Facelift Abroad - Cancun, Mexico

I would chose a Surgeon that cares about the health and welfare of his / her patients before and AFTER Surgery

Kim, I agree with your last statement. But, I just saw your finale photo. You do look wonderful! I know it has been a long haul. You have helped quite a few people in your journey. Sorry you had to suffer so. Put it behind you and enjoy the new you. You face looks so settled now. It does take some of us a while. Have a great Summer!

Kim I was just thinking about you this past week as I come up on my year anniversary. I hope you are doing well...the last photo I saw of you was a beautiful one! Enjoy the years ahead. It was a rough road but you and we all made it. You don't realize how YOU kept us all going. Enjoy the new you!

Thank you

Thanks Face,I'm glad I was lucky enough to have y'all or I probably would have fallen apart

I think you really look gorgeous! It is helpful for me to read your posts because at 3 1/2 weeks I am having healing issues. Had a mid-plane facelift and a necklift. Seroma on my neck first week and think I still have one there although the dr. doesn't. Bruising on my neck looks like someone tried to strangle me. Sores next to both ears. Seems like it will never go away. You helped me realize that in time it will get better. I really think you look beautiful. Congratulations for making it through such a rough time.

Oops, sorry I meant our "right eye" (it's your left when I look at your pics). ;)

You look great Kim... I go back to my doctor tomorrow and hope he has an answer for the spot under my chin, I have slept in the chin strap for months and it still hangs down.. I am hoping he says No problem I will numb you and clip and stitch it... That is what I hope but probably wont get that answer

Hate to say it but no, It still droops. I think I'm stuck with that and the scars from having such wound issues

Wishing you luck at the Doctor's tomorrow

I'm really sorry to hear that, Kim. You've gone thru such an ordeal with this facelift that I'm sure the last thing you want to think about is revision surgery on your eye with another PS. If you do pursue this avenue down the road, I hope it goes really well.

Well that seems like a fix that won't be so bad, Glad it wasn't worse

Agree. As soon as a patient complain, you will be ignored from the Dr. V and Sheri. You won't be able to hear any from them. You won't be able to get even a penny back. That is the reality I have gone through.

My dr was always available to answer any and all oft questions and when I had the issue with my neck 6 months later he took the time to repair it with no added cost to me. It is healing well so far. I hope everyone checks with others before picking a dr. Happy spring. By the way had any asked how much weight can be lost before affecting the look of your face and neck?

As my wife and I have worked with both IPF and Dr Velasco earlier this year on a Mommy Makeover - which we were given an contract be fore we paid the initial deposit - I can assure all who read this that Dr Velasco would absolutely never discuss what is included in any IPF pricing. He would especially never tell anyone that plane flights are / are not included in any pricing plan. All this information from 2liftornot2lift is far from the reality. Future readers of this thread should contact IPF and discuss their concerns directly.

Meyerjr, I have contacted numerous times about my nose infection and outlying skin damages due to the pressure from ear bone, eyelids not folding, and hair loss. No response. No medical report, Just silencing. I did surgery: took out the problematic three ear cartilages and skin grafting. I have to take care of the nose one more time this year. Double Eye lids: scar is getting lighter, BUT never folded. Dr. Velasco left me scar on upper eye zones. Hair Loss: Permanent. I did scar revision. Need more revision or hair plants. Getting no response, cost much more than I paid Sheri for fixing. The worst thing is some damages not curable. Everybody can be kind until problem evolves. Most of time, the problem emerge a few weeks after surgery. When you get out of surgery, you will be swollen and you do not know what would come next. If one cares about one's well-being, make sure that there is a post care confirmed in case that one has problem. They will be nice and love you until conflict comes. I need to speak to all of you that they go by the simple principle: MONEY/NO HUMANITY/NO COMPASSION Hope they learn a lesson.

The third line: meant to be RESURVEY to fix the damages from Dr. V. I also have to tell 60 loving: I believe it is not a good thing to say that you are happy again and again about your result while some people suffers and are at a loss. I know I do not get anything by writing this. However, I have to and I will continue to write my story for a change.

Crying, I understand you had significant post surgical problems. So did my wife. At times post surgery, the swelling from the seroma was the size a grapefruit and the abdominal skin was restretched in a disappointing way. We reported the swelling. We sent pictures. Dr Velasco was involved and we received a diagnosis via phone calls from him. He described the recommended treatments that could be done by a local dr. As we approach 1 year post surgery my wife is on a path to healing. Not at all what we had hoped for originally. We went into the cosmetic surgery process weighing the risks of the surgery itself, the risk/reward of choosing a local surgery center vs. "medical tourism" and third, the potential cost savings. These decisions were made after interviewing IPF, providing requested information, paying the agreed upon fees, meeting with Dr V before the procedure, receiving over site during recovery, being transported back to the clinic for follow up visits, removal of drains and final face-to-face appointment with Dr V. My wife wore her compression garment 23.5 hours every day. But she still experienced problems. Seromas and hematomas occurr in single digit % of all cosmetic surgeries. In the end, we have arrived at the other end of this journey. Things did go wrong. But for us, we would still choose to use IPF to arrange the cosmetic procedure. We got to travel to an exotic location, we met great people, and, yes we did save a great deal of money. We did not plan on needing to seek local medical care to treat my wife's recovery or pay for the 2nd surgury for seroma removal and revision of the tummy tuck at home. But we still spent less than having the original cosmetic surgery in California. It appears that there is the belief here that they would not be possibility of needing follow up surgery or that post surgical revisions would not cost anything. To future readers considering travel for cosmetic surgery here is our advice: -All surgery has risk, without exception, no matter what the surgeons native language is. -Traveling out-of-country means that you will save significant money and you are relinquishing your legal recourse. True for anywhere outside the US. -Do not choose this path for cosmetic work if you don't have health insurance at home. Seriously. -Don't travel for surgery without a companion got the trip. -Be civil with the folks who are coordinating the care and the medical team - especially if you become upset. -Realize that all cosmetic surgeons have some patients who develop hematomas or similar disapointing outcomes.

Thank you meyerjr ! Both you and I care about people. I think it is very important to have the courage to speak out when needed even when we have to take a risk or even when we know that we don't get anything from doing this for our own benefit. Thank you.

Every surgeon, even the best surgeon makes a mistake. I fully aware. I am not necessarily problematizing the doctor V and Sheri due to the damages, rather I am problematizing the fact they have ignored and keep ignoring even when I appealed to their heart while struggling and struggling trying to make it better. Very cold and dehumanizing attitude.

The never ending saga!! Hi y'all I haven't posted in quite a while to tell you the truth I got sick of the bickering. It is almost a year since my surgery summery my eyes are improved, wrinkles less prominent , I too have scars but Dr.V did have to cut so it is expected, as I said before my accommodations were nice and definitely clean. Now a year later I realize that I spent so much time on finding a surgeon that I didn't spend enough time researching the actual face lift, now I realize that I should have had a lip lift, fat transfere to the entire face, and laser skin refining to get the best results, a face fit will only help the outer areas of the face, around the mouth , it won't help at all. As regards to IPF and Dr. V, I think that it would be helpful to have all the different procedures available so that people can understand what procedures would give the optimal results. I don't believe Sheri ever call me crazy, she did however email me asking that if there was anything I didn't like they Would fix it....but as you all know it takes months to heal so you can't expect finished results after a couple of weeks. For what I spent I believe it was worth it, not real happy about being on the website as I did not give my permission, that I definitely have issue with it is wrong for Sheri to do that to people, I am a very private person and would never have agreed to that. Over all as I have said numerous of times........you can be confident if you chose surgery with Dr. v, but please make sure that you know all the facts, spell out the procedures you expect the hospital and staff were very nice and very clean.

Marie, I think you are correct on all your points. If I were to add another point to my recommendations list, it is: -As you plan your "medical vacation" plan on arriving early. Arrange with IPF to meet with your surgeon at least one day before the proceeded and as him/her if he sees any recommended changes in his planned operation - compared to the well lit, close up pics you sent to IPF months before. Meeting surgeon sooner will help you sleep better the night before the big day.

Nobody likes "bickering." It is NOT "THE BICKERING." It is the struggle to make it better. It is the voice from the heart-felt confessional struggle for survival psychologically, physically, and financially. It was my OWN STRUGGLE to survive. It is NOT the level of bickering. It is A VERY VERY CRITICAL ISSUE that we are often not aware of.

I understand, unfortunately there are people who post on here that have different agendas, making up stories and falsifying facts whether it is trying to sell IPF or pissed that they were caught doing something wrong while there, it is what makes it difficult to believe every story. You however sound like a very intelligent person and I don't mean to belittle your experiences, I guess I have been subject to too many of these false posts it was one of these posts that made me chose Dr.V, but as I have said the experience was fine , the results just o.k.! I also agree that meeting with the doctor before hand is especially Important, I was picked up from my flight and driven straight to the surgery......with only 5 minutes with the doctor before surgery, I was extremely over whelmed . Again I apologize, when I said bickering I was referring to months ago when fighting was all that was posted by people trying to promote IPF and also discredit IPF.

Thank you Marie for your clarification.

I just wanted to add that when we chose to arrive early, that was our choice. We stayed elsewhere in the Hotel Zone for that time.

I think future readers of this thread should contact a different patient facilitator as this one has way to much conflict going on. There are lots of good surgeons in Mexico just do your homework and find one without so many complaints

AlwaysKim, With all respect to you, I am reporting what we experienced and found. That your experience was different is a very good reason for future readers to discuss their expectations and concerns with IPF. We are posting here to describe what we experienced - we are not promoting anything.

I had my surgery here in the states. I have read many accounts of people having surgery in the Dominican Republic and being very happy with their experience. Do you think it is much different there than in Mexico?

I have no idea (except maybe for the desire to be an investigative reporter cub) why 2lisftornot2lift is conjuring up this grossly exaggerated story here on this, or any site. It appears that she is posting under a different name on some other sites. That she says she has lost all objectivity is definitely correct. My wife and I worked with IPF and Dr Velasco on getting a full mommy makeover earlier in 2012. We found IPF (Sheri and Erick), the clinic and its medical & business staff and also Dr Velasco to be responsive and business like with any and all of our needs. Before striking a deal (complete with written contract from IPF), we checked references and spent time contacting the hundreds of previous customers that Sheri has listed on the IPF site. Everything that was advertised and committed to came true. We did receive both patient facilitation and also medical coordinator. Was our procedure / recovery experience trouble free? No, and we will add our lessons learned on this site sometime in the future - but the issues we encountered were not caused by IPF or Dr Velasco. Also, I have seen virtually all the condos that IPF uses and I can confirm that none are inadequate or in anyway filthy. Regarding AlwaysKim, the original poster in this thread, I believe she has done a good job describing her unfortunate saga. Same with Marie,Chicago. I wish AlwaysKim had a better experience. My only response is if you know of any surgeon who has not had cases with a poor out come, you are very rare indeed. Communications do break down, especially if both sides do not maintain civil respect. As you read the above review, please understand that she must have some ulterior motives to bloviate to this degree. Future reader, I urge you to contact IPF with all of your concerns, listen, take notes, ask some more and then decide where you will take your business.

I have to disagree with you, Sounds like your promoting them. Yes all Doctor's are most likely to have a not so good outcome in their period of practice but the question is how many cases Dr. V has had. His hematoma rate is way above the National average. And as far as the Condo's go I guess that's a matter of what ones standard of clean is. Water dripping into a bucket in a shower in the bedroom I was not in smelled so bad I had to keep the door shut and the fact that dirty towels on the floor from the people that were there before me stayed on the floor stinking for days didn't help. The second Condo was not cleaned before I stayed there because Eric had to bring me cleaning supplies. I have photos of the open elevator shaft that I found to be quite scary if you would like me to post them

No! I am the living evidence. You never know what you will go through unless you have medical problems like me. I am the EVIDENCE. If everything goes well, it will be good. If you have problem after surgey, you will turn into trash which is economically useless for them.

AlwaysKim, With all respect to you, I am reporting what we experienced and found. That your experience was different is a very good reason for future readers to discuss their expectations and concerns with IPF. We are posting here to describe what we experienced - we are not promoting anything.

My wife and I worked through IPF and had a full mommy makeover, including liposuction through Dr Velasco. We got to know (and trust completely) Rodrigo the taxi driver. I can assure anyone reading this that you can trust him fully. Have no doubt or concern about him and the service he provides.

That's funny! I don't believe we ever talked about my expectations! Having a facelift is supposed to turn back the hands of time not hold it still!

Agreed

I really can't imagine someone complaining about your review or other posts. It was certainly not damning, just an account of your experience. I for one appreciated it. Thanks