Have any of you sleevers gone to Mexico to have your surgery?

[Boogirl6 17]

I chose to go to Mexico for surgery. I'm an RN for 28 years started with 3 Los Angeles surgeons in June 2015, all Centers of Excellence. Wanted to have surgery mid Sept because it was the only break I would have from work. By August 2015 I realized none of the LA surgeons were going to work out. Poor follow up, wanting me to undergo unnecessary preop studies, ie. sleep apnea, endoscopy, etc, wanting me to get co-morbidities from other doctors, i.e. high blood pressure, etc. I knew I would have to do a lot of legwork and probably still fight with my insurance. By the way, my anthem blue cross had a $5000 deductible plus another $3000, so it would have cost me $8000 here anyway. I did a lot of research online and drove down to Tijuana, went to 3 places. Liked Obesity Control Center the best. I met Dr Ortiz that day. Scheduled my surgery for Sept 21(wanted Sept 18 but not available).

Let me tell you, being a nurse, I was terrified! Plus I have anxiety issues so I did not want to have surgery, ever! But I just put it in my mind I was going and that was it, plus I took some Xanax along the way. The morning of surgery I got to the clinic at 6:30 am and after 2 hours I was finally in my bed, they drew labs, did an ekg, placed an IV. The waiting was the worst part! Well out of 5 patients, guess who was last? Me! I couldn't believe it, the worst possible scenario, I just wanted to be knocked out in the beginning and wake up in recovery. So by about 3pm they took me to surgery, the anesthesia doctor started blabbing on and on and I said please just knock me out, already! He gave me something and I got drowsy and the next thing I knew I was awake in recovery room feeling great!

No pain! A little discomfort. No nausea! No vomiting! Nothing! I asked to get out of bed to walk and they said wait 10 minutes. Within the next hour I was walking around, feeling amazing. I couldn't believe it. Why was I worried. This was so easy! Whatever the mix of anesthesia it was perfect. I couldn't ask for a better surgery. Also, no drains, no catheters, just 5 abdominal incisions that were glued shut.

The next morning I started taking sips of Water, no problem. Soon I was sipping more than enough liquids to stay hydrated. Before surgery I was worried I'd need IV fluids for a few days. I was transferred to the Tijuana Marriott where the service was amazing. Free Water, broth, popsicles 24/7. Excellent service. Still no nausea, vomiting, pain. Before surgery I had terrible heartburn but I've had no heartburn.

So today, 9/28 is one week later. I'm down 6 lbs. Day of surgery I was 246 lbs. I've had no problems, not even Constipation. I'm supposed to be only taking liquids but to be honest I've eaten soft foods. My only disappointment is the surgery did not take away my appetite(I think that's an emotional issue) but it does restrict the amount of food I can eat and I'm VERY careful not to overeat! Also, I don't eat any sugary products, i.e. soda, juice, pastries, etc.

I really believe my success is because of Dr Ortiz at the OCC (Obesity Control Center). He has fine tuned and perfected this surgery and I would recommend him highly.

Thank you so much for posting your story! I'm going to be getting sleeved with Dr. Ortiz on November 16th and I'm really excited. I have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. I think you mentioned that they did not place a drain after surgery? I thought someone else had said that they usually do. Fine by me either way. Did you buy the pre-op shake kit from the company they recommended? I can't remember the name of the company off the top of my head. I just remember that their products seemed quite expensive. Also, did you buy the post-surgery medication package? I wasn't sure if it was worth it or not since the clinic charges extra for them and it sounded like pretty basic stuff. Any other tips or advice? That's great that you had such a wonderful experience down there!! I can't wait to go! ????

[croftop 2]

Hi

Really from everything I've read a drain is kind of useless, it's supposed to be able to detect leaks but not really proven to be effective. Plus it's an extra source of infection. I did buy the preop shakes/supplements but you don't need them and they are expensive. If you don't take Probiotics and Vitamins though you might want to get them. I already take lots of Vitamins including Probiotics and Omega 3's but I bought them anyway. Postop meds are also expensive and I thought should have been included in the cost of surgery. It includes 5 days of a liquid antibiotic, 2 months of prilosec, 8 sublingual toradol for pain and another drug for nausea which I didn't take. But compared to the cost of surgery, it wasn't that significant.

My only extra advice is not to read too much of the stuff on the internet. I was obsessed and read all the stuff on youtube with their bad advice. I was sure I would vomit, have terrible gas pains, be constipated, get dehydrated, be bedbound, etc......none of that was true. Now I'm not sure what your health status is: I'm relatively healthy, besides being 70 lbs overweight, I had mild high blood pressure, but no diabetes, asthma, kidney or liver problems. So if you're in decent shape you should have minimal problems. Of course if you're extremely overweight, i.e. 300lbs+, you might have more side effects.

Other advice is go on an atkins-like low carb diet now. It will not only shrink your liver and help you lose weight but it will help you after surgery with eating and appetite control. I was expecting my appetite to be reduced, my interest in food to be less but that hasn't happened. I'm still obsessed with food the only difference is I'm limited by quantity(which is great!). This morning for instance I made 2 scrambled eggs. Now normally I'd make 3 or 4 with toast and sausage, etc. I ended up eating one egg because half way through Breakfast I felt full! Amazing! You are going to luv it! I now eat like a normal person. Now I'm gonna work on eating healthy, whole foods, no processed junk, no sugar, etc. By the way, I tried sugar twice and it gave me a stomachache(yah!) so I avoid sweets. I have read other people can actually only tolerate sugar/sweets in the beginning but again my experience has been very different from what I read.

You do need to go on a liquid diet 2-3 days before surgery and probably a week post surgery. OCC and other clinics recommend a liquid diet for up to 40 days after surgery! I was not able to do this. On only liquids, I actually had bad diarrhea so I added soft foods about 4 days after surgery and haven't had any problems and no diarrhea plus I feel satiated. On liquids only I never felt full. I only eat soft or pureed foods usually cooked, nothing difficult to digest like steak. I also bought lots of Protein shakes/liquids like Isopure zero carb but again that concentrated Liquid Protein just gave me diarrhea. So I think a little sip here and there throughout the day of Protein shake is good but you're probably not going to want to live on them. The most important thing is NOT to overeat, limit your intake to 4 oz or half a cup at a time or less, never overstretch your stomach while it's healing(6-8 weeks) and of course don't eat anything that would irritate your stomach like over acidic foods, etc.

By the way, I'm not advocating you not follow OCC post op diet. If you can survive on Clear Liquids for the first week postop and another 3 weeks of full liquids that is great. I just couldn't do it. I really hope this helps and I hope you breeze thru surgery like I did(and also the other 4 people I had surgery with). Feel free to contact me with other questions.