The anaesthesiologist said he would install the drip, as the nurses didn't do a good job.  Ignoring Dave's advice that the left hand is the best for a drip, he kept trying to find a vein in the right hand, causing Dave considerable pain.  Eventually he gave up and the nurse inserted it into the left hand first try. 

Also irritatingly, Andrew was kicked out of the room twice when Dave was brought back and laid on the bed, until the anaesthesiologist stopped them from doing it a third time.

There were some side effects.  The swelling of the affected areas was expected, wasn't significant and was easily controlled by a compression bandage.

However, Dave's skin reacted badly to the gauze or something put around the insertion holes for the liposuction rods.  These four patches turned bright red and itched terribly and painfully for a few days.  When visiting the surgeon, he said he'd never seen anything like it, and gave us a cortizone-based cream called Maxitrol.  We found out later it was an eye treatment that could even exacerbate itching.  It didn't help.

On January 22, 2010, Dave had liposuction surgery.  This was a surgery Dave had wanted for a number of years to remove some of the stubborn fat that can't be worked off.  As the surgery in Mexico is about half the price of the same surgery in the U.S.A., we took the advantage to do it here.

We signed into the Clinica del Pilar, a small mini-hospital near our church.  Our surgeon was Manuel Jimenez del Toro, a Mexican doctor fluent in English with about 20 years experience with liposuctions.

Soon after settling in our room, Dave was gowned up and led into the operating theater.  The nurses wouldn't let Andrew go near the theater, so he waited in the room. 

The surgery itself was a success, and a lot of fat was removed from the sides and some from the front as well.

Thankfully we had brought a sleeping bag as Dave was shivering badly after the surgery, being sensitive to heat and cold, and the blankets weren't very warm.  But after snuggling in bed with an Ender story playing in his ear, Dave was a happy camper.

Dave didn't have much pain, so when the drip fell out once, the nurses didn't need to reinsert it and he went to pain pills.  He also felt well enough to go home that evening, avoiding the overnight hospital stay.

After complaining again a day or two later, the surgeon recommended a topical gel sold in a local pharmacy called Andantol, which Andrew rushed out to get that night.  This seemed to work, and the redness and itchiness gradually died down. 

All in all, Dave is glad he had the surgery done.  His "love handles" are noticeably slimmer and frontal fat is reduced.  The Mexican care was efficient and clean, unfortunately with some "we know best, the patient is ignorant" attitudes that are common in other parts of the world as well.