Well recently we had another famous Japanese celebrity come to the office. The funny thing is I never know they are famous until one of my Japanese staff tell me. We are so close to Japan and the yen is doing so well right now that I think they come for the cost, its nice to think they come for me but who knows. Three years ago I had the Japanese equivalent to the younger Lenardo Dicaprio come to my office. He arrived with his posse and entourage. The feeling since I had no idea who he was simply neutral for me. Yet for the three Japanese staff members I had at the time was similar to watching Elvis Presley show up in the 1960′s  (By the way I met Elvis  many years ago when I was working as a teenager as a waiter.) The Japanese movies star was full of energy and his group were bouncing around like ping pong balls in the office. They were all happy, in Hawaii as many Japanese are here. Unfortunately I cannot tell you who he was even if I could recall his name for confidentiality reasons. Most of my english readers will not have heard of him anyway as I did not.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Example of created Japanese Girl Group

Japanese Retired Famous Singers/Actresses

I sometimes think also Hawaii is for the  Japanese “has beens” and the ones who “escape” Japan. One of my patients was extremely famous when she was  16-20 now she is here at the age of 42 still a star in many ways,  but fading beauty and a sad life to some degree. I have know her for a while, she showed me all her old recordings of her work as a youngster. It was easy to see the cult that was created around her group of girl singers. She I think did not know anything about how she became famous except for some powerful types liked her. This you see in Holywood all the time and is especially noted in Japan where most thing are so controlled. Her Girl Group was created , she was a disposable member of the group like many of the boy bands you may be more familiar with such as Menudo and others. There members lose their youthful appeal and they are gone. This happen to her as well, ok talent but once the market of youth in Japan says “old” they are gone. Such is life of disposable movie starlets. At any rate she is doing fine now happy with a dog and daughter away from Japan.

About a month ago

My friend who is a cosmetic surgeon in Tokyo Ginza District was here , I could not pick him up at the airport.  One of the reasons I could not was that he did not tell me he was coming. So it goes. Well he called and told me to meet him at Ala Moana mall at a certain time. So I did and up comes a the person who picked him up at the airport, ah guess what. She was a Japanese movie star. Seems they are every where.

Doctor808

Ben is a hunter and fishing type guy and a local guy. I spend the day cooking and preparing a feast for us.

One thing which I have noticed as the Christmas ornaments my wife has collected for many years. These number in the hundreds actually. I can never understand that well, but every Christmas she brings the boxes out and decorates “her house”. As for me I live outside in my man cave. The ornaments are interesting mostly hand made and artistically done. They have a lot of detail and are interesting to observe.

A detailed Santa

Everywhere you look in the house are these little figurines even hanging from the dining room lights. How many santa images can one endure? Yet I suppose it does bring in the Christmas spirit here in Hawaii.

Santa , Santa everywhere

Well with all these Santa’s around I am reminded  of  a month ago,  when I was in one of my favorite Haunts, Amsterdam. There they have their version of Santa Clause as well. Its a very interesting story where the Dutch dress up and have great parade through the town. Yet SinterKlaas ( as the dutch call him) and his minstrels are very weird there to me. It seems he comes into town on horse and carriage with a giant group of “minstrels” rather than a sleigh. What is really strange for my American eyes is all of the minstrels that accompany him are black faced Dutch like the old vaudeville days. This you can read about on the Wilkepedia here . Its seems rather racist to our culturally and politically correct society,  but actually is rather fun. The Dutch love this type of thing and it seems every one comes out to the street to watch or take and active role.

Black Faced Minstrels Escorts for SenterKlaas

Mean while back at the “Man Cave”  Dr. Chu and I discuss everything from a picture he showed me of his latest fishing catch to how our practices are going. We drink some and talk some and I cook some. In my man cave,  I have all the needed items for such an event. I have a water fall in the back, a great grill for Christmas barbecue , exercise equipment and Tiki lamps. What else does a man need?  Did I mention Christmas barbecue?  Well thats Hawaii not too many wild turkeys here and we have great weather …so I wonder how many of my European or Mainland friends can barbecue for Christmas…. well thats Hawaii.

Back Yard Watefall at Christmas

Well that is Christmas in Hawaii, warm tropical Christmas hard to explain for others you just have to be here. Well I have gotten used to it after over 20 years.As you can see from my waterfall its not very big. Dr.Chu wants me to put Koi in the small pond but I suggested that I put salmon as they would look cool trying to jump up the waterfall. Oh well maybe not.

Dr. Chu has been here is entire life , grew up here , but to know him like I do , he might has well been from North Carolina, a country Hawaii Boy at heart.

Dr. Benjamin Chu Plastic Sugeon and Country Boy

As a bit of a country boy myself and good cook I might add. We finished the evening with my famous Key Lime Pie— Yes I made it from scratch, It was good with Mojita’s with mint garnish from my own garden –man cave. So it goes. We finally had some coffee and departed satisfied of our Hawaii Christmas Eve at the man cave.

Home Made Key Lime Pie and Store Bought Red Velvet Cake

Mele  Kalikimaka !!!

doctor808

Another Motorcycle Event

The traditions in Hawaii are rather unique to some degree. Today is the second largest motorcycle event here,  the first is the Toys for Tots- both held every year. I went to this event with PatoPato Motorcycle Club and evil club of unspeakable acts and old crusty men with military history. Yet some how they asked me to join with them on this ride. This event is known as the “Motorcycle Blessing” which is done by an Hawaiian Priest or Kahuna. In this case a Priestess.

Motorcycle Hawaiian Blessing

PatoPato Motorcycle Club Hawaii

You can see their web site at www.patapato.com. I originally met this group at what they refer to as “The Office” formally known as Wards Starbucks. It seems most of the evil plans are hatched here. Unlike most motorcycle clubs this one it is said to have no rules, so therefore it could be considered “unruly” I suppose a expected of a motorcycle club.

Interesting group who I have known for years at “The Office”.

OverView of the Event

Food was served

Roasted Kailua Pig Open Fire

I did not eat any and although they tell me this way of cooking the pig is the most flavorable.

This comes from the wood they use to cook which embarks some special flavor.

Generally Hawaiian Food  is not my cup of tea but this looks pretty good !

Other Photos Of The Event

My Bike with Hawaii Tea Leaves for Blessing

Mountain View Motorcycle Blessing

rest at beach on way home

Well that is a nice summary of the events of today. Please return for other updates from

doctor808

Cloning is the new hope

Cloning -the thing of stem cells

This is somewhat of a  discussion which is in  non technical terms,  regarding far transfer and stem cells. I felt wanted to write about this as its new science and very interesting. Since many of my patients and others who are not scientist or physicians I am trying to simplify the discussion so it may be enjoyed by all. I apologize to those of you who feel I am over simplifying.

Well as mentioned I recently attended the Multi-specialty Facial Cosmetic Surgery conference in  Las Vegas Neveda. This was somewhat of an inspiring event in that some of the lectures I attended approached cosmetic facial surgery from a new perspective.  One speaker Dr. Posner a well respected Plastic Surgeon gave a lecture on stem cell research and the work of combing stem cells with fat transfer to enhance the take of the fat in the new area. This means that when we transfer fat some of these cells may die and be taken away by the bodies normal processes. So in other words when we transfer fat from one part of the body to another part of the fat transferred will not survive. Well it appears if the fat is enriched with stem cells (from the same person as the fat is harvested) the fat will survive better so in stead of losing say 50% of the transferred fat, one may only lose 10% as example.

Discussion in Vegas

I spoke with Dr. Posner after his presentation and spoke about my idea of simply the regenerative properties of the stem cells in the face. The fat adds volume which will increase a youthful appearance , but I believe the stem cells enhance the facial skin and structures of the face independent of the fat being transferred. I believe from some of the previous work I have seen and done that this stem cell -facial rejuvination may hold some promise. However I do not believe it has reached the level where I would offer a “stem cell face lift” though I am looking into scientific study.

Next

I have contacted several science based companies and I am entering into some discussion regarding a scientific study of this in my clinical setting. What we hope to prove or disprove is that these stem cells may be useful to aesthetic medicine. Yet before any of you run down to my office and volunteer for this study of the fountain of youth please realize that this is only in the discussion and design phase, we still must seek approval of scientific/medical body.

Possibilties

My basic feeling is that stem cell and regenerative medicine will be the first choice in the future for those seeking improvement in aged appearance. So I wanted to delve further into this discipline. More later but consider this a small foot note.

doctor808

Since my last writing I took up farming (in my back yard) , went to various travels for my web company AiMiYo LTD , Business in Thailand and medical meetings.

Peppers grew in my Garden

I look through my last 24 months and I have been on a lot of trips.

Korea with Dr. Lee , Dr Cuvo

My garden has grown nice peppers, eggplant and squash.

MY Operating room

Asian Surgery Colleques

Done a lot of surgery and taught a lot of surgery and learned a lot of technique as well.

I love Asia because its different and I always learn something new and exciting as well.

Europe on the other hand is relaxing and serene to me. I never learn as much there as far as Plastic Surgery goes as I get the latest through American Plastic Surgery Literature. So Europe is more of a vacation and some work. Yet I confess I take it easy there.

The Praque

Shinjuku Crossing

Clinic In China and gang

From Tokyo to Dailin China my travels have been intersting to say the least.

So this has kept me busy.

Street Bangkok Thailand

Did I mention Hong Kong, Vegas and Kauai ?

Some of these more than once. My plan was to write about each trip and make a journal to some degree but as mentioned I was busy with:

-writing content for web sites

-running a cosmetic practice

-improving my design skills with illustrating web sites -photoshop, fireworks and various web design programs

-teaching my fellow surgeons and learning from them

Also I spend some time setting up web servers and then there is the financial aspect , bookeeping billing and many more things too busy to mention. When you are the chief of these things, all the stuff people who work for you who do not do, then falls on you to do. I cannot even keep myself organized so that’s the last thing I need is to be mommy to others. Yet that is what I do.

So I have made some decisions about prioritizing some things. All of this came about on this trip to Las Vegas for 5 days in which I attended various lectures and had the AiMiYo booth to show our web talents and try to get a few new clients. More on that later.

Cosmetic Surgery Meeting Vegas !

The medical meeting side of things is what I really enjoyed as talking to doctors about Internet marketing is really a struggle. There are two types , those who think they know everything and those who do not even know how to spell : HTTP. Well I am not sure which one is harder to deal with. Some from last years meeting I talked to about web marketing were worse off so I got to say “I told you so” and then others were so hard to educate that it will take a year.

SO back to the medical meetings. I was not a lecturer this time which I was rather happy about that. I need to improve my skills not only teach others. I must say the lectures here and the quality of the speeches were excellent. What this was a multi specialty conference meaning there were not only Plastic Surgeons but Dermatologist, Ear Nose and throat doctors in summary everyone who performs cosmetic surgery.

One of the huge topics here was fillers of the face, fat , sculptura, restylene  and the host of products on the market. I was amazed at some of the results these doctors were getting with non surgical methods. As a surgeon of course I have some extra tools ( no pun intended) to use  so I can not only make corrections with non surgical means but can offer surgery. Yet that aside, I was surprised at some of the fantastic results some doctors were showing. It energized me towards looking to do more in the non surgical realm.

So this next year for me will definitely be one of pursing some of the nonsurgical methods and improving my own.

The scoop on these medical meetings is one has to learn to sort out what is valuable and what is hype. If you followed this blog before you will know I am not one for hype and like to use things in my practice which really work rather than to spread the gospel according to “marketing bible”. What that means is No I do not use something simply because its NEW BETTER IMPROVED AND THE IN THING.  I take the reality of if something works very seriously.

That is the main scoop of these medical meetings. Choose what you learn wisely.

I promise my readers I will back track and keep up in the future about what I have been up to..news and and information. I also my next post will not be CHAOTIC. Yet That’s my mind after travels.

until then…

doctor808

The reason it affects so many including myself at times is that the internet is a perfect example of Pavlov’s Dogs Expieriments. You may recall that is when– Dr. Pavlov would ring a bell every time he fed some lab dogs food.  He then found out that he could make them salivate after a while just ringing a bell with no food given. Further and more interesting is the fact that  if he rang the bell but did  not every time he feed them the salivation response for the bell ring would even be stronger. This fact maybe why the internet may be so addictive. You may not find what you want every time you look on the internet so the desire and response to go to the Internet is even stronger. This is the same pavlov training as when he rang a bell not all the time and found that dogs response was the stronger than if he rang the bell everytime they received food. You may not find the answer and be rewarded on the first search or the romance you want on the dating site or the nice person to chat with. All of  this is intermittent so the pavolvian response is strong. Take facebook for example you do not get a message everytime you look….but the fact that you will eventually get a message or comment keeps you coming back. Strong Pavolivian Training here.

Now what prompted me to write about this was an interesting device I saw on YouTube. This thing may solve all our romance problems across the world. The Japanese have now invented a device which allows you to kiss someone across the internet. WOW think of the possibilities from here ……

My thoughts on this are pretty simple. What is this? Are we starting to all live in a virtual world where human to human contact is no longer needed?  Perhaps we are. So my worry as a Plastic Surgeon is if we no longer have to actually see each other in person then appearance may not matter so much anymore ?  If you are only meeting people virtually , or living in the internet world then the computer can take your image and project any one you want it to. It can turn a guy into a girl as far as the other side of the connection will see. So my fear is will I have a job in few years???

Well I am saying this in half jest but looks like we are heading there.

If you do not believe me check out this YouTube Video.

Check Out Video here.

Doctor808

Choose GOOD OR BAD ?

I do not want to go and rant about this topic and will not after this,  but I really want some people to understand the Hard Truth of this World. The world as I know it is not simply a choice between GOOD and BAD. Sometimes it is but,  not so often. One can always pretend that it is that way,  but it is not. Pretending is not living in reality and every thing we do or DO NOT DO –has consequences.

The Celebration of Ben Laden’s Death

Well I have watched the news of Americans in the street having a party , celebrating and having ceremony over the successful mission to capture or kill Osama Ben Laden. I am slightly ashamed of this as it is displayed around the world. Americans should not be celebrating like its a party and the war has ended as in the case of WW II.  This is the emotion of a revenge ? The killing of Ben Laden is not what I consider murder as the same as some person comes up and kills another for personal reasons like stealing money. The killing of Ben Laden as I have explained previously seems to me to be an act that takes place in war. This is not the same as murder I believe. Killing is bad  I agree (evil). Killing anyone is evil I believe.

Which brings me to my next point in this discussion.

The point which is missed by my pacifist friends in University and some  friends here today is this.  Sometimes this life in this real world brings us to pick between two evils. That is we only have bad choices and must somehow find a way to make a decision. Either choice is not good, but we must decide between our remaining choices which are all bad. We must determine which bad choice to pick. We must choose between two evils. Yet one must recognize that not making a decision is a choice with its own consequences. In medicine,  we deal with this often. Should we amputate the patients leg or allow them to die of infection of that leg ? Nobody wants to cut off a leg that is a bad thing.

To bring this fact to a point of clarity allow me to give you a made up situation. Thought experiments if you will.

Case # 1

Imagine for a moment that you have three children. You and the three children are in a room. A man enters and has a gun. He hands you another gun and states he will kill your children,  unless you kill him. He is crazy but will do that you believe. What choice do you make?

Case #2

Imagine you have a button in front of you that will set off a bomb in subway. This bomb will explode the minute you push the button and kill everyone on a train. Estimated deaths from this will be 100 people,  most innocent.  A person whom you trust comes to you and states, if you push that button at 5 pm it will kill everyone on train #3. He then tells you that on that train is a man with another bomb but this is a nuclear bomb and is taking the train to the large city where he will blow it up. The number of people killed if the nuclear bomb goes off is 1,000,000 estimated deaths. He tells you this at 4:49 and there is no other choice but to decide to push the button or train #3 or allow it to pass and he then can set off his nuclear bomb killing 1,000,000 people. So with in the constraints of this thought expiriement you have to choose between YOU killing 100 people or doing nothing and allowing the fellow with the nuclear bomb to kill 1,000,000 people. What do you do ?

My argumentative friends will come up with all types of things such as “this would never happen” or “I will fight with the guy and save my children” or some other imaginative way out. Yet to participate in this you must recognize that these are the situations and the choices in these thought experiments are limited. These people will do all they can to AVOID the issue. Yet avoiding this does not solve anything the outcomes are as stated so you must choose. Others will give the responsibility to God and say let God decide and this may be valid to some. My Mennonite friends would take this true religious pacifistic position.

Military commanders and intelligence agents and the President etc must make such decisions. That is what they do and its their job. Unless you have been in that position to make such choices,  its easy to criticize and be holier than thou. However, the decisions and their outcomes are not to be celebrated as I have seen. How can you celebrate a bad choice , but given the circumstances one has to choose between two evils. In case #1 do nothing and your children die. In case #2  do nothing and a million people die. So decide ….the decision is yours. You may hope God intervenes or decides,  but history has proven God allows things to happen and does not intervene so it seems. I cannot argue with what God decides as I have no idea really.

My point made is that sometimes life is difficult and the decisions one must make are between something horrible and something else horrible. As physician you learn to think that way. When I was in trauma ( I was not always a plastic surgeon) I made these choices often. It was not easy deciding to cut off some young mans leg and it was difficult,  but when i realized I either cut the leg off or he would die I made the decision to cut off the leg ( or help the family make that decision really). You never know until you are in such position and have as much information.  In the case of leg amputation was I 100% sure the young man would die if his infected leg remained? No I was not 100% sure , but if I did not choose I knew it may be too late. You cant wait till he is dead to know 100%. That is bringing home the choice between two evils well. I have been there.

So when one simply says “killing is bad” and therefor we should not do that we must realize also that not to take an action may have worse consequences. In the Osama Ben Laden case I do not have the information that the people who made the decision have. So I cannot condemn them nor can I celebrate the death of even an evil man. I wish my fellow Americans would not either. Revenge is never a good reason for such celebration.

doctor808

Special Forces

The next friend who stimulated my thinking was an EX Military guy who said ” Murder is Murder ” and indicated that killing Ben Laden was murder by the US special forces. I point out that well your not taking into account the issue of WAR.  In other words is killing someone in WAR murder ? This is an age old question which we debated in college. I happen to go a Mennonite University which is Pacifist. They believe that no matter what you always turn the other cheek. So this may be a valid Christian philosophy,  but somehow I think World War II and the execution of 2 million Jewish civilians seems one example of a justified war. Never the less and to the United States credit, it is one of the few nations that allows pacifist not to fight in combat and can get an exclusion. The Mennonites held true to their belief during WW II and the US did not force them to go to WAR.

Interesting side line above,  but I will get back to Ben Laden murder or not. According to the Catholic Church there is such thing as a justifiable war. That means that killing people in war is not murder if I am correct. So the bigger question is , Is this a War we have going with Ben Laden ? Then if it is a war then  is the  US killing  Ben Laden murder  ?

How do we define a war. Well typically someone declares a war. In this case I am not sure if the US congress has declared formal declaration of War on Al Queda or Ben Laden,  but I do believe Ben Laden has declared war on the United States or so he has stated ,  so it would seem to me this is war.

So I tend to think that Killing Ben Laden by the USA is not murder.

The other interesting point brought up by my friend was if we kill every time someone kills we will all be dead when he quotes the “eye for an eye” biblical verse. So I think the thinking is that there will be no one left here if we keep this tit for tat battle going. We all eventually be dead.  Well the problem I have with that is that it does not take into account that there are circumstances that if someone does not do something on one side,  there may be no one left on the other side.  As example,  if you have a group of people who want to kill another group of people or  say a crazy person wants to kill your family. Do you say to your self “Ok I will be a pacifist and allow the crazy person to kill me and my family? ” Would it be better to kill the crazy person before he kills your family ? Well I know what I  would do. Do you know what you would do  its your choice ?

God may know the answer he created this

Pacifism also can be deadly to people and we see examples through out history. Pol Pot and Cambodia and the Killing Fields the world sit by as millions were murdered.  There was Nazi Germany, and of course there are others in the world today such as parts of Africa.

So what is better ? Kill a few early,  in order to save the most people or allow the murder of millions  so one can be a pacifist and not take a life. Well this is the ultimate question people have to answer themselves.  That is why we have pacifist and thank God this country allows for those Individuals to be pacifist when so few  other countries do.

As for me, all I can say is I am a Doctor and I want as many people to live as possible. In my trauma training of mass casualties we were trained not to think with our hearts so that the most number of people can live . In other words when you have a disaster and there are hundreds of injured people you have to save the most people. So unfortunately the ones who may be the most injured and have little chance of survival are left to die and you try to save the ones you think will have a chance of living. All because you have to make a choice due to limited resources and heavy demand. So I try to put things into this perspective. If killing Ben Laden will save many more than if he stayed alive,  will that be a good choice?

Only time will tell as this story is not done. I am just glad I am not the President but doctor808.

This is best said with photos I suppose. The Diamond head hike is what I did this morning and I want to share some of the great views with you. It was suppose to be a plastic surgery staff outing but as it turns out I was the only one who turned out. So I went myself.

Diamond Head Park entrance

The parking lot is located at the bottom of the hike though some people do indeed walk from the road below.

I had my Harley with me so it was easy access and parking, it cost 5 dollars.

The weather was great and I was ready with my water bottle in my nap-sack.

The crowd there was mostly tourist Japanese , Mainland people and some locals. Surprisingly  my friend Mitch was there and he is a burley atheletic guy and does tours there. Great guy in great shape.  We walked together but since this was my first time and he does it every day he about 3/4 the way blasted ahead to meet his tour group.

Ghost Of Diamond Head

The trail at the beginning is a easy slope for hiking and there is nice scenery to see. My camera caught and unusual scene as I looked off to the left of the trail. This was not noticed by me until I later looked at the photo. I had heard that there was an Hawaiian Ghost here and maybe this is it ??  Well do I believe it –NO !  I do know people who do.

The last 1oo0 steps

The trail continues to wrap around until one reaches a tunnel. From there you emerge and you see what is shown to the left the last thousand steps I suppose. I did not count but that is what someone told me.

There is a crowd at the bottom as they like to see peoples expression as they come out of the tunnel and may have thought the tunnel was the last part of the Hike–Sorry not true.

You have these steps to negotiate and a little more.

Is it worth it  ? Well the next few pictures answer that question.

Enjoy

Doctor808

Well this was suppose to be a blog about Plastic Surgey but at time I think its a motorcycle blog. Seriously, I think today’s events are worth writing about even if they are not a Hawaii Plastic surgery issue. I like motorcylces so here we go. The big event for motorcyles in Hawaii is something which has been going on as long as I have been here. This is the Toys for Tots sponsored by the Marines which is basically all who want to be involved buy or get a Toy and ride through Wakaiki and drop the toy off at Kapiolani Communiy College with the Marines who give it to some needy child. Thats the idea and that is what I witnessed today.

The weather was perfect and the day went very well—FOR 6000 BIKES, did I say 6000 –yes I did.

The Toys for Tots Van

This one of the Vans to Haul over 7000 toys for kids.

Same Van Different Guy

Some Guys especially French Guys --oh well !

On this trip we had a a great time. The drive was rather quick and non-stop. The police and organizers did an excellent job this year.

The pictures which follow show more of the event.

Until next time,

toys for tots tent

Our pictures were taken by tourist