DeLarla

The Tijuana saga continues. Dr. Kuri had me confused cuz he originally said I'd have to stay in the hospital overnight if he was going to remove my port. But when surgery day came, he told my friend, Babs (aka Bubbles) to leave and come back in 40 minutes because he had to remove my port. She looked confused because she figured I'd be there overnight. After I was released I couldn't find her! She had me scared to death because she's this 90 pound American that can't speak a lick of Spanish and has no fear. Like one of those 2 year olds who dive into a pool cuz it looks fun. Hospital security was looking for her, then took me to the hotel where hotel security helped us search. Nobody had seen her, and her cell wasn't working. Right out of surgery I was hysterical for 25 minutes till her phone finally worked. The lush was 20 feet away the whole time at La Roca, a bar across the street from the hospital (which is more like a Quick Care facility than a regular hospital.) Babs & I bought matching smiley face toe rings and bartered with every merchant on Revolution Blvd. I now own my favorite blanket in the entire world that I got for $13 bucks and some new gold charms for my charm bracelet and foxy new Raybans. All for dirt cheap. We asked a taxi driver to take us back to the depot on the Mexico side so we could walk through to our parked car in San Diego, but he said he'd just drive us through to the parking lot. I asked if he was allowed to cross, and he said "no problemo." We waited in line for 20 minutes before getting to the gate, but the guards wouldn't let us through and all this drama started. Supervisors rushed us because they thought me & the cabbie were trying to smuggle Babs over the border. They told us cabs aren't allowed to cross. I told the cops that we wanted to be dropped off at the taxi depot and walk across, but the driver insisted he could take us directly to our car. The cops said, "bullshit, all taxi drivers know they're not allowed to cross." Apparently the driver was going to try to use us to get across the border, so we had to pull over. They made us get out while this huge man walked towards us slipping on a rubber glove so we thought we were getting bodily cavity searches! Hearts pounding, tons of questions. Then they sent the driver one way and sent us inside the building for more interrogation about drugs and contraband. I was on the verge of a heart attack when they finally let us through. No food, no sleeping, a cup of black coffee and the horror of my port plus Tijuana and the border patrol simply don't mix. Bubbles grabbed me and nearly ran me through the cement halls that are all on an upward slant while I begged her to slow down. So my 90 pound friend grabbed all the luggage and we bolted as fast as we could, then finally made it to the US side. We were such nervous wrecks that we missed the 5 freeway and driving like idiots just to get out. Soon after we met Donali for lunch, in such a beautiful part of town. It's hard to imagine TJ exists so near such beauty.

P.S. My husband says I talk to much. After reading all my posts, I think he's right. Someone delete this please! Feeling insecure, going to bed now. Bye bye!

Michelle, I'm going to burn up my phone lines on Monday calling all the Los Angeles doctors. Like I said in another post, by the time I pay for travel, parking, taxis, and hotels in Mexico, maybe it would be equivalent to California. Let's cross our fingers till then. A flight to San Diego was $144. We spent about $100 on gas & parking. Two of us went so only saved $88 bucks and had the longest ride of our life going home. Five hours there, nine hours going home.

Jeanie, thanks for taking care of me today. I made it all day without leaving the house. Hubby is whining that he wants me to go to bed now. I usually go to bed at 10 cuz if I go earlier, I'm up to early. But he's nagging, "when's the last time you had a good night sleep?" So time to brush my teeth and hit the hay. We have constant air conditioning wars at home. My office is the coldest, so I freeze all summer. When it's 123 outside I sit in my office with a space heater on because my office gets all the cold air, so co-workers are warm while I'm frozen. But my husband works outside in the heat so he melts all day. He wants the house freezing, I want to thaw out. I think it was 105 today and I'm still in my socks & long sweats. Dork. Good night. Thanks again for being there.

By the way, if I could go back and do the whole band again, I'd probably be more patient and fight my insurance companies. I have dual insurance that both pay for gastric bypass but not the band. But my life has been such a struggle. Everything seems to be a major fight with me, and I'm sick of fighting so I self-paid to avoid all that stress. My desperation got to the point of coming home after work, eating, and laying down. I was never suicidal, but I'd fantasize about the Grim Reaper finally ending it for me. However, after my bad Mexico experience, I probably should have fought the good fight and tried getting my insurance to pay so I'd have a doctor at home. The last few weeks were truly horrifying not having a doctor nearby.

Yeah, Sue, I think it's normal to be selfish while suffering. How are you feeling? Any pain? One day I hope to get abdominoplasty myself. How odd that you had a bad experience at Palacio Azteca. Our room was great. Everything was clean and functioning with a huge balcony and excellent room service (but bland food.) The room was identical to the rooms in the hotel we stayed at last Christmas in San Diego. We decided to stay a 2nd night in Mexico but wanted a cheaper room. However, after checking out 2 other sleazy hotels went back to Palacio Azteca and spent the $58.00 for another night. One skanky hotel offered to give us a room for $20.00 for four hours. EEK! The hospital I saw Kuri at was shaky - the kind of place I wouldn't walk into in the US for medical care. But I was so desperate for help that I'd have let the security guard operate on me. By the time I made it to Mexico, my tube was protruding so far out of my incision that you could slip a straw through it. It was awful living that way for a week. And the week prior to that my incision was lanced, drained, and packed 3 days in a row. The weeks before that my incision was swollen, painful, and infected. Kuri fixed me up in a heartbeat, so I admire & respect him for that. Today someone sent me a list of doctors in Los Angeles that treat Mexican patients. On Monday I'll call to compare rates. My friends & family are in the LA area, so I have plenty of places to stay if I want to visit for a weekend and get filled. By the time we paid for hotels, gas, parking, taxis and tipping every person in Mexico, it might be the same price in California, and I'd get the bonus of seeing my family. One thing's for sure - Monday will be devoted to finding a reasonable and reputable doctor that's not in Mexico for emergencies. Dr. Kuri removed my port, so I'll need another surgery to replace it in 3-4 months. I've heard other doctors simply move the port to a different area, but many of those patients get infected again and have to start again by having the port removed and replaced. Dr. Kuri saved me. I was impressed with his abilities and caring nature. And when I call, he answers the phone himself and takes as much time as I need to calm me down and answer all my questions. Dr. Kuri fixes band patients that can't find help elsewhere. His assistant surgeon took extra time working on my incision to lessen the indentation and scarring simply for aesthetic purposes, and my incision looks excellent. However, as much as I respect and trust Kuri, truthfully, the Tijuana thing is unsettling no matter which way I look at it. There are 3 band doctors here in Vegas, but they can't treat Mexican patients because their insurance won't allow it. Only one of the 3 will give fills, but the price is ridiculous. I truly appreciate Dr. Kuri, but I hope to find a nearby American doctor soon. By the way, Dr. Ortiz was kind enough to call me because I wanted a second opinion before letting Kuri remove my port. I even got Lopez on the phone once (miraculously) and they all agreed that infected ports need to be removed. I just took a pain pill... did I float way off the topic?

Yes, sitting inside on a beautiful day while my dog follows my every step begging to go swimming. But Mamma is in her lovely winter clothes. Poor little Sachi.

I'm really bad about sitting still. I just watched 2 episodes of Friends and can't handle more TV. I turned down 3 invitations tonight but one was tickets to a fight, which grosses me out so I wouldn't go anyway. But Babs invited us to dinner, then my other friend, Coco, called cause a group is going to see the Temptations on the Strip and they have an extra ticket for me. But New Hope said I gotta rest. Darn, I hate when friends are right. Kitty is killing the cap to my water bottle on my desk and Sachi keeps throwing her ball at my feet.

Silly Lilly isn't keeping up with her posts! I wrote novels and I'm afraid I'll bore you and everyone else if I write more about it, but yes, I'm fixed. Well, I'm patched, not really fixed. They gave me a fill then removed my port. My incision looks much better than I anticipated. Right now I'm feeling yucky because I don't want any more pain meds in my head, so I'm toughing it out. What are you doing today? I'm so bored, I tried napping but couldn't fall asleep. Tried talking on the phone but kept getting interupted. Now it's dead silent. Can't win, can ya? Friends stopped by and they're all laughed at me because I'm wearing sweats, a long sleeve winter T-shirt and heavy socks. It's 105 degrees outside here in Vegas. But I'm so damn skinny (choke, cough) that I'm freezing cuz all I'm doing is slouching around in the air conditioning.

Jeanie, I'll do it! I'll take the picture when I do my dressing change! My husband walked in while I was reading old posts and tried figuring out why the heck my hooker glove was on my screen. He just walked away shaking his head. Aye aye aye.

Dr. Kuri in TJ is very reasonable. The Santorio San Francisco hospital isn't very nice but Kuri seems to know his stuff. I think he charges $50 for fills but it's less than $2.00 taxi fare from the border if you take Taxi Libre. He's really close to the border. Sue, how are you doing? I've been so bad that I've selfishly ignored everyone else. I hope you're well. Lis

Vegas calling saying Good Luck to you and your new band! I ate a lot of Cream of Chicken and other cream soups. I put it in the blender before warming it up to liquify it. It really hit the spot.

I need help paying for my band and emergency repair job, so I'll soon be auctioning off the purple bra. As soon as I get some sleep I'll look for it and we can start opening bids.

Excuse me, Donali? I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you dating Ross from Friends? And licking his face? Please to s'plain me.

Congratulations on being at a higher death risk than ever! Let's raise our glasses to the loving, caring insurance companies. Cheers!

I happen to like my morning Protein drinks but haven't tried unjury, so what's the opening bid? I always had a problem with Breakfast in the past. Eating begets eating, so if I had breakfast, I wouldn't be hungry by lunch, but I'd eat anyway. Once I take my first daily bite of food it triggers the addiction, so I've always hated breakfast. The Protein shakes are working well as a breakfast alternative for me, and my plan is to stay with a shake for breakfast then 2 meals for life. I put all kinds of stuff in mine and am experimenting with different powders. I'm Iron deficient and even add raisins now, which are high in iron. I always keep frozen cherries, strawberries, peaches in the freezer. Some milk, handful of berries and my powder is the answer to my breakfast dilemna... and since we're all human, I may as well share that I have not suffered constipation like I hear some people do. It's gotta be my daily morning fruit. Plus I get in 2 of my "5-a-days" that way. I'm supposed to be on liquids for 3 days, but at the moment I feel like I'll be on liquids a week. Hmmm... wasn't this entire ordeal about weight loss anyway? No problemo!

Donali, I miss not seeing your face already. I could have visited with you for hours. Too bad I didn't go to TJ for a simple fill, cause then I could have seen Madam, Francesca, and you all in the same trip. Meeting Donali was one of those weird little coinkydinks. Babs was driving like a bat out of hell to get away from the Mexican border once we finally made it through, but she was starving to death. She'd been looking for a fast food joint at every turnoff. Just then I phoned Donali to tell her we finally got past the border and asked Don where a fast food joint was. It was a coincidence that Donali's exit was just a few exits away, so by the time we got off the freeway, she was already waiting for us at Carl's Jr. It was meant to be, and that's why we were able to meet - just cuz Babs was hungry. But I was frazzled and looked like death, wearing something scrappy, hair wadded in a rubber band, smelling like TJ. Clothing options were extremely difficult for me. I dressed like I lived in TJ because I wanted comfort and nothing I own was working. I didn't want anything touching me or my skin. Hurry back healthy Donali. What a shame that Dr. Lopez neglected me because I hold him personally responsible for me not getting to be with you in TJ, and for me not getting to see my banded-bond-buddy, Francesa, and for not getting some free decaff off Madame! Please scuze spelling & writing... waiting for antibiotics to settle to get some sleepy... yanking phone outta wall first!

Why do things feel like they get trapped in my throat (below my neck?) Donali... please 'splain.

I've been through hell and back with surgeons. I hear good things about Rumbah in Monterey, even though I spell his name differently every time I write it!

I swear, when I was in TJ I felt like Dorothy in Oz and you guys were the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tinman, Toto. Shelly, I saw your face in a crystal ball! I just kept thinking about you guys and wondering how I got in this predicament. Yes, big restriction. Had 2 baby PBs from just liquid. I'm supposed to be sleeping but my antibiotics are stuck in my throat, even though I took them piece by piece with choco-milk. Someone told me milk, so maybe I should stuck with plain. Next antibiotic will be with Water because they're just not going down fast enough. Oh, and you guys don't know nothing about gas till you have a port removed! This is way worse than my original surgery. At least they're not foul! Husband is jealous (typical man.)

I just noticed a fever of 100.1. Hell's bells, I hope it's temporary. Gonna lay down now with my doggies. I was so excited to catch up on posts but suddenly not up to it. I'll have to catch up with the boards tomorrow. Peace and love (say it in your best Mexican accent.)

sleeping tight, that's so funny. You'll see my earlier post where my phone rang at 1:44 a.m. with a very drunk friend who needed a ride home. We've told all our friends to please call us if they ever decide to drive while drinking, so hubby was nice enough to get out of bed and take the drunk home. She's gonna be one hurting pup when she gets up. When he got back, he was wide awake, and he found me on the boards. It's been 8 years since he's asked me on one of our special "after-midnight" dates, where we go to the casino for 99cent b-fast. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep with all these words trapped in my head, so we went out at 2am. He's being so romatic cuz we haven't done anything wild & crazy in nearly a decade. So we got in the truck and there was a drunk driver in front of us that crossed all lanes at once and skimmed the wall on the freeway but kept going! Holy crap, she nearly killed herself yet kept driving. We were headed for the Strip, and she was in front of us the whole time. As we exited the freeway, she made her right turn but turned so wide that she missed all 3 lanes and ended up making the right turn in the 4th lane, which was the traffic flowing in the opposite direction! She nearly head-on collissioned the oncoming vehicles, so quickly drove up the curb and over the medium to get back into our northbound lanes and we watched as she nearly collided at top speeds with another vehicle. This girl was going to kill someone, so we called the police. They kept us on the line and had us follow her. It took about 10 minutes before a motorcycle cop was next to us, but dispatch asked us to pull over as witnesses. So we did, but the cop came over with a disgusted chuckle and told us we could split because he saw enough in the couple minutes he was behind her. The drunken dumshit had her emergency flashers on, crossing all the lines on Las Vegas Blvd. where the streets are flooded with cars and pedestrians at 3a.m. She looked about 30 with 2 twenty-something boys talking on the cell phone and not wearing saftety belts. So maybe hubby saved some lives tonight then took me to 2 casinos where we played and came home with $40 more than we started! All that in just a few hours! Sorry for losing track of the post, but Penni, I thought of you the entire time. I, too, wasn't sure what hospital you'd be in. My cell wasn't working, and every time I had the opportunity to call you was either too early or too late. My TJ experience was like one of those dreams where you keep running but you can't get to your destination. You were on my mind the entire time and even Babs kept mentioning you. I'm glad you didn't have to get your port removed, but to tell you the truth, it feels damn good to have that thing outta me! Someone on these boards had their port removed and said she'd rather go through surgery to have the port replaced long enough to fill her then remove it in the same surgery. That's how I feel today. After that bad port experience, I think I'd rather just go through surgery everytime I need a fill so I don't need the port. I'm sure I'll feel different after I recover. Please give me a list of any all California doctors. Penni, aren't there any in the Valley or L.A.? I think I'm sleepy enough to go back to bed. It's so weird to see light outside. What a long, weird few days it's been, and Auntie Em, there's no place like home!

Gross Darcy, I got to come home to your cute face! So cute, you remind me of Francesca, my dark haired beauty with big blue eyes! If anyone wants to know the gross and hardcore blow-by-blow of my procedure, let me know and I'll write a warning in the subject line for fainters (like me & Donali) to skip that posting. Otherwise I'll just send Gross Darcy a private message. My friend, Babs, drove me to San Diego where we parked and walked through, then grabbed a cab. Good info here: Yellow Cab charges a little more but the drivers speak English. Taxi Libre is dirt-cheap but no English. We used Taxi Libre. Cost us $1.40 from Palacio Azteca to Ave. Revolution is (all the shops & partying.) Palacio Azteca is walking distance to Santorio San Francisco Hospital, where Kuri does surgery (less than a walk through grocery store parking lot.) Kuri patients pay $58.00/night for a nice, clean, safe room. It took 6 hours to get into our room, so we ordered room service ($14.00 for 2 meals) then went to sleep. We walked to the hospital, where the Sister knew my name and procedure. Dr. Kuri walked out within minutes and took me to a room just to peek at my incision. Once he saw it, he said to come back in an hour, so we went across the street to a fun TJ style restaurant where Babs had traditional Mexican breakfast. An hour later, I was on the operating table ready to have a heart attack. Before the procedure I told him that I was warned about his "sterile technique" and asked him to be extra careful and use extra Betadine (sp?) because Ann Marie had me worried and made me promise to talk to him about this. He seemed insulted but scrubbed me good. I was really confused, because when we spoke on the phone, he said I'd have to stay in the hospital if he removed my port. But he said if it wasn't infected, he'd just give me a local and move it. I didn't have to stay even though he removed my port. But he gave me a shot to calm my nerves. And what a lovely little shot it was. I'm a fainter, but they cut me open and did the whole procedure with no problem. Weird, I wasn't drunk or stoned, I just felt really good. Numb for the first time in weeks. No pain, no worry. While I was still open, I felt the weirdness of my first fill. Whoa... trippy. Then he sat me up and had me drink. I was able to finish the styrofoam cup of water. He lay me down again and gave me more fill, total 1.8. Then I sipped more. I don't think he used flouro. I didn't see him scoping with anything, then again, I was on Cloud 9 and extremely relieved to be in the hands of a surgeon. He spent 10-15 minutes on me, then told me the female surgeon would close me cause he had 10 fills. I can't remember her name from LaLa land, but I want to find out because she's wonderful. I smelled burning flesh and asked what it was. She said I had a deep indentation, and she was trying to plump the skin underneath to make less of an indentation. How nice that she cares about my scars! Meanwhile, I've had these ugly little red broken capillaries all over my belly, so I said, "try zapping those if ya wanna." She was so nice that she sprayed me with local anesthtic and zapped about 10 of them. Then she cleaned the heck out of me. It felt like the world's biggest vaginal exam but through my stomach. I kept imagining this 10 inch gap in my stomach necessary to accomdate all her interior scrubbing. This went on for 5 minutes, so I asked what the heck she was doing and she said she was scrubbing every bit of infection possible. She cleaned the heck ouf of me, then sewed me up. She told me to change the bandage for 3 days, then leave it alone and the stitches would dissolve. The next morning, Babs couldn't wait to take off my bandage, and she was shocked at how good the incision looks. It's flat now, and Ms. Surgeon used some crazy underground sewing technique so you can't even see the stitches. I was extremely impressed with her, and she was so nice and cute and friendly. I felt like I was in good hands. Dr. Kuri scolded me for the huge burns and rashes all over my belly and advised me I'm allergic to latex. He told me to use cloth tape. I actually ended up with some open wounds from burns from the latex. He sent me away with pain meds and new antibiotics. He said take one last dose of my American Keflex, then stop the Keflex and start the Mexican one. He said I could come back in 3-4 months when completely healed and he'd reinstall a new port. Meanwhile, someone gave my e-mail to an RN, who wrote me and advised me to chop the antibiotic up in small pieces & let each piece go down before taking more, to drink it with milk, plus to take Pepcid or Nexium because the harsh antibiotis can cause ulcers. I agree, and I'm having my 4 small bits of pill now w/ choco-milk. Spent 15 minutes taking them, but they're still not down.... love that fill! DeLarla will have to fill you in on the adventures once she left the hopital feeling like Super-Duper woman... DeLarla worries me. xoxo, Lisa

Wow, what a headful! Let me start by spoiling all the upbeat hope for Dr. Lopez. I will no longer apologize on his behalf because his staff screws up. Sorry, people, but Dr. Lopez doesn't give a damn. It took me a month to finally get him on the phone. He asked how soon I could come, and we agreed I'd be there Saturday (yesterday.) He promised, profusely, several times while apologizing, that he'd personally call me at work 2 days later on Wednesday to get my exact arrival time but he'd expect me sometime early Saturday. He never called. Then I got the lame message from Carmen on my home machine that her phone is now working so we can finally talk. Dr. Carmen works out of the office as well as in her car, and she had plenty of opportunities to call from the office phone, her home phone, Nora's phone, a pay phone. For Heaven's sake, she's a doctor with a patient in trauma so she should have gotten on a plane to save my ass. Dr. Lopez and Dr. Carmen both know my fuc*ing tube was protruding through an infected incision but use a broken cell phone to avoid me? They are full of beans. I heard Dr. Carmen on her cell phone, as clear as a bell, repeat my name and number and say she'd call me as soon as she got to the office. I didn't hear from her for a week when I got the "lame" message. With all the money they're making off of us she could have bought a new phone the day hers broke. The broken cell phone is a used excuse anyway. Nora used that the day I got there. The also used the excuse of the phones being new and not properly working yet. Funny how Nora has no problems yapping for 20 minutes on personal calls on the cell that doesn't work. I'm lucky to speak enough Spanish that I don't have to use English while I'm Mexico. They probably keep a busted up cell phone in the office on purpose. Here's the proof that Dr. Lopez doesn't give a damn... he's just playing innocent and naive and letting Carmen and Nora take the blame for all this shit. Because Ann Marie called me several times (thanks to those of you who brought her into this.) She had a meeting to see Lopez that night. I talked to her just hours before the meeting, but the meeting never took place (he probably didn't show up.) But she did call him, and they had a lengthy conversation about me. He promised Ann Marie he'd call me personally that night. When Ann Marie called to see how my call with Lopez went, she sounded a little shocked that the SOB didn't call me as he promised her. She couldn't believe it. Last week, Dr. Lopez kept an appointment open to remove my surgery this morning. He swore he'd call to get my exact arrival time so Nora could pick me up. Who thinks Nora is at the border waiting for me? Dr. Lopez does not know I consulted another surgeon, so as far as he and his staff are concerned, his patient is still walking around with tubing protruding out an infected wound. By the way, by the time I got to surgery, the loop of tubing was protruding out about an inch. They make me sick. That being said, I'll start a fresh reply regarding the next chapter.

Donali, take notice to the time I'm posting this... 2:30 a.m., which does not mean I'm ever, ever up at this hour (laugh here.) Yes, our friend, Susan, recalled many moons ago that we told her if she ever plans on driving drunk to please call us instead. At 1:44 a.m. she called falling-down-drunk, crying, blubbering "Lisa, appreciate your husband cause he loves you" 23 times. So Chris went to get her and she asked me to stay on the line till he got there. I had to laugh cuz I may partake in beverages of the alcohol persuasion from time to time, but I haven't been that drunk in years and remember the humiliating morning after. Poor Suzy. So here I am, getting in a quick post in the middle of the night, slurping on a lil Koolaid Jello... full from 1/4 cup. My fever is got to 100.9 but is down to 99.1. Not feeling too shabby considering I was waken up. Sore boo boo but feeling pretty good for 2am. Hubby home & thinks we should take advantage of one of Vegas's cheap 99cent Breakfast right now and nickles for the mamma! He calls me NickleFoFickle or Gambalina. Hell, my TJ adventure is beging extended, why not? So I'll see you guys at some other weird hour. Peace, babies!