Dr. Salvador Pantoja - Mommy Makeover (TT,BBL,FT,BL & BI) - Tijuana, Mexico

Hello beautiful ladies! I am new to Realself - I have scheduled my surgery with Dr. Pantoja for Dec 3rd. I am very excited!!! I sent pics of me to him via email and got tons of information back, then I scheduled and appointment to meet with him and all went very well. His office is small but very clean and busy, his staff speaks perfect English but Dr. Pantoja does not however, my husband who does not speak Spanish was with me and I noticed the Dr. could understand a lot of his questions. Anywho, I was a little disappointed to find out that I will need an extensive tummy tuck as I have lots if skin that needs to be removed and I also need a good amount of lipo, that being said, he advised that I focus on the tummy tuck and lipo first, and then come back for the breast lift and implants. He said it is not recommended to have surgery for more than 4 hours and with all that I need done, that it would be too much for my body to take and can increase the possibility or risks. ***Has anyone been a patient of Dr. Pantoja? what tips and advise can you give me? Please, no negative comments as I have spent months researching Dr. Pantoja along with many other Dr.s and yes, he is board certified, he has good reviews, has been a surgeon for over 13 years and has no pending law suits. I welcome your experience, advise and tips for a successful surgery. Thank you! :)

Hi beautiful ladies! Today I had an appointment with my dentist who is also in TJ. She is amazing! And is right next to the border... If you need a great, professional and trustworthy dentist I can give you her info. Any who, since I was Already down there I decided to take Dr. Pantoja my deposit, he only requires $500 to save your date but I took him more so I don't spend it elsewhere. Hannia, who is very sweet and helpful. She took my cash, put it in an envelope and took a picture of it... Kinda weird, lol. She told me that as I paid to hold on to the receipts and bring them all with me the day of the surgery and payoff the balance before I go into surgery. She said to arrive at 9:00 on the 3rd, fasting so I can have my blood work done along with EKG with their cardiologist ( this is also included in the price) I told her I wanted to be the first one in surgery so Dr. Pantoja could have a fresh and rested mind. She said he only does 2 surgeries a day and rests and eats before the next one. She said depending on our lab work results; Dr. Pantoja will determine who needs to go first. Either way he starts operation around noon. My only issue with that is the fasting, I know I tend to get a little hypoglycemic after several hours of not eating :(. Anyone experience this at their surgery? How did you manage?

Question for Dr. Pantoja's previous patients... So I have been doing some research on the recovery for Dr. Pantoja's patients and it seems that Dr. Pantoja does not use JP drains (a closed-suction medical device that is commonly used as a post-operative drain for collecting bodily fluids from surgical sites. The device consists of an internal drain connected to a grenade-shaped bulb via plastic tubing.) Instead, he leaves in short tube like drains sticking out and the patient drains on the pad beneath them. for those of you that have had your procedure with Dr. Pantoja...Is this true??? I read it is really messy and uncomfortable to sit and lay in a puddle of body fluids while recovering. I would also think that will increase the risk for infection as the end of the tube is just sticking out, not to mention that the JP drains help with suctioning of the fluids so you don't swell as much and your body is consistently draining all the fluid build up from the surgery as the JP is emptied when ever its full and then you squeeze the empty JP drains to promote consistent suction until it fills again... Can anyone clarify if this is indeed something that Dr. Pantoja practices and what your experience was with this? Thank you in advance for your feed back :)