please no DR HAUCUZ

[utahband 0]

are you there?

[jocarojo 0]

I wish I could find out the name of the clinic - I lived in that area until about a year ago.

[Want2surf 22]

I'm adding my story years after the fact in case somebody is googling Dr. Huacuz, like I just did. I don't know whether Dr. Huacuz is still doing lap bands. I was banded by him in 2007. I decided to go to Tijuana because I was desperate. Surgery was much more expensive in the US back then. My BMI was high enough that I was afraid I would lose my job (firefighter) but not high enough to qualify for surgery in the US and with no comorbidities I had no hope of insurance coverage even if my BMI had been high enough.

My experience was scary. I was not honest about my experience on the bariatric board I followed back then or in my reviews on the Huacuz Clinic website. This was because I had no aftercare plans and I wanted to stay in the good graces of Dr. Huacuz and staff in case I ran into problems.

The clinic had a muddy, dirt parking lot. The nurse was nice but spoke no English so I couldn't ask questions. She was the only person there most of the day. An American psychologist talked to us briefly in the afternoon. There was only one other patient in the clinic that day and we both brought our Moms with us. The showers had only cold Water which made me wonder about the sinks where the doctors scrubbed. We were left to wait all day and into the evening without knowing what was happening. The surgeons apparently work elsewhere during the day and came in at night. My surgery was at 9 pm. In the middle of the night (post surgery) the building alarm went off. The nurse (again the only person there) was frightened and told us in broken English there was a break in. My Mom looked out the window and saw people in handcuffs being led out the front door and put into the back of a pickup by men with assault weapons. Included with the surgery was a night in a hotel that was across the street but we were so shaken up by the conditions that I asked to have the IV removed so I could get the fluoroscopy done and leave as soon as possible. They allowed me to do that.

I came back to Huacuz a month later and had a 1cc fill. My band was always so tight. I never had another fill. I lost all weight to goal which was about 105 pounds including pre surgery diet period. I never had any post surgery care. I learned what I needed to get by from the bariatric boards. I vomited a lot. My hair fell out. I found very few foods I could keep down. I drank hot tea. I drank cold tea. I tried to meditate. I stretched, walked around and hopped up and down. Sometimes I couldn't even get Protein Drinks or water to go through the band. I had the band unfilled. It still felt tight. To do this day I feel constant pressure at the band site and have problems eating. I dropped too much weight and, ironically, became too small to do my job properly. My goal weight was 130 pounds and at one point I was nearing 115 pounds (at 5'4"). People said I looked unhealthy. My BP was always low and I constantly felt thirsty.

I had read on the band sites that people were able to get crunchy things to go through so after years of trying to eat a proper and varied diet I discovered popcorn, cheetos and wheat thins would go though the band. I also found that immediately after eating these junk foods I was able to drink liquids (especially diet soda) without throwing up. Once I started eating this "bad" stuff, I didn't stop and I gained weight up to 172 lbs. I continued to try to eat healthy foods with constant throwing up and feelings of pressure and bloating. Finally..Kaiser SoCal got on the bandwagon and started providing bariatric education and aftercare. I was nervous about going to the doctor because I thought my band experience was unusual and all the problems were my failure to do things correctly. I finally just had an upper GI and chest X-rays done and was told by the bariatric surgeon at Kaiser that my band is and always has been too tight He didn't see how I got any food in at all when it was filled to 1cc. He said it is too tight even though unfilled! I asked him why Huacuz would have put a band on me that was too small. He said he didn't know but Kaiser isn't a fan of bands and won't do them anymore.

Last Summer I retired. I went to the Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu for a month and lost some of the weight I put on with the cheetos and popcorn. I'm at 140 pounds now. I'm in Kaiser's bariatric education program and working toward getting the band removed and converted to a gastric sleeve. Even though I am within 10 pounds of goal again, I don't trust that I won't regain all the weight I lost after getting the band.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Want2surf