Garcia in TJ; I saw one bad review, along with it being a border town and decided to come here. It was around $3k more expensive, but figured when it came to my health price should not be my first shopping point. It says that Dr. Zapata has performed over 1400 gastric sleeve surgeries and he works in a JCI Hospital. Nice hospital by the way. Christian Murgara SUR. Hope this helps someone as many of your comments help my wife and I get here.

Well we are almost 24 hours post op, actually around 18 to be accurate. One more day at the hospital, then one back at the hotel. So far everything has been nice. I will give a full detailed report in the next few days, to tired to type that much. One question I have is how long does it take until you feel some normal. Meaning little to no discomgort?

Thanks for your info Nacy6021? Anyone in here been to Monterrey? I was looking at having the inlaws stay at a Holiday Inn Express about 4 miles away. It looks like the hospital and Hosptal Christus Mugerza Sur are located in the South of the city, the hotel is about 5 miles from the hospital, pulled everything up on Google Earth, looks nice and safe, anyone have any experiences with this hispital, hotel or area?