Mexico patients

When having surgery in Mexico, do you need to fly down there before the surgery to meet the doctor and do preop stuff or do you only fly down for the surgery? How does it all work?

 I am scheduled to have surgery in Mexico in October.  You fill out a patient questionare and they approve you off that information.  Once you arrive they do some blood test & and X-ray and swept off to surgery once that has been cleared.  BE CAREFUL when choosing a Mexican doctor.  There are some wonderful and very safe doctors.  Then there are some that are not.  Focus on someone that does the surgery in a HOSPITAL and only a few a day.  Good luck!  You are the same weight as I am!  What's is your height? 

Blessedbutlers: I am 5 feet even. How tall are you?  Thank you all for the information.

 I am having surgery with Dr. Alvarez on October 11th.  When is yours?

Oct. 18 

Best of luck to you!

I flew in the same day I had all my pre-op and then surgery . Flew home 4 days later.. Easy as can be..
Julie

 My experience with Dr. Aceves in Mexicali:

Did a lot of pre-op stuff over the phone and via email.  Fly to San Diego the day prior to the surgery, and you get picked up by the clinic's driver with anyone else scheduled for the same day.

From the airport you go straight to the hospital for pre tests.  EKG, Bloodwork, nutrition counseling by a Doctor that has had a VSG himself, etc.  Then you spend the night in a hotel.  They give you a sleeping pill to help get a good night's sleep.

7:30am you are picked up from hotel and taken back to the hospital.  You check in, get a room, put away your things, get a gown on and wait.  If you're first up (I was) you meet with the anesthesiologist, the doctors, etc, who explain what will happen. You're wheeled into the OR and the next thing you'll remember is waking up in the recovery room - from there back to your room and within a few hours you'll be up and walking.

Spend that night in the hospital - day 3 you'll get a leak test and if that's good you can start drinking juice and broth.  I was never thirsty - the keep the IV turned up pretty high so I never seemed to need to drink.  Lots of walking... chatting with the other patients, etc.  

Another night in the hospital, and then the next day you get a barium test to make sure everything is good.  Hang out in the hospital with incomming patients and get a final night's rest.

Leave for the airport the next morning.

 I was sleeved in Tijuana 11 days ago. I was picked up at the San Diego airport 7am the day of surgery. Went in, had bloodwork, EKG, basic physical exam and nutritionist consult. Then whisked away for surgery, done in less than an hour. I spent the night in the hospital, my companions were taken to the 5-star hotel Marriott, included in my package price. The next morning, they came back and stayed with me until discharge, around 11am. I went back to the clinic daily for the next two days for vital signs, weight, and bandage change. Friday, my drain was pulled and a final leak check performed un X-Ray. I was discharged and transported back to San Diego, also included in the rate. I had a good experience and felt that my surgeon was very good. There was some language barrier with some of the nurses. The discharge instructions and diet info. are probably more vague than what you would receive in the U.S. However, I was able to have the procedure done for a THIRD of what it was going to cost locally, with a more experienced surgeon (even after the cost of airfare for 3 to San Diego). I filled out a health questionaire on-line and was approved based upon that prior to surgery. Feel free to message me with further questions. The entire process is scary and doing it out of country adds to the anxiety. This site is a great source of info. Do your research, empower yourself with knowledge. Best of luck to you. 

 Hello,

I am having surgery with Alberto Aceves in MX on Sept 20th, YAY!
Like you I was concerned about all this. Luckily my doctor here is super supportive and we are doing all we can here to gear up for the surgery (bloods, EKG, Xray, etc.) tweaking a few of my meds to make me surgery ready. I also have a CT scan and abdominal ultrasound images that I am sending to him as I have Viceral Situs Inversus. This anomoly makes my case high risk, but Dr. Aceves has done surgery on people with my condition before and this is the main reason I chose him.

I am doing this voluntarily so I know BEFORE I go what shape things are in as well as have baselines of my bloods. My doc has also agreed to do all post op labs and I have a surgeon on board here to follow up with the more emergeny tyoe stuff (complications, etc.).

I would say try to find a WLS friendly doc/surgeon locally and go from there. This can be tricky, but I know finding a good doc can mean the world in forms of success! Good luck to you, and know we are all right here with ya!

Cheers!