My PS consult in Mexico (very long...)
OK I'm giving a fully detailed description to give you the whole "feel" of the experience.
My little journey started out by spending the night at my sister's house because she only lives 30 min from the airport. Cheyenne spent Friday night and all day Saturday with grandma so it was just me and DH.
We got up early and headed to the airport. There was NO traffic and it was great. We checked in and sat in the very comfortable airport chairs for 2 hours. I'd like to point out that there are NO Starbucks in the San Francisco International Airport - WTH? So I tried some other coffee cart for my SF Latte but was highly disappointed after the first sip so I tossed it. Oh well, life goes on...
Plane ride was uneventful and we were in San Diego in about an hour. I had gotten directions from Michelle (eggface) on getting there from the airport so I started looking for the #923 bus. Hmmm, no #923 bus... the only bus was the #992 bus but the route map said it would take me where I wanted to go and there weren't any other busses so that's what we did. Before I go on, I'll tell you that I'm a complete idiot when it comes to public transportation - yeah I know, college educated healthcare provider and I don't know how to use public transportation! But I grew up in the mountains where public transportation was the neighbor. Anyway, we rode the bus to Broadway and Kettner where eggface told me to catch the trolley. Yup, there's the trolley - whew!
But, now I didn't know where to buy tickets so we go up to the information booth at the Amtrac station and ask the lady. She tells us that there are little Kiosks at each trolley station and you can pay with cash or credit card. We thank her and start to walk away. She calls us back and asks if we are planning on crossing the border today. "Yes, why?" She proceeds to scare the crapola out of us about all the bad things going on, robberies, corrupt Federali, drug traffic, yada, yada, yada. Great! I was feeling pretty good about it until now! Her last words were "try not to look like a tourist". Ummm yeah - for anyone who hasn't seen my pictures I'm white as they come and I stand out like a sore thumb. I might as well wear a neon sign that says TOURIST. So anyway, we walk away with a little less spring in our step but continue on, find the kiosk and buy our $5 all day pass and wait for the trolley.
Here it comes "Blue Line to San Ysidro" it announces. We look at each other, take a breath and go to step on but the door closes on us. Ummm, how do we get on? This very nice man walks by and sees the confusion on our faces - he tells us that you have to push the button to open the door. Duh - it says it right there in front of us. Did I mention I don't do public transportation very well?
OK - sitting on the trolley going through some very shady parts I never knew San Diego had, but nothing too scary. It took about 55 minutes to get to the San Ysidro stop where you cross the border and we file off with everyone else. We follow everyone else through this concrete walkway which seems to weave over the freeway and then down the other side. Then we go through two sets of metal turnstiles and we are instantly bombarded with people asking if we want a taxi. Since we do - we say yes and they lead us to a yellow taxi. I give the driver the sticky note that has the address and he sort of nods some kind of affirmation and takes off.
Holy cow! I thought California drivers were crazy!!!! These people are nuts. There seems to be numerous close calls and horns honking at every intersection but after 5-10 minutes we pull up in front of the building. He tells us $7 (eggface told me not to pay more than $5) so we paid him $7 because I'm a chicken when it comes to bargaining. We get out of the car and he speeds off. OK- take a deep breath and look around.
The building looks just like it does on the website. It is a couple stories high and pretty nice looking. Inside it is clean and reminds me of every other American clinic I've seen. I find Dr. Quiroz's name on the directory and head up the stairs to the 3rd floor. Find his office and open the door. Ahhhh, very nice! It is clean, upscale, smells good, and very professional looking. The girl at the desk greets me in perfect English. We were about an hour early but she said no problem and gave me 2 forms to fill out. One general information form and a health history form. I filled them out and waited about 10 minutes.
Then another girl calls us back to his office to wait for him. It's spacious, clean, has numerous plaques and certificates up on the wall and a simple, but elegant glass desk. All the books on the bookshelf are lined up according to size (looks like a perfectionist to me) and there isn't anything that looks out of order. We wait a few minutes and Dr. Quiroz comes in. I like him instantly. He is very personable, shakes our hands and sits down at his desk. He is well-groomed (although he is probably due for a haircut) and he is wearing a white coat with a shirt and tie underneath.
He gets a little of my history and congratulates me on my weight loss success. He tells me that I don't look like a typical WLS patient but it's probably because I started out lighter than most. Then he takes us to an exam room and tells me take everything off except my underpants and put on this silk gown and he left the room. He comes back in a few minutes and even though my husband is in the room, he has another office girl with him (just acting as a chaperone - male docs do it all the time).
He nicely tells me to lose the robe and he starts to look me over - not creepy - just like all the other PS's have done. Then he asks me to look in the mirror on the other wall and tell him what I don't like. I tell him my boobs are flat and my belly isn't. He said "what else?" Ummm, wellllll, I don't know I kinda stammered "I guess the rest is ok". "No", he said again "what else don't you like?". Well, I look at my inner thighs and say "I guess these are a little flabby too". He turns me around and says "what about in the back?" Oh yeah, my backside "Yeah, my butt is pretty saggy too, but it doesn't really bother me much because I don't look at my butt very often".
In summary he tells me that my breasts are deflated but not saggy so implants will probably work just fine and a lift isn't necessary. My tummy could definitely use the tummy-tuck and I'll have great results. But then he basically said I won't be completely happy with the results because I still have the backside and thigh issue. He said it's like putting new carpet in half of your living room. Then he started drawing on me with a marker and pulled the skin on my outer thigh and my butt up about 3 or 4 inches (it moved way too easily by the way) showing me what my butt and thighs are supposed to look like. OMG he's right - I didn't realize how bad my butt was until he so kindly showed me how much extra skin I really have there. I guess because I don't usually look at my backside I didn't notice.
So his recommendation is a breast augmentation and a lower body lift (whi*****ludes the tummy, butt, outer thighs, and mons lift). We talk for a little while longer and ask some questions about the procedures, then he leaves the room so I can get dressed. A few minutes later one of the office girls comes in with my quotes. She gave me 2 quotes.
First was for breast augmentation with abdominoplasty for $8200. The second was for breast augmentation with lower body lift for $9700. They require a 50% deposit before they will schedule and they are scheduling appointments about 2 months out.
Aftercare: Because the lower body lift is a little more extensive than just the tummy tuck I would spend the night in the surgery center. After they release you they want you to stay in the area for 5-7 days for rechecks and in case there are any complications. The two options that they recommend are: 1)stay in a hotel (they recommend the Lucerna) for about $93/night or 2) stay in a recovery/care house for $130-150/night whi*****ludes a hospital bed, nursing care, meals, and transportation between the house and the clinic. The drains come out at 10 days and they can teach you how to do it yourself or you can stay there a few more days and have them take them out. He said they have an anesthesiologist on call 24 hr a day for any pain control issues that aren't handled with the regular meds.
That was pretty much it. They called us a Taxi and he showed up as soon as we got outside the building. Different cab company - he only charged us $5. We stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to get through the border check station but went through without hassle. Boarded the trolley, rode another 55 minutes to the bus stop. Rode 10 minutes to the airport and flew home with absolutely no problems. Got home at about 9 pm on Saturday.
So, that's my Mexico experience...
Now comes the hard part - deciding what I'm actually going to do. Will have to keep you posted on that because I haven't made a decision yet. I'm sure I left something out, so go ahead and fire the questions at me if there is something you're dying to know and I left it out.
Bekah
My little journey started out by spending the night at my sister's house because she only lives 30 min from the airport. Cheyenne spent Friday night and all day Saturday with grandma so it was just me and DH.
We got up early and headed to the airport. There was NO traffic and it was great. We checked in and sat in the very comfortable airport chairs for 2 hours. I'd like to point out that there are NO Starbucks in the San Francisco International Airport - WTH? So I tried some other coffee cart for my SF Latte but was highly disappointed after the first sip so I tossed it. Oh well, life goes on...
Plane ride was uneventful and we were in San Diego in about an hour. I had gotten directions from Michelle (eggface) on getting there from the airport so I started looking for the #923 bus. Hmmm, no #923 bus... the only bus was the #992 bus but the route map said it would take me where I wanted to go and there weren't any other busses so that's what we did. Before I go on, I'll tell you that I'm a complete idiot when it comes to public transportation - yeah I know, college educated healthcare provider and I don't know how to use public transportation! But I grew up in the mountains where public transportation was the neighbor. Anyway, we rode the bus to Broadway and Kettner where eggface told me to catch the trolley. Yup, there's the trolley - whew!
But, now I didn't know where to buy tickets so we go up to the information booth at the Amtrac station and ask the lady. She tells us that there are little Kiosks at each trolley station and you can pay with cash or credit card. We thank her and start to walk away. She calls us back and asks if we are planning on crossing the border today. "Yes, why?" She proceeds to scare the crapola out of us about all the bad things going on, robberies, corrupt Federali, drug traffic, yada, yada, yada. Great! I was feeling pretty good about it until now! Her last words were "try not to look like a tourist". Ummm yeah - for anyone who hasn't seen my pictures I'm white as they come and I stand out like a sore thumb. I might as well wear a neon sign that says TOURIST. So anyway, we walk away with a little less spring in our step but continue on, find the kiosk and buy our $5 all day pass and wait for the trolley.
Here it comes "Blue Line to San Ysidro" it announces. We look at each other, take a breath and go to step on but the door closes on us. Ummm, how do we get on? This very nice man walks by and sees the confusion on our faces - he tells us that you have to push the button to open the door. Duh - it says it right there in front of us. Did I mention I don't do public transportation very well?
OK - sitting on the trolley going through some very shady parts I never knew San Diego had, but nothing too scary. It took about 55 minutes to get to the San Ysidro stop where you cross the border and we file off with everyone else. We follow everyone else through this concrete walkway which seems to weave over the freeway and then down the other side. Then we go through two sets of metal turnstiles and we are instantly bombarded with people asking if we want a taxi. Since we do - we say yes and they lead us to a yellow taxi. I give the driver the sticky note that has the address and he sort of nods some kind of affirmation and takes off.
Holy cow! I thought California drivers were crazy!!!! These people are nuts. There seems to be numerous close calls and horns honking at every intersection but after 5-10 minutes we pull up in front of the building. He tells us $7 (eggface told me not to pay more than $5) so we paid him $7 because I'm a chicken when it comes to bargaining. We get out of the car and he speeds off. OK- take a deep breath and look around.
The building looks just like it does on the website. It is a couple stories high and pretty nice looking. Inside it is clean and reminds me of every other American clinic I've seen. I find Dr. Quiroz's name on the directory and head up the stairs to the 3rd floor. Find his office and open the door. Ahhhh, very nice! It is clean, upscale, smells good, and very professional looking. The girl at the desk greets me in perfect English. We were about an hour early but she said no problem and gave me 2 forms to fill out. One general information form and a health history form. I filled them out and waited about 10 minutes.
Then another girl calls us back to his office to wait for him. It's spacious, clean, has numerous plaques and certificates up on the wall and a simple, but elegant glass desk. All the books on the bookshelf are lined up according to size (looks like a perfectionist to me) and there isn't anything that looks out of order. We wait a few minutes and Dr. Quiroz comes in. I like him instantly. He is very personable, shakes our hands and sits down at his desk. He is well-groomed (although he is probably due for a haircut) and he is wearing a white coat with a shirt and tie underneath.
He gets a little of my history and congratulates me on my weight loss success. He tells me that I don't look like a typical WLS patient but it's probably because I started out lighter than most. Then he takes us to an exam room and tells me take everything off except my underpants and put on this silk gown and he left the room. He comes back in a few minutes and even though my husband is in the room, he has another office girl with him (just acting as a chaperone - male docs do it all the time).
He nicely tells me to lose the robe and he starts to look me over - not creepy - just like all the other PS's have done. Then he asks me to look in the mirror on the other wall and tell him what I don't like. I tell him my boobs are flat and my belly isn't. He said "what else?" Ummm, wellllll, I don't know I kinda stammered "I guess the rest is ok". "No", he said again "what else don't you like?". Well, I look at my inner thighs and say "I guess these are a little flabby too". He turns me around and says "what about in the back?" Oh yeah, my backside "Yeah, my butt is pretty saggy too, but it doesn't really bother me much because I don't look at my butt very often".
In summary he tells me that my breasts are deflated but not saggy so implants will probably work just fine and a lift isn't necessary. My tummy could definitely use the tummy-tuck and I'll have great results. But then he basically said I won't be completely happy with the results because I still have the backside and thigh issue. He said it's like putting new carpet in half of your living room. Then he started drawing on me with a marker and pulled the skin on my outer thigh and my butt up about 3 or 4 inches (it moved way too easily by the way) showing me what my butt and thighs are supposed to look like. OMG he's right - I didn't realize how bad my butt was until he so kindly showed me how much extra skin I really have there. I guess because I don't usually look at my backside I didn't notice.
So his recommendation is a breast augmentation and a lower body lift (whi*****ludes the tummy, butt, outer thighs, and mons lift). We talk for a little while longer and ask some questions about the procedures, then he leaves the room so I can get dressed. A few minutes later one of the office girls comes in with my quotes. She gave me 2 quotes.
First was for breast augmentation with abdominoplasty for $8200. The second was for breast augmentation with lower body lift for $9700. They require a 50% deposit before they will schedule and they are scheduling appointments about 2 months out.
Aftercare: Because the lower body lift is a little more extensive than just the tummy tuck I would spend the night in the surgery center. After they release you they want you to stay in the area for 5-7 days for rechecks and in case there are any complications. The two options that they recommend are: 1)stay in a hotel (they recommend the Lucerna) for about $93/night or 2) stay in a recovery/care house for $130-150/night whi*****ludes a hospital bed, nursing care, meals, and transportation between the house and the clinic. The drains come out at 10 days and they can teach you how to do it yourself or you can stay there a few more days and have them take them out. He said they have an anesthesiologist on call 24 hr a day for any pain control issues that aren't handled with the regular meds.
That was pretty much it. They called us a Taxi and he showed up as soon as we got outside the building. Different cab company - he only charged us $5. We stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to get through the border check station but went through without hassle. Boarded the trolley, rode another 55 minutes to the bus stop. Rode 10 minutes to the airport and flew home with absolutely no problems. Got home at about 9 pm on Saturday.
So, that's my Mexico experience...
Now comes the hard part - deciding what I'm actually going to do. Will have to keep you posted on that because I haven't made a decision yet. I'm sure I left something out, so go ahead and fire the questions at me if there is something you're dying to know and I left it out.
Bekah
I went to Tia Juana to help a friend who went to Dr. Quiroz a year ago. Have they repaired the elevator yet? My friend had to walk down those three flights of stairs the day after her surgery and it was really tough for her.
She and I stayed at a guest house (Casa de Irene), and the lady was very kind and helpful, but the bed was absolutely hideous because it was like a board. We finally bought my friend an air mattress to make it more comfortable to sleep. The lady spoke little English, but was a good cook, and the home was quite comfortable. The only real problem was that the bathroom was a long way from the bedroom, and it was not convenient access in my friend's condition. It would have been much better if there had been a potty chair in the room for immediate use after surgery because walking that far was very painful for my friend.
Ask Dr. Quiroz' staff about the various guest houses--there are more than one. I have no information about the hotel.
My friend is still a little dissatisfied with her results, but it's too late to change now. She was also not pleased to have to go back to TJ for the followup a month later. She decided to have further surgery done in the US just for that reason. She didn't have any complications, fortunately.
From what I've read it takes some time for one to accept mentally the physical changes that PS makes in one's body.
Good luck in your surgery.
Oh gosh I don't know about the elvator - I used the stairs out of habit, but I'll have to check on that.
Casa de Irene is the one they recommended because they said she has hospital beds and it was more comfortable, but I'm hearing from a few people that the hotel might be better.
Can I ask what part of your friends results is she not satisfied with? Just curious...
Bekah
Casa de Irene is the one they recommended because they said she has hospital beds and it was more comfortable, but I'm hearing from a few people that the hotel might be better.
Can I ask what part of your friends results is she not satisfied with? Just curious...
Bekah
The hospital beds might have been installed in the past year; I only know how uncomfortable that board-hard bed was in February of 2007.
My friend's dissatisfaction is mostly due to the unsymmetric scars--but I'm not sure how else the surgery could have been done. (I'm not an expert by any means!) She has a small "dog-ear" tag on one hip, and the scars on her backside are not exactly alike. I'm sure the rest of it is OK, because her US surgeon didn't have anything to say about the results when he was doing her consult for her breast surgery.
Good luck!!
i am almsot 4 years out and have yet to meet my goal..shame on me...however; i know that eventually i would want a lbl and i dunno what about my boobs- i'm also 54 now so i am not so sure that i want to spend $$ on boobs... having the $$ to do this surgery and the travelling is wayyy beyond me right now-
having said all of that --i would feel comfortable in looking into dr q from your description of your experience-so far!!
thank you for that much!!! and good luck to you-i will try to follow your journey.....
OMG I felt like I was there.... I would have been so scared!! :)
DId you feel he was trying to "upsell" you abit??
Do you know how much it was for just breasts? No lift?
Thanks for that...do you mind if I share that on my other board?
Hugs
Start Weight - 263
Current Weight 135 and making it work for ME !
Feel free to share it where ever you like!
My initial thought was that he was tyring to "upsell" me a bit, but after talking at length with him I think he was just being honest about what he felt he could do for me.
For just breast aug it was:
$2k breast aug
$1k surg facility
$1k implants
$700 anesthesia
$4700 total for just breast augmentation without lift
My initial thought was that he was tyring to "upsell" me a bit, but after talking at length with him I think he was just being honest about what he felt he could do for me.
For just breast aug it was:
$2k breast aug
$1k surg facility
$1k implants
$700 anesthesia
$4700 total for just breast augmentation without lift
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