sandysgrin

Hello all!   I'm Banded!!! How did it go you ask?....well let me tell you.
We (My sister and I) left for San Diego on Wed 10-2010 and stayed over night at the Ramada limited. Thursday we went to the meeting place (the statue of Lindbergh) but quickly found out that the statue was taken down for repairs and has never been put back...lol  Made our phone call to the clinic to check in- before to long the smallest SUV you can Image showed drives up and out pops Tony who is well dressed and easy to talk to and puts you at ease. We were the only pickup at that point  so then we headed for the boarder of Mexico. Once across you begin what seems to be a game of Hit-me-if-can or dodge-car. Zipping in and out of cars like a game of frogger you make your way to a Small  hole in the wall to get our blood drawn. While there we catch up with our sleeve/band/fill buddy's (big hi to Valery-Joann/Rex-John-Gilbert and Felicia). Next stop the strip mall (something like you would find a Sally's hair supply) and next door is a Office Depot. Once inside everything is spotless and you are welcomed as if you are long lost friends. They take you to your room and that is where you will sleep + one night after your surgery. Cardiologist comes in and does his thang, there was a suggestion that he reminded us of a Mexican Mr Magoo..Ha-ha! Soon you meet Dr Almanza and the other nurse's (male and female) Last but by no mean least is the unforgettable Dr Bandacourt comes in to welcome you to the family, Let me warn you now...if you wear a pad for incontinence..wear a BIG one...Bandacourt was so dang funny and when he finally left I was worn out from laughing. He said he would come back and see us after  surgery....Thank God he had a meeting to go to out of town cause I would not be-able to keep my stitches in if he did. Oh..here is a biggie..Dr Bandacourt pops back in to take you purse to lock it in the safe until your out of surgery. I suggest you just keep it with you. Your not in surgery that long+your roommate is there. We didn't get our purses back until the next day. My camera was in it and I would have liked to have gotten some pics but we did have them by the time they took us shopping. Shopping would have been nicer if the shop owners would leave you alone. There is a suggest price on the item for sale but don't be alarmed you can make your own offer and if its fair they will take it, Just remember that they to are suffering from loss of income and take that into consideration when you make a offer. OK back to the story... 2 hours after surgery they let you walk and I would suggest to Walk walk and WALK. It helps with reducing gas. GAS GAS GAS I say this in caps because this is where all your pain will come from. GAS sneaks up on you around your shoulders and upper back and I wont even mention the gas in your tummy. Everyone warns you to Gas-X...I would skip those and go for the good stuff like prilosec or my fav is PAPAYA Enzyme's both of these can be bought at Walmart, Don't worry about being able to swallow pills by the next day they give you pain pills and Antibiotic and the Antibiotic is not small and I had no trouble with it. So my point here is take what ever works for GAS as that is your main problem after surgery. OK so the next day they take you  to the recovery house. Again the game of frogger is played while your in the SUV the size of a VW...lol  They take you to another hole in the wall to have an X-ray to make sure you don't have a leak then off to the Recovery House that sits on top of a hill. Everything is clean and like a resort. Dale our House man showed us to our room and offered us broth. You spend time resting and meeting the other sleeve/Banders. There are 2 recovery house across from each other so you find yourself walking over there to see what goodies they have in there fridge and what their house person is letting them eat or drink. I heard Gilbert got to have Coffee and Yogurt!! So when I get to back to my house I hunt down Dale and tell him WHY WHY dale do they get to have coffee and yogurt?? He calmly tells me that if I drink coffee that it would make my gas worse then it already is and took me to the fridge and pointed out the yogurt. I thanked him --  felt silly and thankful that he cared enough to keep me on track. The phone in the house is an American line you you just dial 1 area code and your number..you are not limited to how long you can talk but if some else wants to make a call they ask you keep it at 30 min. Oh DO NOT USE YOUR PERSONAL CELL PHONE as soon as you cross the border turn it off. If you don't you will get phone calls from the cell towers in Spanish and I was told that its very expensive to use the cell if you don't have international plan.  Do you need a person to go with you? no not at all BUT if you have someone who would like to watch over you then they are so welcome. I was lucky enough to have my sister and even thought she also was banded she took care of me and got me soups and anything that I could have wanted yet we shared the gas pain and the felling of OVER USE OF TUMMY MUSCLES. Our flight out was at 4:20 pm so we left our recovery house at 12:00  We were lucky that the line out of Mexico was short and only took us MAX 45 min to get across the boarder. They are selling stuff for last min shoppers while you in the car waiting. I myself bought a queen size double faced beautiful soft blanket and a very small guitar. Again know what you want to pay for it and then wait for them to come down to your price. Once they know you will buy it they keep coming back to the car with a lower price.

Border Crossing: My sister and I only had our birth certificate's and Drivers license. They ask why we where there would we be coming back and then NEXT TIME HAVE YOUR PASSPORT-ITS THE LAW WARNING then off we went with no delays.

That was my journey so far. I hope this can help others that go after me. Would I use Dr. Almanza again? YES and I will also tell others to use him.

Sandy in AZ on Mars