WASaBubbleButt

Snowbird... couldn't have said it better myself. I know of two patients (links available upon request) on OH who had their bands put in by bariatric surgeons. Both had different docs and both had their bands wrapped around a wad of fat instead of their stomach. Well no wonder they couldn't get restriction! The band was next to their stomach, not around their stomach. First question everyone asks is if they had surgery in Mexico. They had it in the US. There is NO medical malpractice rule against working on patients that have had previous medical care in Mexico. Look at all the Mexican folks that move here to the US, can they get medical care? Of course they can. Bariatric docs in the US must think we are utter idiots for believing their medical malpractice claims. Common sense goes a long way. OP... did you know that according to the CDC the hospital infection stats are higher in the US vs. Mexico? If all the docs work out of mud huts with dirt floors, why don't they have a higher infection stat than we do in the US? Look at the posts. Very few are having problems in Mexico with infections, the infections are US surgeries. Look at the board for yourself, do the research. I did one heck of a lot of research before going to mexico and it wasn't for price. I wanted the best surgeon for me and I got him. It was between my doc and a guy down the street from me. My doc has a better track record, a better program, better aftercare, better in patient care, better experience, and a better list of affiliations than the US guy down the street. My insurance covers banding, I could have had it done under insurance by the crappy guy, I opted to pay cash in mexico. Many Americans are ignorant and arrogant. They have no clue what they are talking about when they refer to Mexico and surgery. The are too ignorant to do their research and they go by arrogant assumptions that the US is better at everything. I'll take my Mexican experience ANY day over someone's outpatient surgery in the US *and* for double the price.

Dude, can you hear me? I haven't even read her reply and I don't need to. I know Snowbird in real time and what she wrote is the truth. I am in a similar boat, my insurance covers banding and I went to Dr. Aceves. I preferred self pay for the doctor of my choice vs. insurance sending me to the crappy doctors on their list. Some insurance companies most certainly DO pay Mexican doctors for their services. Since you are such an expert you might want to do a little research so you know what you are talking about. Research CA insurance co's paying Mexican doctors in Mexico to provide care for their insureds. Look, if you want to be anti-Mexico because you had a bad experience when 99% of the folks here that had surgery in Mexico had a great experience... that's fine. But please don't assume everyone who disagrees with your POV is wrong and you are the only correct poster posting.

Have you joined his egroup? It's a yahoo egroup and everyone posting is either his patient or thinking about it.

He is one of the four best surgeons in Mexico, my opinion only. He wasn't my surgeon but if my surgeon was not available for any reason I wouldn't think twice about going to Zapata. He is an excellent choice.

Why aren't you losing weight? Please explain in detail.

The bad reviews do speak for themselves. That's why his rep is so bad.

I don't know about you. Dr. Arturo Rodriguez does not charge $20K for a band. He charges over 50% less than that. On one hand you talk about how he was at fault and messed things up and in the next post you have nothing but praise for him. FillCenterUSA was started by a Mexican doc. They mostly fill Mexican bands. Not sure why they would suggest you not go to Mexico when 99.9% of the people come home from there just fine and without folks like us, FillCenterUSA wouldn't be in business. I've been to a FillCenterUSA place before and they most certainly do NOT "all" tell you not to go to Mexico. The fill person here in Phoenix was banded by Kuri... in Mexico. She sends her patients to Mexico all the time. Most rational folks know that just because there is one problem doctor that does not mean an entire country's medical system is poor. You claim that you were unable to get your band removed by a US doc. I'll take your word for it but you are the first. Many docs will not fill Mexican bands but you are the first I have heard where they won't remove it. Yet your medical provider would fill it (the problems they claim they have are fills, not surgery) but not remove it. You never came here before or during your banding but come here for the first time just to slam dunk ALL of Mexico. You claim you are fighting a lone battle. You don't have a band anymore, what are you fighting? People going to Mexico? If you want to be anti-Mexico OH is always available for you. Most here are pretty pro Mexico even if they didn't have surgery there. Maybe the reason you are fighting a lone battle is because you are wrong. Yep, I agree with you. Something is fishy and I don't believe it is everyone "else". Cheers.

Elisabeth... Do you think the learning part EVER ends??? (sigh) I don't think so! ;o) Good post.

Dr. Aceves is in Mexicali, is that the surgeon you refer to? I can't imagine how the band the Tijuana doctor placed and sitting with pain would be connected, can you provide more info please? What kind of band did he have from the TJ doctor? What caused him to have the band removed? When did his pain start? Before the band? During? After? What did the Mexicali doctor say?

Actually Terri, she has not been badgered, she has been given a great deal of information. It is the choice of each person to take it or not. So I do believe I'll go with the other mods on this one. This is one reason I declined that mod job. ;o)

No, Sharon. You used the fact that you are a nurse to bolster your opinion that the OP could cheat on the diet by telling them they would be "just fine." Again I will ask, are you willing to put your license number up along side of YOUR VERY FIRST POST on this thread? Whether or not you wish to admit it and regardless of how many ways you choose to rephrase your original post you are indeed giving medical advice. If your advice was correct, then back it up with a license. I think one thing you should remember is that you may be an experienced nurse but you have about a gazillion posts to read, fills and restriction to experience, more head issues than you will care to acknowledge, and weight loss before anyone is an experienced banded person. Banding... it seems pretty simple and straight forward. Amazingly, it isn't. You learn SO much while going through the phases, the head stuff, the learning to do basics again. And I'm here to tell you that being a nurse does not speed up the process one little bit. It is what it is. If being an nurse made the least bit of difference here we would have never gotten fat to begin with. We have spent many years getting fat, it didn't happen overnight. We think fat, we live a fat life. We justify food and more food. We do it in ways we don't even recognize until we have to change habits and that is when we realize the habits we have had for so many years and were oblivious to it. It seems so natural for us that I don't think we notice it when others do the same thing such as justifying more food. Naturally thin people see it right up front, fat folks are closed down to the obvious with some of these issues. Denial? Not sure. I don't know what causes it. I realize you want this thread to die a quick death but this is a much more important issue than you realize and it isn't going to die until it dies. Maybe that will be today, maybe it will be in a month. But the reality is that you gave bad advice, you pushed your opinion by making it a point to say you are a nurse as though that carries more weight.... and you did do that, and then you attempted to back peddle. I'm not so sure it is a matter of right or wrong right now, the wrongs have been corrected. But as a fellow nurse I am going to point out to you that nursing, age, experience, or wisdom.. they ain't got noth'en to do with banding and massive weight loss. You are in a whole new world right now and you have to give yourself a chance to start over and learn like the rest of us. You are a newbie and there is nothing wrong with that. But the experience of a nurse has little to do with what newbies face in the beginning. Correcting old thinking, learning new ways, being honest with self, understanding what got us fat to begin with... everyone starts from ground zero. We didn't get fat because we wanted to, it was a problem that grew bigger and bigger and one day it was so out of hand we realized... holy crap! There is no light at the end of the tunnel! Common sense has its place in massive weight loss but that isn't the only thing, if it was we'd just go on to eat less and lose weight. Instead we needed surgery to help. Learning why we do what we do requires being honest to the core and facing up to responsibility in a whole new way. I can tell you these things and you may accept or reject them, that's fair. It doesn't change reality and when you experience it you'll understand on a level you won't likely get as a newbie. I really believe that the key is to explain and encourage, but don't condone behaviors when you see it in another. What seems simple and straight forward really isn't. My opinions only.

Nope, not going to work. Nobody is claiming that you did not have a positive experience or that of your friends. The reality is that Huacuz isn't the busiest doctor in the world yet he has a very long history of people complaining about infections, misplaced bands, bands that had to be removed upon returning to the US, etc. There are doctors that have done many more bands and various procedures that don't have 1/10th of the negatives on various boards as Huacuz. He has a rep of working for clinics that lost their license because of poor medical care when HE was the surgeon in charge. He's been caught red handed posing as his own patients telling people how wonderful he is on other boards. He's been caught with IP addresses and when he plain messed up and forgot which ID he was posting under. Patients have come here and told their own experiences, their own first hand experiences. Other Mexican doctors complain that he makes all of Mexico look bad when he botches a surgery and his patients go to other doctors to have the repairs done. Those that don't come back to another Mexican doc to have the repairs go on line telling everyone how ALL of Mexico is bad. How about how he signs his patients up for OH before they are ever discharged from his clinic and he begs them to post a testimonial on OH? Then he gives them their password and bugs them to write testimonials. Why would he sign someone up for a band board and assign them a log in ID and password? If a patient wants to post on a message board they are fully capable of creating their own ID and password. OH has many glitches in their system and if you are familiar with their software you can get people's full names and city they live in. He has no right to do that to people. There is one person that when she discovered the software glitches she wanted to try and delete the account that was made for her and she couldn't remember the log in password that was assigned to her by Dr. Huacuz and she couldn't delete her own account. So there was her name for everyone to see. She didn't want the world knowing she went to Mexico for bariatric surgery. How about how his patient coordinators create fake IDs on OH and write blogs using his patient's full name (patient confidentiality, anyone?) to slam dunk someone that dares to tell how he almost killed her? How about how he offers people money for not posting their experiences with him? How about how he tells people he has never had a complication or death? We know THAT isn't true. No doctor with any amount of experience has never had a complication, if that was the case nobody would ever die or throw a blood clot or anything else that happens to patients when they have surgery. How about how he tells women how pretty they are and they are his angel, blah blah blah... it makes them feel hinky. How about how his website refers to his "hospital" when in fact, it is a clinic? Nobody claimed to have exact numbers and you know that so exact stats are impossible. I cannot provide that anymore than you can. Reputation is key here and he does not have a good one. Huacuz and Betancourt have a very long history and it's not a good one. Do searches on any large band boards for either name and you can see "first hand" what I refer to. Each one blames the other for all the mistakes and problems with patients, infections, the works. The reality is that Huacuz was the surgeon and the infections and such were his responsibility. That's not to lessen Betancourts role in all this, he is just as bad within his own position. It's just that the blame game does not work. They both had responsibilities and they both failed miserably and still do. I can go on and on if that is what you wish.

Susan, I blocked you on OH because you were annoying me and quite frankly, I was tired of the behaviors. Most of the people I have blocked on OH are DSers that are ... a little out there, they attack banded folks non stop, they slam dunk anyone that has a band, and they clearly have issues as well. I also have a slew of Dee's IDs blocked. More than half are actually Dee. If you don't like it I guess you'll have to find a way to cope with it. I'm really not sure why who *I* choose to block from *my* account bothers you so much. You have complained about it here, on OH, and in PMs. Susan, it's my account, I can block anyone I wish. It's really not something you should worry yourself over. Cheers.

I think the poster explained he went to Monterrey, what am I missing?

You were using the fact that you are a nurse to bolster your opinion. Now you claim you were just giving an opinion. Okay, you were giving an opinion while explaining you are a nurse. Maybe a better approach would be to encourage the person to hang in there for a few more days. We can all do this, I did it, lots of people have done it. It's not the end of the world. Is it hard? You bet it is! But it's harder to deal with a slip than it is to do a few more days of liquids.

No, unfortunately I haven't met up with all the patients that he made mistakes on. So I can't give you accurate numbers. However, if you do a search here and on OH for Molding Clinic, Betancourt, and Haucuz, you'll see what I mean. The Molding Clinic he worked out of was an absolute horror. Yet he and Andres Betancourt continued going there daily to operate. It was a filthy clinic and that didn't seem to bother Dr. Huacuz in the least. He claims they would not permit him to see his patients following surgery. I'm talking immediately following surgery and he had a huge problem with this. Yet he continued going back and operating on a daily basis knowing he wouldn't be able to check on his own surgical patients. That is how he explained the large number of infections. It wasn't his fault because the clinic did not let him check on his own patients. Or, you can talk to ANY of the more popular bariatric surgeons in Mexico and ask them how many of Dr. Huacuz patients they have had to operate on to fix bands, remove bands due to infection, etc. Or you could talk to DawnaT and ask her what he told her about his complication stats. He claimed they were zero, many of his patients disagree. Now, do you have stats to defend your claims? I mean something other than Dr. Huacuz' word for it. We already know how reliable that is.

There is a reason so few docs will do DS. If you ask a DSer they claim it takes such great skill most docs don't have it. That isn't true. While it may take skill to do DS it sure doesn't take a lot of integrity. The reason the skilled docs WITH integrity don't do the procedure is because it is dangerous. What I can't wrap my brain around is if someone does 20 minutes worth of research on DS they have to see the many many many down sides of the procedure. The stink, the mega vitamins, the writes ups at work for being stinky, the dissolving bathroom wallpaper, drops for your toilet as to not offend the block when you "go" as well as the charcoal underdrawers, the charcoal suppositories, the fights between family members over stench, the need for more bathrooms in the house, (the list appears to be endless for this problem)... what in the hell possesses someone to actually go through with this surgery? How can one be so anti-lifestyle change that they prefer that over running a few miles daily? I'm just sorry that some have such an inability to make positive changes in their life that they must take this route. Don't want to eat right? Have DS surgery. Don't want to change eating habits and quantity? Have DS. Don't want to exercise? Have DS. Want to eat like a cow? Have DS. Can't get a grip on food issues? Don't even try, just have DS surgery. I'll take hard work and restrictive over stink any 'ol day.

More double standards, I see. You whine and stomp those feeties over anyone daring to tell the truth about stink issues but yet you attempt to slam dunk someone because they can do what you didn't? You know, your attitude is the very attitude that caused this thread to be started and the roaring laughter to continue. Some people are fine with not continuing to eat like a heifer. Some of us prefer to exercise and eat like a normal person. If a DSer can't get a grip on food issues and they can't drag their odoriferous body out and run a few miles... maybe they should get DS. Not all of us need that extreme. We are good to go with restriction and a change of LIFESTYLE. That is something that takes determination and something I think many who get DS don't appear to have. One can get surgery and use it as a tool to lose weight and others need to change their body so they can eat as they wish. Whatever works, right? One requires more work and lifestyles changes and the other requires ... well, mega odor eaters. I'll take the lifestyle change any 'ol day over being written up at work for stench issues or watching my bathroom wallpaper dissolve in front of my eyes. Ohhh! Then there are the complaints from family members and voting on which anti-stench product is more appealing to the nose. How many anti-odor products are on the market right now to help you folks out with that bathroom problem? You really can't have it both ways here, darl'en. You can't throw a temper tantrum like a 3 year old whining that people are being mean to you and inappropriate and then attempt to slam dunk someone for not reaching their goal as fast as your... how many surgical years do you have under your belt now? Either take the high road or admit you whine like a 3 y/o. But don't you dare come here and pretend that you are better than anyone else. No rational person will buy it. Cheers.

I LOVE this post. Excellent. Great point about the "how dare you" diatribe. Kind of hypocritical, eh? But I think the first sentence is priceless. ;o)

Oh my goodness, Susan! Of all people who in the world are *you* to talk about catty behaviors? Seriously, can we say projection?

I think DSers can't take a bit of their own medicine. Seen the OH band forum when they get started? They are referred to as Nazis for a reason. This thread has been therapeutic and what the real issue is... why do we feel we need a therapeutic thread? I didn't tell a specific person about this thread intentionally. I *knew* she would go running to the DSers to tattle. That's her style, get everyone ELSE bickering and then sit back and claim the high road while watching from the sidelines. I love laughing and this thread makes me laugh. Right, wrong, or indifferent it makes me laugh. I'm going to continue posting links as I see them.

Moderators are indeed keeping things in focus. They are suggesting people follow their doc's advice and they are right. Some docs have better stats than others for a reason. I'm not sure I'm understanding what you are saying. Are you suggesting that it's okay to suggest people tell others to go against their doc's advice? Care to place your RN license number behind that advice? ;o) Honestly, I'm not trying to be nasty. But there are times when really bad advice is given and I do hope you aren't suggesting it's okay for message board members to suggest they know more than a patient's doctor. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point about what mods need to keep in mind. I too, am a nurse and I fully agree with the mods posting here.

That response most certainly was NOT rude, it's just hard to hear. That's all. It's hard when someone confronts us on inappropriate behaviors. Look, facts are facts. Your doctor knows more about this than you do. If he didn't you could have placed your own band. Since US docs started doing banding slips have increased. They have DOUBLED. They know we are too big of weenies to do without our glorious food for a few days so they dumb it down for us. Well, people are paying for it. I'm blown away that someone with NO medical training but they have had a band for a short time would give someone else the okay to go against their doctor's advice. That is just... I have no words. If you do not value your band I suggest everyone run out and eat steak and taffy during the post op diet. If you want to keep your band follow your doctor's advice. There isn't an obese person in the world that starved to death when drinking liquids for a few days.

It's all what people can handle. I did 600 calories a day and 1-2 hours of cardio. Worked for me. Remember, anything above and beyond basic nutrition just has to be burned. Fat IS stored energy. To each his own, find what works and go for it. But please don't knock those of us who did it and it worked for them.

I don't have it scheduled yet. I was considering going the same time as Andrea but I doubt the timing will work out for that. I'll add you to our Phoenix Bandster lunch. I realize you aren't getting banded but a sleeve instead but it would still be fun to meet you. You should join us. I don't plan on leaving the lunch group just because I am changing procedure types.