Hi all! I am planning to go to Mexico for a VSG, I was considering Ariel Ortiz as my surgeon. If anyone has any experience with him, let me know I would love to hear it.

But my main question is, since I will be traveling to Mexico for my surgery I will not being all the counseling and preparation for the surgery like I would in the US. (6 mos of dieting, psych eval, dietary counseling). I am worried that because I am skipping this part my surgery will not be as successful.

Does anybody have advice or insight they would like to share?

I believe the 6 months preparation is critical to success. Attending monthly classes and pre-op class and post-op class with the nutritionist as part of the Bariatric Center of Excellence program set me up for success. I knew exactly what to expect after the surgery, am ready for each phase of eating, and continue to get support from my bariatric team.

I have no regrets and have suffered no major issues.

If you have a bariatric nutritionist in your area, it is worth the money to consult with them.

I went to Ariel Ortiz at OCC, so I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions about my experience if you want to PM me. OCC does have a great nutritionist who will email you pre-op, meet with you in person while you are there, and follow up with you and answer ALL of your questions post-op. I mean, I have literally emailed day and night, even over a year out, and gotten quick replies to my questions and concerns. As for the psychological aspect, if you think that may be an issue for you, it might not hurt to seek counseling in your home town. Your PCP may be able to refer you to someone that specializes in eating disorders.

Regardless of where you have your surgery and the presence or absence of certain pre-op requirements, the key to success, in my opinion and experience, is successfully changing your relationship with food. In my case, I took my six month pre-op diet program requirement as an opportunity to lose as much weight as I could (99 pounds to be exact) and to change my relationship with food BEFORE the surgery. This was a good thing for me because post-op, I was able to deal with the discomfort, physical limitations, mental game, and the food stages (especially the never-ending 3 weeks of liquids post-op) more effectively because I wasn't trying to work on that relationship at the same time. Also, when the 3 week stall hit, I had lost about 120 pounds and not just 20 pounds, so that was much easier to accept and power through than it would have been otherwise.

You might find a nutritionist and psychologist locally to work alongside whatever resources (human and otherwise) are offered through your surgeon in Mexico.

Good luck!

My psych eval was a joke. It was a rundown of my weight history and I had to fill out a form. I thought it would've been more.

I first thought of getting the surgery done 9 months ago, I'm now less than 3 weeks away from surgery (also in Mexico, but with Dr. Cabrera). In some ways I feel lucky - for a morbidly obese person, I'm pretty healthy (no co-morbidities), active, and while I obviously overeat (mostly, because I can), I don't have food addiction issues. I don't have any support here in Japan (and I wouldn't even if I had the surgery here), so I've been educating myself, watching videos, reading tons of articles and blogs, and learning from forums like this one. The only thing I miss that other people have is the ability to join groups of people in real life who are dealing with WLS pre- or post-op. I'm so thankful for places like this though, because otherwise I'm not sure how well I would do without that kind of support.

I used to worry I was missing out on a lot because I didn't have to jump through the hoops that most everyone else has to, but I've also read that a lot of that is for insurance purposes, and that the quality of care you get pre- and post-op can range from fantastic to indifferent. I think for those of us having surgery in Mexico, not having all the tests beforehand is not necessarily detrimental to post-op surgery success. It just forces us to be more pro-active about educating ourselves and finding local medical support that may or may not have experience with WLS, but are willing to help us out anyway.

My psych evaluation was the guy telling me how beautiful I was going to be when I got skinny and to make sure I come back once I was thin to talk about going out for drinks... yea he was a jerk!!

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@@whitneyisfab

All of our patients work with Stacy Eckel who is our certified nutritionist during their pre-op diet. Once they have surgery they will be in contact with Stacy for as long need.

We also have a Post-op support group on Facebook were our US based registered dietician along with our nutritionist and Dr. Illan will answer any questions you have.

BariatricPal Team MX wants to make sure that our patients have ALL the pre-op and post-op support they need to be successful.

I would love the opportunity to discuss our surgeon Dr. Jalil Illan and BariatricPal Team MX services with you.

You can read about Dr. Illan here

https://teammx.baria...-oasis-hospital

Watch what our patients have to say about Dr. Jalil Illan, Oasis of Hope Hospital and BariatricPal Team MX

http://www.bariatric...-7#entry4359687

Tour the Oasis Hospital

https://teammx.baria.../pages/hospital

Please feel free calling me 619-900-7808 when you have a free minute.

Hey Bill, am I on this post op group on Facebook? What's it called?

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My psych evaluation was the guy telling me how beautiful I was going to be when I got skinny and to make sure I come back once I was thin to talk about going out for drinks... yea he was a jerk!!

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That is terrible! You should have reported him for his incredibly unprofessional behavior!

To be completely honest it was my 3rd try going through all the hoops of getting the sleeve covered through insurance and he was close to the last step. I didn't want to jeopardize that, I bit my tongue and ran outta there as fast as I could!!!

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