I failed to respond to a couple of personal messages because of not coming on here often (sorry!). Since those were long ago, I'm just writing some general info and offering to give further detail if needed/ desired .

I traveled to Tijuana through San Diego Int'l Airport back in November 2013 (almost 4 months ago). I had a perfect, positive and uneventful trip, surgery and recovery. My surgeon was Dr. Jalil ILLAN Fraijo (goes by Dr. ILLAN) and I returned as the companion to a dear one 2 months later in January since I was so impressed with the whole surgery experience, etc.

Dr. Illan is very popular and well-reviewed, but most of his marketing is word of mouth / referral. His past and prospective patients have a very lively/active/supportive/informational facebook group.

In addition to his private practice (Baja Bariatrics), Dr. ILLAN is an ER/Trauma Surgeon at one of the many hospitals in the Mexican social security system (which are called IMSS hospitals). I went to visit him at his IMSS location in a newer area on the outskirts of Tijuana (it is called Clinica Uno in the IMSS system, but it is a large, vast modern hospital, not a mere clinic). I visited the IMSS hospital because the spouse of the loved one I brought back for surgery after my own was really insecure about the whole "self-paid-surgery-in-Mexico" thing and I promised him I'd go make sure the ER situation was "real" before I let his wife go in to surgery, lol (kind of a funny situation, but it was enlightening to see Dr. ILLAN's "other" world, too ).

Florence Hospital is a well-equipped, mid-sized hospital in Tijuana's "Beaches" area (called LAS PLAYAS). The Bariatric wing is clean & quiet. The decor is 10-15 years behind in appearance, but this didn't bother me. Ninety percent of the employees at the hospital speak English. Some aspects of the bathrooms and rooms have more quirks and deferred maintenance than one would see in most American hospitals, but nothing was overly troubling to me.

PLUSES FOR AMERICANS HESITANT ABOUT TRAVELING TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY: 1) You are met at the San Diego Airport and whisked across the border by a lovely driver called Linda. Omar (patient relations coordinator) meets you and Linda once you're in Tijuana and Omar takes you and your companion to the hospital for check-in from there. Omar is with you and your companion every step of the way all four days and unless you ASK for some independence you will never have to venture out in to the community on your own. 2) Wi-fi and US Cell coverage are quite good in the hospital. Hospital is so close to the ocean/border that US cell signals reliably come in in many parts of the hospital. You don't need to buy a foreign plan (although a few cell calls might sneak through here and there and cost you a little, the charges are not huge and you can turn cellular data off on your phone and/or put your phone on wi-fi and merely SKype or facetime with your loved ones). If all of this confuses or perplexes you, Omar can and will happily take your phone from you and set you up to avoid charges and be in touch with your loved ones. He was constantly offering me his phone to call home if I was fumbling to make calls and there is also a toll-free US number to the hospital that you can give your family ahead of time. 3) There is a brand new WALMART 1.5 blocks from the hospital and the walk is easy with only one street to cross. Funny as it is, Americans are hard-pressed to feel like they're in a foreign country when dear old WALMART is right there in all its familiarity. You and your companion do not have to obsess about what to pack since this makes it SUPER easy to walk over and pick up anything you've missed.

All patients have 2 full nights in the hospital after surgery and two full nights in the high-rise, 4-star Hotel Lucerna before going home. If a patient would like to arrive the night before surgery rather than the morning of, he/she stays an additional (complimentary) pre-night in the hospital. I arrived the night before and just talked and watched movies with my companion that first "pre" night. When I returned as my loved-one's companion 2 months later, she elected to have us fly in the morning of surgery and skip the "get-settled" night in the hospital. I slightly preferred the way she did it because it felt like less "down" time, but both worked great.

Please feel free to ask me any questions as you do your research on Mexican surgeons. There are definitely lots of great choices! I am an information/ research hound myself and I would be happy to share how I arrived at Dr. Illan amid all the excellent choices.

Thank you for sharing. I am scheduled on 03/24 and although I pretty much know what to expect, I love hearing every little detail about every one else's experience! Can't wait to meet Dr. Illan and Omar in person and start my new sleeved life.

Thank you for sharing! Thank you for the helpful tidbits too! My wife will be coming with me and so it's nice to know that she will be O.K. and have things to do while she waits.

Surgery is set for 3/15 (this Saturday!). We fly into San Diego on Friday.

Thanks again.

Bignose, are you have surgery with Dr illan? Have you joined our fb support group?

Bignose, are you have surgery with Dr illan? Have you joined our fb support group?

Hi Tiff. No, I haven't joined the facebook support group. I haven't shared with my extended family or friends that I'm having VSG. I'm afraid if I joined it may prompt questions that I don't want to answer.

Good luck with your surgery! Have you started the liquid diet? It gets easier every day.

No worries!!! Nobody know about my surgery either! The facebook support group is a CLOSED group. Nobody can see anything you post or that you even joined the group. Trust me I never would have joined otherwise. You will find alot of support on there, and we would love to have you! the facebook group is Team Illan. https://www.facebook.com/groups/138579759635044/

oh and no, my liquid diet starts Monday. Best of Luck!

Best wishes, BN-Monkeydog! Just checked this and see that you are now in Mexico . Please tell Omar & all hello -- my BMI just sunk below 25 last week, so I know they'll be happy for & with me . I will be thinking of you tomorrow!

RHW

P.S. Re: the FB group, it is a "closed" group, but not a "secret group." So if people look up the group and click to see who is in it, they will see the faces of those in the group but they cannot see what is posted back & forth unless they are in it. I think there is a way to set FB to NOT notify when you join a new group, but unless you do something very specific, I do believe your joining the closed group will show up to others if they are on their desktops (I think it would show up over on the right of the desktop where you see the comments of people you don't even know--definitely more than you see when on mobile). And people can definitely see that you are a member of the group if they hunt it down and seek to know who is in it.

Yes if you search for the name of the group you can see whos in it. I wasnt too worried about that! But I know when I joined, I had my co worker, the only one who knows about surgery, on her fb and as I joined, I had her searching to see if it mentioned anything about me joining and it didnt. Im not sure if it is a setting thing or the fact that the group is closed.

Good point, Tiff, I think you're right that it doesn't notify when you join... maybe just shows your face if someone clicks & wants to see "all members." Hope all your preparations are going great

headed to see hin on 5/24, wish me luck.

Someone was asking me about Dr. Illan in a private message, so I told her I'd come on here and bump this up the forum board. An acquaintance of mine was being a little stalk-on facebook, so I bowed out of the Team ILLAN facebook group for awhile, but I'm confident it's still a lot of fun energy and going strong!

I had my surgery two days ago. So far so good. Very pleased.

Best wishes, Janey! Is this your first night at Hotel Lucerna then? Are you starting to enjoy a little broth?