Cancun - need doctor recommendations and info

[StawberryBlond 31]

Trying to research CANCUN doctors, prices, etc. and coming up with very little information. Can those sleeved in Cancun share doctor information, cost and whether you would recommend them again?

[abmc 5]

Hi Armiler72, I am having my surgery in Cancun in January. I too had trouble finding info, so I am interested to see if you get any responses. Unless I hear more information, I am going with Dr. Hector Perez in Cancun. All I know is that the hotel there is beautiful (Westin Lagunamar) and that the few people who've had it done have had good experiences. I would love to hear more. There is another member on here who had hers done there a few weeks ago, but I don't think she has posted since two days after surgery.

[judy79 18]

I didn't go, but being on these boards for a year I hear great things about Perez and Ortiz. They are both highly recomended. Of course I think my Dr is #1 lol. But for Cancun, check those 2 out:) You can also go to Gastric Sleeve.com and find out alot about more Dr's in Cancun!

[Wags 549]

I am going to dr. verboonen in Cancun on May 31st. I have heard great things about him! 5500 for everything. I can let you know after the 31st about my experience.

[LesIsMore 22]

I am going to Dr. verboonen in Cancun on May 31st. I have heard great things about him! 5500 for everything. I can let you know after the 31st about my experience.

I'd like to hear about your experience as well. Cancun works better for me than TJ

[Wags 549]

Me too! And it is sooo beautiful! I am on my two week Pre-op liver shrink diet right now. Only nine more days to surgery!!! I will definitely keep you posted :-)

[abmc 5]

Me too! And it is sooo beautiful! I am on my two week Pre-op liver shrink diet right now. Only nine more days to surgery!!! I will definitely keep you posted :-)

Thank you so much. I can't wait to hear all about your experience.

[SaraLou 8]

I would love to know as well! I still haven't decided where to go. I hear so many great things about all of these surgeons, it's hard to choose! By the way, that's not a bad thing! I know my parents went to Cancun a few years ago on vacation and said it was breathtakingly beautiful. So that's one reason I'm considering it. But I haven't really heard a lot about surgeons there.

[LesIsMore 22]

I am going to Dr. verboonen in Cancun on May 31st. I have heard great things about him! 5500 for everything. I can let you know after the 31st about my experience.

Thinking of you today and wishing you well. Can't to hear your thoughts on Dr V, and your experience.

[Wags 549]

Hi! I'm back. Here is my story. It may be TMI, but it's the long version:

Thursday, May 30th - Travel Day

We got up at 4 am to get to the airport for my flight to Cancun. I made the decision to travel alone because I speak Spanish fairly well (NOT fluently, but I understand everything they say to me) and I felt comfortable traveling alone. Plus I am a big baby about pain and I would rather not have anyone there with me while I whimpered my way through this. In hindsight, I wish I had someone there with me. It got really lonely for 3 ½ days with no one to talk to. Although the patient facilitator I worked with, Sheri Burke, said a lot of people there spoke English, hardly anyone did. Here are the people that spoke English fairly well during my stay there – Vanessa, the clinic representative (really good English – saw her for about 10 minutes total), Esteban, my driver (learning English – really nice! After discharge, he took me to the mall so I could walk and he stayed there with me for an hour), Dr. verboonen (fairly good English, who I saw for 10-15 minutes total during the trip), Dr. Perez (great English, 10 minutes total), and the anesthesiologist (good English - can’t remember her name, but she was so sweet - I saw her for 5 minutes total). Remember that you are unconscious during the surgery, so it’s most important that the nurses speak English well and hardly any of them did. Well really, none of them did.

Sheri Burke, my patient facilitator, (so nice! – and speaks perfect English – but she was not in Cancun the weekend I had my surgery) arranged for me to spend the night at the hospital on the night before the surgery because I had such an early surgery. In hindsight, this was probably not the best idea because the bed was so uncomfortable – didn’t bother me the first night too much, but I still had two more nights to spend in it!

I got to Cancun at about 2:00 ish – a little early - and it was arranged for a van to take me to the Ambiance Hotel. I don’t know why I went to the Ambiance Hotel to wait because I wasn’t staying there after surgery. I was going to be staying at the Ramada. Well, I got there early – about 3:00 and my driver was not scheduled to pick me up to take me to the clinic until 4:00. I contacted Sheri by phone to tell her I was early, and she contacted the driver. He was working and came about 4:20 or so. I waited in the lobby of this hotel that I wasn’t going to be staying at for over an hour to get a ride to the clinic. It was kind of weird. I’m not sure why I wasn’t taken directly to the clinic. But I got there, so everything worked out all right.

I got to the clinic about 5:00ish, met Vanessa, signed some papers and waited in my room for surgery for the following morning. That’s a LONG time with no one to talk to. But I like to read, so I read all night.

Surgery, Friday, May 31st – 7 am

Up at 5 am for prep. The nurse gave me antibiotics in my IV in preparation for the surgery and I promptly threw up. You could tell I did a good job on my pre-op diet because there was only Fluid coming out.

Nothing eventful happened after that and I remember NOTHING about the recovery room.

I’m going to be honest and say the first day is a blur.

I was surprised that it didn’t hurt more. Not to say it didn’t hurt, it did. I’m sure the pain meds helped a lot. Mostly the pain came at night when I was trying to find a comfortable way to sleep on my back.

Every time someone came to put something in my IV, I asked “what is that?” I had to ask a lot of questions because they didn’t offer a lot of information. Looking back it’s probably because they didn’t speak English, but I’m just speculating. I feel like in the US, we normally expect our nurses and doctors to tell us what they are putting in our IV, or what our blood pressure is, etc.

I know I urinated a couple times the first day. I wasn’t surprised at the blue urine because I had read someone else on the forum talking about that before (thanks VST!) That was from the blue dye they used to check for leaks during the surgery. (ALSO, it’s a good sign you’re not leaking as you’re recovering if no blue goes in your drain).

I was not allowed any liquids or ice chips until Saturday evening. So nothing went into my mouth or tummy that first day (and most of the second day).

The surgery night was difficult psychologically. I kept beating myself up about whether this was the right thing to do or not. If someone was with me, I probably would have broken down crying. But I needed to work through this on my own anyway because it was already done! I thought a lot about my kids and my husband and how this would affect them if something went really wrong. I think other people work through a lot of this with their psych in the US. Choosing Mexico, it’s something you have to work out on your own OR find the support that you need in other ways.

There were a few other bariatric patients there and one of them was having such a rough time. I heard that person through most of the night vomiting and crying out. This was hard for me to hear and it made my state of mind even worse. I was glad that the person had a companion for comfort.

If I were to offer any suggestion for someone going to Cancun, I would say “take someone with you!” It’s worth the extra airfare. They don’t have to pay to stay at the clinic with you or the hotel (unless you stay extra days, of course).

First Day Post-Op, June 1st

This day was better in some ways and worse in others. I began to feel the loneliness quite deeply. I wished I had someone to talk to. And I really wished I had somewhere else to sit in my room besides my bed because my back was starting to hurt quite a bit. There were no chairs in my room so I just had my bed and it was getting to me.

I don’t have anything to share about my liquid intake because I wasn’t allowed any. My doctor (Verboonen) came by and asked if I had any questions. I asked him about the barium test and getting the drain out. He said that didn’t hurt and nothing to worry about. He also said I could have ice chips later in the evening and that he was leaving town but his partner would follow up with me on Sunday. Then he left.

I did have a little bit of ice in the evening, but I had to ask for it. Then I thought better of eating ice made from Water in Mexico, so I stopped. I was getting plenty of IV fluids, so I knew I wouldn’t be dehydrated.

Second Day Post-Op, June 2nd

Well, this is when the “…. hit the fan”. It was about 5 in the morning on my second day post op. I had a really vivid nightmare in which I was watching my dog die and I woke up scared to pieces. My blood pressure shot straight up and my heart rate was through the roof. My hands were swollen and wrist area looked like I was having IV extravasation. It looked like the fluid was not going into my vein but into my arm (It looked like bloating in my arm).

The nurse came in and I tried to tell her about my hands, arm, heart rate and blood pressure, but she did not completely understand me. She said my hands looked fine (they didn’t – trust me, I’ve had them attached to my body for 53 years and they weren’t fine). She did take my blood pressure and it was 160/100. Even though I take blood pressure medication, my blood pressure had been in the normal range the entire time I was at the clinic without taking it, so this was way high! She called the doctor and he told her to have me take my blood pressure med (which I hadn’t taken that day) and give me a nitroglycerin patch (wait, what?!) At the same time she was trying to give me antibiotics in my IV, which I felt was flowing into my arm instead of my vein. I said “No” to all of it. I told her I needed to call my husband (who is a pharmacist).

I called my husband in the US and he told me this was all fine to do and I really should have the antibiotics. So when the nurse came back in the room, I told her to go ahead and give me the antibiotics, but to move my IV to my other hand before she did it. She said no – you are going home today and the doctors will be here soon so we are not giving you the antibiotics and we don’t need to move the IV. (Ok, I’m speculating, but I’m pretty sure she called the doctor while I was freaking out with my husband and they decided to get me out of there fast). I took my blood pressure med (which was the first time I had swallowed liquid since surgery, so I was scared about that) and she gave me the nitro patch. By this time I was about ready to jump out the window. I was so stressed!! THEN, she comes in with an 8 ounce cup of blue liquid and tells me to drink it. I looked at her like she was crazy. Or maybe I just looked crazy! I told her that I hadn’t had anything to drink since the surgery (besides my sip with the blood pressure med) and how was it possible for me to drink all of this. She just said I needed to drink it. So I did. But I was so confused, because I was supposed to have a barium test, not the blue dye test. She told me that Doctor Perez (works with Dr. Verboonen) would be here soon to do my test and take out my drain and then I never saw her again. I had a different nurse after that.

HAHAHAHA! I have to laugh whenever I think of this next part. So about 9:30, a doctor walks into the room with the anesthesiologist (sounds like the beginning of a bar joke) and he greets me in Spanish. I say to him “Dr. Perez, nice to meet you. Do you speak English?” He says “Dr. Perez! Dr. Perez!” and stomps out of the room. I’m standing there stunned and I look at the anesthesiologist and say, “What? Why is he mad? I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings!” She says it’s ok, it’s ok and goes out to the hallway to talk to him. He won’t come back into the room, but Dr. Perez DOES come into the room. And I have to say that this was the best part of the experience. He spoke perfect English, explained everything to me about this blue dye test, pulling out the drain and all my post-op instructions. I was SO relieved! He looked at my drain container (I don’t know what those are called) and said do you see any blue in there? I said no. He said, that means you have no leaks and you do not need the barium test. YAAAAAAAYYYY!!!! I was elated.

Here’s the bottom line for my suggestions for those thinking of Cancun. I am looking at this from the perspective that having it done in the US is not a choice for you and you are trying to decide how the Mexico experience would work for you.

1) I would definitely take someone with me.

2) Go to Dr. Perez and make sure the surgery is at the hospital rather than the clinic. I believe this way you will have more nurses who speak English.

[LesIsMore 22]

Wow. I thought about going by myself, but will definitely take someone with me even if I have to pay for their ticket myself. Dr Perez it is. I'll know for sure which direction I'm taking next month when after I'm finished my 3 month program and my paperwork is submitted to Aetna.

[StawberryBlond 31]

I contacted Dr Perez's rep and there is not a hospital option. Wags-would you go to Perez if you had to Bo back to the Victoria clinic?

[pisces318 5]

I am going to Tijuana July 2nd and bring sleeved by dr Ariel Ortiz. Total without airfare I'd 6,500 and his center is a bariatic center of excellence. I can't wait!

[Wags 549]

I contacted Dr Perez's rep and there is not a hospital option. Wags-would you go to Perez if you had to Bo back to the Victoria clinic?

yes! Definitely IF I had a companion!!

[Nelly1828 17]

I'm getting sleeves by dr. Alejandro Lopez. In puerto Vallarta in 6 days! June 14th!! I went through the company a lighter me. They also have locations in cancan go to alighterme.com that's where I found out all my information.