My experience with Dr. Ramos Kelly, Mexico Bariatric Center and Florence Hospital
For those of you that don't feel like reading a long drawn out story, the bottom line is we had surgery 4 days ago and things went way better than expected. I am sooo happy with my choices.
For those of you that like all the juicy details, here it goes. My name is Christina and I just became a member of this website today. I have been here numerous times reading tons of information and getting great ideas from everyone though. I'm not too big on forums so I never gave any thought to starting an account and posting my story until getting home from surgery. Things went so well, I wanted to let anyone with any questions know how happy I am with my decisions.
After a lot of research, my fiance Justin and I decided that we both wanted to have Gastric Bypass surgery done. We are both heavily overweight and decided that this surgery would probably give us the best results. We decided to go with Dr. Valenzuela and Dr. Cabrera. I had wanted to go with Dr. Ramos Kelly originally because I had heard way more reviews from him and he seemed to have a ton more experience but ultimately we decided we would try to save a little bit of money. Which now that I think of it is kind of crazy since it’s something as severe as surgery. Anyway, I emailed Mexico Bariatric Center and quickly received a reply from Christy. Christy is amazing! She must eat, sleep and breathe her job because anytime I would email her, she would respond almost always within the half hour. It didn’t matter if it was 10 o’clock on a Saturday night; she was always there with a quick response. That’s not even to mention how helpful she was and how much information we got from her. She even referred us to a nutritionist named Marie. Marie had all kinds of free information on recipes and vitamins. Not many people realize that she’s is available so if you need her, her phone number is (949)357-3153.
Christy let us know that we would have to fill out questionnaires and be approved by the doctors before we could proceed. We submitted the forms to Christy and within a day or 2 heard back that we would not be approved for the Gastric Bypass surgery but they could offer us the Gastric Sleeve. Really hoping to go for the bypass, we decided to try submitting our forms to Dr. Kelly who accepted us. Christy said that it was probably due to the risks of our high BMI and Dr. Kelly was more comfortable with the risk because he has a lot more experience. She also told us that we would need to stay in Tijuana for 4 days. We should arrive before 2pm on the first day and we would both be taken to Mi Doctor for surgery on the same day as our arrival. She said that we would be staying in the hospital for 2 nights and then we would be taken to the Marriott Hotel for the last 2 nights. Later on, she let us know that Dr. Kelly would rather have our surgeries done in Florence Hospital, Oasis of Hope. A few days before surgery we were contacted by our driver, Victor. He told me just to give him a call when we arrived and he’d be there.
On the day of our surgery, we flew in to San Diego and sure enough when I called Victor, he was already pulled up to the curb and helped us with our bags. We got through the border with no hiccups and the trip to Florence Hospital seemed to be a little bit less than a half an hour. The trip there is a bit scary and you drive through a few rough areas with a lot of graffiti. But by the time we got to the hospital, the area had completely changed and was really nice. Victor introduced us to our coordinator Danny who was very nice and always came in to check on us. The hospital itself is beautiful. They have a really pretty garden out front that we spent a lot of time in during our stay. They have rooms there that have an actual extra bed for guests that accompany patients. That bed was actually a bit more comfortable than a hospital bed lol. After we asked to be put in a room together, they moved us to a double bed room that didn’t have the extra bed but that was fine with us. My dad came with us but opted to stay at the Hacienda del Mar hotel which was only a block or 2 down the street. If you tell them that you have someone staying at the Oasis of Hope, they will give you a discount on your room too. Our hotel room was a bit warm with the door closed but nice none the less and they had no problem bringing us a fan when we asked.
There seemed to be a little bit of confusion at this point. We were told that our surgery would actually take place the following day because we would have to drink a gallon of this chalky lemon flavored stuff that would clear out our systems. Dr. Kelly came in and introduced himself immediately. He is extremely down to earth and friendly. He said that since we needed to drink this stuff, there was no way that he could do surgery on the day of our arrival and that this should have never been an option given to us. But he did say that since we had adhered strictly to our diet, he would cut it down to a half a gallon. He also said that since our surgery would be the following day, they just opted to keep us in the hospital the entire time instead of transferring us to a hotel. That ended up being fine with us because everyone at the hospital was so great.
That day was nerve wracking but uneventful. They drew some blood and brought us in for X-rays. In the morning, Dr. Kelly came to visit again and let us know that we would be going in soon. Our IV lines were put in with a little difficulty but that was largely due to our veins. Justin was taken in first while my dad and I were left to freak out. We were told that surgery would be around an hour and a half. Justin’s lasted about 2 and ½ hours. The nurses stopped in a few times to give us updates which helped a lot.
Dr. Kelly must have come in as soon as he was done because his whole back was covered in sweat. He let us know that Justin’s surgery was a little bit more technically difficult than normal but he was able to work through it without any additional incisions and he will be able to recover normally. Justin was brought back to our room to recover and was in and out but doesn’t remember much of anything. Shortly after that I was brought in for my surgery. Things went well and took about an hour and ½. I slept most of the rest of the day and was only awake enough to realize that besides a little bit of trouble deep breathing, there wasn’t a whole lot of pain. We did a whole lot of walking in the following days. The main source of pain came from the drainage tube. After that was taken out on day 2, we immediately felt 100% better than before. Removal felt a bit strange but wasn’t that painful, just a bit of pressure.
Four days in and we’re still a bit sore, mostly from walking so much in the airports yesterday but every day is getting a little easier. I am so glad that we ended up going to Dr. Kelly because he truly seemed to care and asked us to keep in touch in the future. Dr. Kelly, the staff at the hospital and the staff at Mexico Bariatric Center were all amazing. I was originally worried about having surgery in Tijuana but I didn’t need to be. I grew up with asthma and spent a lot of time in hospitals and I can tell you that I received way better care in Tijuana than I ever did in the states. In the end, the only regret that I have is the fact that we didn’t get discharged from the hospital until right before we went home. I wished I would have had a little bit of time to wander because the area was beautiful and the hospital was only a few blocks from the ocean. Lucky for us, Victor was nice enough to stop by so we could take some pictures on our way back to the airport.
Good for you!
I had Dr. Kelly on Nov. 5th 2012 for a VSG.
I also had a fantastic experience. i went directly through his office though and his staff were terrific. They also pick you up at the airport and transferred you from hospital to the hotel and back to the airport.His coordinator even took us out to the market!
It was the best decision I have ever made.
Good luck with your recovery. Mine went very smoothly.
You mention saving money between using the three different surgeons. How much did it cost with Dr. Kelley? And what was your BMI? I know I contacted one surgeon and they said they would only do the sleeve because my BMI was 2 higher than they would do RNY for. The surgeon I consulted in the US said a RNY is the only one he'd recommend for me for long term success because I'm a sweets eater and hopefully dumping will discourage that. But surgeon here is $22,500 for RNY.
They told me that Dr. Kelly usually charges $7,000 for a RNY. Because of my high BMI, it was $8,000. They require a $750 deposit to reserve your date and the remainder is due one week prior to surgery. They even work with financing if you need it. I'm not sure how they are because we paid cash. My BMI was 56. This price covered my entire stay besides the cost of our flights. Way worth the cost because we had such a great experience. Tijuana sounds intimidating but it's totally not.
We weighed ourselves before our 2 week preop diet. My fiance has lost 61 lbs and I've lost 40. Best decision of my life!
Try posting your date on the first page of the Mexico forum. You will probably get more responses because more people will see it.
Congratulations on choosing Dr. Kelly! I had my VSG done by him in Nov 2012. I had a great experience.He is a fantastic surgeon.Message me with any questions and Good Luck!
