Day 2.
I laid around, showered, dressed, and walked off and on. I was allowed ice chips and 2 popsicles. The Dr visited in the morning and said everything was great and said I could have all the popsicles I wanted but he thought 3 was the most anyone has ever eaten. I licked and sucked at the first popsicle so slowly that it was melted slush by the time I was done.
Later at night I was asked by the nurse did I want something to help me sleep and I said yes. She came back and said the Dr had not prescribed anything so I could not have anything until 8am. I thought that meant ANYTHING but I guess I was mistaken. I barely slept off and on. There were a few TV channels in English but nothing much of interest. We ended up leaving it on the Nat Geo channel. We couldn’t turn the TV off & on, our remote controlled everything else but the nurse had to bring in another remote for the power so since I knew I couldn’t sleep I just left it on low. At 3:45 am I awoke in horrible pain. It was a steady pain up and down to the right of my drain so I felt it was my actual stomach. I started walking the halls and she asked me how I felt and I said I was in pain. I had my head down and kept squeezing my eyes shut and kept walking. She had the male nurse come out and he gave me pain medicine in my IV. I was going to keep walking but she said the nurse said to lay down. I asked them to turn the TV off and the pain slowly dulled and I was able to go to sleep.
Day 3
We were woken by someone slamming a door before 8am. The male nurse asked me to shower and soap my bandages and he would change them. After I was dressed and showered the Dr came in and talked to us, the nurse took off the dressings and the Dr checked the incisions and dressed them himself. He said because I was not feeling well they would take the other two girls to the hotel first. By the time they left I was feeling ok and had told the assistant so when she came to collect $80 for my prescriptions. She said she would be back “in a Gypsy”. Apparently a Gypsy doesn’t mean a Jiffy as I thought because we waited two hours.
My husband went to the desk to see what was going on and they said she would be back at 1:30. They said in an hour but it was already 1:25. My husband made them call her twice but she didn’t answer. When she finally returned she (Alma) came back and explained all the places she had been, one of the girls had decided to fly out that day so they had to go get the Medical passes for the border, go to the Pharmacy and take the other girls to the hotel. She knew we had been just sitting there ready and waiting for 2 hours but she was fretting about giving the Dr back his car keys which she could not do because he was in surgery. She called a taxi for us. I said are we going to be able to check in the the hotel and she said No, but I will be following behind you in my car.
We had a crazy, fast taxi ride and the bellman came out and got our bags and wheeled them in front of the Front Desk. I said to the clerk “I guess I have to wait for Alma to come check us in” and he said Yes. We sat in the lobby for an hour & 15 minutes. We had figured that she did not leave right away after us and did not drive like a bat out of hell and that was why we were waiting. I read a book on my Iphone but there were gasoline fumes that were really getting to me. I told my husband to ask the clerk if there was any way they could let us check in because the Dr used the hotel for all his patients so I assume he has some kind of account with them. They said there was a reservation in my name and the clerk contacted his manager who my husband then talked to on the phone and explained the situation to. They let us check in. The room was very nice. They only gave us one key which we had to leave in the room to keep the power on. I didn’t want to go down to the restaurant and watch my husband eat, I just wanted to lie down. So far I had only had ice chips, a few sips of water and some popsicles. My husband went to look at the restaurant and got me a bag of ice. I cooled down a G2 and some water and finally got to drink carefully. My husband went down to eat and met the ladies who had been brought to the hotel earlier and so he ate with them. He brought me back a big cup of broth and some lime wedges. The broth just tasted like chicken fat but squeezing the limes on top really helped and it was good to drink something warm.
Day 4
Time to leave Tijuana! My husband bought me a cup of hot water and I made my own broth which I was able to drink a few ounces of slowly. The driver had arranged with us the first day to pick us up at the hotel at 12:30. I had more faith in the driver than I did the assistant that had left us high & dry but I was a little worried he did not call and confirm. I took my phone off airplane mode in case they tried to call me. We left the room and were just entering the lobby as the Dr was starting towards my room. I looked over my questions to see if there was anything else I should ask him and he gave us our Border pass. He asked me when I was returning to work. I told him I had only taken a one week vacation so I was due back on Monday. He said he would like for me to be off for 3 weeks. He said yes, the driver would be picking us up. When he left we sat in the lobby chairs again with our luggage. When the driver was 15 minutes late I called him. He had gotten stuck at the airport and someone was supposed to call and tell me he would be 45 minutes late. He was annoyed they had not called me and they told him that they had called our room but we were no longer in it. One would think they could have called the desk or tried my phone number but they didn’t. Once the driver was there our trip across the border was uneventful. He had to show our passports to a camera before we got to a border agent. They conversed a little in a friendly manner and then we were off. We collected our car and I put the address for our next hotel in the GPS.
I love staying at Hyatt Place and I had found there was one in Vista, which is close to Carlsbad and there was a beach nearby in case I felt like going there to walk a little. We checked into our room and I looked up places for my husband to eat. We found a place where he got a steak sandwich that he thought was quite good and then we went to a Stater Bros grocery store for a few things. I was bushed after all that and went to sleep at 7pm. Of course I was up in the middle of the night for hours but that was OK.
Gastric Sleeve 2013 