Hey Michelle!
Just wondering how things are going with your pre-op diet.  You must be getting very excited :)

CONGRATS!!!!!!  That's fantastic - I'm so excited for you!!!!!

YAY!!!!

I'm in Abbotsford and have 6 kids so I probably can't drive you places, but I can be a support. If you can in any way make it over to aldergrove I can always pick you up for out meeting in abby or we can find out when the meetings are in Langley, I can always pick you up in langley if you are able to bus it over?? I am also close to mission so if you could make it over there I can pick you up. Let me know.

Hi there - I'm glad you asked! 
I had a revision (band-to-sleeve) with Dr. Ponce de Leon at INT in Tijuana on June 17th of this year.  The surgery went well, and I have had no complications or problems.  From what I could gather in my pre-decision research, Dr. Ponce de Leon is considered a top-notch bariatric surgeon.  This was confirmed by Lana, the woman who runs Grace Guesthouse where a lot of Dr. Ponce's foreign patients stay after they get out of hospital.  She herself had had two surgeries with Dr. Ponce, and said she would never go to anyone else.

I can't tell you a great deal about the man himself, as he choses to use an interpreter rather than speak English, which he can't speak perfectly.  This tells me he is probably a perfectionist, which is what you want in a surgeon!  I mostly dealt with the people he works with, in terms of communicating - Dr. Friday, who speaks excellent English, Dr. Ponce's assistant Marlon Sanchez, and a few other hospital staff.  I was able to get most of the information I asked for from them.

The hospital itself is very clean, and the response time by the nurses is incredible - they came to my room within seconds of being buzzed, every time!  I only had one nurse (a man) who spoke English.  He's the one who came to draw my blood before surgery and ask a lot of the pre-surgery questions.  Another nurse who came after wanted to know my weight, I think, but she didn't know the English word and I didn't know what she was asking until I thought about it and figured it out later.  I guess she went and got the information from my file, as I had told the male nurse earlier.  I thought it was strange that they didn't weigh me before the surgery.  That's what they do in all hospitals here in Canada, becuase they need to know how much medication to give you.  Make sure you know your weight before going in!

So, to re-iterate, I believe Dr. Ponce is a great surgeon, and the hospital is very good.  The things I was not impressed with are:
1.  Most important, I was totally misled by Marlon Sanchez about the hospital I would be at, where I would be staying after I got out, and how much it would cost based on these factors.  I never even heard of INT hospital until I arrived there!  The options I was given were the new South San Diego Medical Clinic, which is not finished being JCS accredited, and Angeles Hospital, which is a large, state-of-the-art facility.  I was told that if I wanted the surgery at Angeles, it would cost $1,000 more than the quoted price I had been given.  I chose that option, and paid for it.  I was also told I would be staying at the Lucerna Hotel for two nights following my two nights in hospital. 

On the morning of surgery, I was picked up at my hotel in San Diego by Lana and driven to Tijuana.  We arrived at INT hospital and I said, where are we?  What happened to Angeles Hospital?  It was VERY upsetting, because I didn't know what I was getting into.  If I hadn't had Lana there to reassure me (she herself having had surgery at INT and having taken care of lots of other people who had as well) I think I would have really lost it.  I also found out I would be staying at Grace Guesthouse and not the hotel, which was fine and turned out to be a really great thing.  (What would I have done for two days by myself in a hotel in a foreign country with no one to buy me popsicles and bring me tea and chicken broth?)

Anyway, it turns out Marlon has a bad habit of being way behind on payments, and clearly gave me this incorrect information so that he could have the use of my additional $1,000 to pay other bills.  On the morning of my surgery, he told me I would be refunded my extra money.  I am still waiting for the wire transfer refund and my invoice (which I need for tax purposes) SEVEN WEEKS later.  I will be contacting him this week and he'd better have my money to me in a few days.

2.  When planning the surgery I was told that Dr. Ponce would want me to stay an additional night in hospital because of my surgery being a revision and therefore more complicated.  But after the surgery they released me after two nights, which is the usual time.  I could have gone home a day earlier, but of course I had booked my flight based on what I was told, and had to stay 2 nights at the guesthouse.  This wasn't really that big of a problem because it gave me an additional day to get my strength back before coming home to the demands of my family, but it is just one more example of being given incorrect information. 

3.  I was given very strange instructions about post-surgery diet.  I was told to stay on clear liquids (no protein supplements!) for 15 days, then go onto full liquids (again, protein supplement shakes were not on the approved list) for a further 15 days, and then proceed to mushies (I don't remember the time given for this or further stages).  Well, I have looked at A LOT of post-surgery diets both here (there is a whole list of links for these) and other places, and 30 days without significant protein supplementation is just CRAZY.  Not only would this make a person incredibly weak, but it would certainly lead to significant hair loss.  I decided to follow a different plan, and I felt so much better when I started having protein about a week after my surgery.  I sped up the progression to the next two stages as well.

4.  I was given a chart showing how often I was supposed to contact Dr. Ponce for follow-up check-ins.  I wasn't told how I was supposed to contact him - phone, e-mail, and what times he would be available or anything.  When I got home after the surgery I sent Marlon an e-mail asking him these questions and did not receive a reply.  So I have had no contact with Dr. Ponce, and only one contact with Marlon since I came home over six weeks ago.

My last piece of advice - if you are communication with someone named Tommy Sanchez, you are probably being given the wrong information about something.  Ask for Marlon.  And get EVERYTHING in writing, including an invoice before you go.  That way there will be a trail of evidence.

All in all, I'm glad I used Dr. Ponce and am very, very happy with the results.  I could do without the stress of this other stuff, of course, and would love to get my overpayment refund, but now that it's done and I've lost 30 lbs as of this morning (!!!!) I couldn't be happier.  If you do chose Dr. Ponce, I would love to hear your impressions of the whole experience and how things went for you.  Good luck with whatever you decide.
-Rachel