Chunky_Dunk

https://www.facebook.com/#!/TrishyLupz?fref=ts This is my coordinator's website. More of a personal look into her as a person. dr. ponce de leon isn't the best in English, but he always has someone with him (mostly Trish) to talk. He is very nice and he took a picture of my stomach once it was taken out too. I gave him my camera and asked for one pic of my stomach and I got several pictures of my stomach once it was out, and then a picture of me laying on the bed during the actual surgery which was pretty cool of them!

I am so sorry it took me so long to respond! I paid $5,200 for mine. But, I also paid $500 for using my coordintor Trish. She comes in every single day and makes sure that you are happy and have everything you need. She talked to the doctors for me if I needed anything and would tell the nurses things I needed done. She would bring my Mom food and took us out to "eat" and shop around. She even brought me this adorable gift basket with different little things like tea, chapstick, little hearts and things, a balloon, a mug, and an absolutely adorable goal T-shit! I got my DVD with the surgery on it which was AWESOME! When I talked to her I told her that I found a place advertising dr. ponce de leon for much cheaper and she said that there are several websites out there that say big named surgeons doing it for a cheaper price, but a lot of the time they will use a cheaper doctor. But, that definitely isn't to say that that is the case! I can see someone paying around that much for it. Trish also arranged our pick up to bring us across the boarder straight to the hospital and from the hospital back to the US airport. She also arranged our hotel "La Cerna" I think it was? So, we did get more going through her than we would have without. It is a little more, but I would do it again and again through him. He was wonderful and he took excellent care of me. Are you going to a recovery house after you leave the hospital or do y'all just go straight home or a hotel? Is that included in your cost? Also, I don't know if I mentioned, but the airplane ride back home didn't affect my stomach at all. That was a concern of mine, but I had no issues there (aside from a severe ear ache LOL).

Also i saw someone else asked this in another post so i wanted to let you know. I had no feeding tubes, no catheter, and no breathing tube when i woke up.

Hi there...while i did not go to this specific doctor, i did go to Mexico. My doctor was dr. Ponce De Leon. He was wonderful! As soon as I arrived at the hospital (8 am) i was shown to my room, given my hospital gown and put on my leggings and shoes. The leggings given are super tight white things that go all the way up to the tip top of your thigh. They stay over your foot like foot pajamas, but there is an odd/uncomfortable hole that goes at the bottom of your foot. I had to wear mine for most of my stay as they help prevent blood clots. The "shoes" are the blue slippers that usually cover your shoes that are provided when you are accompanying someone having surgery. They took some blood to do a few tests and did an EKG. I waited for my results. I had my IV put in. I had to answer some questions (some were quite odd) and got to meet my surgeon and ask whatever questions i may have. Before I knew it I was told to get in my wheel chair. I was wheeled up to the door of the operating room. I opened the door and it was bright and a little scary. The nice staff helped me get on the table and as soon as i laid back they put the sleeping juice into my iv. It stung and so the guy rubbed my hand until i passed out. I woke up a few times in the recovery room. Then i woke up in my room. I slept here and there through the pain. I was very shocked by the pains of the first day. I had read that the gas pains hurt, but i have never had gas in my upper body so i ignored it and just prepared myself for stomach gas, incision pain, and interior stomach pain. I had two c sections so i expected the burn that you feel afterwards. I had absolutely no pain inside of my stomach. I had severe gas pains in my shoulders, chest, breasts, and upper back. (My back still aches and it never did before.) But that may go away with time. The first day was excrutiating and only from gas. Incisions were barely sore second day alone. I was great after first day. Tailbone hurt for the first two weeks no matter how many pillows i sat on. I got nauseous once and threw up one mouthful of blood and was fine. I have four small incisions and a draintube. My tube was stuck behind my ribs so whenever i would breathe in it would cause discomfort and made it difficult to breathe. Having my tube removed hurt because I had to breathe in while it was being pulled out and when i breathe in is when i feel it behind my ribs. Now...let me take a sec to mention that a heating pad will be the best thing you could pack for the gas! That and comfy house shoes and a robe to cover your bottom while roaming the halls are the main things needed. I stayed in hospital for three days/two nights. And then the hotel last night (hotel was amazingly beautiful!) No drinks until the last day at the hospital. Now for the leaks. Dr. Ponce I am told does a quick leak test during surgery before closing you up. On the second day i had to stand between two round xray machines and was given a small cup of clear liquid. I had to take a small swallow then wait thirty seconds and take another one. I ended up getting too big of a mouthful so i just swallowed half and waited a few seconda and swallowed the rest. You get to see the liquid go down your throat and into your sleeve and then it quickly movea into your intestines. It tasted like the stomach acid you throw up in the morning on an empty stomach! Totally nasty, but you don't have to drink much. However, because you can't drink anything to rid your mouth of the taste it does stay for a little while. I had no leak! Yay! Then on the last day at the hospital i did my last leak test (and this is where the drain tube came in) i was given a small cup of a blue fluid. I had to drink the entire fluid (yuck!) It took me 2.5 hours to drink and, while not as bad as the other drink, it was disgusting. While in my mouth it tasted like water, but when you swallow it, it turns to this disgusting flavor! Over the next few hours you watch the drain pouch to make sure none of this blue dye goes into it. No leaks! Lots of leak tests were performed by my doc so i was happy. (another side note...bring jammies with pockets so you can put your drain into it. While walking the halls you have to push the poll with fluids and then you have to use the other hand to hold your drain. I just put mine into my pocket and it made it more convenient.) I was also given a video of my surgery taking place on the inside. I watched it and i found it conpletely fascinating! After i had the blue dye i was given nasty tea and apple juice. Then in the hotel i got the best broth ever! I will also admit that the first week after surgery i had these regrets. Every morning i would wake up and remind myself it was done and thinking about how permanent it was and "oh my word what did i do?" I was terrified! But i am now one month and 19 days post op and down 50 pounds! I am very happy i had it done! Staff at INT hospital were great and my coordinator trish was awesome! No rags were provided at hospital but tiny shampoos and conditioner and soap were. Your iv cord is removed from the iv port in your hand so that you can shower and put on your jammies or whatever clothes you choose to bring. I strongly recommend that you check into dr. Jaime ponce de leon in tijuana if you are going to mexico. I did tons of research before hand and was super impressed that i found no negative reviews on him...you get a video of the surgery...the hospital was nice (i saw a youtube video with pics), trish is amazing and comes in to help with anything you need, it was an amazing experience. I would check him out at least. IF you have any questions just ask! I tried to cover everything. You do get to meet with a nutritionist and my pre op diet was just 3 days of yogurt and water. I apologize for the many typos but i am doing this from my cell! LOl good luck! Oh and you do get pain meds in your iv and then at night a shot in your shoulder for pain and to help sleep. I have a phobia of needles. They actually woke me up to give me the shot in my shoulder to help me sleep and help with pain which did annoy me as i was asleep so i had no pain and didnt need help sleeping. Also the shot hurt so badly and it had the opposite affect as i had a hard time falling asleep afterwards so i opted out of it the next night. I also opted out of the pain shots in my iv on the last day because they burned and i was not hurting (or at least not until i got the shot lol). I was also being given nausea meds but i would only feel nauseous after receiving the meds so i decided to not get those either. That was completely on me, though, and i decided to do this after paying attention to my body and how it was reacting to everything. I personally handled things much easier med free.

I didn't have a breathing tube or a feeding tube when I woke up. I had an I.V. in my hand and a drain tube hanging from my stomach and that is it. I had two c-sections as well. The pain for me was very different. With the c-section my stomach burned and it was really painful. With the sleeve I had horrible gas pain in my chest, shoulders, and upper back. And these pains were pretty severe. But the gas pain was horrible the first day/day and a half. After that it was fine. My incisions didn't hurt, my stomach on the inside didn't hurt, and if it wasn't for the gas pain, I would have been relatively pain free. C-Section was much worse in my opinion, but the two pains are completely different, so it is pretty hard to compare the two. You really should be fine unless you have breathing problems to begin with. As Jensnewjourney mentioned...I would just bring it up during the meeting with your nurse/surgeon. You will do great and it will be the best decision you ever made! Lots of scary information out there, but it all ends up being wonderful and life changing! Good luck to you! <3

I have experienced something similar. At first sometimes when I ate my food would spill from my mouth. I wouldn't gag and my stomach wouldn't convulse or any of the stuff you do when you throw up. The food would just simply slowly rise back up my throat and I would open my mouth and it would come out. However, here recently I began experiencing pain in my lower throat/chest area mostly after I eat. It feels almost like I swallowed a rock. And sometimes throwing up accompanies this feeling and other times it doesn't. I noticed that I haven't been spreading my meal out...I still catch myself eating a little quicker than I should and I think that has a lot to do with it for me. I have been eating slower and I notice it is't happening as often (the chest pain included). I would go see a doc as well. I am still going to go see mine Tuesday just to make sure nothing more severe is going on. I also have bad heartburn and another sleever suggested it could be gerd, so I want to make sure that if that is the case I can get some treatment. Good luck to you!

Ok, guys and gals...I had my sleeve surgery performed on November 20th 2013. Here for the past couple of days I have noticed that I will randomly feel a pain in the bottom of my throat/top of my chest that feels like I swallowed a rock and it makes it hard to breathe in deeply. It would come and go and I kind of took it for a form of gas or something. Well, last night all night I kept waking up with heartburn and some chest pain, but I guess I was still mostly asleep because I just kept passing back out. Well, this morning I woke up and I have this pain in my right chest behind my rib and in my breast whenever I breathe in and I feel the same feeling as if I swallowed a large rock in my lower throat/top of my chest. I am not sure of what in the world this could possibly be. I have noticed that at certain times I have eaten a little quickly and I end up throwing up. I am not talking about shoving food in my face and not chewing. I make sure that I chew til it is runny LOL! But I eat only 3-4 bites and I am stuffed, so trying to drag 3-4 small bites of food over 30 minutes is very difficult. I end up throwing it up, though when I eat too quickly. And I just did that the other day, so I don't know if that is what it is. I don't do it often. I try to make sure that when I am eating, I'm not just eating. I am doing something else, too, so that I eat slower and don't think about it. Obviously I know that I may need to go see my doc if the problem doesn't persist, but man...I would really appreciate some opinions from anyone who may know or may have had a similar experience! Thanks so much, everyone! <3

I have always had heartburn here and there. I am going to see my doc, but I can't get in until Tuesday for my appointment. May go to E.R., but prefer to see my doc that knows about my surgery and all and don't have to re-explain all. We'll see. My sister is a nurse and she thinks it's probably GERD. Thank y'all for the advice!!! I appreciate it! I definitely need to get this figured out and get it fixed or get meds because it does not feel good!

I am only a month and a half out, but I will say that the first solid month I lost 40 pounds. Just dropped with no work...nothing. Just poof. But now I have noticed that the loss has slowed down unless I workout. I started working out and not only has my weight loss started back up, but I also feel better and have more energy!

I don't know what the first post said as it's changed now. But I know earlier on if someone was cooking something that I liked, I would take one bite and chew it and spit it out just to taste it. I know I can't swallow that crap, so I spit it out, but I wanted to taste it. I have only done it a couple of times, but I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I have stuck to my post op diets, worked out, and gotten all of the recommended Water. I don't think anyone should make a plate of food and chew it up and spit it out, though! I only did it a couple of times early on to taste a food that someone made.

I will tell you that the number one thing that I brought that was the most used...bring an electric heating pad! The heating pad help tremendously with the gas cramps in my back, chest, and shoulders. If I had not brought it, I don't know how I would have made it! I didn't use the chapstick or lotion I brought (for the dry weather in Mexico), I brought a change of clothes for each day, but I just didn't feel up to dressing nice until the day I went to the hotel. Now, I brought jammie pants and tops. Some people said that you can't wear them due to the iv, but they unscrew the port in your hand from the cord and you are able to shower and dress easily. I also used a small pillow for coughing and sneezing. It helps a little. I happened to have a small pillow (it's my sons) that was the most perfect size and thickness both for comfortably holding and fitting in your luggage. Bring rags if you are going to Mexico. My hospital gave me one rag with the hospital name monogrammed on it to bring home, but nothing else to use the few days you are at the hospital. Luckily we brought some just in case. They do provide towels, of course, but the towels at our hotel the last night were actually dish towels...and there was only one. When we asked for more, they brought two more dish towels. I brought slippers and wore them everywhere. The things they give you are these super tight white leggings that you struggle (and I mean struggle) to get on your legs and they go all of the way up to your thigh. I have bird legs and I struggled with them. I had to wear mine for most of my time there as they help with preventing blood clots. At the bottom of the leggings is a hole. So, they go around your feet, but at the bottom you have this very uncomfortable round hole. Then the "slippers" they provide are really those blue slips you put on your shoes when you go into a room when someone is having surgery. So, I used my this comfy slippers every time I got up. I brought a ponytail because I knew other wise, brushing my hair when I left would be a nightmare! LOL! We brought our own shampoo and conditioner. I had my Mom with me and I have long hair, so the shampoo and soap that the hospital provided would not have showered us both. And that's all I can think of. If I happen to think of anything else, I will let ya know. Just...if you can only bring one thing, please please please bring a heating pad! LOL! I cannot stress to you enough how much of a life saver it was for me!