amaltha

Well I made it! Here was my experience: As most of you have read I did mine in Mexico and not the states because insurance denied me. We flew to SD and a gentleman was waiting to take us over the boarder. We arrived at the Hospital that was imaculate. Very state of the art and cleaner than any hospital I have seen in the states. Apparently they are doing a lot of advanced research there??? Anyway, I had all my pre-op stuff off the bat and then went to my room. Dr. Lopez came in and the anastegiologist came in we had a quick chat and then they came to take me to the surgery. I lied in bed for 20 minutes and then they took me to the surgery room. I saw Dr Lopez and smiled. *funny moment* So am a bit of a smarty pants. They had needed to get the the EKG thing and so my robe was down (breast exposed) and so I was about to go under when I looked at the one person I knew spoke english and whispered "you know I usually charge men to see these" :ohmy: and then I woke up in recovery shaking uncontrollably. They gave me something and we went back to the room. the enxt few hours as my prior people will say were the worst. I was sore, they weren't giving me very much pain meds. none of the nurses spoke a lot of english, and my spanish is broken enough for us to barely get by. The doctors all spoke perfect english. I got up to urinate often and walked up and down the halls when I did. The next day I was wisked away to drink some icky pink stuff and take another x-ray of me. (which looked pretty funky!) And then I was discharged. I had the choice of staying in the hospital another night and opted not to. (my mother is with me and is a nurse and I wasn't getting all the attention in the world so I figured it is best to get back in the states) So we bumped up my plans by a day to return home and get on with the rest of my new life. I am walking a lot. I feel the gas build up and am a bit sore from it and walking helps emencly. Sipping my broth and apple juice like a champ. Apparently, while they were operating on my they found a hiata hernia and he fixed me up right there at no extra charge. :frown: To all those who were in my situation financially. Here is who SHOULD NOT do this. If you are a person who likes plans, and likes to stick to solid timelines this is NOT for you. I am not sure how they do it in the states but there was just a fly by the seat of my pants feeling the entire time. I kept asking, "what time will the doctor be here? what time for this what time for that. all the answers were....oh he come find you. oh she will find you. When they said "we do this in 5 minutes" it always was an hour or better. It was a little annoying but I dealt with it. I can imagine someone who likes a tight ship would hate this. If at all possible bring a spanish speaker with you. I think that would have helped a little bit. Don't get me wrong I didn't have a BAD experience but there were moments of uncertainty. I was very scared getting wheeled around the moments before surgery, I was afraid of going under, and the surgery and they left me alone alot to sit on it. I keep thinking...wow in a matter of 24 hours I just changed the rest of my life. I suppose it is a similar feeling when you give birth to your first child. To all the other allstars I wish you the best! I want everyone to have a speedy recovery to the rest of our lives. Congrats to all my other 4th Peeps!

wow I feel your gas pain. Well it is mine but know where you are coming from. It is getting better by the day but WOW. hope you have a speedy recovery!

Good luck for aug 4 peeps!! :w00t:

Please see my thread: Good luck for aug 4 peeps!! If anyone has any questions of my experience please feel free to contact me.

Well I am happy I woke up...I am happy my parts aren't being sold on the black market. :w00t: I am happy to be home too. However, I am sore as heck. and am having some trouble sleeping. If I can figure out which forum to post it in I will try. I just figured in case anyone was in my shoes it would be good info to have.

Well I made it! Here was my experience: As most of you have read I did mine in Mexico and not the states because insurance denied me. We flew to SD and a gentleman was waiting to take us over the boarder. We arrived at the Hospital that was imaculate. Very state of the art and cleaner than any hospital I have seen in the states. Apparently they are doing a lot of advanced research there??? Anyway, I had all my pre-op stuff off the bat and then went to my room. Dr. Lopez came in and the anastegiologist came in we had a quick chat and then they came to take me to the surgery. I lied in bed for 20 minutes and then they took me to the surgery room. I saw Dr Lopez and smiled. *funny moment* So am a bit of a smarty pants. They had needed to get the the EKG thing and so my robe was down (breast exposed) and so I was about to go under when I looked at the one person I knew spoke english and whispered "you know I usually charge men to see these" :ohmy: and then I woke up in recovery shaking uncontrollably. They gave me something and we went back to the room. the enxt few hours as my prior people will say were the worst. I was sore, they weren't giving me very much pain meds. none of the nurses spoke a lot of english, and my spanish is broken enough for us to barely get by. The doctors all spoke perfect english. I got up to urinate often and walked up and down the halls when I did. The next day I was wisked away to drink some icky pink stuff and take another x-ray of me. (which looked pretty funky!) And then I was discharged. I had the choice of staying in the hospital another night and opted not to. (my mother is with me and is a nurse and I wasn't getting all the attention in the world so I figured it is best to get back in the states) So we bumped up my plans by a day to return home and get on with the rest of my new life. I am walking a lot. I feel the gas build up and am a bit sore from it and walking helps emencly. Sipping my broth and apple juice like a champ. :huh2: Apparently, while they were operating on my they found a hiata hernia :cry_smile: and he fixed me up right there at no extra charge. :drool: To all those who were in my situation financially. Here is who SHOULD NOT do this. If you are a person who likes plans, and likes to stick to solid timelines this is NOT for you. I am not sure how they do it in the states but there was just a fly by the seat of my pants feeling the entire time. I kept asking, "what time will the doctor be here? what time for this what time for that. all the answers were....oh he come find you. oh she will find you. When they said "we do this in 5 minutes" it always was an hour or better. It was a little annoying but I dealt with it. I can imagine someone who likes a tight ship would hate this. If at all possible bring a spanish speaker with you. I think that would have helped a little bit. Don't get me wrong I didn't have a BAD experience but there were moments of uncertainty. I was very scared getting wheeled around the moments before surgery, I was afraid of going under, and the surgery and they left me alone alot to sit on it. I keep thinking...wow in a matter of 24 hours I just changed the rest of my life. I suppose it is a similar feeling when you give birth to your first child. To all the other allstars I wish you the best! I want everyone to have a speedy recovery to the rest of our lives. Congrats to all my other 4th Peeps!

Thanks a bunch everyone! I will try to post as soon as I can afterwards but it will more than likely be the end of the week. I am super excited, nervous and scared all in one. By this time next year it will hopefully be a whole new me! YAY! Thanks and best wishes to you all this week as well!:biggrin:

To all. I am right there with you. There are so many variables. I go in tomorrow and I am thinking about all the possible bad things that could go wrong. And then I start thinking about all the possible great things that will change. Don't worry you are not alone in this one! Keep your chin up! C~

I go tomorrow morning. I am glad the first ones are doing well and I hope to be in that category! Talk to you all when I get back on line!

Hehehe no bears. I thought it would have been cute to make shirts that said something like "lions and tigers and....coatimundis?!?!?!" Oh my...or some other random animal that we have. Who knows I might make one for me yet! :wink2:

CONGRATS! I am glad you had a great experience. :wink2:

Hello Everyone! So many wonderful stories on here! Trish we have a bit in common! I am 28 and live in NorCal. (Fires are still going but we can finally breath again) I am a QA supervisor at a local natural/organic juice facility here. I am single with 3 four furry quadrupeds as my kids. 2 Kitties and 1 amazing pup. In my spare time I volunteer at a local wildlife facility that has many special needs exotic animals; mostly cats. We care for tigers, lions, leopards a couple coyotes and many more. I can't remember when I didn't have a weight issue. I was a wonderful weight as a freshman in high school and it has gone up since then. After high school I went to USNA and still managed to gain weight. (what does that tell you) So I think this will be a wonderful tool to help me get the yo-yo under control and a good healthy life in order. Congrats to our day one people! C~

That is my date as well and you all: cached ichatter karnein imgreen pjtxlady will be in my thoughts as I know in a way we will be connected a little bit. It is all so exciting for me I can hardly stand it! Congrats to all of us! :thumbup:

Good Luck Lello!

Good luck to all who are the starting squad of our August Allstars! I know you all will do fantastic! Thoughts with you!

Good luck! you are going to be great. I can't believe Monday is my big day. I am a bit nervous. I just keep thinking that this is a wonderful tool that will help me greatly enhance my life. I hope you feel better soon and will be thinking of you Friday!:thumbdown:

Has anyone else been told to stay away from red jello?:confused2:

Congrats!!! My thoughts will be with you as well.

Dr. Juan Antonio Lopez. I was wondering if anyone knew of him and had thoughts one way or another on him. Thanks!

That cat video had me rolling. I have two of my own and the most awesome dog on the planet. But I also have engineer friends so that made this extra funny for me. Couple weeks and August all starts have their KICK OFF!

I was told to go on clear liquids 5 days before the surgery. Although up until that point I can totally identify with all the ones who gave their favorite foods a fantastic fairwell! I did that last week and now am easing into things pretty well. I am so happy there is support!

Oooh I am in Chico CA :eek: WOOOOO this is great

Yep right next to Paradise...about 20 of our employees live up there and a few of them had to be evacuated...some twice! None of them lost property that I know of. However, one employees brother lost ALL THREE of his houses at Concow. :thumbup: It makes me sad just thinking of it. There is no doubt about it the firefighters are truly earning their pay this summer. There seems to be a lot of good advice and good hearts on this site so it is easy to come back to

Hi I am new to the Lap Band forum talk. My appointment is for early next month. I have read through a few forums and must admit I am not doing mine in the US. I have had weight issues my entire life and in the US I can't get insurance to cover it because I am not quite high enough. Which I think is just ridiculous. Plus, there was a long list of other doctors that had to get involved and it just seemed like a bit much. I think the American health care system is a little off when it takes no effort at all for things like breast enhancing, botox, or lypo but when it comes to something to actually improve entire health and well being it is hard as heck. Sorry that was me venting. I am really excited I think this will be a great new change for me. Thanks!

"August all stars" is a fantastic name.