Jay1234

Surgery date march 6th
Starting 330 lbs
Surgery date 306 lbs
Current 250 lbs
Total lost 80lbs.

Thanks so much everyone. Jay, you are a very interesting and funny writer

I did a same day surgery and wrote a detailed post. Feel free to check it out. Good luck!
http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/71617-jay1234s-thread/

Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!
For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"
Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

The Docs recommended isopure for your Protein post op. I wasn't aware of this pre-op, so I asked my wife to get it for me before I returned. Apparently there is a "flavor-free" version that you can mix in with everything to get your total Protein requirements for each day. They only had chocolate at the store near our home, so I'm planning on trying chocolate chicken broth later tonight. (just kidding)
As for the dressing changes, Dr. Luna recommended a spray antiseptic, so my wife got me some bactine and more steri-strips... after I got home and shaved my belly, they stuck a lot better than the ones placed by the Dr.

They had two different operating rooms, but they were right next to each other. The best way I could describe it is... you walk into the OR/Recovery area, make a left and right at the end of the short hallway are the two operating rooms... one to the right and one to the left. If your room is on the same floor, they make you walk to the OR. If you are staying on another floor, they bring you down in your bed.
It is my understanding that a few doctors work out of this facility.

Thanks for the nice words Kristina. I just wanted to answer the questions that I had going into this so the next person would feel a little more prepared than I felt.

Sorry for your gas pain. That is definitely the worst part of the process for me. Congrats though... no pain, no.... um... loss!

Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!
For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"
Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible. Skip to another thread now if you don't want to know everything!
I'll break it into a few different posts so it will be manageable.
March 6 12:51pm (PST)
I landed in San Diego.
Side note - I flew Delta for the first time and had a great experience. If you're using them, download their app before you leave. You can track your flight while enroute (I had a four hour flight so this helped to kill the time) plus it send you notifications on your arrival and departure gates in case they change so you don't have to rush to your next leg.
I called Samuel as soon as I arrived at the gate as instructed. He was already on the property at another terminal picking up Stephanie and her mom. The second I hit the sidewalk outside of baggage claim he pulled up! He was really great. He gave us a little tour on the way to the boarder. He also gave us some good cellphone info to consider. As we were approaching the border, he told us when to turn the data off on our phones so we didn't get any outrageous data charges. I signed up for international roaming a few days before the trip, but he said the data fees would still be steep. Crossing the border into Mexico was nothing, a few speed bumps and we were in. We arrived at Mi Doctor a few minuted later.
A few minutes after arriving we met Melissa. She was great. She took us right to get our blood tests. I would say within the first 30-45 minutes, I had filled out the admissions paperwork, given blood, was assigned a room and was in my hospital gown.
Here's my first pet peeve about MiDoctor. At least half of the medical forms were in Spanish. And I'm sure someone will have a problem with the dumb American saying this but, if you have a business that caters to customers from countries other than yours, I would expect it would be pretty easy to translate the medical forms to a variety of different languages. I still have no idea what I signed. The admissions person (who was extremely nice as well) explained them to me, but I would have felt better if I actually could read what I was signing.
After getting to my room, the nurses showed me the safe. I secured my wallet in the safe and locked my suitcase with luggage combo locks. I bought these after reading a post on the forum... thank you to whomever said to do that. I'm glad I took this extra step because someone on our floor had some money missing. That story is not mine to tell, so I'll let that OP tell it. During check-in someone from the staff (I don't recall who) told us that they have a person who's job was to collect our bags and watch over them while we were in surgery, but that never happened. It seems they are aware that they have an internal issue that needs to be addressed.
They gave me an IV (first time) and did an EKG. If I can recommend something to the men that will follow me... if you have any chest or stomach hair... SHAVE IT OFF! They had a hard time getting the sensors to stay on and none of the bandages or steri-strips applied later stayed on for more than a few hours.

I met Dr. Garcia briefly, he asked if I had any questions... I didn't after spending months lurking on the forums.
I also met Dr. Velazco at this time. She is a real sweetie. I was there alone and she could tell I was a little nervous I think, so she spent some time with me talking about what was going to happen. She takes care of the nutrition part of the procedure.
3:55pm
I was notified that I my operation was approximately an hour away. I was told that it would take about 45 minutes for the operation and another 45 minutes in recovery.
Here comes the only negative thing that I can say about Dr. Garcia's team. I asked them to call my wife when they finished the procedure, giving the phone number to 2 different people. She never received the call.
5:17pm
I sent a text to my wife telling her that they were taking me in. My room was on the same floor as the OR, so they had me walk to the OR. As I mentioned before, no naked people, but I did see doctors operating on another patient. All I could see was the stomach and tubes coming out of it. I laid on the operating table and looked into the light overhead and a minute or two later, I was out. I woke up in recovery. It didn't seem like I was in there very long. They wheeled me into my room and had me crawl over to my bed. I kept remembering what everyone said about getting up and walking as soon as possible, so I mustered up some strength and got out of bed. I got my phone out of the safe and texted my wife at 7:51pm that I was awake. She was freaking out because I told her that we should be looking at 1.5 to 2 hours and it was almost 3 when I texted her. She said she had the phone in her hand to call the coordinator when I texted her.
For the rest of the night, I was up about every hour walking the floor.

I met Dr. Garcia briefly, he asked if I had any questions... I didn't after spending months lurking on the forums.
I also met Dr. Velazco at this time. She is a real sweetie. I was there alone and she could tell I was a little nervous I think, so she spent some time with me talking about what was going to happen. She takes care of the nutrition part of the procedure.
3:55pm
I was notified that I my operation was approximately an hour away. I was told that it would take about 45 minutes for the operation and another 45 minutes in recovery.
Here comes the only negative thing that I can say about Dr. Garcia's team. I asked them to call my wife when they finished the procedure, giving the phone number to 2 different people. She never received the call.
5:17pm
I sent a text to my wife telling her that they were taking me in. My room was on the same floor as the OR, so they had me walk to the OR. As I mentioned before, no naked people, but I did see doctors operating on another patient. All I could see was the stomach and tubes coming out of it. I laid on the operating table and looked into the light overhead and a minute or two later, I was out. I woke up in recovery. It didn't seem like I was in there very long. They wheeled me into my room and had me crawl over to my bed. I kept remembering what everyone said about getting up and walking as soon as possible, so I mustered up some strength and got out of bed. I got my phone out of the safe and texted my wife at 7:51pm that I was awake. She was freaking out because I told her that we should be looking at 1.5 to 2 hours and it was almost 3 when I texted her. She said she had the phone in her hand to call the coordinator when I texted her.
For the rest of the night, I was up about every hour walking the floor.

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible. Skip to another thread now if you don't want to know everything!
I'll break it into a few different posts so it will be manageable.
March 6 12:51pm (PST)
I landed in San Diego.
Side note - I flew Delta for the first time and had a great experience. If you're using them, download their app before you leave. You can track your flight while enroute (I had a four hour flight so this helped to kill the time) plus it send you notifications on your arrival and departure gates in case they change so you don't have to rush to your next leg.
I called Samuel as soon as I arrived at the gate as instructed. He was already on the property at another terminal picking up Stephanie and her mom. The second I hit the sidewalk outside of baggage claim he pulled up! He was really great. He gave us a little tour on the way to the boarder. He also gave us some good cellphone info to consider. As we were approaching the border, he told us when to turn the data off on our phones so we didn't get any outrageous data charges. I signed up for international roaming a few days before the trip, but he said the data fees would still be steep. Crossing the border into Mexico was nothing, a few speed bumps and we were in. We arrived at Mi Doctor a few minuted later.
A few minutes after arriving we met Melissa. She was great. She took us right to get our blood tests. I would say within the first 30-45 minutes, I had filled out the admissions paperwork, given blood, was assigned a room and was in my hospital gown.
Here's my first pet peeve about MiDoctor. At least half of the medical forms were in Spanish. And I'm sure someone will have a problem with the dumb American saying this but, if you have a business that caters to customers from countries other than yours, I would expect it would be pretty easy to translate the medical forms to a variety of different languages. I still have no idea what I signed. The admissions person (who was extremely nice as well) explained them to me, but I would have felt better if I actually could read what I was signing.
After getting to my room, the nurses showed me the safe. I secured my wallet in the safe and locked my suitcase with luggage combo locks. I bought these after reading a post on the forum... thank you to whomever said to do that. I'm glad I took this extra step because someone on our floor had some money missing. That story is not mine to tell, so I'll let that OP tell it. During check-in someone from the staff (I don't recall who) told us that they have a person who's job was to collect our bags and watch over them while we were in surgery, but that never happened. It seems they are aware that they have an internal issue that needs to be addressed.
They gave me an IV (first time) and did an EKG. If I can recommend something to the men that will follow me... if you have any chest or stomach hair... SHAVE IT OFF! They had a hard time getting the sensors to stay on and none of the bandages or steri-strips applied later stayed on for more than a few hours.

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping.
I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.
Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again, nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping.
I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.
Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again, nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping.
I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.
Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again, nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.

Btw. No naked people but when I walked into the OR I did see someone else having surgery. But they were draped except for the stomach.

Ok. In my room ready for surgery. I've been taking notes. If I live through this ill share them tomorrow. So far so good. Surgery within the hour.

Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!
For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"
Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

Btw. No naked people but when I walked into the OR I did see someone else having surgery. But they were draped except for the stomach.

Ok. In my room ready for surgery. I've been taking notes. If I live through this ill share them tomorrow. So far so good. Surgery within the hour.

Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!
For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"
Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

Ok. In my room ready for surgery. I've been taking notes. If I live through this ill share them tomorrow. So far so good. Surgery within the hour.

Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!
For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"
Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

Leaving out of Atlanta? Ill be there at 7am-ish.