Griselda

My story.

Skip down to ‘my journey’ if you just want the trip stuff.

I was under the misapprehension that I have been overweight my entire life. My women in my family were all thin and petite (size 7 shoes, had to have all watches made smaller, etc.) I started wearing a size 9 shoe when I was about 10 and to top it off I have a ‘fat face’. In my mind (and apparently theirs) I was fat. I look back at photos of myself back then now and realize that I was not fat, not fat at all. I was actually a great size, not skinny, just right. I remember weighing 60 pounds when I was 10 and my cousins all weighed about 45, so that was just a fact, I was obviously fat. I didn’t actually become fat until I turned about 20. When I look at those pictures I think, “Yeah, I was starting to become actually overweight”. Oddly, though, when I did start becoming fat, the comments from family/friends stopped. I no longer had fat jokes or fat comments, I don’t know if it is because everyone matured or what. I was never one of those who lost 40 pounds and gained 50 pounds, I basically just never lost anything substantial. I gained! I gained steadily until I found myself age 42, 280 pounds. I had been looking into weight loss surgery for about 5 years, but I did not have any way to pay for it. My husband (soon to be ex) was not at all supportive of surgery and he did not support any of my ideas of financing it, either. (Remortgaging the house, etc.) He said the usual things, ‘Just eat less, go on Adkins with me, let’s just start walking every day, if you only didn’t eat sweets, blah blah blah’. I was seeing a lot of specialists, endocrinologist, rheumatologist, nephrologist, cardiologist, hepatologist, all of them kept asking me if I had considered WLS. I had, but my insurance absolutely does not cover any form. Fast forward to last year, I had filed for divorce (still waiting on him to sign!!) and I knew that it was the time. I could refinance the house without his consent, use my credit card, get a line of credit at the bank, etc. etc. I started really looking to see where I could go. During this search, my father passed away. I was totally crushed!! I knew his health was bad, heart, diabetes, cholesterol, etc. and I so wanted him to see me get slim!! Unexpectedly, he left me a little money. Suddenly there was the money and I took it as a sign. I already have all the health issues, diabetes, cholesterol, fatty liver, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, etc. etc. It was NOW or NOW. I contacted several doctors, both local and out of country, including Brazil, Argentina, India and Mexico. I decided that Mexico was closest and I didn’t want a long trip on the plane after the surgery. I came on this forum and read and read, several doctors names kept popping up, Dr. Acevez, Dr. Almanza, Dr. Pompa, Dr. Alvarez, Dr. Rodriguez, Dr. Kelly. I also looked into Dr. Joya. All of the above have had many satisfied customers. I chose Dr. Kelly because of the combination of price and experience. I went directly through Trish, because I knew she was the person who was actually in Mexico. In comparing notes with others who have gone to Dr. Kelly and used coordinators, yes, they get more information via email/paperwork, etc., but when they are in Mexico, the only person they have to rely on is Trish. So why have a middle man, I thought.

The Journey

Monday, May 16^th: Took a plane early in the morning for an arrival at San Diego at approximately 10:15 am, their time. I knew surgery was going to be that day, but it would depend on the hospital when I would get to go. My plane had a problem and I was worried that I would be delayed by several hours, but they were able to fix it and I arrived half an hour late. I should have arrived around the same time as my Sleevesister, Kelly L and we figured we would all ride together to the hospital, but since I was delayed, they took her ahead. When we did arrive, there was no driver there and I started to panic, thinking since I had missed the first driver, I might have to wait an hour or more. I put in a call to Trish and she told me she had already dispatched another driver when she found out I was delayed. Within five minutes, there was a man holding a sign with my name on it. I was on my way!! My brother went with me for the trip. He’s an older brother, thin all his life (used to try to gain weight with protein shakes), now a good size, very healthy, very fit! Our driver was not very talkative. We went across the border with no problem. The van stopped at the border, the driver got out and talked to a lady in uniform. The driver asked my brother to push the button. (The driver is not allowed to push the button, only a passenger). The button basically is random and you either get a go or a stop. If you get a stop, that means they will search the vehicle/belongings, if not, you go right through. We went right through. We passed through a very poor section of town, lots of poverty, rough looking area, which I found interesting. The hospital used is the Oasis Center of Hope/Hospital FLorence. It’s a small hospital near the beach, near a large school. It has a security officer and is gated. Once you get in, the area you will go to is 12 rooms, all private rooms, with a full size bed in each for the guest and some have a recliner also. (Mine did not). The rooms are clean and have everything you need, including the full bathroom in each room. Each also has a large window. The rooms vary in their furnishings, some are a little fancier/newer than others. If you are bothered by things like cracks here and there, you will be unhappy. I am not. Many of the things would have been replaced in an American hospital and each room would be identical. However, here, if it still works, then why not keep using it? (I have taken pictures and will be uploading these soon). Trish was at the hospital to meet us and she left us in charge of another lady named Susan who was also very sweet. We were taken to a room that was ready for us. A hospital gown was on the bed and I was told to get into it so they could start the testing. I changed into it and soon I was wheeled into xray (I could have walked, but I guess it’s just something they do). I had a chest xray done and was wheeled back to the room. A nurse came in promptly and put in an IV and drew blood. I was asked to give a urine sample. I was started on IV fluids to make sure I was well hydrated even before surgery. Dr. Kelly came in to see me and advised he was going to operate on one of the other patients and that I was to be the last patient of the day. The cardiologist came in. I don’t remember his name, but he is really sweet/funny. They did an EKG right there and he printed it out, looked at it, said “You look great, no problems, you are cleared for surgery”. I lay in the bed in my gown with my IV watching tv or playing with my tablet. BTW, they do have WIFI at the hospital. Before I knew it, they came in with a bed and asked me if I was ready. I said I was. (*If you are nervous pre-surgery, they do offer to give you something for the anxiety, I did not ask for anything, but I know my sleevesister did and got it). I was helped onto that bed, and then wheeled to the hallway. I was then put on another bed waiting in the hallway near the operating theatre. Then, I was moved from that bed, to the bed in the operating theatre. (Not sure why I had to keep moving from bed to bed?) There were several people in the room, but I didn’t see Dr. Kelly. This was my OMG moment. Here I was, having my arms strapped to the sides in that crucifixion style, the anesthesiologist was there asking me my name and saying he was the anesthesiologist, there were instrument techs, nurses, I think about 8 people, but where was the doctor? Was I going to be cut open by someone else? Before I had a chance to panic, the IV fluid went in and the next thing I knew I was in my hospital bed with an oxygen mask. I kept asking “did I have a hernia?” “Did everything go well?” “Are they done” My brother said that everything went well, that Dr. Kelly came in afterwards, told him it was all good and that he would be in to check on me, that there was no Hernia to repair. YEAH!! That night was the worst. My nurse came in regularly to add pain meds/nausea meds and stomach meds to my IV, the nausea was pretty bad at first, but it finally subsided. Only once did I actually feel like I was going to throw up, but wound up just spitting into the little cup and not really having any vomit.

Tuesday: May 17^th By the next morning, I was much better, still a bit of pain, a bit of nausea, but it was well controlled. I was worried about the pain since I take tramadol for joint pain and I was afraid I would have a tolerance and would need morphine, I did not. I was up and walking that next day. The only problem I had was having to drag that IV thing around. For the guests staying, we had been told (and I have read on this forum) that your guest gets three meals a day at the hospital cafeteria and that the food is vegan. This is no longer the case. Apparently there is a new contract with the hospital and the guest no longer gets any free meals. They can buy a voucher for dinner at the hospital cafeteria for $7.00 My brother did this option a few times. He had chicken and enchiladas and something else, he liked all the food they had there. For breakfast, I know they have fruit and juices, toast, etc. They also have some menus and they will order food for you and have it delivered. I know someone else ordered a pizza from dominos. My brother is a walker, so he went out and wandered around, went to the boardwalk, took pictures, had his hair cut for $7, found a coffee house and wandered around. Me, I was in and out of bed, walking around, eating my ice chips (the only thing allowed during your hospital stay) and wishing I could get the drain and IV out so I could be ‘wireless’. There is a scale at the end of the hall, the doctor’s office kind that you slide. It is in kilos, remember to multiply by 2.2. Dr. Kelly and Trish came by that night to see us all. He said everything looked great, we talked about surgeries and the sleeve and gossip on the boards about coordinators and how it gets old for him and he prefers to stay out of it. He said the next morning we would be picked up early and taken for our leak tests to the Hospital Angeles. Yeah!!

Wednesday: May 18^th

Uneventful night, nurses come by each day and ask you to take a shower so they can dress your wounds. This morning, they came in and told me to get a shower and that Dr. Kelly was coming to pull the drain out so we could go!! YEAH. He came in early that morning and pulled the drain (this part feels weird, not painful, just weird). The nurse took out the IV, I was all freshly bandaged, told to get dressed and wait to be picked up. About an hour later, Samuel, (Dr. Kelly’s son) came by to pick us up. He could only get three people in his vehicle, so he took the three patients and our guests waited for another person to take them to the Hospital Angeles. This hospital is very luxe! More like an American Hospital, all fancy. We went in right away and did our barium swallow. This was actually not as bad as I had expected. The liquid is clear and watery (in fact, it looks just like water). As long as you take a big swig when they tell you, you don’t have to take any more. You get to watch the screen and you can see the liquid going down into your new tiny tum. After that, you get weighed, and you get a print out of your xray. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes for the three of us. When we got out, our guests were already at the hospital lobby waiting for us. We did find out on the way to the hospital that we would not be staying at the Lucerne. BUMMER!! Apparently there was some big convention and the hotel was overbooked. We were all disappointed by this at first because we had heard such nice things about the hotel. We were taken to the Hacienda del Rio which happens to be within walking distance to Dr. Kelly’s office. This is a very nice hotel. The only complaint I had about it is that there was no WIFI in the rooms. There is wifi in the lobby, restaurant and near the pool. If you have a regular laptop or something that you can wire, you will have no problem as there is internet cable in the rooms. However, we didn’t bring our laptops with us, just our wifi internet tablets, so this was a drag. Otherwise, the hotel is beautiful, everyone is friendly, the restaurant has great broth and it is convenient to many things. Trish came by soon as brought us the famous gatorate/jello care package. I love jello. However…this jello I did not like. The reason I did not like it is because it is too sweet. This is because it is made with both SUGAR and STEVIA. Not sure why, since it is higher in calories, maybe just to save on sugar or make it slightly less calorific. In any case, I was not a fan, although I was also desperate, so I did manage to eat two of these while I was there. The Gatorade is regular Gatorade, no problems there. Samuel came by with the medication, this includes a spray, gauze and some tape for your dressings. (The spray is disinfectant, iodine based), you get pain meds (toradol) antibiotics (cephalexin) and omeprazol (prilosec). You take the antibiotic every twelve hours, the toradol every six (as needed) and the omeprazol two at night. I had no problem swallowing any of these, and the capsules are quite large. The restaurant has three choices for soup. Tortilla soup, Chicken/rice/veggie soup and I forgot the other one but I know it had chicken and chipotle peppers. I had the chicken/rice/veggie soup strained, so it was just the broth. However, you cannot drink (or at least, I cannot drink) the entire amount, so even if you got it regular, and just had the broth out of it, you would still have enough broth to drink. This day was when Trish proved why she is such an angel. My brother and a sleevesister’s husband decided they would go and ‘get something to eat’ and be back later. This was around 1pm. Our cell phones did not work at all in Mexico and my only form of communication was my tablet, which I had to use in the restaurant, lobby, etc. I get a phone call to my room at about 2pm from my sleevesister, Kristina. She is worried because her husband isn’t back and she thought he went to get her some broth. I told her I heard him talking to my brother and that they were going to get something to eat. She said “OH, ok, good”. Well, we waited…and waited…and waited…and waited…. And it was 6pm now and we had no idea where they were. Kristina kept trying to call her husband and his cell phone (which did work) was off. We had no idea what to do. My God, they’ve been kidnapped or killed or in jail or something. Who do we call, where do we begin? We had no idea where they were heading, all I knew is that they went on foot. Trish called earlier and I had told her I was concerned. She tried to reassure me and said they would be fine, probably went to the mall, but she could tell we were worried, she kept calling every half hour to see if they had returned. Finally, when it got to be 6, she said she was coming over and we would go look for them. In the meantime, I had been in touch with my sister-in-law and she was worried sick, she had been afraid for us to come to Tijuana and she just knew that the worst had happened, just like she worried it would. She called the credit card company and found out that a charge had been made to a place called “La Gatita” approximately 2 hours earlier. I asked at the front desk, but nobody seemed to know where that was. It means “the little cat” and we had visions of some small gentlemen’s club or something. We were able to find a phone number and called it and it was (are you ready for this….? ) The HELLO KITTY store at the mall. Trish drove us to the mall and we went in and asked if they had been seen. The lady there remembered them; my brother had bought a few shirts. We instantly felt relieved, at least they were alive and well a few hours ago and shopping. Once I got to the mall, I really wasn’t too worried anymore, it had a lot of neat stores and I could see my brother getting lost in them and losing track of time. Kristina’s husband was the same way, just go with the flow, time means nothing kind of guy. They also have two large movie theaters, so we knew it was possible they went to the movie. Trish was a star, asking everyone if they had seen them, asking her friends to keep an eye out, we kept calling back to the hotel to see if they had shown up and finally got a call from the Kelly who was our other sleevesister. They were BACK!! When we got back we read them the riot act, but they seemed surprised. They had had the time of their lives, first going to the Brazilian steak house across the street from the Hotel which took them two hours, then they walked to the mall, bought some things and then decided to go to a movie. They were gone 7 hours. My brother also bought a pay as you go Mexican cell phone for $20 including minutes. He was able to keep it topped up and use it after that incident for texts/phone calls. They had never been in any danger, but they had failed to think about us crazy, sleeved women waiting at the hotel. GRRRRR. That night Dr. Kelly came over to check on us all, he got a kick out of the story, especially since he had spotted the two at the mall at around 7pm, but had no idea they were ‘missing’. That night, I slept good. My brother had a lot of ‘splainin’ to do to the folks back home who had already started prayer circles and were making arrangements to send mercenaries out to rescue.

Thursday, May 19^th

My sleeve sister Kelly left early in the morning to catch her flight. She left me a care package of Gatorade and jello and some mixers for bottled water that she didn’t have a chance to finish. We had breakfast the hotel restaurant. I say ‘breakfast’ but I mean I had a cup of chamomile tea. (*I have taken pictures of some of the meals I was tortured by that my brother had while I had liquids). Trish agreed to take us to calle revolucion that afternoon for some touristy shopping. I have read some comments about Trish and shopping on this board and I want to clarify things. First off, it is not a ‘requirement’ at no point did we feel pressured to go shopping. Yes, Trish knows a lot of people, she used to work across the street when it was a department store and knows many of the vendors. Yes, she will take you to the places where she knows the people, that is because she feels comfortable with them. Does she make a commission on it? I don’t know, possibly, but I don’t care, because it doesn’t affect what price I would pay and she is driving us there on her TIME in her personal vehicle (she actually had to borrow a vehicle to take the four of us because we would not all fit in her car). So, I hope she does get a kickback from what we buy, she pays to park the car, drops you off right there so you don’t have to walk and will haggle and negotiate for you if you need her to. We could have gone to any of the places on calle revolucion, but really, most of them sell the same things, so once you have gone to two or three shops, you have seen most of everything. Across the street is a great little restaurant, I forget the name. They have tortilla soup broth (the lady there knows all about Trish’s patients and she knows what they can and cannot have). My brother and Kristina’s husband had beef fajitas with homemade tortillas!! ARGGHHH. The soup was very good, much tastier than regular chicken broth. We also had fresh pineapple juice. I paid $5 for some mariachis to come and sing us a song while we ate. Touristy, I know, but I was in the mood to be a tourist. Trish took us back to the hotel and my brother and I decided to take a taxi to the mall later that afternoon. He got his cell phone topped up and I bought some things. He bought some shoes. They have many very good coffee houses around the area. I had a tutti frutti hot tea with honey that was delicious! There are taxis at the hotel that will take you most anywhere for under $5. Taxi drivers are very nice and all have their own unique stories. Drivers in Tijuana drive erratically, but they all seem to know how to drive to avoid any mishaps. Taxis are in various stages of repair, most seem to have suspension problems, (but when you see the roads/potholes, etc., this is expected). I so wanted to be able to eat so I could buy some of the stuff that the street hawkers were selling as you drove by. Fresh cherries, candy, gum. They even will change out your wiper blades while you are stopped at a light. That day we did so much walking from walking around calle revolucion to the mall, to walking around, I felt no guilt about not getting enough walking. When we returned, the four of us went to the 24 hour farmacia and bought some stuff. I got two asthma inhalers (albuterol) for about $8 each. Also some more toradol, in case I needed it (I haven’t), prisolec (pretty cheap) some of the same wound spray they used at the hospital (clear, not iodiny), and some cyclobenzaprine (flexeril-muscle relaxer). All the prices were good, I couldn’t think of anything else to get at the time but I am sure there are many other drugs I wish I had bought. You do not need a prescription for anything except antibiotics and controlled substances. (Toradol and Flexeril are not controlled in Mexico). The people working at the pharmacy know all about drugs, but they are not medical, despite their official looking doctor’s jackets. They can pretty much figure out which meds you are talking about and can recommend meds for certain conditions, but keep in mind that they are not doctors and unless you know what you need and what is safe for you, be wary of buying. Pharmacy sales are big business and you will see more pharmacies than anything else, they are also very competetive. This pharmacy across the way also sells shampoos, deodorant, razors and an assortment of vitamins, drinks (they have muscle milk in vanilla only). Slept well this night also, the hotel is very noisy (or rather, the guests at the hotel are not shy about screaming across the way to each other or being loud), However, I did not wake up in the night for any reason. Television has a few English channels and many of the channels are playing English movies that are subtitled in Spanish, so if you do not speak Spanish, you should be able to find something to watch.

Friday, May 20^th

Woke up early and had breakfast the hotel. (If you are up early enough (between 7am and 9am) they have free continental breakfast, we kept missing this. My brother had French toast, I had a glass or orange juice. (I had finally gotten my diet sheet from Karla last night and it listed orange juice and grapefruit juice as an acceptable ‘clear’ even though I know it isn’t that way on most other sheets). Kristina and her husband were leaving that day; they joined us in the middle of breakfast. Kristina tried some very thin oatmeal, but could not get too much of it down. Before we knew it, their driver had arrived and they were gone. I called Trish and asked her if she knew a good place to buy yarn (my mother and I crochet and knit and we remember an aunt of ours getting her yarn from Mexico, which was a very shiny pretty yarn). She said she did and could take us later that day. We went to the “cultural center” in Tijuana where they had some outdoor arts/crafts stalls. We bought many nice things to take back. Once we returned, we waited a bit and Trish arrived, she took us downtown to the ‘heart of tijuana’. There are many street vendors. We were looking for a lady who sells yarn, but when we got there was the time that a lot of people pack up their stuff, she was gone by the time we arrived. They have many good stores that sell cloth, and these had some yarn, but nothing unusual. I did buy my mother many knitting/crochet magazines. We walked around the downtown and then Trish took us to drive by the red light district (our request), there is also an area full of mariachis who hang around hoping to get hired for a special event. After that, I think we stayed in, but we had a good night. I kept missing Doctor Kelly. He came Thursday when I was in the restaurant or out and he came by today too. We were leaving the next day and I kept trying to think if there was anything we wanted to do before we left, but we couldn’t think of anything else. Slept good

Saturday, May 21^st

Got up early, had tea for breakfast, my brother had the continental (no charge for any of this). Trish called and told us the driver wanted to pick us up at 10 because he was afraid there might be a long line at the border. I asked her if I could have copies of my medical stuff that was done at the hospital (the EKG and blood work, I should have asked for it while I was there, but I forgot). She drove to the hospital to get it and then met us in the lobby. We said our goodbyes and the driver arrived right before 10am. We checked out, got in the driver’s van. He gets to use the ‘medical’ line which is much smaller than the regular line. We didn’t have much to wait in that line, once you get up to the border, itself. You have to get out with your bags and go in to customs. Again, we got to go to the line for medical and we were the only ones in the line. We showed our passports, they asked if we had any medicines, we both said yes and asked if it had been prescribed. I said some of it is prescribed for me, yes. They didn’t even ask to see it. They just waived us through. Then we had to put our bags through a scanner, pick them up at the other end and then we were out of the building. When you come out there are many taxis and the trolley that will take you to San Diego. We waited in the circle drive. The driver had to go around somewhere to get to us, so we were out way before he got to us. He parked in a lot and walked over to where we were waiting. He carried the heaviest bag over to the van which was parked behind the trolley line. From there, it was a quick ride to the airport. Since we arrived early, we had a little wait, but nothing bad. No problems after that, we were home by 10pm after changing planes once.

All in all, my experience was great! I really thought I would have more pain, more discomfort, be unable to do anything, have nausea, not be able to drink anything, have a complication, but everything has been smooth. The ONLY issue I am currently having is that my incisions are itchy, both the actual incisions (which is usually a good healing sign) and the area around them where they had a reaction to the tape. Otherwise, I don’t feel hungry, I don’t feel weak, I honestly feel great. Long may that feeling last!!

Dr. KELLY and TRISH really are all that everyone says they are. If you have any questions about my trip, please feel free to send me a message.