Hello,

My name is Gabby, I am a bariatric surgeon's assistant since 2005, and bariatric patient since 2 weeks ago. In all this time I have seen so many people come and have bariatric surgery, I have seen lap-band, gastric sleeve, mini-bypass patients, etc.... I have personally talked to many patients and for many years felt good about all of them, looking at their before and after pictures.

I have never thought that I was going to need this surgery. I have always struggled with my weight, but never thought of it as something serious, until I kept gaining weight and not being able to lose any, I got to the point where I wasn't even able to do exercise to help losing weight, my knees hurt and starting to have problems with high blood pressure. Last year I reached my highest weight (240lb / 42.6 BMI) so I talked to Dr Ramos Kelly about his recommendations for surgery in my case... He recommended the Gastric Sleeve. So I immediately started to introduce myself into the diet plan and Schedule my surgery for February 28, 2018. My co-workers were very supportive and helpful, I had to be on a specific pre-op diet for 2 weeks prior to my surgery and the last 3 days were of only liquids.

The day prior to the surgery my weight was 214 lb/ 38 BMI, I was admitted to the clinic on Feb 28 in the morning, I had already had my labwork, chest x-ray, and saw Dr Lopez (cardiologist) who performed my ekg and cardio evaluation, and Dr Hernandez who is the anesthesiologist. My surgery only took around 35 minutes, I only had 4 incision (because since I followed my diet to the point, my liver wasn't heavy enough so they didn't had to make the 5^th incision!) I woke up and didn't felt any pain at all (which was my greatest fear), I only had a little bit of nausea which was controlled by the medication Dr Ramos Kelly indicated. Next day in the morning I woke up at 5 am and started to walk, (every time I spoke to a patient, I recommended them to walk, walk, walk, but never really knew how important was this until I got there) I also started the respiratory exercises 10 minutes every 2 hours, and was released from the clinic on Friday morning. We went to the Angeles Hospital to have the swallow test done and everything was perfect! I went home to rest that weekend and next Monday I was ready to go back to work!!! (My work is mostly administrative, so there was no contraindication for it)

I continued with my liquid diet and made it for this first 2 weeks, my weight at this moment is 197 lb / 34.98 BMI. Tomorrow I am starting my pureed food stage.

I am forever grateful with Dr Ramos Kelly and all the team for being here for me, for answering all of my question, for all the support that I have from them and for helping me get my life back.

***For all the people that is thinking about having bariatric surgery, don't wait more, this is the time to do it, get your life back. Dr Ramos Kelly is a great surgeon, he is certified as Surgeon of Excellence, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, International Fellow of the American Society of Bariatric Surgery, Fellow of IFSO, trained as a trauma surgeon, besides he cares for his patients.

Yes I would very much like someone to call me. I had a lapaoscopic GBP over 13 years ago. I would like to get a revision to DS. I would love to talk to someone from his office.

I wore a secure money belt under my clothes, which minimized the risk of putting a purse/bag down and having it stolen or misplaced.

Thanks MarinaGirl for that info. Did you have a revision by him or someone u know?

I have to fly from Texas to Puerto Vallarta, and there are several stops. I don't know what customs require. Carrying over $500 cash concerns me because it can be stolen or lost. Even just laying my bag on the turnstile at the airport worries me, if someone picks up the wrong bag, etc..

I guess I would prefer to pay with my debit card, at the hospital when I check in.