@DomLorenVSG

What are your favorite sites for healthy recipes. I am only 1 week post op but have been looking at many great sites. I really don't like to cook much but I have such a great new outlook on food that these recipes look fun!!
Some of my fav's so far are
http://www.emilybites.com/p/recipe-index.html
http://gastricsleeve4me.blogspot.com/
http://www.hungry-girl.com/
http://www.bariatriccookery.com/
http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/
Those are some of my favs. What are yours???

Dr Aceves' office puts you up in a Lucerna hotel the day before surgery. I have to say that I receives OUTSTANDING customer service at that hotel. It was unbelievable. The Almater hospital was just as nice as the hotel (sans pool) And i was very comfortabl spending the next 3 nights there. Honestly, I cried saying goodbye to 2 of the nurses when I was discharged. I didn't want to leave and I appreciated their kindness so much! I literally spent my 1st day back hom missing the hospital and the staff! It sounds crazy but it's true.
The care I received was excellent and worth much more than the $8750 it cost me.

I was sleeved in MX by Dr. Alvarez and it was a wonderful experience. I woke up in NO pain, had to ask if they had operated on me. I never had nausea or vomited. Had no drain or catheter. I would recommend him to anyone. I paid 8,700.00 and it would have cost at least double that in my area. I am 6 weeks out today and feel great. I love Dr A and his staff and I very blessed to have been sleeved by this team. There is nothing to fear about going to Piedras Negras, it is a quiet little city.

Most doctors/surgeons have surgery built into a "package" (at least mine did). I had two days pre-op at a resort, two nights at the hospital, then two more days at the resort. I know a couple other surgeons I was considering at similar arrangements. The hospital I stayed at was actually MUCH nicer than the resort (and it was a nice resort). Treatment by the staff was better than at American hospitals, IMHO. If/when I need plastics done, I know exactly where I'm going!

Nope, it's not your imagination. I too had mine done with Dr. Alvarez in Pedras Negras , MX on 8/17. I find huge issues with American Insurance companies dictating what and how a doctor does things. Insurance requires people to jump through hoops just to get approved (my insurance didn't cover it all and got my doc as a reference), and once people are worked on they are rushed. Most american doctors do a number of different surgeries, som really good expereinced doctors might do between 100 to 200 sleeves, maybe 2 or 3 a month even. FYI Dr. Alvarez has done THOUSANDS of sleeves, even wrote a book about it, and ONLY specializes in doing the sleeve. He only schedules 3 patients a day and has an entire team of doctors and nurses monitoring you all the way 3 days post op. His methods work (staples, recovery time, post op diet) and he has more expereince than 90% of american doctors. This is not knock the american doctors- I'm just saying most do multiple other things and VERY few are actually experts or focus soley on doing the sleeve.
I got my wisdom teeth out 2 years ago, I got put under, woke up in horrific pain, bleeding, and the doc sent me out the door 20 mins later, and I stayed home for a week sick to my stomach and thinking I was dying. My experience was POLAR opposite. The doc and his team are extremely personal and talk and discuss everything. You know your nurses and they NEVER let you be in pain. Most patients in the US are discharged same day or next day, Dr. Alvarez requires minimum 3 day stay plus explains all your symptoms and how your body is working and what you might expect. Heck he even has a youtube channel where he answers patients general questions every week!
It was a better experience then any american surgery I've had to date (including a c-section, and another laproscopic surgery I had).

Hmmm my college girl friends always used to tease me about the men I was with, like "ewwww" etc! Sometimes it was upfront sometimes behind my back. I thought, hmmm maybe my taste is funny- until my 21st birthday when the tall handsome guy they had all been flirting with (and I thought was too good looking for me, so I was just being friendly) decided to kiss me! When we all went home one of the girls actually pulled a meat fork out of the kitchen drawer and stuck it in my bum in front of everyone as a "joke"! I was mortified and thought the guy would never want to be near me again if I was the brunt of these sort of jokes!
Now it's been 7 years and we've been living together for all 7- we moved in together shortly after we met because he didn't like the way my roommates were treating me!
I dont have many friends, I'm just too anxious around people because of the way I've been treated before, but as long as I have my Pat I can gain or lose whatever and know ill always have at least one true friend!
Oh and butterthebean- your dogs are almost as gorgeous as you! Lookin good!!!

Dr. Alvarez was $8700 everything included minus the flight. My sleeve buddy had her hernia repaired during surgery, and I know someone else who needed ther gall bladder out and he did it all at the same time. The idea of going to Mexico scared me to death at first, but one of my best friends (screen ID CLK) did it 2 years ago, and well look at her before and afters and her statements about quality of life, and that about sums it up.
My only regret was not doing this sooner. I was quoted stateside nothing less thatn $30k. I saved and got a partial loan to pay for the $8700 with Dr. Alvarez. Worth every cent.
As for the diet, it's not so much how different is it from other docs (they all vary from doc to doc) it's that doctor Alvarez has had so many patients he's got data to support his decisions. He finds the highest risk for a leak or tare is the first 10 to 14 days post op, so he is very strict about being on a liquid diet for 2 full weeks. No physical activity for at least 15 days to keep infection to a minimum including no baths or lotions, and after two weeks there is a transition to soft foods. He explains that the fast majority of patents who are ok the first few days then after a week or so get sick are because they started eating solid foods to quickly. I seen some amerian docs let people transition after one week, Dr. Alvarez said absolutely not, the stomach needs at least 2 to 3 weeks of liquids and soft foods to heal and get swelling down. And when you got thousands of patients to collect data from, he definitly knows what he's talking about.
If you have not seen or read Dr. Alvarez's book from Endobariatric PLEASE READ IT!!! I read after surgery, and I really wish I had read it before. It is so straight forward and breaks down EVERYTHING. I think it should be a standard for ALL VSG PATIENTS!!!

My only friends right now are my bicycle, my jogging shoes, my weight bench and my food scale.
And my dogs.

God my shorts are getting baggy. I need to go shopping.

I went to Tijuanna, MX in March for my sleeve with Dr. Jose Rodriguez. It was wonderful, so much better than the horrifying care I have gotten in US hospitals. (I have had 20 surgeries in my lifetime, every one a terrible experience, except the sleeve in MX). My story is much like everyone elses. My Doc was awesome, his staff was courteous and skilled, the hospital was clean and beautiful, I stayed 3 days.... I'm going back to MX for a Tummy Tuck when I hit goal.

Dr. Alvarez is the best IMHO, and better care than I would've got here. I'm two months Post op

I'm reading his book.

Damn! It's too bad US insurance companies won't cover for surgery in Mexico! They'd save a ton of money too.

I agree. Dr Aceves has more experience than all the sleeve surgeons in my area combined. Here you stay one night. There I stayed three nights in a beautiful, so-clean-you-can-eat-off-the-floor hospital where I was treated like a VIP. He also over-sews and does three leak tests. The surgery staff stopped by daily to make sure I was doing well.
Two years ago I had gallbladder surgery in a Vegas hospital where I worked, never saw the surgeon after surgery and the nursing staff warned me to wear shoes when I got out of bed cause the floor was so dirty. The staff acted like I was invisible and wouldn't make eye contact. I practically had to beg for Water.
I haven't had a single problem.Even if my insurance would cover it, I would pay to go to Dr Aceves any day of the week.
Edited to add: I felt so good that I was back to work in 5 days. My PCP was shocked that I was (in his words) so bouncy 10 days out. He has many WLS patients and said I'm a poster child for the sleeve. I credit my surgeon and his staff. Also I never needed pain meds after my iv was removed and still haven't.

Nope, it's not your imagination. I too had mine done with Dr. Alvarez in Pedras Negras , MX on 8/17. I find huge issues with American Insurance companies dictating what and how a doctor does things. Insurance requires people to jump through hoops just to get approved (my insurance didn't cover it all and got my doc as a reference), and once people are worked on they are rushed. Most american doctors do a number of different surgeries, som really good expereinced doctors might do between 100 to 200 sleeves, maybe 2 or 3 a month even. FYI Dr. Alvarez has done THOUSANDS of sleeves, even wrote a book about it, and ONLY specializes in doing the sleeve. He only schedules 3 patients a day and has an entire team of doctors and nurses monitoring you all the way 3 days post op. His methods work (staples, recovery time, post op diet) and he has more expereince than 90% of american doctors. This is not knock the american doctors- I'm just saying most do multiple other things and VERY few are actually experts or focus soley on doing the sleeve.
I got my wisdom teeth out 2 years ago, I got put under, woke up in horrific pain, bleeding, and the doc sent me out the door 20 mins later, and I stayed home for a week sick to my stomach and thinking I was dying. My experience was POLAR opposite. The doc and his team are extremely personal and talk and discuss everything. You know your nurses and they NEVER let you be in pain. Most patients in the US are discharged same day or next day, Dr. Alvarez requires minimum 3 day stay plus explains all your symptoms and how your body is working and what you might expect. Heck he even has a youtube channel where he answers patients general questions every week!
It was a better experience then any american surgery I've had to date (including a c-section, and another laproscopic surgery I had).

So let me describe SEVERAL of the issues I'm dealing with right now, and why I'm closely analyzing who may or may not be in my life. I have know for sometime I've had several friends who used me as the "fat wingman"... little comments like "when you lose weight you could totally knock them dead" and "but your just bigger and there are guys that like big girls, just not the ones you are attracted too." Sounds horrific to hear so called "friends" say this, but here's the catch:
I'm a PhD student. I'm 28. I'm a single mom. I work for th University that I attend, and I do pretty damn well. Oh, and since I got my full time student status back I'm also a collegiate athlete playing Water polo under the NCAA. When you find someone who's doing as much as I am, at the level I am- let me know, cause I want them to be my new best friend.
I'm a threat. When I got divorced 4 years ago, I had so many wives drop me like bad habits because they didn't want a single successful woman around their husbands. I was devistated. Last year when I got accepted for my PhD my family told me no man would ever want an over weight woman with a PhD. I was devistated yet again. Last month I went out with younger college friends to Celebrate the start of the semester, and I literally had a guy walk up to me and say "wow if you could only lose like 50 lbs you could totally compete wtih these other girls." I wasn't devistated- I was mortified.
Since the surgery I've decided to take time off from dating or going out. I decided to focus on my training and weight loss. People I consider my friends I'm watching very closely as the weight comes off. Girls don't like to be threatened and they don't like competition, and boy oh boy am I in the wrong place. I have thousands of light weight co-eds competing for attention. I'm not 21 anymore, and I have a child and responsibilites. But for the few older friends I have, I'm waiting to see who isn't interested in having the fat wingman anymore. WHo starts forgetting to invite me places. And I know I'm not paranoid because when I had several serious conversations wtih people about it, they're responses were all the same... "Oh dom, you will always be Dom the Mom, nothings ever going to change..."
uh huh. Let's see what happens when I drop 70 lbs and hit my goal weight and see what they say.

Nope, it's not your imagination. I too had mine done with Dr. Alvarez in Pedras Negras , MX on 8/17. I find huge issues with American Insurance companies dictating what and how a doctor does things. Insurance requires people to jump through hoops just to get approved (my insurance didn't cover it all and got my doc as a reference), and once people are worked on they are rushed. Most american doctors do a number of different surgeries, som really good expereinced doctors might do between 100 to 200 sleeves, maybe 2 or 3 a month even. FYI Dr. Alvarez has done THOUSANDS of sleeves, even wrote a book about it, and ONLY specializes in doing the sleeve. He only schedules 3 patients a day and has an entire team of doctors and nurses monitoring you all the way 3 days post op. His methods work (staples, recovery time, post op diet) and he has more expereince than 90% of american doctors. This is not knock the american doctors- I'm just saying most do multiple other things and VERY few are actually experts or focus soley on doing the sleeve.
I got my wisdom teeth out 2 years ago, I got put under, woke up in horrific pain, bleeding, and the doc sent me out the door 20 mins later, and I stayed home for a week sick to my stomach and thinking I was dying. My experience was POLAR opposite. The doc and his team are extremely personal and talk and discuss everything. You know your nurses and they NEVER let you be in pain. Most patients in the US are discharged same day or next day, Dr. Alvarez requires minimum 3 day stay plus explains all your symptoms and how your body is working and what you might expect. Heck he even has a youtube channel where he answers patients general questions every week!
It was a better experience then any american surgery I've had to date (including a c-section, and another laproscopic surgery I had).

Nope, it's not your imagination. I too had mine done with Dr. Alvarez in Pedras Negras , MX on 8/17. I find huge issues with American Insurance companies dictating what and how a doctor does things. Insurance requires people to jump through hoops just to get approved (my insurance didn't cover it all and got my doc as a reference), and once people are worked on they are rushed. Most american doctors do a number of different surgeries, som really good expereinced doctors might do between 100 to 200 sleeves, maybe 2 or 3 a month even. FYI Dr. Alvarez has done THOUSANDS of sleeves, even wrote a book about it, and ONLY specializes in doing the sleeve. He only schedules 3 patients a day and has an entire team of doctors and nurses monitoring you all the way 3 days post op. His methods work (staples, recovery time, post op diet) and he has more expereince than 90% of american doctors. This is not knock the american doctors- I'm just saying most do multiple other things and VERY few are actually experts or focus soley on doing the sleeve.
I got my wisdom teeth out 2 years ago, I got put under, woke up in horrific pain, bleeding, and the doc sent me out the door 20 mins later, and I stayed home for a week sick to my stomach and thinking I was dying. My experience was POLAR opposite. The doc and his team are extremely personal and talk and discuss everything. You know your nurses and they NEVER let you be in pain. Most patients in the US are discharged same day or next day, Dr. Alvarez requires minimum 3 day stay plus explains all your symptoms and how your body is working and what you might expect. Heck he even has a youtube channel where he answers patients general questions every week!
It was a better experience then any american surgery I've had to date (including a c-section, and another laproscopic surgery I had).

I don't think it is your imagination - they have much more experience and they tend to staple then over sew the staple lines to ensure no leaks. I went to Dr. Alvarez in Pedras Negras , MX (August 10 )and had a great experience without any complications.

only six weeks out from surgery and 1/3rd of the way down but here is todays photos..... if I did this right

Heres mine..im 4 months post op (surgery day:May 10th)
started out at 325...now im 235. im 5'8 and 25 yrs old.
very first pic is halloween 2011. last pic in the dress...just last week. hope it helps!

So let me describe SEVERAL of the issues I'm dealing with right now, and why I'm closely analyzing who may or may not be in my life. I have know for sometime I've had several friends who used me as the "fat wingman"... little comments like "when you lose weight you could totally knock them dead" and "but your just bigger and there are guys that like big girls, just not the ones you are attracted too." Sounds horrific to hear so called "friends" say this, but here's the catch:
I'm a PhD student. I'm 28. I'm a single mom. I work for th University that I attend, and I do pretty damn well. Oh, and since I got my full time student status back I'm also a collegiate athlete playing Water polo under the NCAA. When you find someone who's doing as much as I am, at the level I am- let me know, cause I want them to be my new best friend.
I'm a threat. When I got divorced 4 years ago, I had so many wives drop me like bad habits because they didn't want a single successful woman around their husbands. I was devistated. Last year when I got accepted for my PhD my family told me no man would ever want an over weight woman with a PhD. I was devistated yet again. Last month I went out with younger college friends to Celebrate the start of the semester, and I literally had a guy walk up to me and say "wow if you could only lose like 50 lbs you could totally compete wtih these other girls." I wasn't devistated- I was mortified.
Since the surgery I've decided to take time off from dating or going out. I decided to focus on my training and weight loss. People I consider my friends I'm watching very closely as the weight comes off. Girls don't like to be threatened and they don't like competition, and boy oh boy am I in the wrong place. I have thousands of light weight co-eds competing for attention. I'm not 21 anymore, and I have a child and responsibilites. But for the few older friends I have, I'm waiting to see who isn't interested in having the fat wingman anymore. WHo starts forgetting to invite me places. And I know I'm not paranoid because when I had several serious conversations wtih people about it, they're responses were all the same... "Oh dom, you will always be Dom the Mom, nothings ever going to change..."
uh huh. Let's see what happens when I drop 70 lbs and hit my goal weight and see what they say.

Amen! I have a former good friend (she doesn't realize she's fallen into the former category yet) who is the Ms. America type! All eyes were always on her. So, she attracted the men at the parties, but I had the personality to keep them around! Boy, was I the classic fat girl wingman! People always said she was jealous of my life anyway, but I think a smaller me is going to finally put a whole in that friendship coffin!

My own sister said that this will cause a divorce....I was stunned. She has MS...so I just attributed that to it, but I let her know that she overstepped her boundary with me. She hasn't talked to me since BEFORE the surgery...June 25th...oh well.

People who are always telling my husband, "What are you gonna do when she gets skinny" or "You better watch it when she gets skinny"
Is just me or is that an insult to both of us?