Kyle Varner

I checked my insurance policy, and they very clearly exclude any complications arising from elective surgeries. They would call a VSG elective. But every policy is different, you'll have to check your individual policy. You know, I don't think most American primary care physicians look down on people who go abroad for surgery. Many understand that health care is just too expensive in the US and that it makes financial sense to go abroad for care. Most doctors aren't going to hold it against you. Even if they think it was a stupid thing you did, they treat the medical consequences of stupid decisions every day, and if they let that ruin their day they'd never have a good day!

Dr Garcia was my surgeon and like I said, he is great!

Well it depends on what kind of complications you're talking about. If you need an endoscopic procedure, pretty much any gastroenterologist can handle that. If you need a repeat surgery, you can go to the ED and they will find a surgeon who can handle your case, and you'll have to figure out what to do about the bill afterwards. Minor complications could be handled by any internist or family practitioner.

You made an excellent choice, Dr. Garcia is really great!!!!

I have two thoughts to offer on this topic: The first is that I suspect you may benefit from the attention of a psychiatrist in addition to or instead of a psychologist. You might find that your compulsion to eat is substantially diminished with the right medications. My other thought is that, if you do decide that you want a revision, I would urge you to discuss a malabsorbtive procedure with your surgeon in light of your current eating habits. That would be basically the RNY-GB or Duodenal Switch. Obviously, these are just thoughts and you need to arrive at your final decision after consulting physicians who know your medical history and details of your individual case. I wish you the best of luck. Never give up!!!!! :-)

Congratulations to you! I am very glad to hear of your successful surgery! Hosital Mi Doctor and Dr. Garcia run a top notch professional operation and we are all very lucky to have found them!

I arrived in Tijuana this afternoon. i was met at the airport by Samuel (Dr Garcia's driver) and taken to the Ticuan Hotel. I will be going to the hospital for the surgery tomorrow at 7AM. Thus far, I have been pleasantly surprised by the hotel and the Professionalism of the driver. I live in Puerto Rico and I speak fluent Spanish but I havent had to speak Spanish at all since I've been here. Actually, from what I have seen so far, people speak better English in Tijuana than in Puerto Rico. I'll post here after the surgery when I am feeling up to it to let you all know how it went. This forum has been very useful to me and I am eager to contribute by giving an informed report of my experience. I am a 4th year medical student so I think I will be able to give a very informed opinion of the standard of care here. For what it is worth all of my research thus far indicates to me that, at least in Dr. Garcia's practice, the standard of care meets or exceeds standars of care in a US hospital. After the surgery I will let you know if my opinion remains the same. Thanks to everyone on here who has posted their opinions and experiences as they were very helpful to me :-)

Well, I'm home in Puerto Rico and resting and recovering comfortably. I'm glad I'm a single guy with relatively few responsibilities, because right now, while I'm only in very minimal pain, I just want to lay in bed and watch TV. But I am very happy that my recovery is going as planned. So, as promised, here is a more detailed account of my experience! The hotel shuttle took me promptly at 7AM to the hospital, where I checked in, got settled in my room, and met two lovely nurses who took care of me for the day. The started my IV, and took an EKG. The machine they used for the EKG was a relic. I'd actually never seen one of these (only heard stories about what a pain they are), with big metal electrodes that you attach with gel. This isn't a standard of care issue, as the machine still produces accurate tracings from all the leads. I looked at the EKG and verified that the tracings were exactly what I expected them to be. I then met with an internist, who took my history, ordered some labs, and then she told me about her personal experience with the gastric sleeve that she had done two years ago. She said it was the best decision of her life, and I truly believe that my decision to get the gastric sleeve ranks among the best decisions in my life. I should note here, that all of these conversations were in Spanish. I'm not sure how well they spoke English because I never tried to speak English to them. The internist, I think, speaks fluent Engish, and so does Dr. Garcia and the Anaesthesiaologist. So after I was cleared for surgery, Dr Garcia came in and we talked about the procedure, asked any questions I had, and then he explained everything in English to my mother who was with me (and didn't speak Spanish). The Anesthesiologist came in and immediately started speaking to me in English. Dr Garcia told me that he specializes in cardiac cases, doing anesthesiologist for heart transplants and such, and that he chose this anesthesioloist because frequently people who are morbidly obese have cardopulmonary issues that make their anaesthesia more complicated and he wants to be fully equipped with everything. Once that was done, they took me in a wheel chair to the OR, set me up on the table, and I made small talk with the anesthesiologist about the drugs he was giving me. Next thing I know, I woke up. I was in pretty servere pain and nauseus, and they immediately gave me a shot of burpenorphine and zofran, and I felt better within a few minutes. I vomited a clot of blood, and was immediately reassured that this is normal. I needed to urinate and the nurses helped me do that while I was still in the recovery bed. It would have been embarassing but I as still pretty out of it and just glad for the help. After a couple of hours where I mostly slept, they transferred me to my room. My mother had been updated about my progress and immediately I started walking, first around the room and then around the ward. The walking really helped, and every time I complained of pain the nurses gave me what was necessary to keep me comfortable. The next day, I was feeling way better and went for the first leak test. It was really cool because I got to watch the flouroscope in real time. No leaks! yay! The second leak test, a few hours later, was the methylene blue, which was nasty but hey, none of it came into the drain so I passed the second leak test and was cleared to start liquids. Apple juice, ice chips, and gatorade. I worked on that as best I could and slept quite a bit. I should mention that Dr. Garcia came by to check on my regularly, way more than surgeons I have worked with personally checked on their patient. The next day I was discharged to a hotel, to recover a bit more before my flight. Prior to leaving, Dr. Garcia talked to me for a long time, answered all of my questions and gave me a big hug. It was a successful surgery and recovery, and I could tell he was happy for me and proud of his good work. And, ladie's and gentlemen: it was great work in a great facility! I had top class nursing attention the whole time I was there. Experienced physicians, fully facilities and everything made the whole process go very smoothly, and I feel like they have really give me a great gift of a new life. I feel so strongly about this that I won't hesitate for a moment to recommend my own patients and family to them. This is a top notch, world-class center of excellence with great people. If you are worried about the language barrier, I think you will still be fine because all of the doctors can communicate with you in English. The coordinator provides a sheet that you can print off with common phrases that you might need to communicate with a nurse who doesn't understand you. Obviously, being able to speak in Spanish will make things easier, but don't let the language barrier or stereotypes about Mexico be what gets in the way of making this life changing decision. I think a lot you agree that growing up as the fat kid was a special kind of hell. At least for me, I carried on a lot of those scars into adulthood, and I think I immersed myself in my studies and work to such a degree that I hardly have a life outside of medicine. I'm working now on getting therapy to leave that baggage behind and get a new, happier life, and I know without a doubt that this was the right first step for me, and that Dr. Garcia was the right surgeon for me. On another note, in the hotel I met several patients who had gone to another Doctor (I won't name him because I'm about to say negative things about him, and its not fair to spread third hand information that is damaging to someone--you have to be 100% sure of all the accuracy in order to do that). But this girl was discharged and went to a hotel while still being unable to tolerate oral intake. She was getting dehydrate, vomiting a lot and in a lot of pain. This is a cardinal rule of any hospital medicine: if a patient isn't tolerating oral intake you can't discharge them home because they will get dehydrate and come right back to the Emergency Room. So the lesson here, is when you are choosing a surgeon, ask about the aftercare, and when they discharge patients. Patients should not be discharged until they are stable and tolerating oral liquids. There are great operations in Tijuana, and I think there are sketchy ones too. I'm very glad I was lucky enough to find Dr. Garcia, because he and his operation was top notch, great, with the quality you would expect from a pricey US Center of Excellence. If anyone has any more questions, please feel free to ask me. This community has been great for me when I was researching and planning my surgery, and I'm happy to give back the information that I can! Best wishes to you all for success and happiness!

I'm 27 and on post operative day number 5. I wish I had this done when I was 16, it would have made my life in high school and college so much better. Congratulations dude!

This is going to vary based on the individual doctor's preferences. From my personal experience, with Dr. Garcia, for the first day post op they used Buprenorphine and then after that they used a combination of tramadol and ketorolac. The nurses always asked me how my pain was and they kept it under control at all times. They gave me sublingual ketorolac tablets to take home. You can also go to the pharmacy and buy tramadol tablets without a prescription if you think you will need more pain relief, or you can talk to your doctor and I'm sure he will make sure that your pain is kept under control.

Just a little Update. I was discharged to the hotel today, and I am feeling quite well given the surgey I just had. I'm toleratipng oral liquids, have very little pain and am resting quite comfortably. I will write a detailed account of everytng once i get home and have a computer instead of just my ipad. Thank you all for your kind words!

Well the surgery went well and im in my hospital room relaxing. I will post later with more details because all i have is my iPad right now. But thing are gng well.

I'm going to be flying from San Diego to Puerto Rico after my surgery in two weeks. I didn't get first class tickets, but I did get premium coach seats for the journey back, they are in an exit row and are window seats because that is what I like. I'm really hoping to be able to sleep throughout most of the flight. The advice to walk during the flight is very sound advice, because you are at an elevated risk for DVT post surgery.

It is highly inappropriate for a technician to be trying to convince you to ignore the medical advice of your physicians. There are a lot of ignorant people out there, who believe, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, that obese people suffer from a moral flaw they call a "lack of willpower." When they rail against bariatric surgery, what they are really saying is: you deserve to suffer for your moral flaw and you shouldn't avail yourself of the evidence-based medical therapy that can make your life longer in duration and better in quality. Luckily, doctors like these are few and far between, because doctors are trained to look at evidence objectively and act in the best interest of their patients. Other health professionals do not have this high degree of training, and as a result there is a higher prevalence of this ignorant thought pattern among them. They are extra infuriating to deal with, because they have decided that evidence doesn't matter. There is really nothing you can really do to change someone's mind when they have decided that they are unwilling to look at evidence. Just try to keep your cool, and make them aware that you are not interested in receiving armchair medical advice from people who are not your physicians.

You will have to consult with your surgeon, as I suspect that the answer to this question might vary based upon the surgeon. If I had to guess, I'd suspect the surgeon would prefer to treat the gastritis before the surgery and verify that it is resolved with repeat endoscopy. Please let us know what your surgeon says!