What is a down side of having DS?

[DianaCox]

I was doing a little follow up research about this situation, and noticed this:

Michelle Walsh’s website – which appears to be an official site for Arellano, but I don’t think it is:

http://drjuan.us/aboutus.html (Michele Dewar is listed as a doctor on this site) ​

The contact info on this site is Michelle’s US cell phone:

From the U.S. (626) 675-4143 Patient Advocate
[email protected] (that's conVEEENIENTLY the PayPal address too)​

She says to send checks to HER in the US, at an address which is a mail box store

http://www.superpages.com/bp/Calexico-CA/Pan-American-Mail-Box-CO-L0019215463.htm:
Dr. Juan Arellano, MD
C/O Michelle Walsh
233 Paulin Ave #5370
Calexico, CA 92231-2615​

That seems very strange.

This is what Michelle Walsh looks like:

http://mexicalimaryann.com/2011/12/04/crossing-the-border-into-calexico/

In contrast, Arellano’s official site is this one:

http://mexicobariatricteam.com/contact-us/​

You can see a picture of Michele Dewar – who appears to be Arellano’s official, on-staff international patient coordinator (and I suspect Michelle Walsh takes advantage of having the same first name to confuse people).

The contact info on Arellano’s site is completely different from what is posted on Michelle Walsh’s site:

Calle C #148 Suite 201, Colonia Nueva
Especialidades Almater, Mexicali, B.C.
· TOLL-FREE FROM THE US: (888) 879-4081
· U.S. PHONE NUMBER: 1 (760) 336-1672
· DIALING FROM THE US:
+011 52 (686) 553-5340
(DO NOT DIAL THE + SIGN)
+011 52 (686) 553-5340
(DO NOT DIAL THE + SIGN)
· DIALING FROM INSIDE MEXICO:
052 (686) 553-5340
052 (686) 553-5340
· E-MAIL: [email protected]​

YUP - this whole thing looks pretty hinky.

EVEN IF ARELLANO IS ARGUABLY A QUALIFIED DS SURGEON, EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF HIM, HIS ALLOWING MICHELLE WALSH TO PIMP HIS PRACTICE IS GOING TO BE A SORE SPOT FOR MOST IF NOT ALL OF US. He should probably rethink that.

 

[robs477]

Holy shit Batman!! That pretty much reads like a con artist to me, especially with the P.O. box, paypal accounts matching the advocate address etc, Damn Diana...I would sure hate to piss you off! You rule! Awesome job, thxs for the info. Everybody need to call all those numbers and make her life even more miserable!

 

[Anne O]

testing

 

[CaraOC]

I had my lapband to DS surgery in February this year. I'm 4 months and 60 lbs down. Spiky, I would have to say as a former crapbander I would have eaten the Krispy Kreme slowly, chewed it well and had vanilla bean ice cream with it. You can see how I managed to gain 70 lbs with that POS. So far I would have to say for me the fear of what might be negative after surgery was much worse than anything that has ever happened. If I eat carbs I will eventually get lots of gas and then disgusting diarrhea that would gag a maggot. Not fun so for the most part I avoid them or pay the consequences. It's still way better than my pre op alternative. I'm enjoying not shopping at Lane Bryant Tent and Awning and Mr Pinky's Hefty Hideaway.

 

[CaraOC]

Holy crap. Duh, a day late and a dollar short. I just read back this entire thread. What am I stupid??

 

[Amy Anderson]

THANK YOU ALL, especially @DianaCox.

Plus side: I have been in contact with Michelle, and she had me totally snowed and second guessing my two surgeons that I'm considering, and she did *all* the underhanded tricks...lured me to her facebook page, contacted me in private message to answer questions but "refused" to promote any surgeons, then buttered me up and complimented me to gain trust, then spoke on the phone with me to badmouth Tijuana and scare me from other surgeons in general, then I totally lost hope about being able to trust *anyone* doing surgery in Mexico...then she contacted me again in private message and broke her "protocol" about ethics and said she does work for a surgeon but she refuses to use her page to promote him for ethical reasons, but she really wants to help me so she can get me a deal with Dr. Allerano...and he's the best and he's bariatric certified and few surgeons are, and he's trained everyone...and I was so happy!

Then I started doing more intense research on Allerano, (as any patient would do their due diligence) and saw this thread and read it, and yes...she even offered to help me get surgery through him at a different hospital than is listen on his website, and she told me NOT to book through his website, to go through her.

I just joined this page to let you know about my experience with Michelle on her Facebook page. I'll poke around the site more and see if I can gain knowledge about other surgeons in Mexico. Thanks all! him at a different hospital than is listed on his own website. She said she's his "US Nurse" whatever that means, and claims she's in the OR during surgery and will offer to take pictures for me.

I didn't let her know all this about her, I'm still in shock.

So good news: I found out I was being manipulated.
Bad news: I start over in my search for a safe surgeon in my price range.

I need to save my life & future with surgery, but I'm a stay at home mom of three kids and my hubby doesn't earn much so I have to consider price a factor. I wish I could afford the best of the best, but financial stuff is a huge factor so I have to make the best and most safe choice I can with the confines (money) that I have. That's why I'm researching my tush off!

 

[Munchkin]

THANK YOU ALL, especially @DianaCox.

Plus side: I have been in contact with Michelle, and she had me totally snowed and second guessing my two surgeons that I'm considering, and she did *all* the underhanded tricks...lured me to her facebook page, contacted me in private message to answer questions but "refused" to promote any surgeons, then buttered me up and complimented me to gain trust, then spoke on the phone with me to badmouth Tijuana and scare me from other surgeons in general, then I totally lost hope about being able to trust *anyone* doing surgery in Mexico...then she contacted me again in private message and broke her "protocol" about ethics and said she does work for a surgeon but she refuses to use her page to promote him for ethical reasons, but she really wants to help me so she can get me a deal with Dr. Allerano...and he's the best and he's bariatric certified and few surgeons are, and he's trained everyone...and I was so happy!

Then I started doing more intense research on Allerano, (as any patient would do their due diligence) and saw this thread and read it, and yes...she even offered to help me get surgery through him at a different hospital than is listen on his website, and she told me NOT to book through his website, to go through her.

I just joined this page to let you know about my experience with Michelle on her Facebook page. I'll poke around the site more and see if I can gain knowledge about other surgeons in Mexico. Thanks all! him at a different hospital than is listed on his own website. She said she's his "US Nurse" whatever that means, and claims she's in the OR during surgery and will offer to take pictures for me.

I didn't let her know all this about her, I'm still in shock.

So good news: I found out I was being manipulated.
Bad news: I start over in my search for a safe surgeon in my price range.

I need to save my life & future with surgery, but I'm a stay at home mom of three kids and my hubby doesn't earn much so I have to consider price a factor. I wish I could afford the best of the best, but financial stuff is a huge factor so I have to make the best and most safe choice I can with the confines (money) that I have. That's why I'm researching my tush off!

Good for you!!!!

 

[Clematis]

Yep. Lots of predators out there ready to feast on the vulnerable obese.

@Amy Anderson may of us here have used Dr. Esquerra at Mexicali Bariatric Center. Excellent care. Better, I believe, than I would have gotten in US.

 

[CaraOC]

Yep. Lots of predators out there ready to feast on the vulnerable obese.

@Amy Anderson may of us here have used Dr. Esquerra at Mexicali Bariatric Center. Excellent care. Better, I believe, than I would have gotten in US.

Yup, me too. I am very happy with my Mexican surgeon Dr Esquerra. I only considered two surgeons in Mexico and that was Ungson and Esquerra and since Ungson no longer was offered I vetted and opted for Esquerra. It will be one year out in February and I'm 100 lbs down. My only issue is abdominal hernia but this was not caused by surgery, it was caused by fatness, it's just more obvious now. I hope it will be resolved with a pretty belly tightening surgery!!

 

[Csdxn]

Hi - brand new here (this is my first post), and I came across this thread while looking up Arellano. I have also been in contact with Michelle, but she does appear to work for Arellano? His patient coordinator through the site knew about her. I'm just so confused right now.

 

[DianaCox]

There is only ONE vetted DS surgeon in Mexico - Esquerra. Stay away from the hucksters - and that includes anyone associated with Michelle, who may well be the coordinator you're talking to (she lies, and uses many different names).

Review this post:

"Amy Anderson said: ↑
THANK YOU ALL, especially @@DianaCox.​

Plus side: I have been in contact with Michelle, and she had me totally snowed and second guessing my two surgeons that I'm considering, and she did *all* the underhanded tricks...lured me to her facebook page, contacted me in private message to answer questions but "refused" to promote any surgeons, then buttered me up and complimented me to gain trust, then spoke on the phone with me to badmouth Tijuana and scare me from other surgeons in general, then I totally lost hope about being able to trust *anyone* doing surgery in Mexico...then she contacted me again in private message and broke her "protocol" about ethics and said she does work for a surgeon but she refuses to use her page to promote him for ethical reasons, but she really wants to help me so she can get me a deal with Dr. Allerano...and he's the best and he's bariatric certified and few surgeons are, and he's trained everyone...and I was so happy!

Then I started doing more intense research on Allerano, (as any patient would do their due diligence) and saw this thread and read it, and yes...she even offered to help me get surgery through him at a different hospital than is listen on his website, and she told me NOT to book through his website, to go through her.

I just joined this page to let you know about my experience with Michelle on her Facebook page. I'll poke around the site more and see if I can gain knowledge about other surgeons in Mexico. Thanks all! him at a different hospital than is listed on his own website. She said she's his "US Nurse" whatever that means, and claims she's in the OR during surgery and will offer to take pictures for me.

I didn't let her know all this about her, I'm still in shock.

So good news: I found out I was being manipulated.
Bad news: I start over in my search for a safe surgeon in my price range.

I need to save my life & future with surgery, but I'm a stay at home mom of three kids and my hubby doesn't earn much so I have to consider price a factor. I wish I could afford the best of the best, but financial stuff is a huge factor so I have to make the best and most safe choice I can with the confines (money) that I have. That's why I'm researching my tush off!"

 

[Csdxn]

Yes, thank you Diana, that's the post I saw. I'm actually looking for a sleeve, not a DS. Arellano's website says that he practices out of Almater hospital, but then I was told that while he does work out of that hospital, it would cost more money because it was geared towards Americans and was a newer building, but that this other hospital he works out of was a better price with more experienced nursing staff.

If I do some googling I find more posts that say Arellano used to work with Alceves, who everyone agrees was an amazing doctor. I am freaking out a bit - although now I see that Mexicali Bariatric Centre is having a special for January which would be the same price as I would pay for Arellano. Hopefully they mean for people who pay in January, beacause I'm looking at March. This is freaking me out now.

 

[DianaCox]

I understand looking for a good price, but bargain-hunting for a surgeon??

Have you done your research on the long-term effectiveness of the sleeve? Because it basically sucks, and in 5-7 years, you're likely to be looking for a revision to a DS, which won't be as effective as if you did it all at once.

THINK TWICE, CUT ONCE.

 

[Csdxn]

I'm not bargain hunting a surgeon. Otherwise I could pay much less in Tijuana. I'm just pointing out that I wouldn't be incurring extra cost to switch.

Duodenal switch is something I've looked at as well. For my pt profile, however, gastric sleeve is better.

 

[Larra]

To @Csdxn hi and welcome! I'm so glad you found us and that you now know not to trust "Michelle", whoever she may really be.

You mentioned that according to your patient profile the sleeve is the right choice for you. I'm not sure what you mean by that. What I've seen with some surgeons in the USA is that they categorize people by bmi and tell patients that if your bmi is below, let's say, 45, you should have a sleeve and if it's above whatever arbitrary number you should have gastric bypass (most don't recommend DS because they don't do it and don't want to lose a paying customer...oh sorry, I mean patient). This arbitrary approach is a fallacy. We are seeing new patients, here and on other websites, every week who went into sleeve with great motivation, did well initially, but either never lost enough weight or began to struggle with regain after just a few years (sometimes sooner) because once the sleeve stretches - and it will - they lose restriction, which is the only help you get with a sleeve. So what it amounts to is a low calorie, low fat, low carb diet for the rest of your life, with nothing to help you. Does that sound familiar? To me, it sounds like what I did repeatedly for years before I got real and had the DS.
I can understand the appeal of the sleeve - that it's more natural, some people don't want their intestines "rearranged", don't want to be bothered with the vitamins you need with a DS, think they just need a little help and not as much help as some other people need, easier recovery, lower risk, whatever. But MO is a life long, chronic disease, and a treatment that only works temporarily becomes a huge disappointment when it stops working. I hope you will look again at the DS with an open mind, and think in terms of the rest of your life.