Dave / Palm Springs, CA

Dear all, I'll start by telling you that I am not paid to make this recommendation or rewarded in any way. I have volunteered to be a personal referral because of the enormous change it has made in my own life. I am a holistic doctor (NOT an M.D.), was overweight all my life and tried everything you can name to get my weight under control. By the time I was 52 years old, I weighed 340 pounds. That's a lot considering that I am 5'8" tall. I had a 54 inch waist and had already had two heart attacks and two angioplasty procedures and have three stents in the arteries around my heart.

I found Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Valenzuela over the internet after I saw a special on TV about people leaving the USA for surgeries elsewhere when they had to bear the cost on their own. I was interested because my health insurance company refused a weight loss surgery because they considered it "cosmetic" and refused to underwrite a surgery that they said I was seeking only for purposes of appearance. It was all smoke, mirrors and bull ... they just didn't want to pay for it. They knew very well that it was something I needed for purposes of health ... but then we all know that health insurance isn't really there to insure your health, just to insure the insurance company turns a profit by denying coverage for life-giving treatments. But don't get me going about that.

The surgery was a breeze. I went in at 7:00 AM Saturday, was in surgery by 11:00 AM and woke up in recovery at 5PM. The small surgical hospital that Dr. Gonzalez operates in is clean, well appointed and has all the most modern gear. Dr. Gonzales and Dr. Valenzuela are well-trained and respected within their field by other professionals. I know, I am one. When I awoke the next morning, I felt GREAT! I was bandaged for the five little 1.5 inch cuts on my abdomen. You are not carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey... there are just little cuts that heal within a week. I was tender but not sore. The only thing was that I had to sleep on my back for about 6 days -something I hate ---because I was uncomfortable on my stomach. I walked a mile and a half the morning after the surgery.

The weight loss was dietless, effortless, steady and TOTALLY REMARKABLE. The weight FELL OFF of me. I had enormous energy and felt wonderful! I have NEVER been hungry since that day. Somehow the band turns off the hunger and all I notice now is that I am "empty" rather than ravenous. I eat very little and am completely satisfied with what I can eat. I am no longer able to eat bread or some types of pasta because they turn to dough in the stomach and make me really uncomfortable. Same goes for any type of meat that is highly fibrous (steak, pot roast and pork chops) but those are the only problem foods for me. AND I DON'T MISS THEM ONE IOTA! (I worried about that at the beginning, but your thinking changes in small but dramatic ways as a result of the surgery. I have talked to other people who have experienced the same thing. Shortly after the surgery, the importance of food in my life became practically null. I used to live for food ... now I just don't care. And, it is a result of the surgery but I cannot explain why.

My health problems have completely resolved themselves with the reduction in my weight. No heart pills, no back problems, or knee or hip issues. I can walk and climb stairs and dance. I am now happier and healthier than I have ever been in my whole life. And, if I could say just one thing to you it is this: DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO GET THIS PROCEDURE DONE. After 52 years of living miserably (and that is NOT an exaggeration) I am finally -at long last and for the first time in my life -HAPPY. I am living the way I have always dreamed of living and it cost me less than the cost of a 5 year old USED Toyota.

Oh, one more thing... I was working as a counselor for a very large funeral/cemetery concern in the Pacific Northwest at that time. And, before the surgery happened and AFTER I had made the decision to have it, everyone at work and everyone I knew tried to dissuade me from having a surgery done in Mexico. At work, they even went to the trouble to photocopy horror stories on failed surgeries taken from such sensationalist papers as the National Enquirer. Most often they had sticky notes attached that expressed their concern for me and my decision to have the surgery at all --much less in MEXICO. Somehow, inside of me, I knew it was going to be okay. My son's wife (chronically overweight herself) said to me, "I think it is a bad idea. You could die!" And, in response to her expression of concern, I was a little surprised when I heard myself say, "If I die, I die. If there is ANY chance this will succeed, I'M TAKING IT! I do not want to live the rest of my life like this. I am willin g to take the risk". I soon found out there was hardly any risk at all -and all the naysayers shut their respective pie-holes when they saw how much my health and appearance improved and how rapid the change was.