Day 1 of Mexico, Part 1

Well, the past three days have been a long journey. Wednesday morning I woke up at 4AM to get ready since my flight out of Birmingham was at 6:55. By the time I got through security at the airport (they didn't like my bottle of aloe (for my sunburn from swimming Tuesday), they just started boarding the plane. This was also due to American Airlines' computer system being down for like 15 minutes so I couldn't check in right away. I requested an exit row seat at check in which I got. When the boarding agent saw my boarding pass, he said he had a better place to sit and changed my ticket. I was like "great, that's nice". When I get to the seat, however, it's the first row right after first class which has no where to store a laptop bag and since there where no seats directly in front of that row, the tray tables come out of the middle arm rest which meant the middle armrest doesn't folds up. I was like "oh shit!". There isn't enough Crisco in the world to get me to fit in that seat. I notified a flight attendant and she told me to go speak with the boarding agent again since she didn't know what seats were open. So I ran back up the tunnel and told the gate agent and he reassigned me to the last row of the plane which only had an aisle and window seat which was good. The only drawback was the engines where right on the other side of the window and that the bathrooms were right next to me.

Once I got settled in, the flight was uneventful. I mentioned to the flight attendant sitting near me for takeoff that I was going to Mexico for to get a Lapband and he mentioned that he had a family member who had full gastric bypass and that they lost a ton of weight. He was real nice and wished me the best of luck.

We land in Dallas/Fort Worth early so the gate wasn't ready for us; we had to sit in the plane 15-20 minutes until we could get to the gate. We deplane and I find the monitors with the departures and discover that the flight to Monterrey departs from another terminal on the other side of the airport. I catch the tram and get to the gate uneventfully.


The picture above was taken before any announced delays. First we get an announcement stating that there was a maintenance delay on the plane. Then we get another about having to do an international flight security check. I'm frantically trying to reach the patient coordinator and the doctor's office in Monterrey to let them know of the delay so I can still make my pre-ops that day and so the taxi driver isn't waiting there for hours unnecessarily. Finally, they stated that the plane had a cracked windshield and that they had to find another plane. They finally have another plane for us but it's like 10 gates down so everyone heads down to that gate like a herd of cattle. We eventually take of at 11:44AM, the time we were supposed to land in Monterrey. I had the same seat issue on this flight so they put me in the same row but the other side so once we took off, the rest was uneventful.

Getting through customs and immigration was easy other than most of the forms they had were Spanish only. I got help on the plane for some of them and for the swine flu form they hand you when you get off the plane, I got help in the immigration line. Once I got past customs, I saw my driver holding the sign with my name on it; I felt special. Too bad I was carrying too much crap to stop and take a picture. Below are some pics of the outside of the airport when I was waiting for the driver to get the car and pics on the way to the cardiologist. The Home Depot pic was taken especially for my dad, btw.







The driver takes me to the cardiologist's office and the door is locked! I frantically call the Surgery Center's office and finally reached someone who speaks English and explained what was going on. They finally reach someone and said that they'll be there in ten minutes; they said that they will call back in 10-15 minutes to see if everything is ok. The medical assistant/nurse/secretary lady shows up about 10 minutes later and starts with drawing three viles of blood for the blood work. She then does an EKG on me. Then she does a chest X-ray. The cardiologist shows up and interviews me to make sure I have no preexisting problems to prevent me from having surgery and to make sure that I don't have a case of the crazies. He then does some breathing tests on me with his stethoscope and says I'm good to go. The lady calls for the hotel shuttle to take me to Dr. Rumbaut's office. Below are some scenic pics that I took from the windows while waiting for the cardiologist's office to open.



Well, I am getting tired and hungry so I will post Part 2 later...