5DogMa

Sounds like she needs to go to Mexico and see the facilities and meet the doctors for herself. If she did, she would change her mind. Our first knee-jerk reaction was "No way are we going to TJ for surgery!" After much investigation and reading first hand experiences of the people who went to Mexico for VSG we knew it would be all right. We didn't use Kelly, but he has an excellent reputation and so does the facility he uses. You're in good hands. You can find a PCP who will be supportative of your choice.

You might ask the coordinator for the doctor those questions. We used Alma at Ready 4 A Change who always had the answers to any questions we had. My daughters surgery with Dr. Garcia was Jan 23 and she's had no problems at all. She recovered much quicker than I did and went back to work 2 weeks after surgery. I believe you should tell your PCP what you're doing and then set them up for follow-up visits if needed. Dr. Garcia gives you a DVD with a video of your leak test done in the hospital and there are the notes from your surgery that you would also give your PCP for follow-up.

My doctor in Sacramento used a size 40 on me. I understand the difference in a 32 to a 40 is very little. It also has to do with how close they follow the guide of the bougie. Some follow closer than others. In the end I don't think it really makes all that much difference. Here's a video from Dr. Alverez about it.

No, your only under for 1 hour in surgery and you'll be able to go to the bathroom within 4 hours if you need to.

Since you had the sleeve and not RNY you can eat/drink more. RNY people can only eat a couple of tablespoons because their stomach is the size of their thumbs. Sleeve people have a 4-6 oz banana stomach that will eventually hold 6-8 oz after the swelling goes down. Some can eat more and some less. I would say you're doing good. 10oz protein in 1 hour is great, not too fast and not too slow I'd say just right. Same with the yogurt. Pain is different for everyone but usually the left side is more painful since that's where they pulled the part of the stomach they cut away in surgery. Usually most talk about left side hurting more. To me it looks like your doing great! Good luck you're in the hardest part right now but it will pass. Ttake care and be sure to drink!

You are correct the first $500 you will end up paying after the first few visits, but it does go thru your insurance first because the doctor or facility might charge $500 for an office visit but the insurance gets a discount off that. So maybe after the insurance discount the bill is now $250. If you haven't paid your deductable yet you would owe the doctor or faciity the $250. This goes on until you reach and paid your deductable of $500. After you have paid your deducable when the insurance is billed they will take their discount and you will pay the difference of what they paid and the discounted amount. So say the bill is $500 they take their 50% discount so the bill is now $250, your insurance paid 80% or $200 and you owe the rest which is the 20% or $50. Now once you've paid all those 20% amounts that reach your max out of pocket $2,500 or whatever that is then your insurance will start paying 100%. They always take their discount of course. Bottom line is you'll end up paying only the total out of pocket which for you looks like $2,500. Pretty good deal huh? Even if you have BCBSIL doesn't mean you'll have the same coverage as someone else who has BCBSIL. It's your employeer who chooses the policy and coverage and every employeer is different. I have BCBSLA and there were some hoopes to jump through to get approved for WLS and you had to meet certain requirements. Some have to wait 6 months others don't. It's best to call you insurance company and go over all of this to make sure you know what is expected of you and what the total costs will be for you.

Drink Mylanta in addition to the PPI in the beginning because acid reflux is really bad the first few months. Even people who didn't have AR before have it after surgery. I'm over 3 months out and my stomach makes all kinds of noise and I burp and hiccup a lot. My sleeve is very picky and I have to baby it a lot. Try lots of differnt kinds of protein drinks the thinner ones work better for me than the heavy thick ones also less sugar ones don't make me nauseated. It's trial and error until you learn what you can tolerate and it's different for everyone. Good luck!

Read your policy. Most insurance has a deductable which is your $200 and then play a certain percent of "reasonable and customary charges" of covered expenses. Ask what your max out of pocket is per year and know that's probably how much you'll end up paying. MIne was $3,000.

You are going through the hardest time right now. The first 2 weeks for me were the worst. Concentrate on keeping hydrated as you don't want to end up back in the hospital on an IV. Just know it will get better, hang in there. I liked and still like the Premier pre-made Protein shakes. They are thinner and not as heavy as some other Protein Shakes and have 30 grams of protein in 160 calories. Also they have less sugar, which for us too much sugar makes us nauseated. Good luck, it will get better.

We loved Dr. Garcia and the experience at Hospital MI Doctor on TJ and would use him again. We went through alma at Ready 4 a Change and she was great. My daughter feels like she never had surgery other than the fact she is never hungry and can only eat small amounts of food. She's lost about 50 lbs all together. She's very happy with her decision on both Dr. Garcia and having the VSG instead of any other WLS. I've heard really good things about Dr. Kelly also. Just deal with him directly. Either will take good care of you. Take a look here http://www.obesityhelp.com/profiles/bariatric-surgeon/fernando-garcia/#profile_procedures You'll see Dr. Garcia has a lot of experience doing WLS. Good luck making your choice. I don't think you can go wrong with Garcia or Kelly.

I think that it's especially good not to drink caffeine in the beginning because it works like a diatretic and your doing everything possible at the time time to stay hydrated. Also, for some like me caffeine causes more acid in your stomach. Acid reflux happens to a lot of people even if they didn't have it before VSG. I started back on coffee/tea in the 2nd month. I'm sure they would like me not to drink it, but they way I look at it I can drink enough now to stay hydrated and I'm already giving up a lot.

Size 32 bougie and both staples and sutures. Don't know what the pain meds were but they were effective. They will give you stronger pain meds if you ask and think you need them. My daughter asked for something stronger to help her sleep on night 2 in hospital, but the next day she felt really sleepy all day and didn't like that at all. She had minimal pain to begin with. They give you additional pain meds when you leave in pill form along with antibiotics and a liquid antiacid. All the labels were in Spanish. She didn't need the pain meds and never took them. Good luck and you'll love Dr. Garcia and the staff. You are in good hands.

I'm back to drinking my diet A&W, but only maybe 8-10 oz a day not 32+ oz like I use to. I drink it very slowly and keep the cap of the bottle so it's not as fizzy. I can't drink the Crystal Light or the water drops they give me really bad acid reflux although I am on a PPI. I think it's the artificial flavorings. I also started drinking herbal teas on ice to take the place of the soda.

They are all great choices. Have heard great things about all of them. My daughter and I loved Dr. Garcia and the staff at Hospital Mi Doctor. I felt they were equally good and in some cases even better than my doctor and hospital here in the US. Dr. Garcia is warm and friendly and so are the nurses. Here in the US they were always rushed and under-staffed both times I was in the hospital. There they seemed to take their time taking care of the patients and came quickly when we needed them. Good luck on your choice, I think any of those you mention will be a good choice.

YAY! So glad that part is over for you. Waiting is the worst! Now relax and rest up give yourself time to heal and be ready for the journey to a healthier you. Congrats! Sending love to you and the great nursing staff at Hospital Mi Doctor.

Great! No problems and recovered quickly. She is sticking to the diet they outlined for her and today is 4 weeks post-op. She had some fatigue in the beginning, but that was to be expected and went back to work in retail management 2 weeks after surgery. She's down from a 18-20 to size 12-14. She did lose 20 lbs before surgery so she could get in the groove of the eating lifestyle. We are both happy we had this done. We can eat what we want just a whole lot less of it and no more piggin out! Good luck with your upcomming surgery. Is Dr. Garcia your doctor? If so, you'll love him and the staff at Hospital MI Doctor. We had a wonderful experience with them all.

Good luck and let us know how you do.

I think it depends on your BMI. The higher the BMI the longer the pre-op diet. My daughter had a low BMI and she did 3 days clear liquids before surgery and she did the laxative 2 days prior. Who's your coordinator? They should be able to tell you for sure. We got an info packet from Alma the coordinator at Ready 4 A Change.

We were there last month and my daughter had VSG with Dr. Garcia. By tthe way he's is fantastic and so is the staff and facility at the Hospital MI Doctor. I stayed with her at the hotel and the hospital for no extra charge. Some of the hospital rooms have an extra bed and others have a recliner chair for the guest. The hotel room has 2 beds. No immunizations needed. The areas for tourists are safe. They want you there spending your $. Street vendors can be a bit assertive but harmless. Passport is only needed to come back to the US, not to get into Mexico. Yes, they don't check your perscription meds. There is no check of anything to get into Mexico and when you come back you are with the transportation of the hospital that has a medical pass so you don't have to wait in line for so long to get back across the border into the US. They only asked for our passports and then didn't even look at us. There is so much tourism especially Medical Tourism you are treated well. We stayed at the Hotel Tucian which was very nice but the beds were hard. I heard that as well at the other hotels. Overall we felt very safe and don't believe all the stories you hear about going to Mexico. I'm sure there are bad places in TJ just like in any city. But they want us there, they need our $ we are a huge part of their economy. They don't want us going home with horror stories so others won't come.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience. We also share your great experience with Dr. Garcia and the Hospital MI Doctor. We are recommending them to anyone who asks us about having this surgery in Mexico. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Yay! Wishing you a speedy recovery. Tell Alex and Silvana that Arlea and Paula say Hi! Love those nurses there.

Good luck and wishing you a speedy recovery.

Well, I'm glad so many of us agree that Dr. Garcia and the Hospital MI Doctor were great and the hospital was not "disgusting" like someone receintly wrote. That posting lost business for them and that's just not fair. Some people are just plain difficult and you can't please all the people all the time. But to lie and say the place was dirty and "disgusting" well that's just not right. I know what you mean about the poop Rahnava. When you gots nothing to poop, you just can't poop. Just be careful because the pain meds can constipate you. Hope you can keep up with your Water intake as that will help. You going home tomorrow? I hope the driver didn't get sick. When we took us to the airport last Friday we both had colds. I gave it to my son who we saw later that day so we had germs. Take good care and congrats on your successful surgery.

YAY! Happy for you and you're on the road to recovery. Hotel Ticuan also had hard beds, the hospital had better beds. I knew you would love Dr. Garcia and the Hospital MI Doctor. We had a great experience there just last week also. We loved the nurses there, they are so sweet. Hospital's not fancy, but clean and they have everything you need to take good care of you. We must have to pay so much extra here in the US for all the fancy art work and sculptures. Ya think? Have a safe trip home and keep us posted on how you are doing.

I had the same problem. 5 days after surgery I was back in the hospital for 3 days. I couldn't swallow and when I sipped it sat in the bottom of my esophagus making squeeking noises like it was trying to go through a pin hole. Swallowing was very difficult, I was very swollen. When you're dehydrated it's hard to get a vein for the IV. I also got stuck several times looking for a good vein and then the vein blew the next day. The IV fluids are going fast in the beginning because they are trying to hydrate you fast so they need a big vein. Stil at almost 8 weeks out my esophagus and sleeve still make lots of noise girglng and squeeking. Still feels like things have to go through a small opening to get into my sleeve. I have to eat slow stop and wait between bites and only moist foods. I can't drink fast but I'm drinking a lot better and can actually take swallows not just sips but not back to back. Have to wait between swallows until it filters nto m sleeve Make sure you stay on Nexium of some kind of PPI.. I think some of my problem was my acid reflux because I couldn't swallow my meds for it. They will give it to you in your IV in hospital. I also was using my C-Pap which I also think the forced air in my esophagus added to the swellng problem.