Going Light

Checkout was early again.   Our car came at 8, and we were ready to start heading home.   With our plane not leaving until 1:15 we knew that we’d be waiting for a while either at the border or at the airport, perhaps both.    The drive across town took about 20 minutes.   GoLight has access to the medical priority lane.   We were through the border crossing in about 15 more minutes.   I had a passport card and my wife used her driver’s license and birth certificate.   The border agent asked a few questions and if we wanted to declare anything.   Our driver mentioned our medications which we were carrying, but doing so is completely legal.   They are probably used to GoLight and other bariatric patients coming through.   We did not have to go to a secondary inspection.   There were no scary glares or intimidating lines of questioning.   The border agent typed some stuff on the computer, returned our documents and waved us on.   Copious lanes of Interstate-5 running all the way to Canada

My wife and I planned to go out today.   GoLight offers tours (and we’ve heard that they are great), but we decided to just go on our own.   I grew up in San Diego and have been to TJ a handful of times.   We had a couple of goals for the day: buy some t-shirts and souvenirs for the kids from the shops of Revolution Ave., check out Costco just to compare it to American Costco, then go to Sam’s Club for the same reason.   We wanted to also get some candy to take home (not for us of course). I didn’t want to carry a bunch of cash, so we set out with $100.   The UBER across town to Revolution was only about $4.   We bought some stuff and ran out of our cash pretty quick.   I checked my phone and saw that we were only about ½ a mile from Costco, so we decided to walk.   We got about 2/3 of the way there before realizing that we were walking through a pretty sketchy area and decided maybe we should find a safe place and call an UBER to come get us.   We ended up skipping Costco and going

After sleeping well again, it was discharge day.   Preparations for discharge start pretty early.   Most need their I.V. removed and the drain taken out.   I’d already done both.   A care package with medicines and discharge instructions were brought to us.   These were explained in detail.   By 10:00 A.M. we were ready to go.   After days of being told to walk, I was required to ride out of the hospital in a wheelchair (I’ve never completely understood this practice in the US or Mexico).   After a short ride back to the hotel we were ready to check in.   It is not uncommon for the Marriot to not be ready for you this early.   Today they only had interior rooms with no windows.   There are comfortable couches and chairs all over the lobby, so we asked if we could wait.   The concierge said that a few rooms had been checked out and just needed to be cleaned.   The wait was supposed to only be 20-30 minutes.   We decided that was no problem because we wanted a window.   After about 45

I woke up to find that my drain wound had leaked and soaked my clothes and the bed with a bunch of blood and other drain fluids, yuck.   I was super excited because today is the leak test.   If passed water, broth, and sugar-free popsicles await.   I hadn’t had anything to drink since 10:00 pm on day one.   I wasn’t dehydrated, they give you IV fluids, but I felt dehydrated and thirsty.   I got in the chair and got wheeled downstairs.   They gave me an unpleasant clear liquid that was not good, but not terrible.   The technician who does this test has a reputation for joking about the liquid being an alcoholic shot (mine was tequila, he said).   This technician is a bright spot on the journey.   He actively encourages you to watch the x-ray dye pass through your newly-surgeried stomach.   He points out that there are no leaks (like I would know how to spot one anyway unless it was blatantly obvious).   It was done, I passed, fluids, yay! I was walking more now too.   There’s almost alw

 We were up early again.  We needed to be at the hospital at 8.  We went down a few minutes early to check out.  The hotel staff is very used to GoLight patients.  They know when your shuttle will be there or will point it out if it has arrived and they will help with your bags.  The drive to CIBA was quick.  Upon arriving we settled our accounts and made payments before being taken upstairs to the rooms we would be using.  This small hospital is purpose-built for weight loss surgeries.  There is no elevator but there is a nice sloping ramp that switchbacks between floors and makes it possible to push beds and wheelchairs or allow recovering patients a place to walk between floors (there are stairs too).  The rooms are standard hospital rooms that would look completely familiar in an American hospital.  Each has a TV, and we brought a ROKU so we could watch whatever we wanted.  Mexican Netflix seems to have a lot more movies and 'good stuff' that American Netflix just doesn'

  Today started early with a flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix at 6:35 requiring us to be up at about 3:50.   We had a layover in Phoenix for about 3 hours but touched down in San Diego just a few minutes after noon.    (Planes lining up in PHX waiting to take off) Our driver was in touch with us immediately after landing before we were even to our gate.   San Diego is a rather small airport.   By the time we got our bags and got outside we only waited about 5-10 minutes.   We were in a car and heading for the border within thirty minutes of arrival.   The drive to the border takes about 25-30 minutes.   The border crossing into Mexico is not really scary at all.   Mexico isn’t nearly as concerned about what is being brought into their country as the United States is.   There were no long lines (there usually aren’t).   There are a couple of hairpin turns to keep traffic moving slowly as it passes through the station.   You will see Mexican National Guard soldiers with assault rifles