Dr. Kelly-March 8, 2014

Hi everyone. First-time post-er here! My niece and I are traveling together to get sleeved by Dr. Kelly in less than 4 weeks. My husband will be going along as our travel companion and I'm starting to get worried that 2 of us will be more than he can handle! I'm torn though, because it seems some people actually travel alone. I guess I'm asking how "high maintenance" you were after surgery until you returned home? Should we ask someone else to go?

My husband is a year and a half out from being sleeved, but did it here in the states. (His insurance covered it at the time.) I just don't remember what he could and could not do the first 2-3 days. 

Though I can't answer completely right now. I am having my sleeve done with Dr Kelly next week and will be going with my mother.. I can check back with you next week.. But I feel confident that everything will be fine for you :)

Good luck Marysam! I'll be anxious to hear from you on the other side! How's the pre-op diet going for you?

Hey, I just wanted to check in with you. How'd surgery go? How're you feeling? Any advice, now that you've been there?

I had a great experience, I did my surgery at Nova hospital, and though it not a newish type hospital like hospital Angeles, My mom and I were really taken care of. It did help that we both speak Spanish. But if you don't that ok cause they also speak english enough to get by. The day I arrived to TJ was the day that did my surgery, Cecy (Dr. Ramos Kelly's wife) and Lora lee picked us up at the airport and drove us across the border to Nova hospital, upon arrival we met with Dr Ramos Kelly and he answered all the questions my mom and I had before the surgery. 

They took us to a pre op room to get ready for my surgery and get my pre op test started.. After all was done around 3pm was my surgery. When I woke up I was a little groggy but no real surgical pain except for the gas pain..that night I can say neithe my mom or I got any sleep because I was up every half hour having to pee cause of the Fluid IV. The next day was spent in the hospital room and can pretty much say was bored a lot of the time. I got up several time to walk up and down the hall to help relieve some of the gas pain which helped...but other then that nothing much else todo..I had my ipad but you get bored of that quick to... Got to sleep a little bit more that night. 

Saturday we were released from the hospital. And taken to Hotel Ticuan (lucerna was all booked up) but this hotel is actually a lot nicer then the Lucerna and on the Main Street of TJ revolution ave. so I finally got to sight see a little...the day we were leaving to the airport Dr. Ramos and Cecy came to visit us at the hotel we chatted for a good hour or so and Cecy then took us to the airport. Because of my surgery we got to take the medical fast lane, but even then crossing the border back in to the US was an experiance .. So that was my experiance in Tj and Dr. Ramos Kelly. if you are concedering Doctors I fully recommend him 100%.

Glad you're doing well and thanks for the thorough recap!! My surgery is next Saturday at Nova w/Dr. Ramos Kelly. None of us that are going speak Spanish, so I hope we'll do ok. (I have Google translate on my iPad, maybe that'll help?)

So, if you don't mind, let me ask minutia/details...

1) Tell me more about crossing the border (both coming and going). I assume you and your mom have passports? Any troubles? (What was the "experience" you alluded to? Bad?) my husband and I are traveling with passports, but my niece was told she just needs to bring her birth certificate and she'll be fine. (That makes me nervous, though.)

2) you mentioned having your iPad in the hospital. Did they have free wireless? Did it work well?

3) where did your mom eat while you were in the hospital? Was it expensive? 

4) did you pack any jello or broth and take with you, or was everything provided?

5) did you bring gas-x or anything for the gad, or just walk to get rid of it? 

Hmmm...that's enough for now, but I may have more. :)

In crossing over to TJ it was fast you don't need your passport to cross over but you will need them coming back. If you have a passport card it would actually be better and faster. And since you are going for surgery you will use the medical fastlane which is only and about an hour wait going back to the states. It usually about 3-4 hours without the medical fastlane. And what I meant about it being an experiance is cause I never seen anything like that. There are people walking up and down the lanes of cars selling good, soviners, etc.. I wouldn't recommend buying from any of them cause once someone see you buying from a vendor you will have about 30 more surrounding the van. 

I had my ipad. And yes it worked well enough to surf the web and going on FB and all my other social network apps...I didn't try it for my netflixs so I wouldn't be able to tell you..but I don't think it would have been super fast if I did. The wifi is password protected but you just ask the girl that registers you into the hospital and she will give you the password

I did not take any food items over. While your at the hospital you will be fed thru the IV..so at the hospital you actually won't eat anything.. At the hotel the staff will know your there for post surgery and you will be able to have broth and that's usually free to medical patients. At least it was for me. For your husband and niece if they want to bring something to eat they can..there is also a Mcdonlds and KFC around the corner of the hospital as well as a fresh market next to the hospital and they can also get something to eat there

I did buy gasx but forgot to pack them. But I soo recommend taking them cause I can say that was pretty much my most discomfort...walking helped but no to much

hope that's helpful :)

That's great information! Thank you! I did think of two more questions, if you don't mind...

1) when you woke up, did you have a pain pump? Or, did you just request meds when you needed them? Or, did you even need any?

2) some people have talked about Cecy taking them shopping, and/or to the beach. Did they offer to do that with you?

Thanks again for answering my questions! Hope you're still feeling well! 

Yes, they did have a pain pump for me. I didn't need it for long cause they would drop the pain relief into my IV...and I didn't request them..they would periodically monitor my IV and determine what I needed in my IV..but truthfully I didn't feel much pain afterwards.

Truthfully I didn't get to spend much time cause of how I planned my flight. But yes Cecy was very helpful thru out my whole trip. I do wish that I could have stayed a little longer so that I could have seen the beaches as I was told they are very beautiful. My sister going to do her sleeve as well after she saw how well my procedure went so we plan to stay a little longer on that trip.

Thanks Marysam for this! (And thanks to rziller for asking the questions!!)

I am also going down to have my surgery done with Dr. Kelly next Monday, so this is extremely helpful!!

I wish you the best in your recovery, Marysam :)