Ok, let's see...how was my pain the first day? It definitely hurt, but wasn't unbearable -- the area around my drain hurt the most. My friend that was with me dragged me around the room a few times to help with the gas pain. The second day was much better. The gas pain was manageable and dissipated pretty quickly. The only problem I had was that my pulse-ox was low after the surgery and they had trouble getting it up. They had to put me on oxygen a couple of times. But I have asthma and I'm sure that's was a large part of the problem. Since then, I haven't really had any setbacks; I've been getting better every day since the surgery. I don't think you need to worry very much about safety issues even if you're traveling alone. I flew into the San Diego airport and was picked up by Ricardo. He's very nice, we chatted about Mexico and he pointed out various points of interest. He took us to the hospital and helped me check in and took my bags up to the hotel room for me. Dr. Hector Reyes, who works with Dr. Camelo, came to see me in my hotel room not long after I arrived. He speaks nearly accent-less English. He told me what to expect and answered all my questions. He was always very accessible the entire time I was there.
Dr. Camelo and the anesthesiologist came in to talk with me before the surgery. Also before the surgery, they did blood tests and an x-ray and another doctor came by and asked a lot of questions. Veronica, who works with Medical Tourism Corporation came by after the surgery to check on me. She is very sweet and made sure we had everything we needed. The nurses were also very attentive.
As for keeping my surgery a secret, I don't think I could have pulled that off. I haven't told very many people, but my close friends know. Also, I travel a lot with my job, along with two guys I work with. They always want to hit the nearest steakhouse in whatever city we're in and I'm pretty sure they'd notice my sudden switch from steak to broth. I'm sorry you don't feel like you can tell your parents. Do they see you often? Will they wonder why you're losing weight so quickly?
I hope this helped a little. If you think of anything else you want to know, please don't hesitate to ask or IM me. I'll be happy to help you any way I can.
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