Photos

.
No Photos Have Been Uploaded Yet.
View Other People's Photos
I'm Not In Any Photos Yet.
Before & After

There are currently no before and after photos for this member.

See these instructions if you wish to submit your own Before & After photos.
Goals

No Public Goals Yet.
View The Goals Page
Surgeon Testimonial

Guillermo Alvarez M.D.
After researching the sleeve and seeing all of the youtube videos of Dr. Alvarez, including the video of an actual sleeve surgery, I was very impressed. I had already been seeing a local surgeon who was head of bariatrics at our major hospital. I called to find out how many sleeves he'd performed and his nurse said 100. One hundred? THAT'S IT? Dr. Alvarez has done thousands! I don't care if my surgeon was a US Dr, I wanted someone with the most experience doing my surgery! It's only through experience that the art of surgery is perfected and I wasn't going to take chances on an inexperienced sleeve surgeon.

I found the online chat through the endobariatrics website and whomever I was chatting with put me in touch with Susan and we started emailing the following day. I found out all the details (like they do ALL the driving and all we had to do was fly to San Antonio and they handle the rest!) and started asking my questions. I quickly felt confident that I wanted Dr Alvarez to be my surgeon so we got our passports expedited and booked our flights. That was the most work I had to do because the rest just flowed like clockwork. The shuttle from the airport to the hotel was perfect and Rosy was waiting for us at the hotel when we got there. The drive down was uneventful and the border crossing the following morning was no big deal at all. A couple minutes after crossing the border we were at the hospital and meeting Dr A and his staff. He is kind, attentive, and answered any questions my husband or myself had.

We were given a nice room and Jessica (she's a sweetheart!) took me to get labs and xray done and after meeting with the anesthesiologist, it was off to surgery. I didn't really even have any fear because I'd done my homework on Dr A and felt so confident that all would be fine and it was.

I woke up from surgery and felt nauseated and threw up a few times. I was given medication and felt better. I never had another complication (not that nausea is a complication but I'm sure you know what I mean). Jessica took care of making sure my husband had meals and was doing well. She checked on me often and took care of anything we needed. The non-English speaking nurses were also sweet but we didn't really deal with them much because Dr. A has his own staff.

I must admit that before making my decision of using Dr A I was concerned about having surgery across the border. Once I learned all of his qualifications and read prior reviews about him I really didn't worry about it any more. He has so many good reviews that I was worried he was too good to be true but he really is just that good and here I am adding to those five star reviews!

My PCP does all my aftercare labs and follow ups so I don't have any trouble with that. I do miss the fact that I can't go to a local surgeons aftercare support group but the OH site can be used for support in place of that. And an aftercare support group isn't worth the $9,000 MORE I would have paid to use my local surgeon.

I would definitely recommend Dr. Alvarez for your sleeve surgery and I may even be going back with other family members in the near future. The hospital was clean and safe, his staff is kind and caring, and Dr A was wonderful! It was SO EASY to set up and plan my surgery with Susan and I don't regret a second of it! I'm only a month out and I've lost 25 lbs and two clothing sizes. I feel happy and content with the smaller portions of food because I'm not hungry and I get full on small amounts. I don't feel deprived at all!

On a sidenote, my incisions are amazing! I have seen some that are big, ugly and look like they'll be eyesores for a long time but mine are the tiniest little slits that healed so beautifully that one of them isn't even noticeable and I'm not even finished healing! Bonus!

Seriously, look up all his videos, watch the surgical procedure. You'll be confident and not worry about leaks when you see how he over~sews the staple line (this was very important to me). Go with Dr. A and don't look back!
Latest Surgery Support Comments

No comments posted yet.
Please post yours.

Click here for the surgery support page
goingforit1's Blog
goingforit1's Blog


No posts have been made



Archive
    None


Tags
  • None