I'm 10 days post op and thought I would feel better than I do by now. I feel like I have let others down who were planning on going to Mx by not posting my experience sooner. I have mixed feelings about the choice I made. Dr. Almanza was great. I can't say anything negative about him. My experience was very difficult. I had surgery on Saturday and everyone leaves the clinic except for 1 nurse until Monday. I was always in pain and sick and he couldn't keep the meds straight. He wouldn't answer the call buttons at all at night. We had to scream for help. If that didn't work we would have to get a guest to help us until we could get the nurse to come upstairs. Most of the time he would refuse to give any meds saying it was too early you just had them. Which was not the case. He was confused on who he had given meds to. So we started writing it down and he still refused. The 1st night my hand that had the iv in it swelled up 3xs it's normal size so I asked him to change it. He put another on in but forgot to tape the top of it and it came out within an hour. When I finally got him to come fix it I had bled all over my bed. He said it was my fault for not taking care of my iv and for making my other hand fat. Which was actully swollen. No Dr came in the next day. No other nurse, just him. It was a horrible 2 nights. The recovery house was great. I was fully prepared to hate it and stay at a hotel. I loved it. Only minor issues there. Great staff, comfortable accomodations and never for one second felt unsafe. They however were out of gatorade and popsicles which I couldn't understand. The nurse there was super. By the time i got there though I had an infection starting in my incisions. The nurse at the hospital wasn't cleaning my incisions and changing my bandages. He said they looked good. I went to my dr 7 days post op and he decided my stitches needed to come out earlier than he would have liked due to the redness and my low grade temp. Had issues getting them out because they were put in too tightly and one incision had knots all through it which ripped my incision back open. He said it should heal but if not I will have to see a surgeon to get it fixed. I got what I paid for.....a sleeve, but the care in the hospital was pathetic. Would I do it again? I'm not ready to answer that question yet. We will see. I sure did suffer for 2 days and it was all because of 1 nurse. I think it would have been different had I not had it done on a Saturday. At this point I wouldn't encourage anyone or discourage anyone from going there. As long as you know what to expect that is a decision for each person to make. For the price quoted you get very basic after care. If you are ok with that and can handle pain and being sick then it's a great deal however you should know it is what is is. An inexpensive surgery. They are not there to go out of their way to make sure you are comfortable.

Thats just scary. Surgery on Saturday and only 1 nurse ( and not a good one at that ) until Monday. Sorry I would freak out being in there with only this pos nurse to depend on. No doctor? I would hope the people still considering going to Alamanza at least dont have their surgery scheduled for Saturday. Were you locked in there? I had surgery at 3pm on a Tuesday and at around midnight I was walking outside in the courtyard to get some fresh air. I would have been mortified being locked in somewhere. How many guests were there inside with you? What were they doing? Who fed them? Did I miss something?

WOW- that is a terrible experience indeed. I would definitely put that in writing to the surgeon directly, so that they can make the necessary changes to avoid this to happen to somoene else.

I had Surgery in Juarez, Mexico (Dr Rod) and my experience was really great. There were plenty of staff and my meds were brought to me around clock. I personally cannot recommend him and their team at StarMedica enough.

I hope that reaching your goals will get you over this experience.

Best of Luck!!

Agreed.

I hate to hear that, I hope you recover well. I had the opposite experience, I had good care there. You need to bring this to their attention or they will not know to correct it. Thank you for posting your experience there, I like hearing from actual patients and their experience rather than people that bash Doctors from hearsay. I hope they get it corrected.

Sigh.. I really hope you start to feel better soon Having to go to a foreign country to have surgery is just plain hard. I went to Mexico as well and while I did not have the same surgeon as you and my experience was a good one, it's still difficult to have to travel far from home to do this. We all just want to stop struggling with our weight.. we do what we have to do.. and we just have to hope for the best. It should just be simpler for us all. Big squishy hugs to you!

Sorry for what you went thru that is terrible and I pray you heal well. This is making me scared because I am having Surgery on Saturday November 5th with Dr. Kelly...I hope the night nurses are on point and that the Dr. Kelly will come and visit me

I need to find this out ASAP....

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience. Sounds like the guy (??? nurse) was taking the pills for himself and then acting dumb (confused) about it. Probably having some good nights sleep himself while you were hurting. Did you tell Dr. alamanza about this? that is not good. I hope your ok now. Did you find a good doctor to help you now? I would definately write a letter not only to Dr. Alamanza but to the Mexician board of physicians/nursing association as well. . . if they even have controls like that there.

That really stinks! Dr. Aceves and Dr. Campos were in my room multiple times a day checking on me.

It's not surgeons in Mexico it's THIS surgeon in Mexico. Gawd the stories just keep piling up. Thank you for your posting so people can weigh their options. For some people the risk of a crappy surgeon/treatment is worth the savings exp if you have no insurance. It's a bad situation to be in. I hope you heal well!

@Shelinson....Dr Kellys set up is very different. There are nurses not just to A nurse and they are on the same floor as you and come at the press of a button. Really....it will be fine.

Problem is that other then the actual surgery you never see the surgeon again. At least I didn't. Nor did anyone with me. Even when we got the leak test and went back to the clinic to have the xrays checked by the dr. We were instructed to stay in the van and the driver took them in.

I was shocked by that. Even when I requested to speak with the dr the day after when they refused me pain medication they just shut me up with a shot of morphine. No dr ever came to see me or speak to me about my pain level. It never occurred to me that there would not be Drs to care for us post surgery. The night of surgery I was throwing up bright red blood. I asked the nurse and all she did was take the bowl with the blood in it downstairs to ask I'm assuming a dr and then she came back and said it's normal.

They are definitely lacking in the aftercare department.