Need to hear from other OCC patients

[doinitagann]

hi all,

i am a newbie and I have a scheduled surgery for sept 3. Upon learning of the surgery, my family and friends have completely fREAKED out They are so against me going to mexico for medical treatment that they are to the point of begging and crying. I have done research on Dr Ortiz but I could use some encouraging words. Such as aftercare, or if there is a problem after surgery etc. Thanks

[Maytee]

I have to say that I was very apprehensive about having the surgery in TJ. My husband found Dr. Ortiz on the internet a year before I even considered getting the surgery. He told me I was being elitist and that Dr. Ortiz had preformed over 2000 of them at that time. I told him I was scared to death and I couldn't do it.

A year went by and I stared jumping hoops for our insurance company to find out that it was going to change at the end of the year and I would have to start all over again with different coverage. The new insurance would cover 70% and I would have had to pay about 6500 out of pocket. Then I had a client that came to get her hair done and told me her husband who weighed almost 500bls went to TJ and got it done. After hearing about his experience I decided that day to call Dr. Ortiz and schedule the surgery. My mom and dad freaked out. I went to the OCC website and showed them the video clips with Dr. Ortiz on a very reputable health show and after they watched that they calmed down a lot. Once I got there and met everyone their English was exceptional and I felt very confident I made the right decision.

When I was brought to the room at the clinic it was spotless and very nice. Better than any hospital room I had ever been in. The staff excellent, the Operating Room sterile and spotless. My care after the surgery was the best I have ever had.

I hope this helps!!! I have lost 32 lbs and I love my band!!!!!

Don't be afraid be excited that your about to change your life forever!! Go For It!!!!!

Maytee

[julieburns]

First of all... :lb9:

I hope since you posted you have spent time reading this forum. There are so many testimonials and positive words about Dr. O and the OCC you cannot miss them if you look here. Have any and all who are worried spend some time on the forum also reading the testimonial section. If they won't sit at the computer, print it out. There is also a video section with great informative youtube segments where Dr. Ortiz goes through everything. My gosh if that isn't enough I will give you my phone number and you can have any one of them call me and I will shout from the rooftops how safe, sanitary, homey, the OCC clinic is. I am a nurse now for 20+ years here in Portland. I was more than impressed at this facility when I got there. From the time they pick you up from the airport until they return you to the airport you are totally catered to and made to feel so at ease. I could go on and on. I don't know you and have nothing to gain by saying untruths to get you to not feel as at ease as you and your friends and family members can be. But I do have a stake in my own health and let me tell you I had a mini-vacation while in the care of the OCC. Dr. O is known world wide and has been the instructor to many, many of the US docs for the lapband because it was legal in areas outside the US long before they allowed it here. So in my opinion as someone else once posted why go to the student here in the states when you can have the professor doing your surgery. His notoriety among colleagues as well as his vast experience and the number of bands he has done speaks for itself. So read on and share with your people. Also I have read that some have actually had their SO's talk with Dr. Ortiz and he will do this!! He has nothing to hide. The area around his clinic and the hotel is like a normal city in the states. It's only along the border and surrounding walking distance area that may seem a bit touristy, just like any foreign country's market areas. I traveled alone for my surgery and NEVER felt scared or abandoned. The hotel is very nice with a beautiful pool. One or two of the waiters in the restaurant at the hotel havd been banded for something like 10+ years. They were some of Dr. O's first patients and they still brag about him. Everyone speaks english with the exception of a few of the nurses aids but they can understand everything you need. All the aftercare while in Mexico is fantastic. The nurses anticipate your every need and cater to you. One will even give you a little back massage before you go to sleep.

Again I could go on and on but I hope you can feel my sincerity. As I said and I know I am repeating myself now just keep reading on this forum. Go to each catagory and when you are done you should be able how to help your SO's understand. If they don't or still are giving you a hard time about going you must just stay committed to yourself and your health. You're all you have!!!

[bandgroupie]

Great surgeons.

Great experience.

Hoping for Great results

[bandgroupie]

Great surgeons.

Great experience.

Hoping for Great results

[Sandy]

I am not very eloquent so I will just say I agree wholeheartedly with everything Julie said. I too have worked in a hospital for 20 years and the clinic was better than any one I have ever been in. I have been in many others for my own health care as well. You couldn't be in better hands.

[Phoenix]

When you're not sick, the last place you want to be is in a hospital.

Seriously, that's where sick people go! I have my DDs' well kid checks in the summer for that reason, they're less likely to pick something up at the Dr's office if there are fewer sick people.

I'll explain. You're having elective surgery. The last things you need while you're healing are things like pneumonia, staph and other infectious disease microbes hanging around. Your body needs to heal, not deal with an infection.

People who are in the clinic are either having bariatric surgery done as minimally invasively as possible -- and are otherwise well, dental work or lasik. No infections, no illnesses to pick up.

The clinic is new, built just for weight loss surgery. The operating area is state of the art. Your surgeon is a specialist in WLS, having placed roughly 5,000 bands (give or take a couple hundred) and is on the Inamed board AND is the guy who shows other surgeons how best to place the bands in other clinics and hospitals.

Patients of the OCC are a mere 18 miles from the San Diego airport, just 4 miles over the border, not somewhere in the jungles of the Congo with a dirt floor "OR" and a midwife removing appendices when she's not doing dental work .

If you go anywhere for lap banding -- and there are certainly other good places to go -- you'll have a hard time finding a better

surgeon, but you should still aim for a clinic that does bariatric surgery ONLY... You're less likely to get sick afterwards.

[Guest CaraMBA09]

Ms. Julie!

That is great insight and advice!

[doinitagann]

First of all... :lb9:

I hope since you posted you have spent time reading this forum. There are so many testimonials and positive words about Dr. O and the OCC you cannot miss them if you look here. Have any and all who are worried spend some time on the forum also reading the testimonial section. If they won't sit at the computer, print it out. There is also a video section with great informative youtube segments where Dr. Ortiz goes through everything. My gosh if that isn't enough I will give you my phone number and you can have any one of them call me and I will shout from the rooftops how safe, sanitary, homey, the OCC clinic is. I am a nurse now for 20+ years here in Portland. I was more than impressed at this facility when I got there. From the time they pick you up from the airport until they return you to the airport you are totally catered to and made to feel so at ease. I could go on and on. I don't know you and have nothing to gain by saying untruths to get you to not feel as at ease as you and your friends and family members can be. But I do have a stake in my own health and let me tell you I had a mini-vacation while in the care of the OCC. Dr. O is known world wide and has been the instructor to many, many of the US docs for the lapband because it was legal in areas outside the US long before they allowed it here. So in my opinion as someone else once posted why go to the student here in the states when you can have the professor doing your surgery. His notoriety among colleagues as well as his vast experience and the number of bands he has done speaks for itself. So read on and share with your people. Also I have read that some have actually had their SO's talk with Dr. Ortiz and he will do this!! He has nothing to hide. The area around his clinic and the hotel is like a normal city in the states. It's only along the border and surrounding walking distance area that may seem a bit touristy, just like any foreign country's market areas. I traveled alone for my surgery and NEVER felt scared or abandoned. The hotel is very nice with a beautiful pool. One or two of the waiters in the restaurant at the hotel havd been banded for something like 10+ years. They were some of Dr. O's first patients and they still brag about him. Everyone speaks english with the exception of a few of the nurses aids but they can understand everything you need. All the aftercare while in Mexico is fantastic. The nurses anticipate your every need and cater to you. One will even give you a little back massage before you go to sleep.

Again I could go on and on but I hope you can feel my sincerity. As I said and I know I am repeating myself now just keep reading on this forum. Go to each catagory and when you are done you should be able how to help your SO's understand. If they don't or still are giving you a hard time about going you must just stay committed to yourself and your health. You're all you have!!!

Thank you all for your great advice!!! My mind is at ease (almost ) but I have been on this forum for a few days now and am feeling much better. The family members aren't understanding the pure volume of positive responses coming from the OCC clinic. I hope to get to know as many of you as I can during this time. thanks again.

[Alana]

First of all, you cannot let your family and friends make this decision for you. I know their input is important, but this is YOUR decision. I have had 2 surgeries in the United States and I can honestly say that my experience at the OCC was better than both combined. The staff is more friendly, the facility is cleaner, and the doctors were more competent. I'm a licensed massage therapist, so I know all about health regulations and health code standards and their facililty followed them all to the letter. I felt like their number 1 priority during my entire stay there and they did everything they could to make sure I was taken care of. I stayed in the hospital overnight and it felt more like vacation than recovering my surgery. I walked the halls to help expel the gas, there was an endless supply of popsicles, juice, and water, I watched movies on my flat screen tv, and slept in a bed that was more comfortable than the bed in the actual hotel. It was the BEST decision I ever made and I could not have picked a better location to have this done at.

PLEASE do not let their uncertainty derail you from the path you want to take. Show them this forum and educate them. They're only scared because they don't know.

If you have any other questions, please let any of us know.

[LauraLee]

hi all,

i am a newbie and I have a scheduled surgery for sept 3. Upon learning of the surgery, my family and friends have completely fREAKED out They are so against me going to mexico for medical treatment that they are to the point of begging and crying. I have done research on Dr Ortiz but I could use some encouraging words. Such as aftercare, or if there is a problem after surgery etc. Thanks

I was exactly like you...only I met up with only one person in my family that was against the surgery in TJ (my oldest 23 year old daughter-very athletic). It might help you to know that when the overweight Doctors here in the U.S. want LapBand surgery, they usually go to Dr. Ortiz. He world reknowned, trained under the inventor of the LapBand and done over 6,000 of these. The clinic is extremely clean, even better than a lot of clinics here in the U.S. The clinic even gives you all the doctors phone numbers (U.S. numbers) for any questions. I had my surgery last Friday (Aug 8) and have no complications (the gas was a little troublesome though, but not unbearable). Know this though-you must follow the rules for the 21 days after surgery if you want to give yourself the best chance. Please don't worry--I felt I had a lot to risk too (mother of 6 and husband who is very dependent on me)....now I could kick myself for causing all the anxiety to myself prior to the surgery--I wasted a lot of time and effort this way. Remember: a positive outlook with likely mean success!

Laura

[LauraLee]

I was exactly like you...only I met up with only one person in my family that was against the surgery in TJ (my oldest 23 year old daughter-very athletic). It might help you to know that when the overweight Doctors here in the U.S. want LapBand surgery, they usually go to Dr. Ortiz. He world reknowned, trained under the inventor of the LapBand and done over 6,000 of these. The clinic is extremely clean, even better than a lot of clinics here in the U.S. The clinic even gives you all the doctors phone numbers (U.S. numbers) for any questions. I had my surgery last Friday (Aug 8) and have no complications (the gas was a little troublesome though, but not unbearable). Know this though-you must follow the rules for the 21 days after surgery if you want to give yourself the best chance. Please don't worry--I felt I had a lot to risk too (mother of 6 and husband who is very dependent on me)....now I could kick myself for causing all the anxiety to myself prior to the surgery--I wasted a lot of time and effort this way. Remember: a positive outlook with likely mean success!

Laura

Oh yes....I forgot to add that the OCC has a "0%" infection rate!!

[DiamondJim]

I was banded June 16 at the OCC. My family thought that I was crazy for going to Mexico to be banded. I had done a lot of research

and had read Dr. Ortiz's book. His book is one of the best on the subject. I was quite impressed with the whole experience. I could not had any better care anywhere. The care that I received was far better than I had had in the U.S. Everyone that I came into contact with at the OCC , you could just tell that loved what they were doing. The clinic was spotless. I traveled to Mexico not only because that I was a self pay patient, but of their experience and the number of lap-band surgeries that Dr. Ortiz and Dr. Martinez had done.

Congrats for making the decision for a healthier life. Not only did I save a lot of money, I feel like that I had a better experience by going to TJ to the OCC.

[DaGreen]

This post is very timely! I've told 2 people and one is extremely against it the other totally for it. Now these two are my friends. The one that is being so negative about it my BEST friend, I really regret telling her. I still haven't told my husband, I am on pre-op diet and I can't let him get into my head because I will make poor food choices when I get upset. We have been fighting the last couple of weeks about my weight and he doesn't get it that it's not a matter of just watching what I eat and killing myself with exercise. I will tell my husband before the surgery, just can't do it while I am trying to drop 10 lbs before my surgery.

Thank you all for the positive responses. I know you were responding to the OP but it sure was nice to read the positive comments.

[doinitagann]

This post is very timely! I've told 2 people and one is extremely against it the other totally for it. Now these two are my friends. The one that is being so negative about it my BEST friend, I really regret telling her. I still haven't told my husband, I am on pre-op diet and I can't let him get into my head because I will make poor food choices when I get upset. We have been fighting the last couple of weeks about my weight and he doesn't get it that it's not a matter of just watching what I eat and killing myself with exercise. I will tell my husband before the surgery, just can't do it while I am trying to drop 10 lbs before my surgery.

Thank you all for the positive responses. I know you were responding to the OP but it sure was nice to read the positive comments.

WOW!!! You and I have such a similar story. My husband and I are fighting about the whole weight issue. He has made it abundantly clear that the weight I have gained in the last years has been rough on him. (I cannot blame him, it was false advertising on my part) It was my idea to get the surgery, his idea to go to mexico. I want to lose the weight for me, don't get me wrong, but it is difficult for me to accept that he cannot accept me for me. HE now is rethinking the mexico thing because of the response of others who know about the surgery. I wish I would not have let anyone else know. I get banded on the 3rd of Sept, would love to hear from others who are going to be there around the same time I am. Thanks again for all the posts, it is what is reaffirming my decision.

[Iluvmyboyz]

I did not tell anyone that I was getting banded in Mexico. Just told them I had to go to San Diego because my BMI was not high enough. I knew that people would "FREAK OUT" and I didn't want to deal with that. I was apprehensive enough and did not need the added pressure. I, personally could not have had surgery in the US because my weight was not high enough. So, my choices were to remain fat, gain 50 pounds or so to qualify for surgery here in the US or go to Mexico and get the surgery that I knew personally that I really needed. I was looking into another Dr. in Mexico that was cheaper but it just didn't "feel" right to me. The pictures were sketchy and not so clean and new looking like the OCC. I decided to research Dr. Ortiz and felt better about the surgery but was still REALLY scared. Having surgery in Mexico was the greatest thing that I ever did!!! Everything about my surgery was AMAZINGLY easy and fast and pretty much pain free. The only pain I felt during the entire process was the gas pain in my shoulder. It was awful but otherwise I felt TOTALLY great!!! I would highly reccomend this place to ANYONE!!!! The nurse even put my i.v. in the side of my arm and I was wondering, "what the heck???" That was the best i.v. I have ever gotten in my life. I swear I bruise SO easy and usually have huge purple bruises for weeks afterwards. This one did not bruise at all and had no pain. They really do know what they are doing there. I had a couple of health issues like I have had blood clots in my lungs in the past and they made sure and gave me blood thinners and they even gave me extra anti-nausea medicine because it was my time of the month. I swear they know what they are doing!!! Even better than the US. YES, it is scary and weird to have surgery in another country, but it WORKS!!!! I have lost 42 lbs in 2 1/2 months and I feel like I could have made way better food choices in that time and lost even more. It is amazing!!! I am ALIVE again!!!! I have self confidence. I have gone through my closet several times getting rid of all the clothes that are hanging on me. PLEASE do not listen to anyone but yourself. It is fine and everything will be great!!!! I wish I could have had someone telling me that it was all going to be ok. I was SO worried and scared and didn't really have anyone to turn to. Please know that it will be the greatest decision you have ever made. IT WORKS!!!! IT WORKS!!! IT WORKS!!!! You will be amazed with the results immediately. I hope that you will feel calm and sleep well and feel great about your choice. It is a great one!!!! I can't wait to read your story soon. GOOD LUCK!!!! Hang in there and let your family and friends get over the shock and move onto a new subject. Soon, they will be complimenting you and apologizing for their lack of support. You are on your way to a new life and a new you. Be proud of your decision!!!! Natalie

[DaGreen]

WOW!!! You and I have such a similar story. My husband and I are fighting about the whole weight issue. He has made it abundantly clear that the weight I have gained in the last years has been rough on him. (I cannot blame him, it was false advertising on my part) I

Awe sweetie, I think he DOES love you for you. I bet he's like my husband and is TERRIFIED of the potential health risks more than anything.

This group continues to amaze me. Every time I question if I am making the right decision, someone pipes in on the board to a post that reaffirms I AM MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION FOR ME! I figure, I am the one that has to live with the battle, the unhappiness, the depression, etc. Well, my husband does too, but he really doesn't understand the internal struggle.

My latest struggle is I've already dropped 6 lbs on my pre-op diet and I've only been doing it for 3 days. The struggle? If I can lose this much now, then I really don't need the surgery. BAH, how am I going to KEEP this weight off? So, I am still on track for the surgery.

Just keep reading posts anytime you feel doubt and you will get through it.

[Kimmy in MD]

I was afraid people would have the same reaction you are experiencing so I told only my 2 closest friends and then I had to tell my sister because I needed her to watch my son. The only reason I even told my friends was in the terrible event something happened to me while I was away. I wanted someone to know where I was just in case.

AFTER the surgery, when I was home, that is when I came clean about it. There was no freaking out then because it was too late. I still haven't told anyone at work because I don't want to deal with their reactions. Clearly they have all noticed the weight loss and are impressed and want to know what I am doing so they can replicate. I just tell them what I do, minus that I have this miraculous tool!

I would say grow thick skin during the next few weeks and then go off and have the surgery done. It is life changing and you won't regret it.

[julieburns]

[quote name= My husband and I are fighting about the whole weight issue. He has made it abundantly clear that the weight I have gained in the last years has been rough on him. (I cannot blame him, it was false advertising on my part) It was my idea to get the surgery, his idea to go to mexico. I want to lose the weight for me, don't get me wrong, but it is difficult for me to accept that he cannot accept me for me. HE now is rethinking the mexico thing because of the response of others who know about the surgery.

OMG I have to reply. I know there are 2 sides to every story but for your husband to say it has been difficult on him and then you to chime in it was false advertising makes me so sad for the both of you. This is not the way a healthy married couple should speak of each others challenges. He should not make you feel bad and not be accepting of you but rather gather you in his arms, adore you for who you are not the trophy on his arm and grow up!! My vows were for better or worse, in sickness and health and from what you have written this does not sound like the case. Please don't misunderstand I am not getting down on you, perhaps it's not as bad as how it is typed and sounds but if it is you need to tell him to back off, you are going to do this for yourself and he can stay home if he's not going to understand this or try to be on your side. He is only adding to your poor self image and you are allowing him to sort of verbally abuse you with the comments you typed. You are also buying into it and then feel even more guilty and miserable about your weight gain. Well it's time to take a step back, pat yourself on the back for making a positive change that will help you forever and step on board the bandster wagon. It's going to be a rollercoaster ride but it's well worth it!!