Repost from OH--

I wasn't being rude or trying to rain on her parade--just wanted her to come check out this site. Here is her post:

"I have been letting everyone know that I am a bit nervous about my upcoming surgery and I appreciate everyones advice and words of encouragement. However, today someone sent me the following email through this site that I found offensive.

"Stacy I don't mean to scare you but I strongly suggest NOT having surgery in MX; there have been several women on lapbandtalk.com with band erosions and all had their surgery with mx doctors; 1 or 2 of the erosions were Dr. Ortiz's patients. Erosion is a serious complication requiring removal of the band.

Good luck"

First of all, erosion happens. It even happens to patients in the US. My doctor is a leading world expert in Lap Band. He has trained MANY American doctors and was taught himself by the inventor of the Band Dr. Belachew. When a Doctor performs over 3000 procedures, there are bound to be some erosions.

I guess I am just aggrivated because I have enough going through my head right now, like not gaining any more weight and I feel that an email trying to scare me about my doctor was very rude.

Sorry, I am just venting...."

Stacy

p.s. For anyone doubting Dr. Ortizs expertise...order his book. www.drarielortiz.com He will also be appearing on Dateline NBC soon doing a piece on the Lap Band.

I am not saying you can't tell someone your thoughts and feelings about something. That is what a support group is for. What I have a problem with is someone approaching someone else to tell them they are making a bad decision and siting a blanket statement about an entire country for a reason. It is silly, in my opinion.

As for using the streets and rivers as toilets...have you ever been to New York City? Dirty dirty city. And dangerous after dark. (in some places :rofl: )

I was told that my surgeon has had less than the average percentage of erosion (1%-3%). I got this info from the message board set up for his patients who have questions, and is managed by the coordinators for his practice. And my fills will be done by a doctor here in the Tampa area who is in communication with my surgeon in Mexico and is one of the many doctors in the country who is recommended by my surgeon as someone who will do fills on a mexico patient. I made sure this was the case since I have read about other patients not being able to get a fill done. BUT! Keep in mind, surgeons do not jsut refuse to do fills on out of country patients. Most clinics will not do fills or after care on a patient who has come from another surgeon inside the country as well. That is not jsut a country to country thing.

Look, I do not want to argue either. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But when you just claim mexico is a bad idea, and base that off of nothing but an opinion of a country and not off of personal medical experience, it is frustrating. You have to keep in mind that most of the people in support groups are there because they are about to have the surgery, or have had it and are having difficulties. How many people who have had the surgery are not on boards like this? My surgeon has done over 5000 lap band surgeries. I have only seen 5 or 6 of his patients here. And none of them have had problems with erosion.

Amy

this person is not entitled to uncritical and unconditional

support, and I am tired of this "how dare you rain on my parade"

attitude. If someone had tried to warn me about the surgeon/hospital I had chosen, I would at least have considered what the person was saying and asked a few questions and maybe done additional research.

I now revise my previous post, and I do think what you said is not only rude, but it seems that you intended it that way. Just by the way you are positioning yourself in this discussion, it seems you are completely offended yourself by others who think what you did might have been a little out of line. Funny, because you say above how you would have "at least considered" what they had to say. Are you doing that now? A little compassion and understanding goes a long way with people, especially when they are making (for many) a life or death decision.

Yes, we all need to do our research. Yes, we need all the information we can get. Yes, sometimes we need tough love. BUT, people don't need personal contact and attacks on their decision from anyone... Mexico, or not.

[(For example, MX has yet to wipe out TB,which is something we accomplished almost two centuries ago in this country]

This is not true at all. 14,517 cases of TB were reported to the Centers of Disease Control in the US from the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2004.

I now revise my previous post, and I do think what you said is not only rude, but it seems that you intended it that way. Just by the way you are positioning yourself in this discussion, it seems you are completely offended yourself by others who think what you did might have been a little out of line. Funny, because you say above how you would have "at least considered" what they had to say. Are you doing that now? A little compassion and understanding goes a long way with people, especially when they are making (for many) a life or death decision.

Yes, we all need to do our research. Yes, we need all the information we can get. Yes, sometimes we need tough love. BUT, people don't need personal contact and attacks on their decision from anyone... Mexico, or not.

You hit the nail right on the head, clevergrrly. And we wonder why other countries perceive some Americans as arrogant. Melati, I think you are dangerously close to flirting with bigotry, my lapband peer. Please let this be done now.

MX and other third world countries are filthy...

:clap2: "Spoken" like a true... Never mind.

In my travels, I saw ppl s@%&&*ing in the rivers and out in the street, for that matter., (even though individually the ppl themselves were very clean) Generally, that doesn't happen here because there are different standards.

You've got to start hanging out in better places, and that includes better than Beverly Hills. Because, one of the reasons that "Heal the Bay's Beach Report Card" for certain west coast beaches--including those closest to Beverly Hills--has failing grades has more than a little to do with how many homeless folks are camped out there. So much for wealthy cities in "First World" countires.

Ortiz is my doctor and Iam one of those who eroded. I DO NOT blame him. I lost over 100 lbs with my band. It did it's job. My body just rejected the band.

Funny this came up...Just to let you know, we have NOT wiped out TB. Matter of fact, tonight I arrested a 45 year old man for trespassing with Active Tuberculosis. Oh, and to top it off... when I contacted him he was pissing in a gas station parking lot.

Amy, if your U.S. changes his mind about doing fills on MX pts, check out fillcentersusa.com.

As for the filth factor, you can't convince me that MX is as clean as the U.S.

BTW most of the TB cases in the U.S. are in the illegal population, who are obviously not tested before entering this country.

BTW most of the TB cases in the U.S. are in the illegal population, who are obviously not tested before entering this country.

Please quote an online reference that supports this statement. And I'm not talking about uncle Billy Bob's statistical hobby, I mean hard data.

Anca, thank you very much for providing this information. What that makes clear is that more cases are "foreign born" people. NOT most, as melati indicated in yet another far reaching, broad brush stroke statement. Further, the lack of decrease in such cases could be due to any number of factors, including but not limited to lack of access to education and treatment.

Am I the only one appalled by the direction this conversation has taken? To think it started with melati's alleged well intended email trying to "help" a pre op bandster. Unfrickingbelievable.

LOL The hospitals obviously use Water that is not full of parasites. It might be another country with different plumbing systems, but they aren't in the dark ages. The medical community there understand the concept of being sterile.

Amy

Anca, I think we can both concede that "most" is a subjective term.

Mexico has its fair share of sanitation issues, unquestionably. What I am struggling with is melati's seemingly smug perspective. The crude "we good, they bad" mentality. It's a personal thing. My family is rich in culture and blended from many places in the world. Attitudes like melati's really get my knickers in a twist. lol

This might help to ease this thread a bit. Read Consumer reports Feb 2006 edition, It talks about the lap band and bi pass. It was a write up.

I believe he means Feb 2006, but it's not available online unless you subscribe, I don't think. (I'd love to be shown to be wrong on that, but I tried last night.)