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I was picked up on the day of surgery at the US/Mexico border and was taken to hospital MiDoctor. I was meet by Omar the coordinator in Tijuana that explained what too expect. Pre-opt tests where done and surgery was at 2pm. Dr Illan came before surgery and was wonderful at explaining the hole process and answering all the questions my husband had. Now after surgery was a hole other story but the gas pain did pass and I was given something for the pain. Omar took good care of my husband that would have been bored other wise. The hospital is small but clean and the nurses where very kind. They did not speak very good English but since I speak a little Spanish I had no problem understanding them. After two days we were taken to hotel Lucerna by Omar and spent the next two days just enjoying the city of Tijuana. Omar took us to get some of the best broth I ever had and some delicious sea food broth as well. The Hotel was excellent and I just can't believe this hole surgery was like a mini vacation. I highly recommend Omar and Dr Illan and would do this all over again. If you need to contact Omar his cell is (619)623-5368 and the web page for Dr Illan is Baja Bariatrics.com. I am so happy to be on the losers bench. It has been two weeks since my surgery and I am down 10 pounds and feel great. Thanks everyone for hearing my story.

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I was picked up on the day of surgery at the US/Mexico border and was taken to hospital MiDoctor. I was meet by Omar the coordinator in Tijuana that explained what too expect. Pre-opt tests where done and surgery was at 2pm. Dr Illan came before surgery and was wonderful at explaining the hole process and answering all the questions my husband had. Now after surgery was a hole other story but the gas pain did pass and I was given something for the pain. Omar took good care of my husband that would have been bored other wise. The hospital is small but clean and the nurses where very kind. They did not speak very good English but since I speak a little Spanish I had no problem understanding them. After two days we were taken to hotel Lucerna by Omar and spent the next two days just enjoying the city of Tijuana. Omar took us to get some of the best broth I ever had and some delicious sea food broth as well. The Hotel was excellent and I just can't believe this hole surgery was like a mini vacation. I highly recommend Omar and Dr Illan and would do this all over again. If you need to contact Omar his cell is (619)623-5368 and the web page for Dr Illan is Baja Bariatrics.com. I am so happy to be on the losers bench. It has been two weeks since my surgery and I am down 10 pounds and feel great. Thanks everyone for hearing my story.

The same Omar that was working for Dr. Kelly?

Amanda Rae

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Amanda...one and the same. Dr. Illan was trained with Dr. Kelly and according to Dr. Kellys new coordinator...(all heresay) Omar opted to go with Dr. Ilan and do his own thing. He is supposedly still in contact, but not working directly with Kelly anymore. Has me a little nervous to go in March, especially not knowing how this new woman handles patients and their family. I liked Omar. : ( Gotta roll with the changes I guess. Good luck in your upcoming surgery.

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Amanda...one and the same. Dr. Illan was trained with Dr. Kelly and according to Dr. Kellys new coordinator...(all heresay) Omar opted to go with Dr. Ilan and do his own thing. He is supposedly still in contact' date=' but not working directly with Kelly anymore. Has me a little nervous to go in March, especially not knowing how this new woman handles patients and their family. I liked Omar. : ( Gotta roll with the changes I guess. Good luck in your upcoming surgery.[/quote']

I guess it is a small rotating circle in TJ. Best of luck to you as well.

Amanda Rae

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Omar did not go into detail of why he stopped working directly with Dr Kelly he just said he got tired of the drama (whatever that means) he did an excellent job and I highly recommend him and Dr Illan.

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Omar did not go into detail of why he stopped working directly with Dr Kelly he just said he got tired of the drama (whatever that means) he did an excellent job and I highly recommend him and Dr Illan.

Hmmm... Poor Dr. Kelly does have so much drama circling around him.

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Thanks for sharing. Can you tell me how many days you have to stay and how much was your surgery? I'm really looking for someone who can do the surgery the same day I fly in.

Sent from my iPhone using VST

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I find it interesting that you joined this site on Jan. 8th, posted your story on Jan. 9th, and have no information on your profile. Maybe I'm just suspicious by nature. I know that sometimes people who work for a doctor have been known to post this type of thing in order to drum up business. Don't mean to offend anyone, just trying to get to the truth (I haven't heard of Dr. Illan before reading this post).

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I find it interesting that you joined this site on Jan. 8th' date=' posted your story on Jan. 9th, and have no information on your profile. Maybe I'm just suspicious by nature. I know that sometimes people who work for a doctor have been known to post this type of thing in order to drum up business. Don't mean to offend anyone, just trying to get to the truth (I haven't heard of Dr. Illan before reading this post).[/quote']

I wonder about the same thing.

Amanda Rae

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Personally, with all the rumors out there and coordinator games, I take everything I read about doctors with a grain of salt. Obviously, these docs perform the surgery well or there wouldn't be so many people going. (And succeeding) I'm comfortable with my choice in Kelly and don't care if they are the real life Peyton Place. I would just as quickly choose one of the many other qualified surgeons I've seen on here if Kelly were unable to do it. If you are comfy with your choice, ignore the drama. We have no way of picking out the truth and fiction or knowing the stories behind them. I'm sorry to miss Omar and his wonderful reputation but he's not performing my surgery. I can only hope the icing is as sweet, but as long as the surgery goes well, it will be worth the price.

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Amanda...one and the same. Dr. Illan was trained with Dr. Kelly and according to Dr. Kellys new coordinator...(all heresay) Omar opted to go with Dr. Ilan and do his own thing. He is supposedly still in contact, but not working directly with Kelly anymore. Has me a little nervous to go in March, especially not knowing how this new woman handles patients and their family. I liked Omar. : ( Gotta roll with the changes I guess. Good luck in your upcoming surgery.

** Sorry to hijack this post a little **

rdoactv: I'm with Dr. Kelly on Feb 2nd. I understand your nervousness after these changes but I'll be sure and post how it goes. While Dr. Kelly is not so "popular" on this board, I know there are a few of us and I want to help ease minds. So far Alina, the new coodinator, has been pretty cool to work with. I wish she was a little faster to reply to me but I know I'm not the only patient and that they have work outside of email. ;)

From all the VSG message boards and Mexico doctor threads, it seems that musical coordinators is just the name of the game. Go with the flow is my mindset.

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** Sorry to hijack this post a little **

rdoactv: I'm with Dr. Kelly on Feb 2nd. I understand your nervousness after these changes but I'll be sure and post how it goes. While Dr. Kelly is not so "popular" on this board' date=' I know there are a few of us and I want to help ease minds. So far Alina, the new coodinator, has been pretty cool to work with. I wish she was a little faster to reply to me but I know I'm not the only patient and that they have work outside of email. ;)

From all the VSG message boards and Mexico doctor threads, it seems that musical coordinators is just the name of the game. Go with the flow is my mindset.[/quote']

Cool. I look forward to your post. Alina does seem nice and Im sure all will go well. I'm good as long as they don't switch surgeons. Lol Dr. Kelly was a popular choice until the rumor mill and coordinator change last year. I still have faith in his surgical skills as I'm sure that most of the docs on these boards are skilled. Even a complication by a patient doesn't bother me much. It's surgery and a chance we take. A rash of complications would be another matter, but really, we would be hard pressed to get legitimate, substantiated info. Its all good. But I will look to your post to see how your full experience is compared to patients with previous staff. Good luck hon and I wish you the best journey! : )

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Wow when Omar gave me this web site for support he mentioned that I might get attacked for just joining but I never thought it would be true. I have a very stressful job and can't be on this forum at all times only on my brakes. So I have gave my experience and I hope everyone has a nice day.

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Wow when Omar gave me this web site for support he mentioned that I might get attacked for just joining but I never thought it would be true. I have a very stressful job and can't be on this forum at all times only on my brakes. So I have gave my experience and I hope everyone has a nice day.

Who was attacking? Perhaps I missed a post? I thought we were all just discussing. Im glad u had a good experience. Omar seemed like a really nice guy. Him changing to Dr. Illan just happened in December. Its a new change,for those who have been in the boards forever. I thought we were all just sharing the new info. Those of us going to Kelly will surely miss meeting Omar, but it is what it is. Sorry if you felt attacked, but I don't think that was how it was meant..I hope. Best wishes for your journey.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      1. LeighaTR

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

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