“ My Gastric Sleeve surgery was 2/28/22.
I have fought my weight since I was 20 years old. After a lot of research, lurking on various boards that discussed surgery options, I opted with Go Light and Dr. Z.
Here’s my experience:
We flew into San Diego. As we arrived late, we stayed in a Holiday Inn near the airport that was very nice. The shuttle picked us up the next day and took us to the hotel to set down our luggage. There I met up with a small group of ladies and they took us to 2 different medical facilities to get our CT Scan, EKG, and Bloodwork tests done. This took approximately 2 hours and was easy. The facilities were nice and exceptionally clean. The shuttle drivers were very friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. I had a coordinator, Nadia, and she was always there if I had any questions. Wonderful staff!
We walked Tijuana near the Marriott Hotel and went to a place called Taconazo where I got the consume and my son got some amazing tacos. Highly recommend that place. We walked back in the dark and felt completely safe.
** TIJUANA WAS PERFECTLY SAFE FOR MEDICAL TOURISTS. **
Early the next morning (6am) we checked out of the hotel and into the CIBA hospital. We had a private room, my teen son had joined me and he had a bed at the hospital with me. Very nice room and a really nice bathroom with walk-in tiled shower. After a bit, the nurses put the IV in. Then, Dr. Z came to my room right about the time I was getting nervous for the surgery. He HUGGED me and told me that he would take care of me and that I would be okay. He also promised my son, who was also very nervous, that he’d bring me back to him. I have never had a surgeon do this before. I have 185 stitches from various surgeries, so I’ve got some experience with this. I was flabbergasted at the personal attention. He left and the nurse gave me a little cup of something to drink that calmed my nerves and they took me downstairs.
I woke up after surgery, my son said it was right at 2 hours gone, including recovery time. The gas pain from having your abdomen expanded to perform the surgery is a big deal. As soon as you can, often within just a couple hours from surgery, they want you up and walking. There were 7 of us walking the hallways, taking our IVs and trying to walk off that gas pain. The more walking, the faster that gas dissipated. I had 4 incisions and a drain. My surgery incisions were a little tender but not bad. The pain was tolerable and the nurses came like clockwork to provide pain and anti-nausea medication.
I really appreciated the ratio of nurses to patients. It was very low. The nurses were comfortable with their jobs, didn’t seem stressed or unable to care for their loads. Bandages were changed frequently but it wasn’t really needed as my incisions were already starting to heal. They took their time and if you actually needed to press that button, they were there in less than a minute. All of the nurses spoke English except for 1-2 and they spoke a tiny bit but we had to use a translator at times. It did not diminish my care in any way.
Wednesday was the day for discharge. They did another leak test to make sure all was good and pulled my drain. Then Dr. Z came back into the room. He gave me another hug and a kiss to my temple and told me that he was proud of me and that I would have a new life. To me, this was incredible. For all of my surgeries, I’ve only met 2 of my surgeons. And they barely stayed in the room 2 minutes for me to get their name. This is not the case there at Ciba. Dr. Z felt like a family member and that he truly cared. It was an incredible experience.
We then took the shuttle to the new hotel, Quartz. The pre-op hotel was the Marriott. Marriot had a beautiful lobby and attentive staff, but our room was pretty dirty. So when we got to the brand new hotel, Quartz, it was a night and day difference. It was a phenomenal hotel. The room was amazing, the walking area around the pool had a gorgeous succulent garden, and a great outdoor cafe had a variety of food that my son appreciated. He said the asada tacos were great. You could tell the hotel was brand new, some things like the water features and some of the plants were still in progress of being added.
Our floor had a large waiting room area that our coordinator stayed at in case we had need of anything or had questions. They placed orders with the pharmacist for the medications needed for post-surgery care.
The next morning we were assigned a shuttle driver that took us back across the US border with our original birth certificate and drivers’ license.
Overall, my takeaway is that the entire experience was GREAT, FANTASTIC, AMAZING. If you’re worried about Tijuana – don’t. It’s safer than daytime Louisville KY. It’s so nice I looked into the real estate market there. Yes, it was that awesome!
If I ever need another surgery that my insurance doesn’t cover, I would gladly go back to Tijuana to have it taken care of. “