Close to a decision

Thank you everybody for your replies.  All of you sending me pms about Dr. Aceves PLEASE STOP!  I'm not going to choose him.  I feel like I'm being bombarded.  I know he does 3 leak tests, so does almost every other surgeon I checked with.  I know he keeps you 3 days and so do most of the others.  I have my reasons for not choosing him and the other surgeon that I mentioned.  I feel that the feedback I'm getting is from coordinators and not from real patients.  The wording in all the pms are too much alike. 

Someone actually sent me a pm saying that Dr. Aceves has done like 800 staple lines without ever having a leak.  I talked over all the complication possibilities with the surgeon that I was going to use when I thought my insurance might cover.  He assures me that those numbers are impossible. 

I know those stats are not accurate.  I was able to dig fairly deep before ruling him out and I know Dr. Aceves had at least one leak.  I don't know if there was ever more than one because I didn't pursue it further when I saw that I was not being told the truth.   I am wondering if this is a common practice of Mexican surgeons to give out whatever stats they want.  How would we ever know? 

Thank you Lady Catherine I will inquire to Dr. Aguirre.  Does he also do the VSG?

I'm still trying to keep an open mind, but staying in the U.S. is looking better to me all the time.

Just keep doing your research, you are doing great. Everyone wants you to have a safe surgery no matter where you go. I am not a Aceves patient, but I have heard he is one of the best, but, there are more out there. I just want to give you a atta girl for working very hard at making the right decision for yourself.

My sister had surgery with a guy in Dallas Texas she loves him, she stayed 2 days in the hospital then had a follow up a week or so  later.  His name is Dr Wade Barker.  I am relatively new what is PMS (lol in my world that stands for premenstral syndrome).  I also looked into the Doctor that was on your video link Dr Nicholason (I think that was his name) , I think both of them charge around $17000. for self pay.  I spoke to my sister and she said you were welcome to email her if you wanted info on her surgery  just put VSG surgeon in the subject line her email is [email protected], her name is Tammy she is from Athens Texas. 

The main reason that I am looking in Mexico is that I work in healthcare in the US (nurse practitioner) and I refuse to pay the out of control prices that are charged in the states for the care that is provided in many faciliities. In my area (Montana) a facility in Greatfalls charges $33,000. for self pay.  Also , US providers can hide there complications as well.  In fact when a practitioner is sued for malpractice it is standard to have as part of the settlement agreement that the injured party is not able to disclose the information regarding the case to anyone.  Healthcare in general is a scary business.  This is why the national practitioner database was set up however, they do not have the kinks worked out of this system as of yet.  In Mexico, it is much harder as an American to determine what type of reputation a provider has.  I have heard great things about Dr Zapata in Monterey and had considered going there but didn't want to have to be that far into Mexico.

  Now mind you I know what to watch out for as far as complications and self care, my mother in law is a nurse and could be at my bedside in 1 day and I have a team of healthcare providers that will help me out when I come home. 

I truely hope that you find someone that fits your needs, when you do I would love to hear about your experience.  Do you know when you want to have surgery?  I have mine scheduled for December 13th.   I havn't figured out how to add people to my friends list yet, I have had a couple of people invite me to be friends and I was able to accept.  Would love to add you as a friend.
Sharon

 Hi I just wanted to let you know that I am going to Dr. Joya in july. I have PM'd allot of his patients and talked to a couple of them over the phone so far everything has went fine. I found I get more support from the lightweight board and I do most of my messeging there because I don't like drama I just want answers. I did allot of researching for my choice. My insurance did cover the surgery but because of my BMI I was not approved. If you want to vent or know more about my process you are more then welcome to PM me. Best of luck with your research and your choice.

so did u make ur decision?

Dr Aguirre does not do VSG. That was actually the surgery my husband and I were contemplating and then changed our minds to the RNY after speaking to Dr. Aguirre. He has done them in the past and feels the weight loss tends to underwhelm and many patients end up converting to the RNY at a later point. He has, however, converted many people from VSG or Lap Band to and RNY.

If you're still interested I can tell you something about his program. The cost is 7,500 and includes all the pre-op testing, transportation to and from the airport, the surgery itself and a 7 day stay a condo with a full kitchen (which makes post-op so much easier... I cannot imagine doing it in a hotel). My husband and I actually opted to stay ten days post op before we flew home (San Diego to New Hampshire is quite the trip) and he charged us $20 per day for the extra days. After the surgery itself we stayed in the hospital 3 days and then spent 10 in the condo. Martin, the driver who transports you to and from the airport and medical appts, also went to the grocery store for us and got us lots of things to eat for our condo stay. He also took us sight seeing and we really loved Ensenada. The condo is located right beside a lovely park and in the downtown area so we walked around and shopped ourselves after day 5 post op.

Surgically Dr Aguirre has done more then 1,000 RNY's and he has been doing them since 1987. He has had 3 deaths in that time. Which impressed me because the hospital we were looking at in New Hampshire has 3 doctors who combined have done only 440 surgeries (from a mix of rny, sleeve and lap band) and have also had 3 deaths. Dr. Aquirre performs open surgery and there are no staples of any kind involved. Everything is hand sewn and he has a less then 1% leak rate for that reason. Sam and I recovered VERY fast considering it's major surgery and we were out shopping 5 days post-op. During our stay at the condo Dr. Aguirre popped in to check on us, look at the foods we had been eatting, and chatted for a bit. It was so comforting to have him do that.

Hrm, that about covers everything I can think of on the fly. I have a write up in my profile that explains our trip at length for anyone who is interested. It does make me sad to see so many other Dr.'s names being bandied about and all the flashy ads and none for Dr Aguirre. He really made us feel so secure and safe and we trusted him implicitly. He is such a good Dr and so experienced that for me picking him was a no-brainer. But, in the two weeks my husband and I were there we were the only surgeries. I hope people will be inspired by our experience to check out Dr. Aguirre because he really is a great surgeon.

My daughter & her husband both had VSG done in Oklahoma City at Weight-Wise by Dr. Tony Broussard ($9,500 then & $12,500 now for surgery & hospital stay but no pre-ops) who does excellent work.  They had no complications & are 2 years out, both having lost almost 200 pounds.  My daughter nagged my husband and I for years to have WLS to no avail, but after seeing her success, we caved.  What she didn't count on was that we did research on ObesityHelp.com and chose Dr. Aceves to do both of our VSG's (sorry, I know you don't want to hear it).  My daughter thought we were going to Mexico to die.  She finally accepted our decision (albeit reluctantly) when we showed her all our research and the cost difference.  She ended up going with us & I think she now has a different outlook (at least for this facility and dr).  We had an excellent experience.  Of course, we are only 4 days out (surgery was on June 29) but we had no complications.  The biggest complication was getting back home because flights from San Diego to Houston to OKC were delayed because of flooding in Houston.  We almost didn't make our connection & trying to run to catch our flight was no fun!  Luckily, our carry-on was on wheels.