Hi all - I just joined this site and posted a "hello" a few minutes ago, but as I started looking at a few posts where people were in the process of considering Dr. Alvarez vs. other places that might be cheaper, I thought I would share my sister's story:

My sister had the gastric sleeve in Mexico about a year ago. Her budget was $4500 firm. (I feel weird putting the doctor's name here or anything--I guess if you really want it, PM me or something.) The long and short of it is she says, "you get what you pay for." She got really nervous once arriving at the clinic -- as she puts it, "it was a clinic in a strip mall." I think her surgeon did like 8 surgeries a day. She was stuck in multi-patient rooms, didn't feel like the care was top notch, and the surroundings made her feel like they weren't maintained so well. The wonderful news is she is doing great a year later with no complications. She says she would go back to Mexico for it in a minute, but she wouldn't go back to her specific clinic.

So as I started looking at going to mexico for surgery, I kept my sister's comments in mind as I looked. Yes, you can find doctors to do the surgery for less. But I think I'm going in to the initial phase of the process with less stress and anxiety because I know I can expect a great doctor, top-notch care, good communication before and after, etc.

Obviously I can add to this once I've actually been to Mexico and had my surgery! But in the interim, maybe this will help someone who is fretting over the decision.

d.