- Name: Connie Y.
- Age: 58
- Surgery: Gastric Sleeve
- Surgery date: April 7th, 2014
- Testimonial date: July 18th, 2014
- Surgeon: Dr. Almanza
It has been 15 weeks since my surgery. I have lost 71 pounds to date. I feel wonderful and my energy is coming back. I have a long way to go but I am loosing every week. Having this surgery is the best decision I have ever made in my life. I only wish I had done it years ago. I have struggled all my life with my weight I have been on every diet there is and lost a lot of weight but I could never keep the weight off. I had clothes from a size 12 up to a size 28. Now with this weight loss journey as the pounds come off I am getting rid of the bigger clothes because I know I will never need them again. I also know this surgery is not a fix it is a tool, and a wonderful tool I might add. Now about my Surgery - Dr. Almanza and his staff are absolutely the best. It is a scary thought to go out of the country to have this surgery. The patients are treated very well and are watched over while you are in their country. They shuttle you to all of your appointments, and the surgery. When I went I took my husband, mom and dad. We had to pay for our room since I brought extra people. Which the rooms are very inexpensive compared to the states. If you come by yourself they pay for your room. I thought anyone would be crazy to go on such a journey by yourself. But after I got over there they got all of the surgery patients together and you are all shuttled together to your appointments. There is not enough room in the shuttles so family and spouses had to wait at the hotel for some of the procedures, except the Surgery day. All of the other surgery patients I met there in Tijuana were the nicest people and I felt comfortable with them all. We laughed and talked basically all became friends. After that experience I would not hesitate to go by myself if I had to. Some of us exchanged email addresses and keep in touch. The most important thing is to follow the Pre-Op diet to a T. It is several days days with no food only clear liquids, but is worth following it makes the surgery go so much easier. The girls that had problems after the surgery said they did not follow all of the days of clear liquids like they should have. I basically had no problems after the surgery. Even when they talked about taking the drain tube out. Some of the patients said it was awful, but I had no problem. The day after my surgery we walked downtown Tijuana, and everyday after that. Don't sit in your room waiting for the Dr and nurses to come and change bandages, and the things they are coming back to do. I did several times and then realized their 10 minutes are sometimes hours and I missed out on some days I wanted to go shopping, so I told them I am going out I will call you when I get back. Just be careful where you go and be back in before 5pm when the vendors close, then the bars open and it can get kind of rough. Best to be back in the Hotel at that time. The worst thing is drinking the dye before your leak test. The nurse was so cute she did not speak very good English I asked her is it going to make me throw up. She smiled at me and said "YES". I laughed and said well at least she is honest. I did the leak test and the dye was so bad I did not drink enough so I had to do it again. I did not throw up, just tasted nasty. The Hotel Tiquan was very nice and my family said the food was pretty good. Just don't eat the steak, Steak over there is very tough and not very good for the price. Basically the only problem we had was the transportation. They have the schedule down very well but there was not always enough room in the shuttles for the patients. The day we got there they had a problem with one of the vans and we waited a few hours to be picked up. Then when we were to go back they started to tell me they didn't have a van to take us to the airport. I had to raise a lot of cain to get them to get a van to take us back but they got it worked out. They do so many of these surgeries they have people coming and going all the time. My experience was so great I am going back in June of 2015 with my Step Daughter and Step Niece they want to have the surgery after seeing how much I am loosing. This has been a learning experience learning how to eat all over again. For the first several months just soft food and liquids, got to love those popsicles. Now adding more solid foods and figuring out what I can tolerate and what I can not. I still keep track of everything I eat and the calories on my fitness pal so I can keep loosing at a steady pace. I do drop quicker when I can fit excercise in or stay active. The more I loose the more energy I am getting. We went to Branson, MO on vacation and walked so much and I actually kept up with my husband. Our Hotel was on the 3rd floor and we walked the stairs instead of the elevator, we were there four days, it felt so good to be able to go upstairs without feeling like I was going to die, and being out of breath. Only bad thing was all the Dinner Shows, couldn't eat very much,so took a lot of doggie bags back to the hotel for my husband to eat later, which saved on breakfast we never had to buy one. But I never felt deprived, you just eat a bite of everything. I guess I better end this I could go on and on but I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE. PLEASE DON'T PUT OFF ANY LONGER HAVE THIS SURGERY YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT, I PROMISE YOU. I will post some more pictures soon of my progress.
