Dr. Ariel Ortiz at the OCC

[Texas Jess 29]

Hi Sweetums! Hope all swelling is gone and you are feeling good. I head for Mexico on Tuesday, I'm already getting worried about the rough trip back home. Long layover in Colorado....

Let me know how you doing!

[Sweetums 13]

Im doing well, all of the swelling is gone and I have ankles again. I tried to progress my diet too fast and didn't do so great. I am now back at step 1, making sure I am hydrated enough. I have zero pain, and am able to do small tasks around the house, load and unload the dishwasher ect. I am tired and can sleep 12 hours a night easily. I go back to work on Monday, so I am not sure how it will go, but we shall see. 

 

Its so exciting that your leaving soon, I hope you have a wonderful journey. The long layover may actually be a good thing! Find a place where you can sit and put your feet up, I ran all over San Diego airport looking for something I could eat, big mistake. I think that's why I got so swollen, I was on them too much!  Take a cup of Soup or something similar that you can have while your in the air port or on the plane. San Diego is really limited and very expensive. A bowl of nasty broth ended up costing me 14$.

 

Good Luck and keep us updated!!

[haleytrim 244]

Thanks so much mmhutch.  That cements my choice.  

[Kindle 8,667]

Sweetums....I had the gastric sleeve surgery at OCC in December and I agree about Dr. Martinez being underrated. He was great. And Dr. So has been remarkable with followup. I've had more conversations with him than anyone else at OCC. And I can't help but mention Dr. Jimenez. I had a Packers sweatshirt on and he is a Vikings fan, so we had an interesting conversation. At least we both think Brett Favre is a douche bag

Glad you are doing well

[missmeli 15]

Good Morning fellow & prospective OCCers!

I wanted to check in and give some feedback. Tomorrow I am 15 weeks post-op. I am down 70lbs, and am 70lbs from my personal goal. To those on the fence about having the procedure, I will not lie, it has not been an easy journey, however, I firmly believe this is the best decision I have ever made.

I seriously want to write a letter to Dr. O and staff at OCC for giving me my life back. I am so pleased with how I feel. The only regret I have is waiting so long to take action. I had my three month labs, and everything looked great. My PCP was extremely pleased. My bad cholesterol is down, my good cholesterol is up, and all of my labs are normal! I have energy, (thank you Vitamin B shots!) and I actually want to do things again.

I hope tha things are going well for everyone else here as well. Reading all of the feedback on this post was the deciding factor for me to schedule with Dr. Ortiz, and I am so glad that I did. In essence, I have all of you to thank as well - so thank you all!

[Texas Jess 29]

<p>Im doing well, all of the swelling is gone and I have ankles again. I tried to progress my diet too fast and didn't do so great. I am now back at step 1, making sure I am hydrated enough. I have zero pain, and am able to do small tasks around the house, load and unload the dishwasher ect. I am tired and can sleep 12 hours a night easily. I go back to work on Monday, so I am not sure how it will go, but we shall see. </p> <p> </p> <p>Its so exciting that your leaving soon, I hope you have a wonderful journey. The long layover may actually be a good thing! Find a place where you can sit and put your feet up, I ran all over San Diego airport looking for something I could eat, big mistake. I think that's why I got so swollen, I was on them too much! Take a cup of Soup or something similar that you can have while your in the air port or on the plane. San Diego is really limited and very expensive. A bowl of nasty broth ended up costing me 14$.</p> <p> </p> <p>Good Luck and keep us updated!!</p>

Hey Sweetums!!

Hope your doing better now. How was work?

I'm taking your advise and taking some of my own broth for the trip home. Getting excited and nervous. I fly out at 6 am in the morning!

Will let you know how it goes! Say a prayer for me please....

[Sweetums 13]

 

<p>Im doing well, all of the swelling is gone and I have ankles again. I tried to progress my diet too fast and didn't do so great. I am now back at step 1, making sure I am hydrated enough. I have zero pain, and am able to do small tasks around the house, load and unload the dishwasher ect. I am tired and can sleep 12 hours a night easily. I go back to work on Monday, so I am not sure how it will go, but we shall see. </p> <p> </p> <p>Its so exciting that your leaving soon, I hope you have a wonderful journey. The long layover may actually be a good thing! Find a place where you can sit and put your feet up, I ran all over San Diego airport looking for something I could eat, big mistake. I think that's why I got so swollen, I was on them too much! Take a cup of Soup or something similar that you can have while your in the air port or on the plane. San Diego is really limited and very expensive. A bowl of nasty broth ended up costing me 14$.</p> <p> </p> <p>Good Luck and keep us updated!!</p>

Hey Sweetums!!

Hope your doing better now. How was work?

I'm taking your advise and taking some of my own broth for the trip home. Getting excited and nervous. I fly out at 6 am in the morning!

Will let you know how it goes! Say a prayer for me please....

 

You will do great!!! They are professionals through and through. Funny story about the hotel for you, on the day we arrive we were starving. We knew we had to stick to fluids, but wanted something substantial, and it was the day before surgery, so we figured it didnt really matter at that point. We went in and sat in the restaurant and ordered milk shakes. The waitress looked at us funny but didnt say anything. Minutes later the head waiter arrives at our table and questions if we were aware that we were not allowed to have milkshakes this close to our surgery!  It was too funny. He told me that they service 250 guest per week who come to Tijuana for surgery. Will say a prayer for you and I hope you have nothing but a positive experience!

 

Work was ok, I am pretty tired tonight, but that's ok. I expect I will be for some time, my body is breaking down all of its fat stores :-)

[Sweetums 13]

Texas Jess, hope you are doing well! Been thinking about you!

[gastricsleever 259]

Ok sorry, I feel like I'm always posting on here! I had been in a stall for a month between 206-209. So I did a 3 day liquid diet and then ate food for 3 days and got down to 202. Then I went on vacation for the weekend. I snacked a little more than normal, but it had no alcohol and didn't eat extravagantly. I got home and got on the scale and I gained 8 EIGHT pounds!!! This is so discouraging, I was only gone for 4 days, and 2 of those days i spent driving to and from NC to PA. I don't understand this. I thought I was bloated and I hadn't pooped in 2 days so I took some Miralax when I got home... I went, but I didn't really lose anything.

Have any of you experienced this? I'm so discouraged! I was gonna go on another liquid diet to try and flush out anything. I'm 5 months out. I really thought I would come home from vacation in onderland.

[back2barb78 890]

Ok sorry, I feel like I'm always posting on here! I had been in a stall for a month between 206-209. So I did a 3 day liquid diet and then ate food for 3 days and got down to 202. Then I went on vacation for the weekend. I snacked a little more than normal, but it had no alcohol and didn't eat extravagantly. I got home and got on the scale and I gained 8 EIGHT pounds!!! This is so discouraging, I was only gone for 4 days, and 2 of those days i spent driving to and from NC to PA. I don't understand this. I thought I was bloated and I hadn't pooped in 2 days so I took some miralax when I got home... I went, but I didn't really lose anything.<br><br> Have any of you experienced this? I'm so discouraged! I was gonna go on another liquid diet to try and flush out anything. I'm 5 months out. I really thought I would come home from vacation in onderland.

Yes!! I went on vacation and I wasn't eating or drinking excessively and I was super active and I had gained 6lbs!! I was pissed. But it came right back off. I've been dancing between 193-196 lbs for about a month now. It is what it is. As long as I'm not gaining and don't go back to 200lbs I'm keeping a very close eye on it. I'm also not working out either so I can't complain if I'm not going to the gym.

[gastricsleever 259]

Ok. Did u hit any stall around 5 months?

I haven't exercised as much the last 2 weeks due to weather and now back injury since I was rear ended yesterday ???? but I have definitely been getting in all my protein!

[Kindle 8,667]

First of all, don't sweat about the 8 pounds. Unless you ate 28,000 calories above and beyond your body's requirement in 4 days, those 8 pounds are not fat. I don't think I could have eaten that much even before surgery! Maybe your slight change in diet over the weekend contained more sodium? Heck, just sitting in a car for 2 days will cause you to retain fluids. My ankles swell like crazy when I'm sitting down a lot.

As for my stalls, at 6 weeks I gained 3 pounds out of the blue and then stayed there for a month. I didn't worry too much about it because I was too busy dealing with severe Clostridial diarrhea and the meds they had me on made me nauseous. I was praying to the " bodily function gods" that I would be happy to never lose another pound if the diarrhea and nausea would just go away. As soon as I switched antibiotics I was able to drink and eat more and the stall ended. I had another 2 week stall at 5 1/2 months out, but again, I didn't worry about it and. I didn't do anything different. It just ended on it's own.

Just hang in there. Keep following the Protein first/no refined carbs rule, drink at least 64oz Water and take your Vitamins. If what you are doing isn't working, it's time to try something else. Maybe try upping your calories in the form of real food protein rather than reverting back to liquids. Eat different things than you have been. Give your body something else to process. shake things up with variety. More veggies? More Fiber? More fruit?

Sorry about your accident. Hope you feel better soon.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Kindle

[Micky71 71]

Surgery Aug 25 at OCC and excited and nervous. I start my 4 week plan in 3 days! Whoop whoop

[darstvader 31]

When is your husband's open enrollment period at his work? Would be a good idea to find that out first instead of Mexico. It will be a year at the very most you'll have to wait to jump on his plan, we'll worth it in my opinion.

I was going to go to Mexico to have mine removed as insurance doesn't cover it. I decided not to do that after researching thoroughly. Biggest reason is that if anything happens complication wise and you're back in the States, it's very hard to get it covered and US doctors don't like to touch it either. Mine wouldn't.

So yes; find out when his open enrollment is if you haven't already.

[mgolden1984 13]

Good luck to all