MVK

Hey guys. I’m THIS close to booking my surgery with Fr. Alvarez in Mexico. The final thing holding me up is, what if there’s a long term complication that needs to be addressed by a US doctor and my insurance refuses to cover it because my sleeve was done in Mexico? Anyone have experience with this or thoughts on the matter?

Hi guys, newbie here so I apologize in advance if I didn’t post in the right place. I have been thinking about getting VSG for years now. My mom fear-talked me out of it in 2017 but after a 40 lb gain since then, I’m really in need of something. I was very active before running 5 days a week, ran a half marathon, but even with all that only ever got down to 185. I developed a chronic injury from running that has preventing me from being regularly mobile since then, and I’ve gone from 185 to 240. I’m hoping the surgery would take some weight off and some pressure off my joints so they can properly heal and I can get back to an active lifestyle. I’m a very disciplined eater, but the injuries have made me a bit depressed and I’ve been eating for comfort. Surprise surprise. I’m considering Dr. Alvarez with Endobariatric in Piedras Negras, so I welcome any of his patients to chime in. I have the cash and don’t want to spend the time and effort getting insurance approval when I am in a high deductible plan and would likely pay 8K out of pocket anyway for surgery in the US. Might as well go to Mexico and get it sooner without all the hassle. Why am I so hesitant to pull the trigger and book the surgery? I guess I’m nervous about complications, nervous about surgery in general, nervous it won’t work. Nervous I will do permanent damage to my body. Someone help give me the boost I need to make this appointment and pay the deposit! Has anyone done this alone? Given my mom’s pessimism I don’t want to ask her to come with me. I think she would just have bad vibes the entire time and probably freak me out.

I think you need to focus more on cardio than strength training if you’re trying to lose weight. I do 5 days a week of 1 hour cardio and 3 days a week strength training which is about an hour and a half. 30 minutes of cardio a week isn’t going to do anything for you if you’re trying to lose weight.

June 29th! Counting down the days 🥰

Do you know how expensive Botox is? I pay roughly $1200 to get it in my forehead every 3 months. I can’t imagine how many units something like this would be... I’d imagine thousands of dollars every few months. Seems like a bogus scam invented by someone who wants to take advantage of desperate WLS patients.

What does Botox have to do with a tummy tuck? Seems like an odd combination. I only get Botox in my forehead 😆

If I’m still in Mexico, they’ll fix it. They do say that.

Gotcha. Is it true that if you have a complication, insurance won’t cover you if it’s related to a procedure that you paid for out of pocket?

@Sammi_Katt With insurance having so many requirements, how did you get approval so fast?

Ron - I read many bad reviews about Blossom billing people a ton of money when they got home. So that really scared me. I don’t want to pay 10K and think everything is fine and then get another huge bill in the mail. I also read about them quoting people certain amounts and then after they go through all the tests/scans/ekg they quote them a new, much higher price and if they don’t go through with the surgery, they send a huge bill for the tests. They just seem a little shady :/

5’4”

I’ve seen many posts about Ramos Kelly saying he’s great, but last night I was watching post op YouTube videos and on Laura’s VSGtube channel, she posted a series of live videos (like minutes before I got to her page). She said Dr. Kelly screwed up her sleeve to mini bypass surgery, did it completely wrong. She was dying in her hotel room and no one would pick up their phone. Then Dr. Kelly’s wife proceeded to send her all these really nasty offensive messages, she even showed her phone on the camera to prove it. I felt so bad, she has me so scared to get the surgery ANYWHERE in fear this might happen to me. She ended up trekking it back to San Diego and checked into a bariatric center there, where they realized she was literally dying and they opened her up and fixed the botched surgery. She has been in the hospital for a week and a half now in San Diego recovering. When I woke up this morning, she deleted the videos. I don’t know what’s going on but I feel like this information needs to be on this board.

Hey girl. I’m 28 and at the final stages of considering this surgery. I’ve been approved, have the available dates, just waiting to pull the trigger. Might shoot for thanksgiving time frame.