RMB

Check out Dr. Ryan Heider. His self pay is $12,800 in Lake Norman. I was considering him before I decided to do the Mexico thing.

http://www.lnrmcsurg...t/meet-the-team

Thanks for telling me about him. I have sent an email to them...so we will see. This is so frustrating.....but I will keep looking.

Some of the Dr.'s want a 4 month wait which I do not understand. I have no insurance company to deal with, you would think they might like that and move a little quicker.

Good luck with your weight loss!

I went to the required informational class today in Asheville, NC to find out about gastric surgery. There is only 1 main hospital close to me. The people were nice and informed us well. They talked about insurance requiring a 4-6 month wait period. I asked about self pay, they said their is still a 4 month wait with classes and all these extra tests etc. Then I was told the cost JUST FOR THE HOSPITAL it would cost between $25,000-$30,000! This does NOT include the surgeon. ARE YOU SERIOUS! This is a greedy hospital system. They say they want to help with the epidemic, but make it unafforadable to regular people. It is a rich persons surgery. I could buy a new car for that, but I can't afford it.

I cried all afternoon. I need to get the sleeve, before I start suffering all of the health things that happen with obesity. My BMI is 41%.

I am crying...I feel hopeless.

Thank you so much for your information. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

I have not decided yet who I will choose. It is an overwhelming decision. I do not have insurance, but I can not afford surgery in the US.

Wishing you success in your journey.

I posted this elsewhere but maybe it bears repeating. I sued the Jerusalem Clinic in Tijuana MX.

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Like most things the truth lies somewhere in the middle. You basically get what you pay for, a cut rate procedure. The procedure is fine and you get what you pay for and not much else. If you come through it fine with no complications then you really save a lot of money.

As others have pointed out the facility is VERY VERY small. It is a store front in a strip mall. The rooms are tiny but adequate. Most of the staff speak SOME english, a very few speak good english. Contrary to popular opinion Tijuana is a relatively safe town. Just like any metropolitan are it has its rough sides, but you will not be near any of them unless you go out of your way to go to them.

They will pick you up at the San Diego airport at the end of the front terminal, it happens to be the Jet Blue terminal. They pick you up and take you to Tijuana, there they stop at a small medical clinic that appears to be in a rough part of town, they take a blood sample for "tests". What tests they run is a mystery as you never hear about it again. When you finally arrive at Jerusalem they check you in and take your remainder of payment. They usher you to a staging / recovery room - they are supposed to weigh you in too but often forget to. In the waiting room you strip and get ready for the operation. An elderly doctor who is a cardiologist comes in with a very tiny portable ECG machine and takes a quick ECG test, he asks some questions about your heart health. A nurse comes in and puts in an IV and wraps your feet and calves with light bandages - to help prevent DVTs. Afterwards you WALK - there is no room to wheel you on a gurney - to the operation room. You are quickly put under and the operation is done. I was rather roughly wakened by being shaken very hard and asked loudly to WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!. Then you again WALK back to the recovery room. After a while you are walked to a double room that is barely big enough for 2 beds to join another patient who may be recovering from a different procedure - they do many other things thee like cosmetic surgery. They keep you hydrated with an IV and administer pain and anti nausea drugs to you. I was having a LOT of nausea, they seemed to give me enough to keep it at bay. You spend one night in this room and about half a day more and then will leave for the guest house.

The guest house is maybe 15 minutes away in a gated community it is smallish and basic. The workmanship is very very poor by US standards but it is an OK place. The place is packed with as many patients and patients helpers as possible and there is always someone to talk to but not a lot of privacy. The third day you are asked to drink a flavorless blue dye, this is actually the second leak test done on your new stomach, if none of the dye is in the drain bulb - a small bulb attached to a tube going into your abdomen then you have no leaks. The first was done in the operating room where they suffused your stomach and check it.. You are later taken to a radiological clinic and made to drink barium which is incredibly foul, because of the VGS you are forced to sip rather than slam it and get it over with. A quick x-ray is taken to check for leaks. After the x-ray and if you have no leaks it's back to the hospital to pull your drain bulb and change your dressings. I felt a LOT better after the bulb was pulled.

After this it is back to the guest house for one more night. The trip back to the US takes a few hours as you must go through customs to re-enter the USA. You sit in traffic for hours waiting to get through. I actually elected to go back to the states a day early after the x-ray because I was traveling back by air on the 4th day and did not want to do the customs thing and THEN the airport security thing both in one day. The one thing I would recommend is to NOT make your trip as tight as I did, I was forced to by lack of vacation days. Give yourself at least 5 days or more, take the time to mess around San Diego, The air travel is brutal enough without having to be upset by recovering from surgery. Make you return flights as short as possible and spring for first class if you can afford it.

I got exactly what I paid for, nothing more nothing less. I would do it again if I needed something like this again. I was really suffering from my massive weight, blood pressure and sugar all over the place, bad edema in my legs and terrible aches and pains in my hips, knees and ankles from my size. I was 375# at my heaviest.

As a contrast - my wife has had a few laproscopic procedure including a hiatal hernia repair done locally here in the states, none of which are as serious as the VGS but still more than minor, in both cases she was treated as an outpatient and spent only a few hours in the hospital. In the case of the hernia repair she was actually fed crackers when she was to have NOTHING my mouth for 8 hours afterward. When I confronted the nurse she ran out and checked, when she came back in she actually fished the cracker package out of the trash and pocketed it, she later denied giving her anything. I mention this just to point out that you can get crappy service and dreadful mistakes ANYWHERE and the cost of service does NOT reflect the quality of care received.

If you are being strung out by insurance or simply have no insurance and are in fairly good health it is well worth the risk. There most definitely IS risk and you may end up in serious condition. You will have to study and pray about it and seek counsel from friends and your doctor and ultimately make you own decision.

This is a surgery I have researched and want to/need to have.

I have checked out some US Dr.'s I can not afford them because I do not have insurance.

The choice of Dr.'s in Mexico, getting a passport, flights from the East Coast expense and pre op diet is so overwhelming and scary.

Your success stories are encouraging.

How did you choose a Dr.? Some are all inclusive. Is this a good way?

Thanks for any conversation.