At florence hospital now

[NothingUpMySleeve 244]

I'm in Tijuana at the Florence Hospital waiting to go back for surgery. Curious to see if any of you are here, too...

[Bronco0605 135]

Nope , I am in Michigan . Good luck I hope all goes well for you. I will be watching for your updates.

[NothingUpMySleeve 244]

I just got home today, woo hoo!

I was sleeved 12/12/13 by Dr Illan fraijo with Baja Bariatrics in Tijuana. I was really scared to go to Mexico after the news the past few years, but the coordinator Omar made sure I was taken care of the whole time. He arranged for my ride across the border and picked me up at the hotel.

After that we headed to the Hospital florence. The hospital is older--my husband is a vet and the florence reminded me a bit of the local VA, clean but not fancy. Blood work, xray were basically what you'd expect. I met the anesthesiologist and surgeon, headed in to surgery.

Woke up in intense pain and the painkillers made me kind of sick. I felt like I was going into shock and then had a very hard time waking up. By the following morning I was in excruciating pain. You know the frowny face charts they use for kids to point out pain? I now know what the frowniest one feels like. It was worse than labor, kidney infections, broken bones, you name it.

Omar had the hospital administrator and respiratory dr come meet with me, arranged for my husband to fly in while the surgical team came back. It turns out I had a bleed and clotting on my abdominal wall (the sleeve itself was fine). I had to buy some blood but they covered the cost of the surgery. Afterward they kept a nurse stationed with me to make sure I was ok.

Once the bleed was fixed and the clots cleaned out, I got better quickly. Dr illan was very reassuring and Omar made sure everything was to our satisfaction. The level of customer service was excellent. They had to put in a drain and it hurt when they took it out, but the doctor came to check my incisions back at the hotel to make sure all was well. Dr illan is also an ER trauma surgeon, and had a calm, confident manner.

My leak test was successful and I spent my final day shopping and seeing a movie. Made it home on schedule. It was strange to go from feeling like I was going to die to walking around tj and catching a movie in less than 48 hours. Omar took us to some amazing foodie places, which was cool. I liked having the dedicated driver/translator/medical liaison.

Right now I'm doing fine and can't wait for clear liquid phase to end.