Vangirl

Hi Patricia, I would highly recommend that you post your question over at lapbandforum.com. The majority of posters there have been to Mexico, and many have stayed in a number of hotels in TJ. There is even a thread there just about the hotels. I've only personally stayed at the Lucerna, which is where most of Dr. Ortiz's patients stay. The hotel is clean and safe. My only complaint is that it is not very big and there isn't a lot to do, so I was quite bored. However, if you're just looking for a place to rest, that's probably all you need. There are other hotels that others have used in TJ, including the Camino Real (which is a bit closer to Dr. Ortiz's clinic) and the Marriott (which by the pictures looks really nice). But I don't have any direct experience with those hotels. Again, recommended you pop on over to the other forum and check out the hotel reviews there. I'd be interested to hear your experience with PS, once you have it. I too am thinking of getting PS once all this weight is gone, and may end up doing it in Mexico too. -Vangirl

Hi everyone, Sorry I couldn't make it to the meeting (yet again!) I was down in Mexico getting my 3rd fill, and now have 3.8ccs in my 4cc band. I'm apparently one of only five or six patients from that clinic that have this much fill. I didn't get much more restriction from my second fill (which brought it to 3.2ccs), and found I was still able to eat about 75-80% of what I was eating before. Out of the last couple of months since my second fill, the first six weeks I pretty much depended 100% on willpower, and the last couple of weeks I decided to stop driving myself crazy and just live my life, and I was surprised to see how much I could still eat even with 3.2ccs. Anyway now I seem to be experiencing what others have described as restriction, and I hope that this continues. I am feeling optimistic about it. In any case, there's not that much room to go in the band, so something has to work eventually. Hope everyone else is doing well, and hope to see you in April. -Vangirl

Just to clarify, I don't think it is necessary for everyone to get all their fills under fluoro. I do think it's a good idea to get the first one under fluoro (more for reassurance reasons) and I personally am choosing to get all of my subsequent fills done under fluoro for the reasons described earlier. I also would get a check-up under fluoro at least once in a while over the long-term, just to make sure the band and everything is ok.

I don't know. This is just what he told me after he had his fill appointment. He ended up having to have a complete unfill in order to save the band. I believe he had stretched out his pouch from years of incorrect eating and not getting follow-ups, but being that it is another person's story and I only spoke to him for a little bit, I don't know all the details. Oh, and he had gone to the clinic with the intention of getting a fill because he was obviously able to eat more than he should have and wanted to get it back under control. He had no idea that anything was wrong with the band or his pouch until the doctor saw everything under fluoro.

I thought I'd put in my own two cents about fluoro, from my own experience of course. I personally would recommend getting the first fill done under fluoro, simply because it is the first one and is the first opportunity to view the band and pouch and see if everything is in working order. I had my first fill with no fluoro and that turned out to be a big mistake. It was next to impossible to find the port, and ended up taking several minutes and a lot of poking and digging around with three different needles, which was both stressful and painful. I didn't have much restriction afterward, and suffered through many weeks of worrying about whether there was any damage to the band or port. Luckily, when I went for my second fill (this time in Mexico, under fluoro), my anxiety was relieved because I could see that everything was ok. And it was SO easy that second time. Just one poke and it was done. Because of this experience, I will always from now on do my fills under fluoro until I have lost enough weight to be able to feel and SEE the port very clearly. The other advantage to doing the fill under fluoroscopy is you can see whether the pouch has been stretched or not. When I went to Mexico for my second fill (this time under fluoro), another patient there was going for his first fill in five years and discovered that his pouch was stretched so badly he would have lost the band if it had not been caught right then. Had he not done the fill under fluoro, they would never have known that his pouch was stretched and been able to take the appropriate measures to fix that.

My apologies everyone. The second part of my post was meant for another thread, and in my sleep-deprived mind, the two threads were warped into one, and I ended up responding to both with the one post. I've now chopped and pasted it onto the appropriate thread. -vangirl

I'm sorry to have missed the meeting as well. I was swamped with work and just couldn't get away. Unfortunately I'll be missing the next one as well, as I'll be down in Mexico getting my next fill. -vangirl

It was 7950USD which included pickup and drop off to san diego airport, first night hotel stay, second night stay at clinic, and third night hotel stay. As Cujo mentioned, if you go with someone, they can stay at the hotel on the second night when you are at the clinic. The cost does not include the flight to get down to san diego.

Hi Newgirl, There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. Each person's recovery time and experience is going to be different, so expect that it might not be the same for you as it is for other people. But it does get better, and you will feel more or less normal again eventually. When I look back, I'm amazed to see how far I've come from where I was immediately following the surgery, as I've almost forgotten what that was like. So hang in there! Oh, and I do recommend a heating pad for the aches and pains. One thing I wasn't prepared for was back pain and other pains in my body that came from a combination of the general trauma of the surgery, past injuries, and sleeping in different positions from what I was used to. It REALLY helped to have that heating pad. I also used a hot Water bottle for my shoulder for the gas pains and the magic beanbag for neck soreness.

I'm very happy with them. They've done something like 6 or 7 thousand surgeries, and it shows.

I also went to the OCC, and communicated a lot with the patient care coordinator there prior to my surgery. I had a gazillian questions and it was nice to be able to call her up anytime and ask them as they came to mind.

Here's the update: I called my clinic this morning and they patched me through to one of the doctors. I explained the situation, including the difficulty the fill doctor had in finding the port. He told me that the reason I might not be getting enough restriction could be that the doctor emptied the saline into the scar tissue surrounding the port, or there is a leak in the port, or I could just be one of those people that need bigger fills. But he reiterated what everyone else has been saying, which is that 3ccs in a 4cc band is a very aggressive fill, and they usually start out with .7-1.5 or something along those lines (I can't remember the number). He said the only way to know for sure what is going on is to do the fill under fluoroscopy. I can save some money and go to a place three hours away and across the border, but I figure that I just want to go to the experts who know what they're doing and were the ones who operated on me, and could potentially fix any problem if there is one. So that's what I will be doing. On a side note, it was very reassuring to talk to the doctor, and he told me to call them anytime if I have any concerns about anything. Many people worry about the lack of aftercare in going to Mexico, but I felt like I was in good hands talking to him. It felt good to know that I wasn't alone, that they cared about what happens to me and want to make sure that everything works the way it is supposed to. Now to look for some good fares...

I agree the numbing isn't necessary if the port is easy to get to in one or two pokes. Unfortunately, mine was quite deep and the long needle was needed, and the poking around was painful. I couldn't take it after a while and had to ask the dr. to numb it. I'm now nervous about going back next week for more fill.

Hi Patricia, It was a mix-up that I take full responsibility for. I misinterpreted the information on the card that my clinic gave me and though that a 10cm band meant 10cc. So when I went to the dr., and he asked me what kind of band I had, I told him I had a 10cc band. I also remember my surgeon telling me I could have up to 4ccs, and told this to my fill dr. as well. So I think we were both under the impression that I could have up to 4ccs in a 10cc band. That's why we started out at 3ccs and then actually tried increasing it up to 4, but I was unable to get Water down as easily with 4, so he brought it back down to 3ccs. Probably if I had told him I only had a 4cc band, we wouldn't have gone so high that time. I'll definitely ask him to unfill me completely when I see him next week, just to check if there is any leakage. Given that there was so much trouble finding the port, I'm kind of hoping maybe some of that saline didn't make it in, and that's why I'm not having a lot of restriction. Otherwise.... Well, I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Maybe fluoro or a trip back to Mexico, just to see if all is in working order. Which is what I was planning to do in the first place, and in hindsight, should have done. But I guess live and learn. I'll keep you updated for sure!

I am able to eat everything (including breads, pastas, and popcorn) and I haven't had any of the soft or hard signs of fullness (e.g. sliming, pbing, hiccups, etc.) And volume-wise I can definitely get down more than a cup of food. I do know there is increased restriction because I twice had a large capsule get stuck while taking my morning meds, although it was with cold Water and first thing in the morning when restriction is tighter. Food does go down a bit slower too and I have to be more careful about my chewing. The dr I went for my fill isn't the same person that did my surgery. I originally thought that I had a 10cc band and told him so, when in fact it was a 10cm band, which only holds 4ccs (I only found that out today). That's probably why I got the 3ccs in there for the first time. In any case, as it turns out, it's not enough. I think that if I don't get more restriction with the increased fill next week, I'll look into the possibility of a leak somewhere. From what other people are reporting, I should be a lot more full and unable to eat past a certain point from the amount of fill I do have, and that is not the case. It's only willpower that's keeping me from overeating.