Doctor808 Plastic Surgeon Honolulu Hawaii

Its been a while since I have written much on my personal blog Doctor808–well the question is why? I guess the answer is I have been busy with too many things, some useless, some worthwhile. This post will present a hodge podge of chaos.

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

As an official “Otaku” I keep up with internet things. The internet in Asia has consumed many lives ( as well as in America), in fact in Korea they have set up special “deprogramming ” camps to help certain afflicted youth. Seems some people become so addicted they forget to eat or go to the bathroom and develop pressure sores on their buttocks.

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

Well with the significant news recently about Osama Ben Laden’s death I was stimulated by two individuals into some deep thought about this. One  friend felt that on my Face book I was somehow energized and happy about this death. I am never happy about death.  I looked at my remarks and I do not believe I made any remarks of joy or enthusiasm. What I said was we should cut off money to Pakistan , as I believe in George Bushes Doctrine of  “if a state harbors a terrorist, then it is a terrorist state”. It is quite obvious that Pakistan was harboring Ben Laden. providing a safe harbor for this declared terrorist and if indeed if the US government is consistent, it makes no sense  to provide money to Pakistan. Well is it my view ? I am not providing anyone with my personal view really,  what  I am doing is stating the flaw in the Logic of paying Pakistan billions of dollars. Excuse me,  but I like logic. My over all view is that we should not provide as government money to anyone, as individuals we can and should. That is the libertarian view.

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.

Well I have been lazy or busy sometimes both. My blog develops a readership then I drop the ball. This weekend I finally got some issues straight and some crazy work behind me and so I will write again. Then there is a lot that has happened since my birthday. So I am not quite sure where to start. Been Bangkok Twice, Hong Kong once and Japan once. Well today I guess is a good day to start with then in the next post I will circle back.

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

Getting Younger With Age

First let me tell my readers that I have been incredibly busy so,  I have not had much time for my blog. So I will summarize a few things since last writing.

Went back to Japan and performed a tummy tuck in Tokyo for a fellow surgeon as his guest,  stayed a few days in Shibuya. Then over to Thailand for a week or so to take care of my business over there in real estate. Now I am back !!  I have been here for a week or so and enjoying my clinic again.

The reason for my writing today is more sentimental , yesterday was my birthday.  I guess face book has notifications of that because I was inundated with Happy Birthday DOC etc. face book notifications. This year I received a lot more than usual. Also I received a lot of emails from some people I have been friends  with in high school.I must say it was unusual and fun.

This prompted me to do a search on facebook and find old high school people, which for me was over 37 years ago, is that right ? Well at math aside it was a long time ago. I recall some of the faces well and recall some of the events. People who knew me then would not recognize me now in deeds, then I was a bit of trouble maker, Now I am a do gooder !  Maybe.

Time to wake up life is moving fast

I also look at the physical changes in people and in myself. Interesting these changes to me because that is what I do, I change peoples appearance.

Aging is interesting and I think most of it depends on genetics, but a lot has to do with exercise and eating correctly. You can see who take care of themselves and who lets themselves go I suppose. Does it matter , I am not sure really we all end up in the same place I suppose and nothing we can do about it. We all return the dust we came from physically, as to spiritually this will be more interesting to find out that answer. We all have our own beliefs.

Well I do not feel any older in fact, I feel like I may be the exception to the rule. As all of you age, I may be getting younger.

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

Resting at base of alps

My friend Dr. Cuvo and I went to Switzerland and rented motorcycles after visiting Amsterdam for a few days. There we caught a plane and landed in Switzerland to take the trip to the Swiss Alps. It was a true vacation in that we did not Plastic Surgery business what so ever. Amsterdam as many of my readers no is one of my favorite haunts to Bicycle ride but motorcycle in the Alps is a different story.

We landed in Geneva and went to the local motorcycle shop trying to find Harley’s,  but none were available. So we rented two large Honda’s. Not my first choice but not bad, similar in size to a Harley.

The first day we rode around Geneva to practice and make sure we packed our gear properly. The next morning we left for the alps. The road was a highway at first around Lake Geneva then onward to the hills then the mountains on the way to the Matterhorn.

Dr Cuvo , My Bike was Black One

We needed a MAP for drmap

A view of the Lake

The trip went very well and the high peaks of the Alps were great. The best way was on the way down. Well not much to say really–pictures tell the story of  three day trip.

This was great for a plastic surgeon from Honolulu and one from Tokyo , a nice break.

Nice view of alps in distance

side of hill

Good Curves of Alps

Holding The Matterhorn

Swiss Village

Sorry I have not written on my blog for a while but I just got back from Asian Cosmetic Surgey conferences and I was speaker. My talk was “tips and tricks in breast augmentation” all about my Hawaii 20 years experience. I also was in Bangkok tending to another business in real estate I have there.

A tired Doctor808 jet lag

There was also the trip to Amsterdam and the Swiss Alps on motorcycle a few months ago as well but sorry no time to write about that just yet. Maybe next post I will do that. Korea was a direct flight to Seol. My good buddy was suppose to meet us at the airport–no. So I waited for 30 minutes and caught the bus to Seol. My student Dr. Yeum had arranged a very nice Hotel for us. The bus ride took us right there. It was around a nice area with a restaurant district so there were things to do around the hotel for Rose while I went to the conference. Dr Yeum thinks ahead. My lecture presented to the cosmetic surgeons from Korea, China , Hong Kong and Japan was recieved well and as usual the Chinese cosmetic surgeons all have to get their picture taken with the White Guy. Seems as I have stated before its a bit of status symbol for them. These are eager beavers when it comes to wanting to learn cosmetic surgery which is fairly recent event when it comes to China. The three I met are shown below but there were maybe 100 or so from China.

Well aside from the lecturs I gave in Korea and attended we had a lot of evenings out with my colleagues of fine food and drink. Korea has some great food and you can bet I imbibed as usual.

Great Korean Food

My Korean, Chines and Japanese Cosmetic Surgery Peers

Aside from the meals and great exchange of information there was the typical discussions of new techiques which when ever I go to these meetings I learn more. I think we learned more at this meeting than I did at the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery meeting I went to last August. As a lot of these lectures are geared to my Asian patients. The Joint conference in Vegas last summer was good but only 30% of my patient population here in Hawaii is caucasian After the conference we took off to Bangkok where I tended to my real estate business and web company. We are developing 6 new web sites , one in Hair Transplant and the others are related to Thailand but more on that later. So this visit to Bangkok was more of work visit rather than vacation. Well I hope to write more later in the next post , in the mean time here are some more photos.

A unusual Korean Dish

Fried Insects In Bangkok

The Hawaii Motorcycle Safety Class I took this last weekend in preparation for my trip to Europe. We will be riding some fairly large motorcycles in the Alps, my friend Taka and I.

The class was rather intense and lasted three days, total of 10 hours of riding time. The class started in the class room.

The group was good but only a few of us talked as sometimes happens. The bonding of such classes is always interesting to observe. I spoke with a Russian gradaute student and another one or two people but most of our time was occupied. There was a musician and other people from all walks of life.

Much of the class was performing obstacle course and driving technique. We all drove in around, though for me I learned a lot but it was boring and tedious. The most exciting part was when some young lady crashed , minor injury but since I was the “doctor”. I was called to the scene. You may be supirsed to know that i was a general surgeon in trauma (New York City ) at one point in my career, so I know a few things even though I am a plastic surgeon.

Ankle Injury

Well that was my report for this post. Next will be a few words about the trip

doctor808