BMI Matters

I've been reading reviews on Realself for like ever and finally decided to venture out here.

I am staying at real recovery. Everyone is super nice.

Day of surgery, (today) 03/10/2014, they calculate my BMI @ 36. Elizabeth, Duran's assistant, sends me home. I am so annoyed. Although this is my fault, I am still peeved that i came all this way for nothing.

One of the other girls in the house encountered the BMI issue as well. She went to Robles. Since Robles was #3 on my list, I decided to check her out. She was ultra nice, despite me having been marked up by Duran.

03/11/2014
I arrived at CECIP @ 6:30 and waited to be seen, CECIP looks like a really small hospital hospital from the outside. I am totally Team Duran, but was really impressed by CECIP versus CIPLA.
They gave me the blue pill at 10. Set up the IV at 10:15 and that was it.

5:45 PM
my friend calls to see if i made it out of surgery, she had surgery with Duran the previous day.
I tell her yes but have no idea where my stuff is since the recovery house is supposed to provide a person to stay with you, Armonia said no to this for CECIP, they work more with CIPLA. Now I am all paranoid because i am here and don't know where my things are,

Sometime during the evening a nurse walks in ad says I've been assigned to you. I am like "YAY" and she speaks English. I ask her for my stuff. She locates it and brings it to me

She gives me pain meds and attaches a button to the bed so that i can call for help if needed.
I got nauseous and hit the button, they gave me meds and changed the bed and sheets.

All throughout the night, different nurses came in to administer pain meds, give me iron shots, hemoglobin shots and change sheets. Despite being in pain, I was comfortable and slept very well.

Early in the AM, a really nce woman brought me tea to test the nausea. An hour or so later they brought me breakfast; toast, fruit, oat milk (i have no idea what this is, it tasted like condensed milk sprinkled with oatmeal).

The doctor's assistant came in, cleaned me up and put on my faja

someone from the recovery house picked me up

EFF what you heard, this SHYT is real. Real pain, real deal, real everything.
I've determined everyone's level of pain is different but this is insane, had I known it would hurt this much or be this uncomfortable, I would have invested in a trainer instead.

Not everyone feels this way, like one girl at Armonia was up and walking around day 1. The rest of us just looked at her in awe.

I was able to eat a little something but mostly wanted to sit somewhere and collapse.

The first night at the recovery house was the worst. I am allergic to certain pain pills so i spent the night in agony. Most of the other girls popped a pill and had no issue.

So the nights have been bad and the days too. It's hard to pee, hard to do anything with this damn faja on. To make matters worse, Recovery Armonia over booked and in the process opened a second location. We think Myra, the owner, is stretching the staff between 2 locations versus hiring new staff. So girls here are crying nurse and there's only one versus 3 and a doctor like before. However, the one nurse we got to keep, Ruth, is wonderful. I have yet to see her sleep and she is very service oriented. She makes mistakes but that's because she's spread too thin.

So now it's become ugly, the house is filled with women, we've all paid for a a double room but are in quad or triple rooms. There are only 2 bathrooms and not a lot of space to keep your stuff unless you were lucky enough to get one of 2 rooms in the back. We are fed well but otherwise we are on our own, unless Ruth can fit you in.

So all the reviewers that tell you specific items aren't needed, don't believe anyone. Bring everything. It's better to have it and not need it versus needing it. If you have to buy it here, they are charging like 3 times the amount. If you get cool with a few people you can borrow stuff but that gets old.

Drain: This drain is ridiculous. Yily is removing them after 14 days, Duran after 5 and Robles, we aren't sure.

A few girls have flown home this week with their drains in. I am praying that all goes well with them.

As I write, one of my roommates is getting her hair done. The hairdresser came to the recovery house. They also got their eye lashes done. Overall, the girls end up bonding because in the end all we have is each other. Time for me to walk around a bit, my butt is killing me. Lastly, I am going to post pics one i find the cord to transfer them from my phone to my laptop.

I feel much better. I can sit in a chair longer and stand a bit longer as well.

My back still hurts and I am itching like crazy but they say this is what happens from the epidural.

Armonia Recovery House update:
Be careful when staying here, some people will nickle and dime you for everything. The rest of the staff, as previously stated is really sweet and helpful. We love Vinessa, Veronica, Kimberly, Flocka, Graciela and Ruth. There is another woman here who cooks, I can't recall her name but she is great as well. In terms of transporation we found that Pedro (red mini-van) and Jose seem to be the best at it. The house provides transportation but I find they normally do more for you if you speak Spanish. People like me are SOL unless one of the other girls is willing to translate for you.

I changed my flight because my drains had not been removed, however I feel well enough to fly.
If the doc doesn't remove my drains, tomorrow 03/17/2014, I am going to hire a nurse or someone else to do it for me. There's no way in hell I am flying back with drains.

Well I developed a seroma. It's pretty huge. It feels like a water bed under my stomach.
DRA Robles warned me that this could happen and I still left and removed my drain against her advice.

I go to see my doctor and he refers me to a surgeon. I see the surgeon and she is angry that I'm in her office after having surgery in DR. she begins to dog my DR doc and I correct her and explain, this is my fault. she continues to rant about how Dr's do it in the states. I am like whatever.

I begin to ask her questions and she gets annoyed and refers me to a plastic surgeon to drain the seroma. The plastic surgeon tells me that I have to pay a 3,000.00 deposit, despite having insurance. They claim they have to fix the DR mistake.. there was no mistake, it's a freaking seroma.

the doc ripped all the tape off my incision, didn't care if it hurt, didn't put any of the tape or gauze back. What the F%&K is up with US doctors.

Now they are placing a new drain directly into my abdomen because they refuse to aspirate. I might learn to do the aspiration my damn self. I'll take more pictures as time progresses.

I arrive at the hospital at 11:00 am to be admitted for "Same Day Surgery". I get all undressed, put the gown on and then the surgeon walks in and asks why is he installing a drain.

I explain I had SX abroad and have fluid in my tummy, he orders an ultrasound since my doc only wrote an order for a drain but didn't specify where to put it.

The ultrasound shows a pocket of fluid, no infection. The surgeon decides that I don't need a drain. He's not even sure why the other doctor ordered it. He inserts a tube/syringe in my abdomen and aspirated the fluid. PROBLEM SOLVED.

We had a lengthy conversation about surgery abroad and he stated, it's your choice and everything seems to be fine outside of your abdomen. No anesthesia given and best of all, I don't have to follow up with my doctor.

I am posting a post aspiration pic. I am still swollen but it looks way better than it did this morning.

I've been focused on my TT all this time and forgot about my BBL.

Sigh, as the swelling is subsiding, I'ts looking more and more like the BBL didn't take. I always had a butt on top but was flat on the bottom, so I emphasized I needed fat on the bottom. Well, it's still flat on the bottom. I don't want to do a round 2. I guess I've lived with a semi flat butt for this long, I might as well finish out the rest of my days with it.

I think it's week 7 or 6.

The seroma is pretty persistent. Interventional radiologist placed a drain about 3 weeks ago. I tripped and accidentally ripped it out, so they placed another on 04/16/2014. There's no infection or pain, jsut discomfort. I am draining about 60 cc's per day. If the draining hasn't stopped or gone to less than 20 cc's per day, they are going to try alcohol ablation.

This part of my experience is mostly a nuisance. I guess it could be worse.