SerendipityHappens

I'm paying $4,500 (all inclusive except airfare) for a surgical team that has done more than 2,000 sleeve operations. Here in my area, I would be paying 20,000 for a doctor who has done a few hundred sleeves. Just made sense to go where I could get a good price from a well qualified surgeon.

Jay, they're newer at serving the foreign market so not as many reviews on them yet. I'm getting sleeved by them on the 13th and I'll post a review just as soon as I can type. Promise!

There's a thread of middle eastern sleevers somewhere on here that was quite active for a while.

I'm at the Marriott too!

I am also March 13th at MiDoctor and after three months of having this scheduled and feeling completely calm about it, I'm definitely feeling anxious now! I just finished cooking and freezing THREE WEEKS of meals for my BF since I'll be leaving tomorrow for my sister's house and fly to and from SanDiego from her house and then staying with her for a while after the surgery. I still have to pack a few more things and do some cleaning when I get home from work tonight. My train to my sister's leaves at 6AM tomorrow! I'll see you ladies next week!

I have too much weight to lose before surgery so I did 3 months of an 800 calorie VLCD instead of food funerals... If I didn't have to lose all this weight pre-surgery I'm still not sure I would have been pigging out though. I've NEVER been one to eat a lot right before starting a diet because I just think that every additional pound I put on, is just ONE MORE that has to come off.

I am PRE-op but have been journaling for a quite a while now. I like MFP. Tracks my calories, carbs, fat, protein and exercise (syncs with my Bodymedia fit).. saves my favorite meals and foods for quick input AND as a super added bonus, you can add friends there if you want for the extra support factor.

I try to limit my use of artificial sweeteners. Aspartame gives me a headache if I consume any more than 3 or so servings a day. I use Jay Robb for protein powder because it's sweetened with stevia. If I want a sweet drink I'll mix unsweetened kool-aid with stevia. Some things are hard to find in non-aspartame versions. Jell-o is one. I tried mixing knox unflavored with splenda and a koolaid packet YUCK.. so I'll just use the regular sugar free jell-o and be careful not to use too much.

THANK YOU!!!! They've been out for a while so I'm glad that it's back in stock and on sale. I'm ordering some Jay Robb Protein powder today so I'll be adding on the PB2 for sure. thanks again for the heads up!

I have a glorious pannus aka FUPA. I don't even pretend that it will go away without surgery to forcibly remove it from the premises!

Seems that most of the doctors working out of Mi are around the same price. I'm booked with Cabrera/Valenzuela next week at Mi Doctor hospital,including 2 night hospital and 3 night Marriott stay for $4,500. Fantastic value for sure, especially since around here it's around 20K for self pay patients!

Exactly, that's why I took the time to post link for you to a recent thread I read on this board where multiple people shared their Jerusalem FIRST HAND hospital experiences. I took the time to do this for you because I don't find it helpful to receive second or third hand information either. If you don't want to click on the link I gave you and see with your own eyes where people gave less than stellar experiences then that's up to you... you can just ignore the link and keep saying that you've never seen any one provide a negative first hand experience with the facility that Almanza uses. Of course you'll want to weigh the positive and the negative and make the best decision for you which in all likelihood will be continuing with your present plan... but it's irritating to me that I GAVE YOU THE LINK to a recent thread on this board that recounts several first hand negative experiences and yet you continue to claim that you have not read any negative first hand experiences. And again, here is the link. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65082-notes-on-mexico-jerselem-hospital/ and yes.. there are positive reviews in that thread as well... discount the negative reviews if you want. I discounted a negative review of the facility where I'm having my surgery, but I don't pretend like it doesn't exist.

LOL.. Yes, this is DEFINITELY the wrong post! ... 250 calories in addition to my BMR during 40 minutes of um.. activity.

Almost every time. Frankly I'm disappointed at how little a good BM weighs. I also have one of those bodymedia fit arm bands like they wear on biggest loser. and I'm just as obsessive about it as I am about the scale. I'm constantly checking it to see how many calories I burned during certain activities.. I wear it day and night.. and yeah.. I've connected my bodymedia after um.. ya know s.e.x. to see how many calories it burned.

I am presleeve and have lost over 60 pounds already from my highest weight... 35 of those pounds have been during the past few months during a very strict presurgery diet. (Not as much as YOU though.. AWESOME losses pre-surgery by the way!) I don't really see any difference in "counting" weight loss pre and post surgery.

The only use I could think for it would be in the event of some weird post-apocalyptic famine where if you found food you'd have to gorge yourself quickly and eat as much as possible while defending yourself against other survivors, escaped zoo animals and perhaps Zombies.

Hey LSG, guess what? Our surgery is this month. THIS MONTH. I've been having lots of VSG related dreams almost every night. Mostly it's that I've eaten something I'm not supposed to or that surgery date arrives and I'm not prepared.

I did not want the maintenance of the lap band... and I didn't want to deal with slippage. It just didn't seem permanent enough. I did not want the malapsorptive aspect of the bypass because it was only temporary from a caloric perspective but permanent from a nutritive perspective. Also, I had an old roommate who had bypass and after about 18 months she could eat a LOT of food. Seems the connection between her stomach and intestine wasn't tight enough and all the food was just going straight into her intestine and it was acting like a big huge stomach.. So I was like.. REALLY??? what's the point???? As someone who was in the category of the SUPER morbidly obese, I did consider the Duadenal switch, but it just felt too extreme for me because again you've got the whole malabsorptive component though with the DS the caloric malabsorption is a permanent feature. VSG really seemed like the best fit for me. I know I would have a better chance of making it to goal with DS but honestly, I'd rather NOT make goal than deal with the malabsorption of the DS.

I have done low carb before and try for 30 carbs NOT INCLUDING the fiber.

A big THANK YOU for your review. I'm getting sleeved with Cabrera/Valenzuela in exactly two weeks. Since I'm unable to meet with the doctors before traveling to Tijuana, It is soooo important to be able to read as many reviews as possible before going. Your account has me feeling really good about my choice of doctors. I'm glad to see that the doctors transferred the man with diabetic complications to a US hospital when things got serious and also that Doctor Cabrera went up with him. I'm sorry that it interfered with your surgery though. They should have been more forthcoming with what was going on with the delay of your surgery... but with the language barrier, I can see this being a problem. I hope this patient is doing ok now! Also the $20.00 for medication, that would have seemed a bit strange to me too if I wasn't prepared for it! Christy told me about that a few weeks ago. She said that it was something that I should be prepared for. She hadn't told me about it before and she said that it's something she just learned about that Garcia/Cabrera prescribe but not to every needs it so it's not built into the fee. I'm happy to hear that your actual surgery went so well, though the blood clot is DEFINITELY a cause for concern.... AND of course, CONGRATULATIONS on losing 30 pounds already. That's awesome!

I use my fitnesspal.com too. LOVE IT.

I asked my doctor and he said I can have whole pills as soon as I feel ready. I absolutely DETEST chewables so I know I'll stick with the Vitamin routine a lot better with pills. I also checked the post op paperwork for MU which has a very reputable program, and they also say whole pills are fine.

Such a normal thing! I used to dream like that whenever I'd start a new year in school, or even get a new job. As far as pre-surgery dreams... the worst one I've had, Is when I dreamed I was just sleeved and still in the hospital and I pulled out fried chicken legs from inside my pillow case and started eating them. Then I remembered my doc was coming down to do the leak test so I was trying to stall him so he wouldn't see my belly full of fried chicken... I think it is just my minds way of releasing anxiety I have about the surgery. I honestly don't feel anxious, but apparently I am on a subconscious level! .... and it means I love friend chicken and haven't had it in a very VERY long time!

That sounds yummy. I'm going to try that when I'm post op. I can't have the beans during my particular "liver shrink" preop diet through :-(

I'm just finishing up day 8 of 21 days... I have high BMI and I need to get it down under 49 before surgery date so I can avoid paying an extra thousand dollars. So I'm doing 21 days of the Protein drinks plus a lean and green meal then on Sunday prior to surgery they want me to take a laxative or two and be on clears until my surgery on Wednesday