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Tell me about your day/night of surgery

  1. SweetCaroline
    SweetCaroline
    I'm very close to getting my surgery scheduled. Dr. Ariel Ortiz is the surgeon and I'm going through the OCC. No matter which Dr. or location you used, I'd like to hear about the actual day of your surgery. Was it a lot of sitting around? Did you feel like you were just one in many being herded around? How was your night in the hospital? What was the room like? Did you have an IV with pain meds? Were you woken up a lot? What time did were you awakened and taken back to the hotel? And then what did you do at the hotel? Just sleep and walk around?
    I really want to go in having some idea of what to expect. Any feedback is appreciated!

    Thank you!
  2. chb2011
    chb2011
    I had surgery the day I got there. No issues, no pain medicines but every 12 hours, IV is fluid and antibiotics. Nurses didn't bother you at all. We would get up and walk. I had 3 in my room. One room had 2 and the other had 5. Around 8:30 am they picked us up to go to the hotel. There you could rest or walk around the block. Really no pain just gas. Take gas X strips with you.
    Cheryl
  3. Beautiful
    Beautiful
    There were 6 of us and I was the first for my sleeve ,about two hours after I woke and my cousin had to leave the hospital I got up and walked and bugged everyone else to get up and walk so that is what we did just about all nite long slept very little .walk walk walk ya know I thought there were only 5 of us at first then I found another room with 1 girl in their eating a bunch of gas-x and feeling sick so we the rest of us kept checking on her and making her get up and walk.i think we saved her life.
  4. Seheller
    Seheller
    I had my surgery 10/29/15 with Dr Sergio Verboonen. I chose to pay extra ($800) to have the procedure done at the INT hospital in Tiajuana vs the Obesity Goodbye Center. I felt more comfortable that way in the rare event something went wrong.

    Before surgery: labs taken and cardiac ekg done at clinic. Then transported to hospital. Upon arrival at hospital nurses came in, were incredibly professional, kind and attentive. Started an IV of pain meds and fluids. I have terrible veins and the nurses were so delicate with me. Wheeled back to the OR about an hour and a half later. Surgery was done under general anesthesia. It took about 20 minutes. I don't remember anything of the surgery and following was wheeled back to my post op private room. I was groggy but not in any pain. Day of surgery I had IV pain meds every few hours. Day after surgery I was transitioned to oral medication. Like Vicodin but the Mexican brand name. Morning of day 3 I checked out, went back to center to take the drink test and have the exam to check for no leaks. Went home following that.

    I did throw up day one. Tootsie rolls that I had ate the day before. I'll never eat a tootsie roll again. That was just awful and disgusting. No pain following procedure whatsoever. Just the gas. Walk walk walk walk walk. I was up and about day one. Totally helped me!

    I'm down 49 lbs! Starting weight 191.4, today 142. Good luck!

    Best thing I ever did.
  5. Lolo2
    Lolo2
    My day I was nervous of course and not feeling well from being on liquid diet for so long and then fluids only and my surgery time was late in the day. After surgery was the most ridiculously comfortable experience ever, no pain o discomfort, about day 2 I had some gas pain but nothing too upsetting, I kept taking T3s for a few days but probably didn't need to. I lost a bit in the beginning but ended up a slow loser, felt like the only one and stopped losing and started gaining about 10 months after, I am still down from surgery weight but only about 15lbs and my blood sugars are great so I feel much better. Weight gain is my fault with food choices but I also think that maybe my stomach empties too quickly, I have measured food and can't get much more that 3/4 of food in at a time but there r slider foods etc and eating later at night that also are my fault. I am a rare one in that I'm not a success story but still very happy I had it done, I'm off all meds and am hopeful when I get serious again my smaller stomach will help me diet.
  6. Kindle
    Kindle
    I had my surgery at OCC 2 years ago. My flight was cancelled the day before so my travel plans went to shit. I arrived in San Diego at 1:30am day of surgery. As did one other OCC patient and a patient going to another facility. We crashed at the holiday inn and went back to the airport the next morning for the OCC shuttle to pick us up. Since I arrived so late, I was the last surgery of the day (there were 5 scheduled that day).

    When I arrived, I greeted my sister who had stayed at the Marriot the night before (her flight was on time) and was taken to OCC with the rest of the patients. I Filled out paperwork and got blood drawn. Chatted briefly with Dr. Martinez. Sat down with the nutritionist to go over my weight and health history as well as the postop diet instructions. Then sat down with Dr. Jimenez, the cardiologist. Went over my Heath survey form and he did an ECG. Had a great chat with him cause I had a Packer's jersey on and he was a Vikings fan. Super nice guy (despite his poor taste in football teams)

    Went to my room, changed into my gown and compression stockings and paper undies that were WAY to small. All private rooms at OCC with TV, cable and WiFi. Nurse came in and put in my IV. My sis and I only see each other 1-2 times/year so we were were laughing and joking and having a blast this whole time. Dr. Ortiz came in between surgeries and we talked for about 30 min. Mostly about the crappy US insurance system and his vacation to Yellowstone National Park for a winter photography tour he was leaving for the next day. I live just 2 hours from West Yellowstone so I told him I'd be tracking him down if I had any complications

    Wheeled into the OR about 2:30. I remember talking to the anesthesiologist about being very nauseous after anesthesia in the past and then nothing. Woke up as they were transferring me from the recovery table to the bed in my room around 5. My sis was there but I was very groggy so everything was a bit jumbled in my head. I was thrilled to realize I was not nauseous. I pretty much slept until 9pm then I emailed my parents and Facetimed with my sister who had gone back to the Marriot at 6pm. I spent most of the night dozing, watching TV and walking up and down the hallway. Chatted with the other patients as I met them in the hall. The nurse kept checking my IV and making sure I wasn't in pain...which I never was. Eventually she brought me water to sip.

    My sister and other guests came back around 8am. I was given all my postop meds and we went back to the Marriot around 9am. I ended up walking to Walmart twice that day so my sis could get her Starbucks fix. I also bought some isopure from GNC as well as some herbal tea bags at Walnart The isopure was super gross, but the tea was heaven. Sucked on popscicles and sipped chicken broth back at the hotel in between walks and naps.

    I never once felt rushed or like an assembly line. In fact, we got very personal attention from the entire staff including the driver who took us shopping the second day and the office manager who made us all chicken broth to sip on during our trip back to the airport on the 3rd day. We were given cell phone numbers for pretty much everyone we might need to contact.
  7. Luann
    Luann
    My surgeon was Dr. Alejandro Lopez, through MBC, and my surgery at Hospital Mi Doctor. Stayed at Tijuana Marriott 1 night before, and for 2 nights after my surgery (2 nights in hospital). I had my labwork & EKG done the night before my surgery (at the hospital), when I arrived in Tijuana before being driven to the hotel.
    I checked out from the hotel the next morning & was driven back to the hospital. Sat in a waiting room with about 5 other patients or family members briefly, they took me in first. Went down to the OR area, actually was seen in PACU where I was seen by the anesthesiologist & given an exam & medical history taken. I remember about 10 seconds of being in the OR. Woke up in PACU again, forgot completely that I had surgery ( asked the nurse why my side hurt so bad, I thought I was still waiting to go in). She must have given me something strong because I was knocked out again & woke up in my room.

    I had a private room, the care was decent the first day, in fact both days (day and evening shift) - the night shift had a pretty worthless nurse I had the misfortune of being assigned to. Maybe the other nurses were better, I don't know. Rough time with nausea & vomiting. No surprise for me because that always happens to me with anesthesia, I spend 2 days puking after surgery no matter what.
    2nd post op day I was worried about being discharged because I was needing IV antiemetics still, and not able to drink much fluid / throwing up still. But they said this is common & that I would be discharged back to the hotel. I was scared about that but it was so nice to be back in the beautiful hotel, have a comfortable bed & a nicer space. I had a hard time keeping anything down until I found the peach nectar in the gift shop. It was all I could keep down & I felt like it saved my life. Haha sort of dramatic but I was so sick & weak & dehydrated. I felt horrible. I believe the first day after surgery I drank blue liquid to see if it would come out in my drain, and the next day I remember going for the leak test in radiology where I drank the radio-opaque liquid & had the fluoroscopy to check for leaks. No leak, I was fine. Surgeon does the first leak test while you are still in OR.

    Dr. Lopez checked on me every day in the hospital, and his assistant surgeon (Dr. Ortiz? He was so nice, I loved him, I wish I weren't so bad at names) also. As in separate checks, also in the hotel. He removed my drain the last night at the hotel.
    I was told to walk more, I was so drugged out I slept too much in the hospital. I was pretty much only waking up to puke or walk to the bathroom. I wasn't walking enough but I was so nauseated, when I did walk I had to take my emesis basin with me. This might fly for a hospital ward but I didn't have the nerve to walk around the hotel with my barf basin. So I just walked a lot in my hotel room except for brief periods when I felt well enough I was confident I wouldn't puke in the next 20 minutes. Yeah I was that sick. Then I would make a run to the gift shop for more peach nectar. I bought them out! I think once or twice I called the lobby & someone was kind enough to bring me a can I bought on room service. Can't say enough good about the Marriott. Best service and staff of anywhere I've ever stayed.
    I was feeling sick, felt like I had an infection brewing (I did) and was scared because I was having a lot of palpitations the 2nd day at the hotel. This was during a time when I was having 4,000 + PVCs a day, so I was worried what that was doing to my blood pressure. I would get hypertensive when I was having a bad run of them. I called my coordinator Christine, & started bawling on the phone. She sent Dr. Lopez right away. He stays in the hotel so he can check on his patients quickly in case of a problem. He came within 5 minutes, along with another doctor (one I had not seen before) and my driver Raul. He didn't think anything needed to be done, but at least he did check on me. I flew back to Seattle the next day.
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