My story! Also, feel free to critique post-op diet please.

sprint4425 · April 8, 2007

NOTE: If anyone ever reads this and has any questions about my experience please feel free to let me know at anytime. I am younger, male, college student and had a lower BMI when I had this surgery and I know there wasn’t a whole lot of people in my situation to talk to before I had this done. So if anyone is in that situation and has some unanswered questions, even if they are socially related and not medically, feel free to ask.

ALSO: this post is pretty lengthy, so if you don’t feel like reading all of it please at least skip to the bottom and critique my post-op diet. I do encourage you to read the whole thing though!

I’ve been away from this forum for awhile now. I’ve checked in and searched for posts of interest once in awhile in the past couple of months, but haven’t posted anything. I feel like I should keep up to date with this forum and the people on it because its such a great source of information and help for people who have been, or are looking to get, banded.

Basically I just wanted to tell everyone about my surgery journey, my experiences, and my post-op diet.

Although I have researched this topic, doctors, and everything else for months now, I didn’t really realize I was actually getting it done until I stepped off from my plane at San Diego, that’s when it hit me. I was about to have a $9,000, plastic, foreign object inserted into my body at 23 years of age in order to lose the weight I have been battling my whole life. It was the weirdest feeling ever, I couldn’t decide if I was humbled by the idea or excited about it. The only thing I was really certain of is that I was definitely, very, nervous.

I chose to have my surgery done in Mexico for financial reasons. Once I made that decision it was onto the list of doctors. Honestly, I’m not really sure how I came across Dr. Ortiz, but I had heard good things about him and the location and costs were good. Now that I look back I realize that definitely wasn’t the greatest criteria to choose a Dr. by, much more research should have been done on my doctor. Luckily, very luckily for me, I made an excellent choice. From what I know now about Dr. Ortiz and his staff, I would recommend him to anyone wanting to get this surgery done, even if they had the money/resources to get it done in the U.S. I honestly can’t even say enough about his credentials, his staff’s care, and how he operates his facilities.

Back to my story…

So I get off the plane and eventually I’m sitting in a van that was scheduled by Dr. Ortiz’s staff to pick me and some others up from the airport and bring us to our hotel (that was already booked by Dr. Ortiz’s staff, I might add) in Tijuana. Long story short here, we ended up getting picked up by another driver, who turned out to be Dr. Ortiz’s mother. Okay…I have met tons of people in my life, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that one of the most enjoyable experiences in life is when you meet somebody who is genuinely a great person. Mrs. Ortiz is probably one of the most genuinely nice, outgoing, and caring people I have ever met in my entire life. By the end of the short half hour car ride I honestly almost felt like part of her family. She told me everything I needed to know about the area, the procedure, the hotel, the facilities, the logistics, etc for the following surgery day. She drops us off, wishes us luck, and lets us know that she will see us in the morning.

The hotel. The hotel that Dr. Ortiz’s staff books you for is no less than amazing. The day of and the day after my surgery I laid in bed and watched TV or sat by the pool doing some homework on my laptop. I am not even exaggerating when I tell you that I haven’t had two more relaxing days in as long as I remember. I honestly felt like I was at a resort in some foreign country with absolutely no worries in the world……oh wait, I was. All in all I couldn’t believe how much stress this place relieved. The staff was very welcoming and happy to help me out with anything I needed or any questions I had. Very, very nice staff. Okay enough about the hotel.

We were all picked up the next morning by Mrs. Ortiz and brought to the clinic. This place was honestly SPOTLESS. I remember my first thoughts about surgery in Mexico were the cleanliness. All of those ideas completely flew out the window as soon as I stepped into this place. You honestly could eat off the waiting room floor, or my hospital room floor, or the surgery room floor, etc. Okay, well maybe you wouldn’t want to do that, but you get the idea here. Every single instrument, furniture, anything you can think of was placed, organized, and sanitized to a T.

My pre-op tests went well. I was kind of nervous about them because my pro-op diet has been less than stellar. All went well though and they were actually relieving because I got to know most, if not all, of the doctors there including the nutritionist and the nurses. All of the doctors were welcoming, warm, and almost overly upbeat about the whole situation. It was very good. After I got was showed to my room and got changed into my surgery attire I had a nurse come in and hook me up to an I.V. and then Dr. Ortiz came in and talked to me for awhile.

This was the first time I had ever talked to, let alone met, Dr. Ortiz. He was very positive and very friendly. At some point he even cracked a cheesy joke to me in order to relax me somewhat. This was followed by a friendly, “we both understand the joke was cheesy but it was a very friendly attempt” type of smirk on both of our faces. It kind of broke the ice as to his demeanor as a person and his personality to me. We went on to talk and he basically told me everything I needed to know about what was going to happen soon and also about after care. He was very informative about the lap band topic as a whole, not just the procedure (as he should be) and told me a lot of, what seemed to me to be, pretty unbiased information.

One thing led to another and soon I was being woken up (some medication is given to you to relax your muscles and put you into a light sleep) and being walked into the surgery room. I’m not going to lie; it was kind of scary walking into the surgery room. Between the drugs and scenario of walking through dual swinging doors into a surgery room, I kind of felt like I was in the scene of some Alien movie being transported unwillingly into a surgical room to perform some probe like tests. Although it felt like that, it honestly wasn’t bad. I was calm, and I wasn’t scared at all. As soon as I laid down on the table the last thing I remember is having the oxygen mask put on me and one of the straps being put very loosely across my arm.

I woke up in my hospital room, how I got there? I have no idea…I honestly can’t remember. What I do remember is being in some bad pain and the doctor standing by my bed and not leaving my room until he had administered me some pain medication and something to help me sleep. I was pretty surprised he stayed with me in my room after surgery until he knew everything was okay, it was an excellent feeling. I soon fell asleep again and woke up after a few more hours and felt absolutely fine. Some pain, but very very little, and I was pretty groggy from the medicine. From here on out the nurses were absolutely exceptional. They only spoke broken English, but they were so incredibly nice I couldn’t believe it. They helped me with anything I needed and she even gave me a back rub when I got up to walk around for the first time because I was having some bad back pain (I think it was from the gas). I got up to walk around a few times more that night and basically lived on ice, popsicles, and Water until the next morning when it was time for me to go.

The next day when it was time to leave everyone came around and said they’re goodbyes to me and the nurse even gave me a hug. This might seem trivial, but when your alone in a foreign country having surgery, it actually feels nice to be so welcomed, noticed, and treated like you have known someone for years.

By the time I was ready to leave I had barely any pain and I had talked to the doctors some more. In fact, after leaving the hospital and being transported to my hotel (by Mrs. Ortiz again, who actually gave me a hug after she dropped me off and gave me some friendly advice for the following couple of days) I walked around Tijuana for awhile. I walked to a nearby mall and bought some new sunglasses (which some moronic, over indulgent, rugby player broke on my flight back …….I was not happy), and then walked to a nearby convenience store and bought some Water and some juices for my next couple days of stay. As mentioned before my next couple of days at the hotel were very comforting and relaxing. I found that my pre-surgery nervousness was replaced with a post-surgery excitement. I honestly felt like I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders….or you could say off my body; soon to be literally. I felt like my ongoing daily battle with my weight was soon going to be over and it was honestly one of the most relieving feelings I had felt in awhile. As far as the band itself, I honestly felt like I had just acquired a new expensive item that I was going to thoroughly enjoy…it was almost like the feeling of buying a new car or something. It was, and still is, exciting.

After my stay I was picked up by Dr. Ortiz’s driver and transported back to the airport for my flight. This in itself was a pretty crazy journey. The driver, although I don’t remember his name unfortunately, was a very friendly man. The thing that made this trip interesting was the trip across the border. I didn’t realize how much mumbo jumbo is involved in getting across the border into the United States. At one point in our conversation he mentioned that we might get through a lot quicker if I pretend I was very sick from my surgery. He basically mentioned this as a joke and we both had a laugh but I thought, “what the hell I might as well try.” So I laid back I my seat and pretended to be half asleep and groggy as the driver talked to the customs guy and sure enough, he let us through very quickly without a problem. We got passed the border and the driver turned to me and was like, “damn they should give you an Oscar for that performance.” All in all it was an interesting but fun trip and Dr. Ortiz’s driver is a class act guy and has excellent service.

Traveling from San Diego to Indianapolis was less than fun, but that’s just because I absolutely hate traveling on planes. Not because of the heights or what not, but because I’m always smashed between two annoying people, I can never get comfortable, and I’m stuck in sitting position for hours completely uncomfortable and the only thing I get to calm my nerves is a 50 cent can of juice. I’m going to take stab in the dark here and guess that I’m not alone on this subject though. Oh well, traveling is traveling I suppose. If there is one thing that I have learned about traveling over the year is that 1. its very tiring and 2. The journey back is always more annoying than the journey there.

MY SCARS:

First off, my scars were sealed with glue and covered with some dark, transparent, protective glue type stuff. I couldn’t be more amazed with my scars. Today is Saturday and I had my surgery last Friday. I don’t know what the horrible glue is that they put over my scars (for waterproofing/protecting purposes I suppose) but it was hell to peel off my skin, it almost took my skin with it. Today the glue (or whatever you call it) was pretty saturated and it basically came off like rubber cement with some rubbing.

Anyway, its only been 9 days and I started putting Vitamin E oil on my small scars a couple of days ago. I woke up today and after I got out of the shower there was one scar that it actually took me a couple seconds to find. My port scar is still pretty big, but its clean, its not red, and it seems to be healing well. I started my port scar with Vitamin E oil today.

Sorry I don’t have pictures of my scars, but honestly so far I couldn’t be happier. I was worried that the scarring might be bad. As of now I don’t even think I will be able to tell I had four small incisions around my port scar in a couple of months, maybe even in a couple of weeks. ::knock on wood::

I heard of vitamin E oil on this forum actually. If anyone takes the time to read this lengthy post and actually got this far I want you to know that vitamin E is honestly amazing for scars. If it keeps working like it has for the past two days I’m going to be using it on my cuts for the rest of my life. The stuff helps exponentially. I woke up the morning after I used it on my small incisions for the first time and could tell that it healed a lot quicker just in a 24hour period than it had each day in the previous week or so.

So that’s my story. Sorry it was so long but I wanted to get it all out.

MY POST OP DIET:

Here is what my paper instructions basically said:

There should be no hunger for the first week after surgery.

Nothing carbonated for six months.

Meds should be crushed

Take liquid Vitamins

First week:

Only Clear liquids, juices, Gatorade/pedyalite, water, tea, clear broth, popsicles, and coffee.

Second and third week:

Non fat yogurt in half cup servings, none with fruit. Add 30 grams liquid Protein to diet. Basically, if you cant drink it don’t eat it.

Fourth week begins solid foods.

Here is what my nutritionist said about post-op diet:

Clear liquids and juices for at least three days, day four begins yogurt, day six begins Protein addition, and after 8 to 10 days Soups are okay for the remainder of the three week post-op period.

What my regimen has been for post-op diet to date:

I stuck to Clear Liquids only for the first four days. I had absolutely no hunger for about the first 5 to 6 days (as the doctor said). After the liquid regimen I switched to basically mushy foods only. My diet from about 5 days post-op until now has been yogurt, clear liquids, cottage cheese, liquid Soups (nothing containing solids for the most part), and egg salad (which is just finely mashed up hardboiled eggs mixed with mayo…some of you might think yuck, but I love the stuff). The only thing close to solid I have eaten was some mac and cheese and I only ate that once and chewed it very well. I am planning on keeping to my egg salad, yogurt, Soup, and liquid (mashed, soft food) for the next week and a half to two weeks.

Sometimes I think I moved onto mashed foods too early but I honestly felt like my body could handle it. Also, just to note, my main intent here is not to lose weight during my post-op diet process, I understand some yogurts, mayo, and cottage cheese aren’t the lowest calorie items to eat, but I honestly just want to heal well.

I would like anyone on here to critique my diet and let me know what they think.

healthny · April 8, 2007

first of all congrats!!! you took the first step.. I really enjoyed you sharing the story about Ortiz, I have heard so many good things about him (secretly, I wish he was doing mine). I really can not comment on the post op diet protocol other than its my understanding you must think about this time as HEALING, HEALING, HEALING -- the only goal being as little movement/digestion as possible so the band and stomach properly heal and the band properly places. ( I learned that here :clap2: ) Nothing is more important in my opinion. Don't rush it. (Sure easy for me to say, I'm not there yet -- to be banded on the 8th). In the meantime again know wow you're doing it. I would be interested to here from you any pre-surgury stuff you learned from Ortiz you'd like to share and know what his complete post op diet protocol is. Feel free to PM me if need be in the meantime -- Be well best of luck you got one big support group here take full advantage..

sfeliz001 · April 8, 2007

hey sprint, i had surgery with dr.ortiz on april 2nd we missed eachother by two days.

The entire experience was great basically how you mentioned.

I remember the nutritionist saying if you can't drink it don't eat it for the first few weeks b/c if your stomach has to break something down it moves and affects the band healing in place.

But if you feel ready i guess then do what works, i know i wouldn't dare at this point. I don't want to risk something not healing well and it costing me unecessary $$. Why dont you call her on monday and tell her about the cottage chesse and egg salad?

Good Luck!