Surgery Scheduled for May 12th

Hi, my name is Kelly and I am scheduled to have the lap band surgery on the 12th of this month. I am kinda scared and not sure what to expect. Has anyone had surgery done in Mexico? My surgery is scheduled to be done through Betancourt Medical in Tijuana. I am a little nervous about going out of the US, but the prices are so much cheaper that it was hard to pass up. Also, I could not get my skin flint insurance carrier to cover it. Any advice would be much appreciated before I go to have the surgery. Thanks for your help

Welcome Kelly - I don't check the boards here much anymore but saw your post and saw 2 things I thought I'd respond for. First, I grew up just to the north of you in Grant County. Small world. Or state, should I say. Second, I did have my surgery done in Mexico by Dr. Alejandro Aguirre in Ensenada, but he only does open RNY, not lap band. I would recommend you check out the South of the Border forum here: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/south-of-the-border/posts/ and ask about Betancourt Medical. I've not heard of that name - most refer to the doctor who will do their surgery though. Going to Mexico was a great experience for me and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The only issue I have about going to Mexico which you want to consider if you haven't, is getting the lap band can cause problems after surgery with getting fills and getting things regulated. Some people end up overfilled and cannot ge****er down due to swelling that occurs after surgery, and some people never get filled quite enough. So finding a doc in the US is a challenge, and unless you have a local doc that knows how to do it and is willing to give you your fills, you may end up having to travel long distances to find a doctor who will do this for you. Line that up FIRST before you go anywhere and you can then breathe a sigh of relief. This is one of the only issues I have with the band is when people go to Mexico. I've seen some people do fine because they found a doc locally or were able to travel back to Mexico easily for the adjustments. But far too many of them end up with issues of not being able to get their fills, and some just get it drained altogether and forget about it. I don't want to scare you away from having this done, but just want you to be aware. Do your legwork now and get someone lined up and solid before you go down there. Unless you want to keep going back and forth to Mexico when you want to get a fill or adjustment... Good luck! Dina PS: I think someone on the SOTB forum who had a lap band was working on a resource for doctors (or may have a link) in the US who will do fills for patients from Mexico. It's usually not cheap though....keep that in mind.