Help please

[Iluvharleys 15]

Welcome to bandland! i am happy your experience went well. Keep us posted of your progress.

[DeLarla 22]

I had a horrible experience with Dr. Lopez. He was a very nice man that had a good reputation as being one of the best band surgeons. But I had severe problems after surgery that he and his staff completely ignored. His staff didn't answer calls or return EMERGENCY phone messages. However, I've read some posts that he's hired new staff. He hired one woman that seemed to get his practice in order, but I heard she either already moved on or is planning on moving on, so I don't know what's going on with his office. The worst problem with Lopez is that I asked him what to do if I had an emergency and couldn't get to Mexico, so he happily referred me to a local band surgeon. But when my port became badly infected, the local surgeon refused to see me, so Lopez had no right referring me to him. I was left in the dark with no medical help. It was horrible. I ended up having a 2nd surgery to get my port removed because Dr. Lopez ignored my infection way too long.

Please call Dr. Lopez and tell him how worried you are that you won't get the aftercare you need. Maybe he's straightened out his staff, or maybe he's tired of having his name dragged through the mud so he's gotten things under control.

The surgery is the easy part - it's aftercare that's the hard part. To me, Lopez just wanted my money. After the original surgery, I felt like I'd been dumped into a very scary world with no doctors to help me.

However, in his defense, I had a long talk about Dr. Lopez with Inamed just this week. I voiced my concern that there's a lot of erosions being posted, and they all seem to be Dr. Lopez patients. The Inamed rep told me that Dr. Lopez does a lot more surgeries than other doctors, and that's why he has a higher percentage of erosion. He also said that might "seem" like there's a lot of erosion since people always post all the bad stuff. Inamed is still providing bands to Lopez. I don't know if they have control over who buys their product, but if Inamed isn't shying away from Lopez, then they must still have confidence in him as a competant surgeon.

I don't want to scare you, I just want you to go in with your eyes wide open. He's a very impatient man that doesn't like to listen, and he talks very fast with a very thick Mexican accent so he's hard to understand. But get him on the phone and kindly ask him to sit down and spend some time with you to answer every single one of your questions and concerns. I don't think you have anything to be "afraid" of when it comes to Lopez, just as long as you know you may have to find aftercare elsewhere.

Make sure you have a heating pad waiting at home which was my savior for all my aches and pains. I brought some fuzzy pink bootie socks so I could walk barefoot without getting my feet dirty, and they were a nice little comfort. I also brought one bottle of Gatorade since right after surgery all they give you is Water for 24 hours. But Dr. Lopez let me have the Gatorade right out of surgery. I hadn't eaten in 2 days, so it tasted so much better than Water. It took me all night to sip at one bottle, but it was worth lugging around.

Also, a lot of cell phones don't work in Mexico. If you want to call friends and family while in the hospital, stop at a drug store and buy a $10 or $20 phone card when you get to TJ so you won't have problems with the hospital phones.

Be good to yourself, and good luck.

[New Hope 37]

I quized Dr Lopez at great length about all the negatives I had read about him. Dr Lopez is aware of all the topics discussed on this forum and is very keen to remedy any past problems.

Delarla, Penni, Teresa, and numerous others w/erosions....Dr. Lopez wants to remedy any past problems. Better keep those phone lines open!

[DeLarla 22]

What's doctor Lopez's phone number?

[Penni60 45]

I don't even care about Lopez anymore. I am happy with the doc I found for my after care and will continue to go to him. Lopez was OK for the surgery but his aftercare sucked big time.

I had a port issue that he told me would go away with more weight loss. My new doc said that it was Lopez' technique that caused my port issues. So I had a port revision surgery in July to correct his technique problem.

If I get a call from Lopez or his staff then I will expect the world to end soon.

[Legallyblonde 0]

Dr Lopez (01152)(664)634-3870 or (01152)634-3871 or (619)247-4813 or (619)247-3201. The last two numbers are personal cells.

Regarding a few things.....his heavy Mexican accent? He's Mexican! I think we all knew that going in. I understood him fine. It is not fair to expect the exact same things in Mexico as we get here in the states. But this is why we go to Mexico. AGAIN, if I could have had this done here, I would. He spoke with me at great length about any and everything. I never felt rushed or cut off. How many people can say the same about their U.S doctor? I got an email today from the president of Inamed. It was a letter of good standing and appreciation regarding Dr Lopez. He gave me his number to call and verify it was in fact him. I did. What more could I ask for?

I saw 3 diferent doctors the day after my surgery. One doctor waited with me outside for 20 minutes for my cab. I ask you, what U.S hospital provides that level of service. I've never done it for a pt and I think pretty highly of my work ethic.

Not only do I have copies of my records, a video was done of my surgery.

Here's what I will leave you all with. Some of you ladies seem like such sweet and genuwine people. To you, I am sorry you have encountered any negatives regarding this procedure. It scared even me. And your experiences are your own and nobody can tell you diferent. You have every right to feel however you want.

To those who have had NO personal experience with a particular doctor, Oh, I don't even care to expound on it. Most of us overweight people have a lot of issues. I sincerely hope you get help.

That's all I have to say. I will now graciously bow out. It's too hot in here.

[Penni60 45]

Legally: No one is attacking you personally. I am happy that you had a great experience with Dr. Lopez. And again I will add here that I had no complaints of his pre surgical attention and immediatly after my surgery he was very attentive. IT was only when I had a complication arise that he became incomunicato. I found his Mexican accent easy to understand.

The phone numbers you listed are all the number I had when I tried for a whole week to get someone to return my phone call in regards to my port issue. IT was only when my sweetie got involved and threatened to call every hour on the hour did we speak to the great and powerful LOPEZ.

The only thing I can say is they treat you like royalty up through your surgery and immediately after. The proof that things have changed will be if and when (and I might add I hope it doesn't happen for you or anyone) there is a complication that you need immediate response from him or his staff. If he has changed like he says he has then that will be when I will see a change in Lopez. He has gone through two assistants in a time frame of less than 6 months. That seems strange.

Good luck and I wish you a uneventful and healthy weight loss life.

I am still waiting on my phone call to see how I am doing. Wonder when that will happen???

[La_madam 20]

Glad to hear everything went well for you and that you had such a possitive experience with Dr. Lopez & his staff. I loved the Lucerna it is a beautiful hotel and the entire staff was so helpful. Best of Luck to you on your weight loss journey

[hagerteresa 3]

Hello,

I was so glad to see you posted today and let us know how it all went. I'm sorry if you felt like I was one who personally attacked but by no means did I mean to sound like it. I am glad your surgery went well and that was such a good facility. My BMI was higher, so I had to have mine done at a different place. I was really happy with Dr. Lopez's personallity, was able to understand his accent and am very happy with my surgery. I know there are concerns about every doctor not to mention having surgery in Mexico. I hope that erosions and other problems aren't statistically greater with Dr. Lopez but there are a lot of people on the forums who have used a lot of different docs and its always the Lopez ones we hear about. Hopefully Don Mills from Inamed (also a doll) is correct and we don't have anything more to worry about. I got my band for life and really really want to keep it. I love my band. Anyway, I am so glad to hear back from you and hope you'll keep in touch with us. Have a great thanksgiving, albeit a liquid one, Teresa

P.S. I never planned on going back to Mexico for aftercare and made sure it was all lined up closer to home before I had my band surgery. Therefore I have no reason to be unhappy with his aftercare. I am mad at belighter.com because I had the bad sense to buy into their false promises, paid extra for their service and have been dropped off the face of the earth by them. I had SEVERE drainage a week after surgery and nobody from their department bothered to return my calls even though I had paid for a 24 hour telephone nursing hotline for times of need. Oh-well, my faithful family practitioner totally helped me thru it.