SoCalMomOfFour

Oh my gosh! I'm so thrilled for you! I'm doing fabulously! I adore Martinez. He's amazing! Glad you were treated like royalty!

I just started shark week (TOM) and I'm having surgery tomorrow morning. I seriously scheduled my entire surgery to avoid this... but here I am! Should I be freaking out?

Sure! Will do! I can't text because my cell is in roam but I can PM through the Wi-Fi connection!

Sitting here at San Diego International Airport waiting for my driver. Surgery today! Will let you all know how it goes!

I'm leaving Friday for surgery and I'm trying to figure out how much/often we tip the driver. What did you tip?

Sedation and pain meds are two different things. She was heavily medicated with pain meds, not sedated. The pain meds were because they didn't want her in any pain whatsoever and (having had a c-section at this same hospital) it's my experience that they see a big woman and they overestimate the amount of pain meds necessary. American nurses don't want to deal with grumpy patients, so they give them lots of pain meds. I don't feel that does anyone any favors.

My friend just had her VSG done here in the states, at a hospital SHE works at! The nurses treated her like she was an annoyance! They had her so doped up on pain meds it was insane. She asked them to pull back her meds and they rolled their eyes. Eventually she turned off the pain pumps herself! They didn't bother to have her move for close to 36 HOURS! I'm pretty sure had she not walked around herself, they wouldn't have done anything about it. I'm having my surgery at OCC with Dr O on Friday and I can't wait to see the difference! It's almost laughable how arrogant we Americans can be in regards to what we think is the superiority of our hospitals. I really believe the haters are just speaking from fear and ignorance! I went through all of the paperwork my friend was given for her surgery and just don't see anything that makes it superior. It's all pretty much the same information! I'm actually happy my insurance won't cover VSG... otherwise I'd never have found Dr O and all of the team at OCC!

I'm kicking ass... down ten pounds in a week. My HW was 325 on feb 2nd. This morning I'm 299! Really ready to do this!

Unjury makes me happy

Thank you so very much.

Anybody know what they will do with my money, phone, passport while I'm in surgery? I'm arriving the day off surgery, so I'll go straight to OCC and I'll be doing it alone... it's really my only concern.

Thank you so much! I'll be flying to Indy to stay with her during part of her chemo.

Seriously... thank you. I've read your post three times already, will prob read it a few more. Much love!

Will do! Thanks!

I'm OCC and I'll be at the Marriott! Hope to meet some fun people!

I could really use some positive words right now. My surgery is the 11th and my mom was going to go with me (hubbs is staying home with the four kids) but my sister was just diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer so I insisted my mom go to be with my sister as she begins chemo and has surgery. That leaves me heading to Mexico alone and I'm super nervous. Would really appreciate some positive experiences and advice from those of you who did this solo.

My surgery is scheduled for the 11th. Starting liquids tomorrow! My mom was going to go with me, but my sister just received a horrible diagnosis of stage 4 ovarian cancer and she's going to be with my sister through surgery and chemo. My sister encouraged me to still have the surgery, and I'm going to. I'm awfully scared to be doing it alone now. Hope I can meet a few of you and find some camaraderie. Viva Mexico!

I leave for OCC in 23 days! Holy cow this is really going to happen! Yikes! I need to find my initial emails and check over all of the things I need to do before I go! Getting nervous!

Admittedly I have done very little research on the plication... but my understanding is that the beauty of the sleeve is that the fundus of the stomach is removed, and that is the part that releases ghrelin - the hunger stimulating hormone - which is documented to be out of whack on obese people. I don't think it is removed with plication, so I was concerned about still being a hungry hungry hippo post surgery!

I'll be arriving on the 10th!

Thank you thank you thank you so much for the posts and the pics! I am 4 weeks from surgery and I am freaking out. You just calmed my nerves so much.

My name is Joanna also! We will have to find each other for sure!

Congrats! Who is your surgeon? I'm heading south of the boarder April 11th!

Amen sister! I'm getting nervous! But excited!

Hi! I will be arriving on the 10th and will be having surgery on the 11th. Maybe I'll see you that first day!