jjinWA

I reached my surgiversary yesterday (june17). I wish I could say that I am a 100% success story, but that would not be an accurate description. Like many of us that walk this journey there are struggles along the way. I have not reached my goal. At one time I was 15 pounds from that 'desired' goal weight we all set for ourselves. 12 months into this I am 21 pounds from goal! Yup, up 7 pounds from my low weight so far. Discouraging for sure! I have to admit my head hunger and poor eating habits were not cured by the surgery. Saying that the WLS is a tool and not a cure is sooooo true. I am not giving up! I will get there. I can attest to how much better I feel and how much I enjoy my new active lifestyle. ????. Just gotta get around this snacking habit and carb cravings!!!! ????????

I have had two surgeries in my 60 years of being here on earth. First surgery was a breast reduction at the age of 40. The second surgery was my sleeve surgery at the age of 60. With both choices I have only one major regret....... Wish I had done them both at 21!!!! Life goes by so fast. I can't say enough about how happy I am that I made this journey. You have so much life ahead of you and you are very fortunate you have this option of WLS. Such a wonderful tool that so many out there do not have available to them because of cost prohibitive issues. I am a parent of two daughters who recently went to Mexico to have their sleeves because they did not have insurance approvals here in the states. Even with those concerns of being out of the country and the worry of receiving quality care from a surgeon so far away I still stood behind their choices and even encouraged them to have the procedure. I know the risks and even though minimal in numbers even one failure is one to many. But on the flip side I know I was not happy and life was pretty miserable being too heavy to get out and enjoy life as I do now. I wanted that more then anything for my daughters as well. We have all lost around 65 pounds each and we are never looking back to the sadness of being overweight at a young age. I wish that for you too!

My daughter has this issue as well. Like you it is pretty serious and eating proves to be a miserable experiance. After trial and error the best action for her is to take nexium first thing when she wakes up. She eats 1/2 hr after Nexium. Only needs to take one dose each day. This seems to be working but certainly she is hoping this won't be forever. .

I am going to check and see if they have this available in decaf. I currently use Click brand and it comes in decaf, but only 15 g of protein. Yours is better option if it comes in decaf. I find my tummy does not tolerate caffeine anymore. Get to jittery!

Actually neither of my daughters qualified for ins to have surgery here in the U.S. One jumped all the hoops and was denied and the other one did not have ins that even covered WLS. My youngest was scheduled for surgery in Mexico last August but we opted to try ins route one more time. Once again denied so we threw in the towel and scheduled for surgery in Mexico. By this time my oldest daughter (after seeing my success with my sleeve surgery) was on board to have the surgery as well. Sooooo, we booked the airline tickets for all three of us and I accompanied them to Mexico in Dec and they both had the sleeve done with Dr. Arial Ortiz. I cannot say if he is the best surgeon Mexico has to offer because I have no experience with any other surgeon there. I can say there were no serious complications for either of them and they are both progressing nicely. It is wonderful to have them on the losers bench with me! Mexico is a bit different then the experience that I had here in the U.S. Certainly not using the latest state of the art techniques and equipment (based on my compare to the two locations) but absolutely nothing alarming that would eliminate my recommendation to consider Mexico as an alternative option for anyone that cannot get coverage here in the U.S. I trusted this surgeon enough to put BOTH my daughters under his care. I would still do that today, after having the surgery performed there. Guess that is the best recommendation I can give. If you search for Dr. Arial Ortiz on this forum you will find my specific comments regarding our experiences, concerns, etc. Be careful with your search. There are two Dr. Ortiz surgeons in Mexico. Dr Arial works with the OCC surgery center and Dr. Elias Ortiz works with ALM center. I am not saying Dr. E. Ortiz is good or bad, just not able to comment on him because I did not go with that surgeon. There are many good reviews in this forum that talk about many surgeons in Mexico. READ ALL OF THOSE posts. You will find lots of personal references and feedback by sorting by the word Mexico. If you want to discuss in more detail via a phone call send me your number here in a private post and I would be happy to talk with you directly. In one simple answer to your question.... Would I go the Mexico route again if it was my only financial option? ABSOLUTELY! So worth it for my family.

I weigh myself every day as well! I don't want to be fanatic about it, but honestly weighing every day keeps me vigilant to weight gain before it becomes seriously out of control. I fluctuate by 3 lbs. any more then that and I get back on the wagon. My problem is that I just can't seem to lose any more weight and I am not yet at goal. It's like now that I have gotten to a weight that I am comfortable with I have lost my willpower to continue with my weight loss plan. Grrrrrr. This is typical for me, no matter what diet plan I have tried. I self sabotage myself!!! I will be at my 1 year surgiversary June 17th. I still have 15 lbs to go to meet my 1 year goal.????

I have been sooooo close to my goal weight and have messed with going up/down by 3 lbs for months! So depressing to hover so close and yet be so far away from where I know I should be for a healthy BMI. All your posts here are encouraging me to get off my butt and get back on my protein / water regime.... That is how I lost the weight initially and I have let myself fall in to very bad habits that include too many carbs and surgar. I know my tummy tolerates anything now and the grazing is doing me no good. I have 15 lbs to lose. I am going to restart in the morning. Back to nutribullet fruit/veggie/protein smoothies and high protein meals. I know that if others can do it, so can I !!!!!!!! I do know that tracking my food intake is crucial to my success. I will get back to that accountably as well. Thanks everyone for being honest about your struggles and providing your helpful tips and hints and supporting advice. I love this group!

I am always looking for good documentaries on healthy eating topics. I watched one today hosted by Katie Curic called FED UP. Wow! I knew sugar was my enemy but the addiction to this "chemical" is mind boggling. The story focuses on kids and their struggles in today's society, but I related to much of the discussion. Even after my surgery I am finding my old habits of eating sweet treats becoming infuriatingly difficult to overcome. I truly am addicted. I know that is how I got to my highest weight level before surgery and after watching this documentary I understand why I am pulled back to my same bad habits. I have to stay away from anything with sugar in it! It is a dangerous path I simply cannot travel. I will watch this documentary as many times as I need to in order to remind myself of the pitfalls of sugar. You know it is bad stuff when cocaine addicted rats choose sugar water over cocaine! Sugar is a drug for me for sure. I recommend you watch this documentary if you have access to Netflix.

I have been very honest about the experience we had in Mexico with Dr. Arial Ortiz. I have only a few concerns with their services and facilities, etc as I have clearly explained. But in no way would I ever say that going to Mexico for WLS is a bad idea.... Because it is the opposite! The fact that Mexico Medical Tourism provides the opportunity to have this life saving procedure is for many of us our only choice! That was the case for my daughters. I had the surgery in the U.S. only months before my daughters had their sleeve surgeries in Mexico. In addition, my oldest daughter is a Nurse Practitioner so our perspective is based on that status. I won't say the whole experience for them was perfect because it was not. BUT it wasn't exactly perfect in the U.S. For me either. They were different experiences but overall not bad in either case. Never leave Mexico out of the equation! There are many many successful surgeries performed there every day. There are risks with this kind of surgery.... No matter where it is performed. David I thank you for your offer to set up a skype meeting with my daughter. I will contact you next week to see what we can to do accomplish this. We are traveling this week and will be back home next week.

The decision to have surgery in Mexico, USA or any other country should be based on well researched FACTs and references that can be validated. Your life depends on it! I had my sleeve performed in the U.S. with a surgeon whom, after research, I deemed as qualified. The surgery center was also top notch..... Again in my opinion. But honestly issues noted here by Dr. E. Ortiz can and has happened to many other surgeons..... No matter where (country) they are performing this procedure. Going under the knife is a risk. PERIOD. With that said, I have had the chance to do a close and personal comparison between two surgeons.... One in the U.S. (mine performed by dr. Houseworth on June 17, 2014) and the other one in Mexico (dr. Arial Ortiz performed the sleeve surgery for my daughters on Dec 9, 2014). I traveled with my daughters to Mexico and stayed with them at both the OCC and Marriot hotel. There were no real major differences, but I did come away with some disappointment in the actual care my daughters received in the OCC as compared to the care I received in the U.S. Things I learned through first hand experience and things you should get confirmed, though certainly not limited to, as part of your research are listed here. 1. Who does the actual surgery? Is the Dr. you are researching going to do the actual surgery or will it be someone else on his/her team? We researched dr. A Ortiz, and 'think' he did the surgery, but discovered him driving out of the garage later when he was supposed to be performing the actual surgery on another patient that followed after us. Either he was lighting fast on that surgery and finished very very quickly, or he simply was not in the surgery room for that patients procedure. No matter how much you research your surgeon, doesn't matter if in the end he isn't the one performing the surgery! 2. Follow up care is next most important research you should complete. How knowledgeable is the staff that will be caring for you? What are their emergency procedures for serious complications should they arise? Honestly I did not do adequate research for my daughters. Should have, but didn't complete those steps adequately. I relied on what the coordinator at OCC told me and unfortunately we based our choice on her information. Lesson learned! Coordinators get paid by the number of surgeries they get booked. They will tell you fairytales and that is the sad reality. So go into the booking procedure knowing that they serve a role in that they assist in getting you a surgery date and setting up your travel from the airport to the hotel. Etc. BUT that is all you should ever rely on. They are not medical experts. 3. Be very aware of the surgery center where your surgery will be performed. I was surprised at the "quality" of the OCC facility. Certainly was not what I had in the U.S. Infiltrated veins on 4 of the 5 patients, lab tech trying to draw blood without gloves, letting the IV bags run out and not being replaced timely, no extra pillows or blankets available to help patient get comfortable, bar music next door keeping patients awake most of the night, no monitoring of Fluid intake/output, long waits between request for and delivery of liquids, having to wear 'leggings/stockings for blood clotting concerns vs the updated leg wraps used here in the U.S. These were all minor issues that separated my U.S experience with my daughters' experience in Mexico. With that said, I would take the OCC over some of the other sites I drove by while in TJ. Some are actually located in strip malls and far from quality medical facilities! Get full descriptions of location and facility as part of your decision process. 4. Long term follow up care should be another well researched topic. I see my surgeon regularly. My daughters have never connected with their surgeon and his team since we left Mexico. To be honest, someone has called, but both my daughters work and when the Mexico staff call it is always during the day when the girls are not home! When the girls call back they are instructed to just send an email if they have any questions. I do not call that follow up care. I call that lazy and 'since we have your money we don't need to really be bothered with you' anymore. My youngest daughter has had very serious acid reflux since her surgery. She has asked questions via email, but no real help has come from her emails. Maybe the distance between my surgeon and me, and the distance between my daughters and their surgeon makes resolving issues more difficult for them. Ultimately keep that in mind when making your decision to travel long distance to have your surgery. No matter what you think, it will be an inconvenience. So I could go on longer but I think the point here in summary is just do your research and make sure you keep your eyes open as you make your decision. Make sure you don't let the final choice be based on one person's 'personal reference.' There are those that monitor these sites and respond as paid promotion staff. Unfortunately you will likely not be able to recognize which is a fair and truthful response to that which is 'glowing puffery'. I fully expect there will be follow up posts with feedback describing their personal wonderful experiences. Those posts may be totally valid. I am happy for all those who have had success with their WLS and their surgeon of choice. That is ultimately what we all want. I wish everyone who is seeking this surgery the best of luck. It truly is wonderful to be on the losers bench! My daughters and I are enjoying our very active and vital lifestyles as a result of having WLS. While things may not have been perfect for any of us during our journey, we all 3 would do it again in a heartbeat! Luckily our issues in Mexico were minor, and I am thankful that my daughters had the option to have their surgeries performed in Mexico at a much lower rate then it would have cost them here in the U.S. There is no way they would ever have been able to have the surgery without the option made available through Medical Tourism. Neither had the luxury of having insurance as I did. I would not deny anyone that same opportunity BUT having gone through the experience and having first hand knowledge based on that experience I can only stress the importance of making sure you do your own research and be aware of the surgeon of choice, his team, and the facility. All are very crucial to your ultimate success.

How did you approach getting your plastic surgery approved? What issues did you document, etc? What ins. do you have. I know this is something I will eventually need and figured Mexico was my only option even though my ins co did approve the sleeve without too much fuss. My ins is Fed Blue Cross Blue /Shield. I need to start building my case for future plastics.

Decaf never gives me problems but caffeine coffee sends me into jitter mode every time!

My daughter has that pain. Had it since the day of her surgery and never had those symptoms before surgery. Diagnosis is acid reflux. She says it feels like a heart attack and very painful indeed! She takes script Nexium daily. That has helped. Discuss with your doc, but I would not be surprised if that is not the same issue for you. Try over the counter antacid when you get that pain, or better yet take some about 1/2 hr before you eat and see if that resolves your problem.

My dr prescribed B12 shots and his nurse does the dastardly deed for me. My insurance covers the service and my co pay is 38 cents! Guess it is worth me driving to the docs office once a month to get my shot. This covers the b12 solution also. I can't imagine giving myself a shot. I'm too squimish!

Case in point.