My VSG experience in Mexico *LONG POST*

[ambrosia76]

Hello everyone,

Today I am 8 days out. I went back to work today and I am doing well. I haven't actually done any work while at work though!

Last week on the 18th I flew to San Diego on a 3+ hour flight from Houston. I arrived just after the 10am pickup from Weight Loss Agents, so I had to wait for the Noon pickup. No problem. I stopped and bough a milk and a cup of hot water from a little shop near baggage claim and mixed up some protein and a hot cup of broth.

In a few minutes I was joined by a fellow member from these boards, Pattimelt, who was scheduled for the same day as I was. She's ever so nice and talking to her and her husband made the long wait for the transport van fly by. We kept seeing a black van go by over and over again and he ended up not stopping to get us until closer to 12:30.

Before I knew it we were packed like sardines inside an unmarked black van and barreling down interstate 5 toward Mexico. I felt like the driver was going 90, but it was probably just an illusion because I was in the back of the van and I'm not used to not being in the front seat.

We got to the border in about 30 minutes and we were stopped for a very short period of time, maybe a minute, while the border agents opened the back of the van and talked to the driver.

After that we wound our way through some scarily narrow streets and ended up at Green & Health Hospital for our pre-op testing.

I was so very nervous. I didn't know what to expect, but it was smooth sailing. We first filled out some paperwork and they called us into the office to sign consent forms and make our final payments, if needed.

While I was in the office I was told that they had an opening in the schedule that day and they asked me if I wanted to do same-day surgery and I said sure! I was taken directly in for my blood draw, blood pressure check, EKG, and weigh-in. I believe their scale said I was 332, but I'm going with my official scale at home that showed my weight that morning as 329.

After I got the all clear from my EKG I went to the waiting room and told all my van mates that I was getting my surgery that day. I may have waited less than 5 minutes before a man came to take me down to my room. A room that I shared with three other ladies. They gave me a gown and told me to take everything off. Soon thereafter they put in an IV in my wrist and wrapped my calves in ace bandages and put some of those surgery shoe covers on me and the hair cover and we walked to the OR.

Once in the OR the anesthesiologist asked me a couple questions that I do not remember and I felt something go in my IV and then he said here is some oxygen and I was out like a light.

I have no idea how long I was out, I think around four hours. After that I fought so hard to go back to sleep but I never did anything other than nod off for brief periods and I walked the halls a little bit.

I didn't have much gas pain I was just so uncomfortable trying to find a way to lay that didn't hurt my stomach. I hate sleeping on my back.

Somewhere around 5am they had us all getting packed up and ready to go to the hotel. They asked us to take a shower so we could get our bandages changed. The shower was really hard for me. I was dizzy and even while sitting on the shower chair it was a half-assed shower. I basically cleaned my belly and my "undercarriage" and gave up. I think they gave us IV pain meds along with the new bandages, but honestly I can't recall. I do remember a doctor coming to visit us in the room.

Later on my room mate and I walked across the street and down about a block to check out the pharmacy. She found lots of things to buy and I got some more of the pain pills they gave us for at home because I know my pain pill tolerance and I didn't think there would be enough for me. I also started taking the Antacid medicine they gave us to take home because I was having some weird feelings in my stomach that the antacid helped with.

I think I managed a nap that afternoon but as I still couldn't find comfort on my side it wasn't much of a nap. My room mate felt great and ended up going on the shopping excursion a day early. I did not feel great so I stayed in the room trying to eat ice chips.

Wednesday night I'm sure they gave us an IV bag full of drugs and I had a fairly restful sleep.

Thursday morning they asked us to shower and remove our bandages again and we had to start drinking the purple drink for the leak test. They gave us some pretty strong pain meds before the leak test. They made my vision go blurry for a few minutes. I started feeling really bad on the way to the x-ray and it just got increasingly bad as I sat there waiting. Everyone else was laughing and joking and seemed to be in good spirits, while I sat there hugging myself and rocking back and forth trying not to cry.

It was finally my turn and I stepped up on the machine and took the two big gulps of some nasty liquid (the first liquid was tasteless). I'm glad I brought a gas x strip with me because it helped get the nasty taste out of my mouth. My xray showed no leaks! YEAH!

Once I got back to my room I created a "recliner" out of pillows and blankets to keep my head elevated so I could nap on my back. Sometime later a doctor came to visit and check up on us and while he was talking to me and showing me my xray I got nauseated and ran to the toilet. Luckily I only dry heaved a bit, but I was happy the doctor was there, he felt I may have had a slight allergic reaction to the contrast liquid and I was a little feverish and red looking so he put me on a bag of IV fluids with some extra nausea meds and some steroids and I napped more. Sadly I missed out on the shopping excursion due to the reaction but I didn't feel like doing anything anyway.

I didn't do anything else that day but lounge in bed and watch Netflix on my phone. That night we got another bag of the good stuff and they took our our drains and our IV since we wouldn't be getting any more meds.

Friday morning my room mate left and I just lounged all day. I wasn't scheduled to leave until Saturday since I was bumped up a day on the surgery schedule. I probably could have gone on the shopping excursion with my original van-mates, but my stomach was pretty upset, probably due to the reaction from the contrast, and I felt it was prudent to stay close to a familiar toilet.

I did walk myself back over to the pharmacy to buy some of the Electrolyte drink called "Electrolit" they sell there which was extremely tasty and really cheap. I got coconut, peach and pineapple flavors to bring home. Coconut was my favorite. Pineapple my least favorite, which is weird because I LOVE pineapple. I continued to try and sip on cold liquids and chomp on ice to stay hydrated. I never had any broth. I got two Otter Pops and had two cups of jello.

I never saw another doctor or nurse on Friday. I guess they were truly done with me since I had surgery early. I didn't mind. I did have to call and ask what time my van was leaving because no one ever told me like they were supposed to.

6 am was my departure time on Saturday morning (what fun). I had an alarm set for 5:30 but my uncomfortable body woke me up around 4am. Since I had packed everything the night before I checked the room a couple more times for missed items and headed up to the front by 5:45.

There were so many people they needed two vans to take us all back to the states. One girl in the van I got on didn't have her passport so we had to wait in an extra long slow line to get back over the border. Once we got there they questioned the girl as to why she didn't have her passport and questioned the lady from Canada about where she was born and when she became a Canadian citizen and asked us all why we were in Mexico. He didn't check anyone's bags or do any strip searches.

My flight didn't leave until 12:50 so I had a LONG LONG wait at the San Diego airport. I grabbed a seat in the area and waited until about an hour before my flight to check my bags and go through security. and before I knew it I was back on good ole Texas soil and in the loving arms of my husband.

I went to bed that night at around 7pm and didn't get up till after 11 am the next morning. Finally a decent night's sleep.

I weighed in that morning at home to find I lost 9 pound while in Mexico.

I weighed in again Tuesday morning for my official one week weigh in to find I lost 15 pounds in my first 7 days!

I'm so undeniably happy that I did this. I'm still sipping on antacids every so often and I had to eventually buy some Imodium pills to stay away from the toilet but other than that I am doing great and looking forward to my new sleeved life.

[Muchomedic]

It sounds like you had a good experience, except for the nausea, pain and difficulty sleeping....lol. I am looking forward to the benefits of the surgery, if not the surgery itself. Hope to hear how your progress continues in the next few days and months ahead.

[ambrosia76]

It sounds like you had a good experience, except for the nausea, pain and difficulty sleeping....lol. I am looking forward to the benefits of the surgery, if not the surgery itself. Hope to hear how your progress continues in the next few days and months ahead.

I'm really a wimp when it comes to feeling bad or pain, so a "normal" person probably would have had no complaints.

[Christie13]

I am glad to hear everything went well Amber. I have a hard time with coming out of anesthesia which causes extra nausea and dry heaving post op. Sounds like you do too. Which is probably why you felt sick longer than all your surgery mates. Congrats on the weight loss so far. Don't forget that pretty much everyone goes through the dreaded stall between weeks 3 and 5. Don't let it bring you down when it happens!

[ambrosia76]

I am glad to hear everything went well Amber. I have a hard time with coming out of anesthesia which causes extra nausea and dry heaving post op. Sounds like you do too. Which is probably why you felt sick longer than all your surgery mates. Congrats on the weight loss so far. Don't forget that pretty much everyone goes through the dreaded stall between weeks 3 and 5. Don't let it bring you down when it happens!

I expected to have a lot more nausea than I did. After my gall bladder removal two years ago I puked my guts out.

[Debra3]

Do you mind sharing what you paid? I really appreciate your long post, it is very detailed and very helpful.

[Pattimelt]

Yay Amber! I've been thinking of you and wondering how you were getting along! I'm so glad you're feeling better now and you're actually able to go to work! I'm ok too, just dealing with this stupid cyst behind my knee and diarrhea. These things too will pass, but I wish they would hurry up! Congratulations on your weight loss so far, that's amazing! I'm going to wait as long as I can to weigh so I am definitely in the losing zone.

Stay in touch! Cheers, Patti

[ambrosia76]

Do you mind sharing what you paid? I really appreciate your long post, it is very detailed and very helpful.

I paid $3,999

[ambrosia76]

Yay Amber! I've been thinking of you and wondering how you were getting along! I'm so glad you're feeling better now and you're actually able to go to work! I'm ok too, just dealing with this stupid cyst behind my knee and diarrhea. These things too will pass, but I wish they would hurry up! Congratulations on your weight loss so far, that's amazing! I'm going to wait as long as I can to weigh so I am definitely in the losing zone.

Stay in touch! Cheers, Patti

I was nervous about weighing because I heard so many people say they gained from all the IV fluids, but I couldn't stop myself. I'm looking forward to adding creamy soups next week. There's this tomato and roasted red bell pepper soup that I recently discovered and I LOVE IT. My sister actually ordered me a whole case of it off Amazon yesterday.

Its weird the things I am craving...bananas and Hummus. Not together of course, but of all the things I could want at this point I want a banana more than anything.

[GigiUSA]

How are you doing now? I am so glad to have read your post. It does really help me as I prepare to go to TJ in early July.