moonglo82
March 28th- The Day Before Surgery!
Mar 28, 2012
Since my experience will be so different from most, being that I am travelling to Mexico and all, I wanted to start my blog of my journey tonight so that anyone who is thinking about using Dr. Aceves will know what my experience was, from start to finish.This all started back in January, when I spoke with Nina, Dr. Aceves's patient coordinator on the phone. I had already decided I wanted a VSG, and I knew the minute I talked to her that I had found my surgeon. She was friendly, answered all of my questions patiently and thoroughly, and she also responded to emails with the speed of lightning! Such a change from the doctor's office that I was going to use in Atlanta!
I was not required to do any kind of liquid diet preop, but instead I did a two week low carb diet. One week of that was required by Dr. Aceves due to my BMI, but I started a week early so that I could get used to eating that way on my own schedule. It made the week before surgery that much easier, and I highly recommend it.
Anyways, on to today. I had to be in San Diego by 11:00 am, which meant flying in from Atlanta bright and early in the morning. Our flight arrived early, but so did Dr. Aceves's driver, Ramon. Me, my husband, and two more people, another husband and wife team in which the wife is having a VSG as well, were on our way to the border within minutes of landing. Ramon picked us up in a minivan, and the ride out here was very comfortable. Ramon was friendly and answered all of our questions as best as he could... he's not the normal driver, so I don't t know if he was as knowledgeable about what we were doing as the regular driver is, but he was still a great guy.
We made it into Mexicalli about two hours after leaving the airport and were taken straight to the hospital for our preop tests. I asked Yolanda if anyone has ever been turned away once getting to Mexico, and she said that the preop tests are just to make sure that nothing has changed since the initial paperwork was submitted, and that they have never had anyone get turned away based on their preop test results. In fact, she told us that there are only two people in all the years she has worked there that have left without their surgery; one lied about having a pulmonary embolism (?), and the other chickened out and fled the hospital, but he came back a few weeks later.
While I was preparing for my EKG, I voiced my biggest concerns to Yolanda, mainly my fear of not waking up after surgery. Yolanda was great at calming my nerves and reassuring me that their entire team is committed to making sure that I am 100% safe the entire time, and that the anestheseologist in their hospital has never lost a patient. That made me feel a million times better.
We also met Dr. Campos, who is the nutritionist in the practice. He speaks better English than most of my high school students do, and he was also great about answering our questions and easing our fears. He also gave us permission to eat whatever we wanted for dinner, and to also have up to two margaritas! I took advantage of this because I figured anything I could do to take the edge off would be great... lol. :) We were also given an antibiotic to take tonight, as well as something to help us relax so we can sleep. I'm to have no food or drink, including water, after ten pm.
So, here I am in the hotel, digesting an awesome dinner and enjoying a little down time before taking my meds and heading to bed. I'm still nervous, but nowhere near as fearful as I was this morning, when the least little thing had me in tears.
I will update as soon as I am alert enough to do so. Thanks for reading! :)
