WASaBubbleButt

No, actually I don't. I'm going to Mexicali with a friend on Saturday and I'm going to approach my band surgeon about it. He's a general surgeon too, no reason he couldn't do it. When he says no, I'm going to say that I understand and I'll just have the tattoo guy do it. He'll cringe at that. Heh... I'm hoping a bit of manipulation will work.

But that isn't what she wrote. She wrote about wanting someone that English is their primary language and there are many US trained docs that were not born in the US. Thus, the clarification.

I disagree with this too. You should have contacted the seller and at least offer to let them refund your money. If they didn't since you ONLY use a credit card on ebay you do a chargeback. You don't just throw away $20. I have a gazillion f/bs between all my ebay IDs. I don't care about it. I don't sell anymore so I don't even use my seller ID. If the person clearly deserves positive f/b, I leave it. If they don't, I leave a neg. I don't care who leaves it first or second, I leave my honest opinion. In the years I used to ebay I've left two negs and received none. Well, except the scammers. We negged the heck out of them but that wasn't with my buyer or seller IDs. I had a buyer ID, seller ID, posting ID, and an anti-scammer ID. Okay, several anti-scammer IDs. Ebay is dirty, they are horrible. They do nothing about the fraud because they make a freak'en fortune off fraud. I have no desire to give them my business. I do like Amazon, the sellers are a better quality there. Might cost a bit more but it's money well spent.

I don't. I kinda like 'em. But then I'm funny that way.

You know what? You aren't going to like this but I disagree with you and agree with giving you a neg. I'd do the same. Well, I might do the same but I would darn sure think about it. The stuff on ebay is cheap crap and fakes. Everyone knows it. When you buy an item you really do get what you pay for. If you are not happy it is your job as a consumer to contact the seller and try to work it out. Most will refund your money if they know full well you are in the right. You didn't do that, you never wrote that you contacted the seller. You never gave them a chance to make it right. If you give them a chance to make it right and they ignore you or don't at least TRY to do something to fix the problem, they are absolutely within their rights to give you a neg in return. The f/b system on ebay is not perfect but the one thing about it is that it is an opinion of the overall experience. The experience the seller had with you is that you bought an item, paid for it, received it, and negged them. Their perception of you is that you are unreasonable and nasty. You never even gave them a chance to fix the mistake and according to your list of events, you didn't. You deserved the neg. The overall experience is NOT just if you paid on time, the overall experience includes a total lack of communication on your part with a problem. I used to volunteer for ebay helping scammed people get their money back. Anyone that shops on ebay is an absolute fool unless they are willing to lose any money they send to anyone. It's a system full of scams, cons, and illegal activity. Ebay is *just* as bad as the worst scammers scamming people. PayPal is just as bad as Ebay. They are sued by every Attorney General's office in the country for a reason. It isn't because they are all sweetness and light. As for your f/b score, who cares? Are you buying f/b or widgets? As a buyer it doesn't make a lick of difference if you have two negs. It ONLY matters as a seller. The whole key to f/b is to leave factual information, no name calling, no trashing of others, just the facts. People tend to ignore the negs left when you merely leave the facts. If the other party slams you then they really are the ones people look at. Which seller f/b would you take seriously? "Fat f'ing freak never payed [sic] for a damn thing!" Or... "Bid 3/1/07, payment due 3/8/07, not received as of 4/1/07." As a buyer are you going to do business with the first or second seller? Same thing applies to buyers.

Oh, absolutely not! I was referring to in real time, not on line. Guess I should have made that clear!! It was no problem!

I don't agree with you. I think Lauren saw something in your post that she feels you have done. That's not flaming, that IS discussion. Calling you horrible names, SCREAMING AT YOU, accusing you of things that are absolutely untrue, making claims of "someone" doing something while implying it was you when it wasn't at all... that would be flaming. Thus far this is a discussion. I suspect that you merely don't care for the opinion that you have indeed done about the very same thing you complain of. One thing that people to tend to confront on R&R is the passive aggressive line 'o crap some folks use and honestly, you do that. You do it a lot and then sit back and claim you were not speaking of the person you know full well you were referring to. You try to write in a way that makes fun of another person, the entire thread knows full well who you refer to, and when confronted you sit back and play innocent claiming you have no idea what anyone is talking about. That doesn't fly well on R&R because here, it is confronted head on when it happens.

Hey Voon.... Do you know what AquaNet hair spray is STILL used for? It's SO strong that when you go to the doc and get a pap they "fix" the slide with a spray. If you tear the paper off the can it's AquaNet. It "fixes" it so NOTHING on that slides moves, slides off, or budges in any way possible. Still makes me laugh, I remember in my early days working for a doc and I never needed to take hair spray to work with me. I could poof it out and use "pap fixer" on my hair.

OMZ! Yesterday I saw a photo of myself in the early 80s. I had HUGE hair. How embarrassing, I actually went out in public that way. :rolleyes

I saw a solid black pug dressed up as a spider yesterday. It was GREAT! Loved it!

Yep, the anchor has a thing that sticks up like a post on an earring and only the part that sticks up shows. The anchor is under the skin. It's tiny. You screw on whichever stone you want and go on with your day.

Agreed. And to suggest alternative, lower calorie drinks to an alcoholic troll seems kinda weird.

Does that mean if someone was born in Mexico, raised in Mexico, and came to the US for medical school you wouldn't go to him?

I wouldn't get it unless it is pure titanium. Then there is virtually no chance of rejection. I've never cared for piercings or tattoo (except for pierced ears) but this is different. Not sure why I like it so much.

Thank you for the honest answer. I did think you would be able to supply me with the facts.

Yeah, that's what TheFox said too. But you know, I've had my ears pierced for 30+ years and I've only ripped one once. It hurt but grew back. Remember when HUGE MOMBO size hoops were in style? Oh, you probably don't. But they used to be. Combing your hair was a dangerous task.

I really like this article, I think it's right on the money. Just make sure you read post #1 so you can see HOW do to these things and post #2 so you can be organized when you do so. There were a couple of issues that hit home, one is: This concept holds very true in the US as well as Mexico. There are a handful of surgeons that others surgeons will refer the tough, tricky, or difficult cases to. It's because they CAN handle the problems and complications. They CAN do the tricky cases. In my original post I wrote that it is important to consider the skill level of the doctor. Does he just do the easy banding or is he capable AND does he actually DO the tough cases. Can he do a band after a botched gastric bypass? It's much more difficult than most might realize. Most docs will refer the patient to someone who can do the tricky stuff. Do you want to go directly to the guy that CAN do the tricky stuff or do you want to go to the guy that refers the complicated people to someone else? It's really an important issue to consider. That does mean the ones who will do a tricky or complicated case might have a higher mortality rate. It does not mean they are not a fantastic surgeon with great skill. I know of one US doc that totally botched a Gastric Bypass and the patient was not going to survive without a repair procedure yet no US doc would touch her and you know why? First of all most docs can't do the extra difficult procedures and of the US docs that can do them, they don't want to because it will mess with their stats. If the patients were to die then they have a death on their stats. So they keep referring the patient to someone else until someone else is willing to quite literally save the patient's life. That's how important stats are to docs. They will turn someone away vs. saving their life because they don't want to mess with stats. That's how political and dirty medicine can potentially be and yes, I'm talking about within the United States. I totally understand why someone would refer a patient if they know darn well they don't have the skill level for a specific procedure. The doc should be hugged to pieces for being honest. He might excel in a different area but not that particular procedure. I have a problem with docs that CAN do the procedure but they don't want the risk of messing with stats. The patient I was referring to above with a botched US gastric bypass went to Mexico because she couldn't find anyone in the US to help her. Without surgery, she would die. With surgery she "might" survive. Well, she didn't. She passed away from cardiac complications. Is it the docs fault? Nope, but it still goes against his stats. Since a doc has a mortality stat does that mean he's bad? In this case by the time the patient finally found someone willing to help her it was simply too late. No surgeon could have saved her at that point. But it goes against that doc's stats anyway. It sure does not mean he's bad, it means he cares more about the patients than his stats. There is one doc being discussed right now regarding a death. He's in TJ. A family member is blasting him on every band board. Just remember, "stuff happens" and it isn't always the fault of the doc. Sometimes patients break the #1 rule in medicine and they die regardless of surgeon skill. In that case I honestly don't know if it was a freak thing or if the doc messed up but remember, due to confidentiality issues the doc cannot come and explain his side but the family can. So it makes the doc look bad. Maybe he did screw up, maybe he didn't. We'll never know on a chat board.

I really like this article, I think it's right on the money. Just make sure you read post #1 so you can see HOW do to these things and post #2 so you can be organized when you do so. There were a couple of issues that hit home, one is: This concept holds very true in the US as well as Mexico. There are a handful of surgeons that others surgeons will refer the tough, tricky, or difficult cases to. It's because they CAN handle the problems and complications. They CAN do the tricky cases. In my original post I wrote that it is important to consider the skill level of the doctor. Does he just do the easy banding or is he capable AND does he actually DO the tough cases. Can he do a band after a botched gastric bypass? It's much more difficult than most might realize. Most docs will refer the patient to someone who can do the tricky stuff. Do you want to go directly to the guy that CAN do the tricky stuff or do you want to go to the guy that refers the complicated people to someone else? It's really an important issue to consider. That does mean the ones who will do a tricky or complicated case might have a higher mortality rate. It does not mean they are not a fantastic surgeon with great skill. I know of one US doc that totally botched a Gastric Bypass and the patient was not going to survive without a repair procedure yet no US doc would touch her and you know why? First of all most docs can't do the extra difficult procedures and of the US docs that can do them, they don't want to because it will mess with their stats. If the patients were to die then they have a death on their stats. So they keep referring the patient to someone else until someone else is willing to quite literally save the patient's life. That's how important stats are to docs. They will turn someone away vs. saving their life because they don't want to mess with stats. That's how political and dirty medicine can potentially be and yes, I'm talking about within the United States. I totally understand why someone would refer a patient if they know darn well they don't have the skill level for a specific procedure. The doc should be hugged to pieces for being honest. He might excel in a different area but not that particular procedure. I have a problem with docs that CAN do the procedure but they don't want the risk of messing with stats. The patient I was referring to above with a botched US gastric bypass went to Mexico because she couldn't find anyone in the US to help her. Without surgery, she would die. With surgery she "might" survive. Well, she didn't. She passed away from cardiac complications. Is it the docs fault? Nope, but it still goes against his stats. Since a doc has a mortality stat does that mean he's bad? In this case by the time the patient finally found someone willing to help her it was simply too late. No surgeon could have saved her at that point. But it goes against that doc's stats anyway. It sure does not mean he's bad, it means he cares more about the patients than his stats. There is one doc being discussed right now regarding a death. He's in TJ. A family member is blasting him on every band board. Just remember, "stuff happens" and it isn't always the fault of the doc. Sometimes patients break the #1 rule in medicine and they die regardless of surgeon skill. In that case I honestly don't know if it was a freak thing or if the doc messed up but remember, due to confidentiality issues the doc cannot come and explain his side but the family can. So it makes the doc look bad. Maybe he did screw up, maybe he didn't. We'll never know on a chat board.

Two of the Mexican plastic surgeons I have met said that they don't do "medical tourism" meaning, you have to stay there for at least a week in case of complications and such. If complications are going to happen they usually happen within days of surgery. My band doc suggests Soberanes (sp?) in TJ for LBLs. I have the name and number of his coordinator if you are interested in general info. I've talked to her quite a bit. She's an RN and very matter of fact yet kind. I don't believe I need a LBL so I'm not going that route, just a TT and maybe a BL w/implants. I think it would be okay if you go to a Mexican doc for that procedure. There are quite a few that this is all they do and in Mexico they tend to keep you in the hospital longer than they do in the US. That's a plus because w/plastic surgery the mortality is much higher than something such as a band.

Makes it worth being married for the name!

But nobody would ever see it. That's why I like the wrist one. I'm still undecided. :cry

I hate tattoos, I think they are fugly and they are forever. If I decide I hate this I can just unscrew the gem setting and have the anchor removed. It doesn't have to be forever.

Oh, WARNING!! Graphic pictures on that site. Sorry, should have put that in my OP.

I wonder if part of it isn't that soooo many cheat on the post op diet and when they cheat, they really go for it. Fried chicken, etc. I wonder if this isn't just to get people to be a little more compliant. Edit to add: This would also explain the drastic increase in future slips as well. People believe they are safe if they don't slip while eating the wrong foods. Not true, the post op diet sets the tone for the life of the band.

I wonder if part of it isn't that soooo many cheat on the post op diet and when they cheat, they really go for it. Fried chicken, etc. I wonder if this isn't just to get people to be a little more compliant. Edit to add: This would also explain the drastic increase in future slips as well. People believe they are safe if they don't slip while eating the wrong foods. Not true, the post op diet sets the tone for the life of the band.