Care After Surgery in Mexico?

[jaczim 11]

For those who have had surgery in Mexico, how have you handled care once you're home? Anyone have any problems in this area? Thanks in advance for any information!!

[wascott 395]

I just had surgery in Mexico yesterday. I don't expect to have any complications. I will see my primary care physician in 2 to 3 months for blood work and possibly adjusting my prescriptions. If I had anything bad happen I'd go to urgent care or the ER.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I checked with my insurance and maid sure that any post-op visits to the ER or anything would be covered once I got home. I also spoke with my PCP about it pre-op and she set an appointment with me for one month post-op, along with blood work. I have since had blood work and office visit with her at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, and 8 months post-op. My next is scheduled for 1 year. All of my blood work has been perfect and she's been thrilled with my progress.

Oh, and my surgeons office gave me copies of my surgical report, EKG, and blood work from the day of my surgery to share with my PCP as well, so she has all of that in my file.

[wascott 395]

@@JamieLogical I saw that I need to request the surgical notes. Did they then mail the information to you?

[jaczim 11]

Thank you both!!!

[Nickyspencer 21]

Ive heard from other patients that you take that home with you

[KristenVSG2014 1,871]

I gave my surgical notes, leak test and blood work done in Mexico to my PCP. He has done followup blood work for me at 3 months and I'm going to get my second set of bloodwork tomorrow. Then I'll see him at my one year surgiversary in November. No complications for me!

[JamieLogical 8,684]

@@JamieLogical I saw that I need to request the surgical notes. Did they then mail the information to you?

I requested them soon after I got back from Mexico and once they were translated to English, they sent them to me via email as a PDF, along with scans of my EKG and labs.

[wascott 395]

@@JamieLogical I appreciate the information. I sent my coordinator a message and he said that it will be sent in a couple of weeks. I'll let the others in my surgical group know.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

@@JamieLogical I appreciate the information. I sent my coordinator a message and he said that it will be sent in a couple of weeks. I'll let the others in my surgical group know.

I just looked back through my email and see that I received mine on 9/13/14. My surgery was 9/1/14. So it was just under two weeks. They do all of their note-taking in Spanish, so it makes sense that it would take them a little time to have it translated to English. The surgical report itself is two pages and goes into a lot of detail about materials used and whatnot. Then there is one page that is a scan of my EKG graph. And one page that is a scan of my lab results.

[jaczim 11]

Any of you mind sharing who your surgeons were, what the cost was, and whether you would recommend them?

[JamieLogical 8,684]

@@jaczim My surgeon was Dr. Ariel Ortiz at Obesity Control Center. My interaction with Dr. Ortiz himself was pretty limited, but he is a world renowned surgeon with impeccable credentials, so I felt very safe in his hands. For me, the big feature of OCC is the full team. I got quick and helpful answers to all of my questions from the staff both pre and post-op and I received excellent care at the clinic. The nutritionist has been a godsend providing me with all the pre and post-op diet instructions, answering all my questions about Vitamins, following up with me many times post-op to check on my progress, and just generally being awesome. In fact, I just emailed her with a question this past Sunday. I'm almost 10 months post-op, but had a question about the change in formula of my Multivitamin. I sent the email around 7:00pm and she had replied by 10:00. This was on a Sunday no less! Remember, these people got my money 10 months ago. They won't be getting any more money from me. Yet they still take the time to respond quickly to all of my questions and provide excellent service. I was pretty impressed with that.

The other doctors at OCC were similarly responsive. Dr. Jimenez answered my questions about when to stop and restart my Vitamins and prescription meds around my surgery. Dr. So helped me when I thought my drain site might be infected post-op. I sent him photos and he called me within minutes to let me know he didn't think it was infected, but with instructions on how to care for it and advice for what to do if I really was concerned about infection. Turned out it wasn't infected after all, but I was impressed that he called me literally within minutes of me emailing him photos.