Well, I'm off! Alarm went off promptly at 3am, but i was pretty much up at 2. I got through security without the complementary anal cavity search. Yay!

For those keeping track, I'm doing the same-day travel and surgery so I'll post as much about that part of the experience as possible. Part of having surgery same-day is that I have to wear compression socks on the way to Mexico to avoid clots. So, with a nod to Amytug, I share with you a little self-portrait of my own. Said in my best Austin powers villain voice... " I'm dead sexy!"

Btw. Dr Fernando Garcia at mihospital.

Btw. No naked people but when I walked into the OR I did see someone else having surgery. But they were draped except for the stomach.

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping.

I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.

Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again, nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping. <img src='http://www.bariatricpal.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.

Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again' date=' nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.[/quote']

Safe trip! Looking forward to hearing all about your experience.

Amanda Rae

On my way back to Florida. My hats off to those who could post regular updates while going through that. I was to busy walking and sleeping. <img src='http://www.bariatricpal.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

I took a lot of notes and ill post a bigger update when I get settled back home.

Dr Garcia and his staff were really great but I'm not going to say the entire experience was kittens and rainbows. Again' date=' nothing negative about Ready 4 a Change at all.[/quote']

Safe trip! Looking forward to hearing all about your experience.

Amanda Rae

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible. Skip to another thread now if you don't want to know everything!

I'll break it into a few different posts so it will be manageable.

March 6 12:51pm (PST)

I landed in San Diego.

Side note - I flew Delta for the first time and had a great experience. If you're using them, download their app before you leave. You can track your flight while enroute (I had a four hour flight so this helped to kill the time) plus it send you notifications on your arrival and departure gates in case they change so you don't have to rush to your next leg.

I called Samuel as soon as I arrived at the gate as instructed. He was already on the property at another terminal picking up Stephanie and her mom. The second I hit the sidewalk outside of baggage claim he pulled up! He was really great. He gave us a little tour on the way to the boarder. He also gave us some good cellphone info to consider. As we were approaching the border, he told us when to turn the data off on our phones so we didn't get any outrageous data charges. I signed up for international roaming a few days before the trip, but he said the data fees would still be steep. Crossing the border into Mexico was nothing, a few speed bumps and we were in. We arrived at Mi Doctor a few minuted later.

A few minutes after arriving we met Melissa. She was great. She took us right to get our blood tests. I would say within the first 30-45 minutes, I had filled out the admissions paperwork, given blood, was assigned a room and was in my hospital gown.

Here's my first pet peeve about MiDoctor. At least half of the medical forms were in Spanish. And I'm sure someone will have a problem with the dumb American saying this but, if you have a business that caters to customers from countries other than yours, I would expect it would be pretty easy to translate the medical forms to a variety of different languages. I still have no idea what I signed. The admissions person (who was extremely nice as well) explained them to me, but I would have felt better if I actually could read what I was signing.

After getting to my room, the nurses showed me the safe. I secured my wallet in the safe and locked my suitcase with luggage combo locks. I bought these after reading a post on the forum... thank you to whomever said to do that. I'm glad I took this extra step because someone on our floor had some money missing. That story is not mine to tell, so I'll let that OP tell it. During check-in someone from the staff (I don't recall who) told us that they have a person who's job was to collect our bags and watch over them while we were in surgery, but that never happened. It seems they are aware that they have an internal issue that needs to be addressed.

They gave me an IV (first time) and did an EKG. If I can recommend something to the men that will follow me... if you have any chest or stomach hair... SHAVE IT OFF! They had a hard time getting the sensors to stay on and none of the bandages or steri-strips applied later stayed on for more than a few hours.

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible. Skip to another thread now if you don't want to know everything!

I'll break it into a few different posts so it will be manageable.

March 6 12:51pm (PST)

I landed in San Diego.

Side note - I flew Delta for the first time and had a great experience. If you're using them' date=' download their app before you leave. You can track your flight while enroute (I had a four hour flight so this helped to kill the time) plus it send you notifications on your arrival and departure gates in case they change so you don't have to rush to your next leg.

I called Samuel as soon as I arrived at the gate as instructed. He was already on the property at another terminal picking up Stephanie and her mom. The second I hit the sidewalk outside of baggage claim he pulled up! He was really great. He gave us a little tour on the way to the boarder. He also gave us some good cellphone info to consider. As we were approaching the border, he told us when to turn the data off on our phones so we didn't get any outrageous data charges. I signed up for international roaming a few days before the trip, but he said the data fees would still be steep. Crossing the border into Mexico was nothing, a few speed bumps and we were in. We arrived at Mi Doctor a few minuted later.

A few minutes after arriving we met Melissa. She was great. She took us right to get our blood tests. I would say within the first 30-45 minutes, I had filled out the admissions paperwork, given blood, was assigned a room and was in my hospital gown.

Here's my first pet peeve about MiDoctor. At least half of the medical forms were in Spanish. And I'm sure someone will have a problem with the dumb American saying this but, if you have a business that caters to customers from countries other than yours, I would expect it would be pretty easy to translate the medical forms to a variety of different languages. I still have no idea what I signed. The admissions person (who was extremely nice as well) explained them to me, but I would have felt better if I actually could read what I was signing.

After getting to my room, the nurses showed me the safe. I secured my wallet in the safe and locked my suitcase with luggage combo locks. I bought these after reading a post on the forum... thank you to whomever said to do that. I'm glad I took this extra step because someone on our floor had some money missing. That story is not mine to tell, so I'll let that OP tell it. During check-in someone from the staff (I don't recall who) told us that they have a person who's job was to collect our bags and watch over them while we were in surgery, but that never happened. It seems they are aware that they have an internal issue that needs to be addressed.

They gave me an IV (first time) and did an EKG. If I can recommend something to the men that will follow me... if you have any chest or stomach hair... SHAVE IT OFF! They had a hard time getting the sensors to stay on and none of the bandages or steri-strips applied later stayed on for more than a few hours.[/quote']

I flew delta also! Love them!! And the app was a lifesaver! I also didn't like that our hospital papers were in Spanish! We are joking around that we were signing our life away without knowing.. Thankfully I trusted them!

I met Dr. Garcia briefly, he asked if I had any questions... I didn't after spending months lurking on the forums.

I also met Dr. Velazco at this time. She is a real sweetie. I was there alone and she could tell I was a little nervous I think, so she spent some time with me talking about what was going to happen. She takes care of the nutrition part of the procedure.

3:55pm

I was notified that I my operation was approximately an hour away. I was told that it would take about 45 minutes for the operation and another 45 minutes in recovery.

Here comes the only negative thing that I can say about Dr. Garcia's team. I asked them to call my wife when they finished the procedure, giving the phone number to 2 different people. She never received the call.

5:17pm

I sent a text to my wife telling her that they were taking me in. My room was on the same floor as the OR, so they had me walk to the OR. As I mentioned before, no naked people, but I did see doctors operating on another patient. All I could see was the stomach and tubes coming out of it. I laid on the operating table and looked into the light overhead and a minute or two later, I was out. I woke up in recovery. It didn't seem like I was in there very long. They wheeled me into my room and had me crawl over to my bed. I kept remembering what everyone said about getting up and walking as soon as possible, so I mustered up some strength and got out of bed. I got my phone out of the safe and texted my wife at 7:51pm that I was awake. She was freaking out because I told her that we should be looking at 1.5 to 2 hours and it was almost 3 when I texted her. She said she had the phone in her hand to call the coordinator when I texted her.

For the rest of the night, I was up about every hour walking the floor.

March 7th

The nurses did a good job managing pain. They were in every few hours pushing meds. My favorite nurse, and I feel awful because she introduced herself while I was in a daze and I've forgotten her name, was the morning nurse. Her english was great and she had a great bedside manner. She really made being there alone much more bearable.

The next morning I received a very nice apology for the oversight about not calling my wife. I showered and the nurse changed the bandages. Again.... FELLAS....SHAVE!!!!!

Approx 1pm they came up one at a time and took us downstairs to do the leak test. We had to drink that lovely cocktail in front of the x-ray machine. You could see the Fluid go into your stomach and then out the other end. It's at this point that you really get to see how big it is. This will put into perspective everything that you put in your mouth from here on out.

(I'm reading the texts that my wife sent back and forth to write this... she asked me how it went and I replied... "No leaks, but I think I saw someone's watch in there.")

j/k

I got a lot more sleep today.

I was supposed to get ice chips after the radiologist read the report, but many hours later I was given some juice.

Btw... I think it was mentioned here before, bring your own washcloths because they only had towels for your shower.

March 8th,

Woke up feeling a little better. Gas pain is still kicking my ass. I was peeing blue today (and for the next 2 days) from the 2nd leak test. They make you drink a blue dye to see if it comes out of your drain.

I was surprised by my favorite nurse this morning. She pushed the last of the IV meds and told me she was taking out the IV. After that, she told me to shower. After the shower, they applied to bandage dressings and pulled the drain. It did not hurt at all. I guess this is typically done the following day at the hotel, but I'm glad it happened now so I wouldn't have to wear that thing at the hotel.

They pulled the drain around 1pm and I was checked into the hotel at 2:15 pm. I met my friend there and he bought me a popsicle while I was waiting to check in. That thing was excellent!

The room was awesome. I'll post a photo later.

I had an abbreviated stay (one less day at the hotel). So I hung out in the lobby drinking the gatorade that was provided by Dr Garcia's staff.

Dr. Luna came to the hotel with Rosie to take out the staples. I had never had staples before, and I was very surprised that there was no pain at all in their removal. Dr. Luna is a pro at that. I was told that Samuel, the driver would call at around 9pm to tell me my pickup time. He called about 8pm-ish and gave me the pickup time for the following morning.

(I'm looking at iMessage and it looks like it changed some of the times due to the 3 hour time zone difference. So for those of you graphing out my trip, you may have to shift the times over three hours.

The driver (Samuel's Dad) picked us up a little after 9am. They like to leave 4-5 hours before your flight because sometime the line is longer than other times at the border.

We crossed the border at about 10:30am. It was great to be back in the USA!

From that time on, it's just boring trip stuff, so I'll spare you.

I also have some random thoughts:

- Items to buy before you leave: Isopure, steristrips and bactine for would care after return home.

- Don't take too much to the hospital... you wont need it: comfy clothes, lip balm, gas ex strips (although I'm sure it's just mental)

- Mi Doctor has wifi - the password is on the door in your room. set it up early so you can FaceTime or Viber

- As others said, I only had one girl that used gloves when doing anything on me.

- The room I was in definitely needed a little work. It stormed one morning and there was Water leaking in under the sill. But if you go into this knowing that you're not having the operation done at the Ritz, then you know what you're getting.

- The gas is killing me. I walked about 2 miles today trying to get rid of it, but it's still sticking around. It still feels like someone is trying to pry my heart and collarbone out with a tire Iron.

- The other kind of gas was killing me until earlier today. I had a 10 pound fart climbing it's way back and forth in my intestines since the surgery. It would literally wake my wife and I up in the middle of the night. The fart lords have shined upon me earlier today and called their minions back to hell. (We're all friends here, I can tell you that, right?) ;p~

- Someone mentioned in a previous post that Dr Garcia is "above" Mi Doctor. I hate to say this because that one nurse was so awesome to me, but, I agree.

Security at the Marriott was awesome. I won't go into details, in case the bad guys look at this kind of stuff, but it is probably the safest place in Tijuana.

I'm sure I've forgotten something... I'll post more if I think of it.

Marriott room

Mi doctor room

Local weather.

Man!!!! Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this post!!!

FANTASTIC! Great info, thanks for sharing!!!!

Haha I was there on the 8th the day you left to to hotel. I most likely saw you. Omg the part about the gas was so funny I just laughed so hard I think I popped a stitch lol. So so true! I agree with everything you said And think I had close to the same experience (minus the chest hair problem)

Thanks for all the details. Glad you are doing so well!