Llunker

Anyone here with Dr. Alvarez? Can you tell us your experience? I have researched alot of surgeons and this guy appears to down right AWESOME at the sleeve and even does an over-sew to insure no leaks!! Please post any experience you have going over the border and how well you liked your experience.. Thanks !!

Oh and I forgot to tell you that the violence and everything that you hear about is more so and probably in Juarez or any of the other border towns but Piedras Negras is pretty calm and plus you don't ever have to worry, they come over the border pick you up at the holiday inn express that they put you at and take you directly back over the border straight into the hospital which is less than a mile from the Border......it was absolutely an AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!!! BECAUSE I HAD THE SAME CONCERNS YOU HAVE!!!

Pegsbored, After much research we both( my Fiancé and I ) used Dr. A. He is all that he says he is and MORE!!!!! We are both ICU nurses here in Texas and wouldn't let some of the surgeons here touch us or even our dog with a ten foot pole. Hehehe We had our surgery on march 15th, 2014 and as of today I am at goal.!!!!!! If you want pictures let me know-- Dr. A has probably been the best experience I have ever gone through in my entire life!!! Starting weight 285-290. Today's weight- 205 !!!! We are also in his next book coming out soon in the testimonials section.

Hello everyone, I have maybe what I would think might be a simple question. My fiancé and I are having our sleeves done on 03/25/14. We are wanting to look good for our upcoming wedding. We have not set a date yet because we want to lose a majority of our weight before going in front of a camera. My question is to all sleevers. Please post approximate times in months as to how much weight lost vs. Time in months it took you to get there. I realize we are all different and we will all have different things to say. I am only asking to get a general idea of my expected weight loss or at least most of my expected weight loss before I get married. Do you lose most of your weight on the first 3 months? 6months, 9 months, etc..... Thanks to all those that respond.

This weekend march 15th with the one and only Dr. Alvarez in Piedras Negras, Mexico

Also I would like to say that my Fiancé and I are both getting sleeved this weekend in piedras by Dr. Alvarez, we are also both highly trained ICU nurses with several years experience. I liked the comment asksarah made earlier about some of the surgeons here in the states are some I wouldn't let operate on my dog. His costs for a sleeve are relatively the same as the states and maybe a little higher....$8600 or so..... But he also Sports state of the art equipment like his Da Vinci Surgical System Robot. Btw- here is the link of him with the 12 year old.

The one and only Dr. Alvarez!!! He did a 12 year old who is doing great. I get sleeved this weekend in a Piedras Negras, Mexico

Yes, because we were just around the corner from the oral sex book. Glad I didn't make that purchase! and yes Petunia77 is my fiancé. Thank all of you guys for your input. She also had know idea I had HTN(hypertension), OSA(obstructive sleep apnea)And the beginning of type II DM. We are Both ICU nurses and trying to explain the procedure to her about how Obesity has grabbed this nation as the number one killer, she didn't want to hear that. Telling her that if this surgery was performed more often and covered more by insurance we might not have the jobs we have because many people don't realize we see the effects of obesity EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! CHF, OSA, DM, and joint pain...

My question is a lot of you might be wondering about the title of this thread. All I am wanting to know is if you follow the hard and fast rule of not drinking anything 30 min prior to meal times and also not drinking 30min after meals? Are most surgeons under this general rule?? Does your surgeon allow you to drink? Let me know your thoughts

Hello everyone, my fiancé and I are really getting excited as our date is closer and closer now ... 03-15-2014. My question is we had a friend just get a sleeve and she is 5-6 weeks post op as of today. She complains daily of STILL BEING HUNGRY??? I was under the understanding that the portion of the stomach that is cut away has the majority of the hunger hormone called Ghrelin ?? Is this something that develops over time(being less hungry) or do most of you guys stay hungry just like before you were cut! Thanks for the replies.

Thanks to all of y'all!!! This is exactly what I was looking for. It's general in terms of an average time of weight loss and I love the term "honeymoon" period. Yes we are in love and yes we are excited about our journey into our new sleeved life. Looking at 6 mths to a year for the big day sounds great!!! Again I appreciate all of you guys and the time you have taken to help someone out. I am so used to being the one helping someone out( as we are both ICU Nurses) and I really appreciate all that have given of their own free time to answer our question!!! ????????????

I don't think you guys really understood the intent of the question. I am not thinking of this as a one time thing here in losing weight and voila here is a wedding where we lost 100lbs. .... You have no idea the amount of time in years(over 5) it has taken me to get to this point. My question was simply a general question to where hopefully not a lot of thought was needed for a response. Actually I thought it was a great idea that way we can plan our journey together (as this is a lifetime decision) and have a general consensus that most of the weight is usually dropped in the 1st year or 1st 6months or whatever it is. We were simply using this information as a guide and not as a lifetime decision tool.

Hello Everyone, This is a summary for both me and my fiance(we are both under the care of not only Internal med doctors but also we are under the care of Pain doctors as well, meaning yes we take pain pills to help us get through our days at times) that we are paying cash for both Procedures !! i think a total of around $17,000 for two sleeves. I have been on this journey of weight loss all my life and i am ready to do something about it. I had tried in the past with my insurance and did the jumping through the hoops to try and get qualified for them and they always seemed to find some reason not to cover the procedure. I am 49 years old this February and Me and my fiance are both getting the Gastric sleeve procedure done by CASH means THIS TIME. we are both in the 38-40BMI range. I must say this has got to be the Worst LIFE experience a Person should ever go through in anyones life time. I will try and keep this as short as possible but wanted your guys input on this subject. WE took our journey from the center of Texas(where we live) and drove about two and half hours to the Northern part of Texas just above Ft. Worth. Filled out H and P's and then we saw the Doctor who at that time we were thinking of Lap Bands but the Doctor convinced us that the Sleeve was the better option for Both of us. Everything set and ready to go with facility that we were told was a great and awesome place for us to go. I will not list the place because i can't be bothered with the name and the experience they put us through.(if you want to know the name i will gladly give it to you in private message). All we had to do is finish out the day with a Psych eval and wait on the approval or release to go through surgery and we were set. My Psych Eval came Back first(about three days later) and the Surgery Scheduler even called me to see when i wanted it done. I told the scheduler at that time i would be waiting on my fiance(who was cleared for surgery about 3 days later than me--but was cleared!!!) to clear her psych eval and we are good to go. MIND YOU WE ARE PAYING CASH !!! after saving and working hard for over a month and saving the $$ for the surgery. We finally get the call today from L_ _ _ (what a winner in this one--your local police dog running the front to make sure any unsatisfied customers can't receive the needed information necessary as to what has happened) informing us both that they have decided that (the name of this company) is not the Best Fit for us?? ummmmm..............excuse me??>................wait what??? Wait you must have the wrong people here ?? WE ARE PAYING CASH !!!! I am baffled and befuddled?? What has happened since the surgery scheduler called me with a time to cut till now about 4 days later?? No one at this office wants to say nothing.....It sure is strange that when they are trying to get your business they are immediatley available for phone calls and return emails in a flash, But once you have been released as a patient the office staff becomes rude, no one can pick up a phone anymore, they wont email you back, and what a Bunch of Liers this group has become. Please dont even bother with this company as True Colors will always show through in the END !!! After making several calls and not getting anywhere i finally got to someone who finally said that WE (their company) was not a good fit for us?? I am still lost here?? Say What? we are PAYING CASH here that you are willing to walk away from!!!! I don't think i have ever in my life experienced anything so disappointing as this experience has become. I asked again for at least a small explaination of what the deciding factors were and i was again told WE(the company) are just not a good fit for us.??????-- i went back and looked through all my paperwork and even the fine print-there is nothing that is stated that we hold a round table meeting and we vote on who gets surgery and who doesn't !!! WTH?? Now i am thinking a few things here--we are being discriminated against(and they don't want to tell us anything that could have their butts in a sling over it) because we are pain patients or we have been somehow shunned by our psych eval even though he cleared the both of us for surgery?? Does anyone have any information on whether a chronic pain patient is somehow looked at in a different light? or is all this the working of the psych eval? or are surgerons not willing to do surgery on pain patients? I guess in this old world you are suppose to lie to get what you want because i can't think of anything that would have held this process up?? Any help here would be appreciated !

Yes that's exactly what I'm thinking is Mexico and Dr. Alvarez actually and right across from Eagle Pass. It's about a 3-4 Hour Drive from where we live to San Antonio and then they take you from San Antonio cross the border into their little town there and it looks to be like a wonderful doctor I researched Dr. Alvarez up-and-down but I just want to make sure that before I go and take my fiancé that we are not going to be rejected from our cash money that we're putting on the table.... Did they also do psych eval's on the Mexican surgeons? But you know what in all honesty Dr. Alvarez is actually more expensive than a few of the other places that we looked at here in the state

Thanks guys I really appreciate the replies and input but I'm still waiting to hear from anybody out there that has actually gone through this been scheduled for surgery and then all of a sudden the company backs out of the agreement not me? I had spent a lot of money on getting a place for our dog who has to be boarded...we had to borrow some help in getting up to the hospital and being able to return home the next day . there's just a lot of information and a lot of money that went into the planning of all this and I just don't know what to do if anything from A legal standpoint!!!

Hello everyone, First post and I am right out of the gate with a rant. I have come here to learn more about my bariatric surgery(VSG) and To make a long story short i am PAYING CASH !!! I don't know the rules yet on listing the business by name but I had some questions i would like to get answered. My Story is that I am doing this surgery (VSG) with my Fiance. So we are PAYING OUT OF POCKET for two surgeries. I was cleared this past week and the surgery scheduler called me and asked when i would like to perform my Sleeve. I told her i am holding off till my Fiance is cleared--meaning she passes her Psych evaluation and we are getting it done together... Fiance was cleared this past Friday for surgery and as of Monday we never even got a call??? Thinking really nothing of it my fiance called on Tuesday and she was kinda given the run around and no one there in the office could really asnwer some pretty basic questions. We had placed a total of 3 calls and one email and nothing !!! This company was not like that though?? they always had answers and they always returned phone calls and email till Tuesday. WE finally got an answer and that was the company was going to call us today at 0900 and tell us some things. 0900 comes and no phone cal. 09:20 comes and stil no phone call so I called them and spoke with a Lisa. Long story short--she said that she didnt think that her company "BS" is the best fit for us?????? i am blown away and said i was just scheduled this past week and i waited on my fiance to get cleared and now your telling me i cant have a surgery i am PAYING CASH FOR???? WTF ???? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ANYTHING SO ASANINE IN MY LIFE AS THIS ??? MY QUESTION IS HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONELSE WHEN YOU WERE PAYING CASH????