Thanks for Nothing

When you pay, things can happen.

This should not have been any huge epiphany for me; I mean, although it's not one of the Ten Commandments, it's well known enough to have qualified for an eleventh.

I finally got tired of being slapped around by doctors, their assistants and the insurance company, and wrote a simple query to the offices of a well-respected Lap Band surgeon, Dr. Pedro Kuri, in Mexico, twelve miles from my home in San Diego.

Five minutes later, dozens of my questions were answered in a very concise email, along with prices, funding options and transportation arrangements. Three days later, I had a date set up for surgery, around three weeks later. My new DOB (Date of Banding) would be May 10th, 2008.

They set me up with a facilitator, who was there via email or phone and my beck and call, just about 24/7. If she didn't know the answer to a question, she found out promptly and got it to me pronto.

I was so amazed at the way this was coming together, I almost cried when she called me with the date. I had been trying to get this done for five months in the States, but the only result was feeling like a cat toy being batted around by a monster tiger.

It was difficult to imagine: They were actually behaving like I was the customer and they were the service provider. Could it possibly be so easy?

"Mexico? Are you out of your mind?" was the reaction of most people I told. There seems to be a built-in paranoia of anything serious coming from somewhere other than the United States. What they either don't understand or don't want to believe, is that the medical system here is seriously broken and doesn't work nearly as well as elsewhere.

Instead, they'll bitch and complain about the lack of care they got at Kaiser or Sharp-Reese Stealy, but continue to go because that's where they have their insurance. They are denied multiple times for surgeries like the Lap Band, even though it would save the system untold dollars in medical care. The patients dutifully follow the instructions to go back and get a membership at Jenny Craig. They lose the same twenty pounds they've lost and regained their entire lives and then are told they don't need surgery because the diet plan worked.

Denied again.

Screw that; I went to Mexico and had the surgery. Immediately afterwards, my blood sugar went down and stayed at a level where I could 86 two of my three Diabetes medications. My blood pressure is great, and I'll bet the test results this month will show my cholesterol down, too, even though I have not taken the meds for that since I got my Lap Band.

The hospital in Tijuana was incredibly deluxe, more like a four star hotel. It was very clean and the staff was friendly. Doctors in Mexico hug you, and are most attentive and respectful. It was a stark and welcome contrast to any medical experience I've ever had here.

I have lost that twenty pounds again, but this time it's for good, and I'm not stopping there.

"If you have surgery in Mexico, our doctor will not give you any follow-up care," warned a medical assistant here after abruptly informing me that I'd been denied a final time by my insurance company. She knows many people are turning to other options.

I feel like making a video of myself laughing and thumbing my nose and sending the link to the insurance company and the medical personnel here who charged so much for absolutely no real service at all.

I doubt if they could get their heads out of their asses long enough to see it.











What a refreshing change from