Best City in Colombia For Surgery [MEDICAL TOURISM]

all right guys for those of you that follow our  journey as we travel around the world in a van   welcome back this is a new video we think there  may be a few new people that pop into this one   because we are talking about medical tourism  getting a major surgery done in a foreign country   as opposed to doing it in the united states  colombia yes so if you follow the journey you know   based on four different doctor visits we've had in  the past seven months i need full knee replacement   on my right knee for the past seven months we  have been preparing for this surgery going on   a major weight loss journey where i've lost close  to 60 pounds which was good and i've had a lot of   you ask well did that ease the pain and can that  stop the surgery it did not it has helped my left   knee a little bit with pain but the right knee is  still it is shot it needs full knee replacement   and that's what's going to happen so we also get  asked why aren't we going back home to the united   states to get this done we live in columbia right  now yeah we live on the road we live in a van   traveling the world we do not have a home in the  united states when we decided to do this crazy   10 to 12 year journey around the world in a van we  knew we would encounter all kinds of life problems   and that we would just stop where we were and  address them and that's what we're doing right   now colombia is home columbia is where the  surgery will take place a few little facts   to let some of you that know us pretty well  now feel a little bit more at ease i have   already done physical therapy i have already done  cortisone shots i have already done gel injections   and the cartilage is too far gone for any kind  of therapy to try to help it grow back so those   are not options for my knee now another thing  to put all you guys at ease and to answer some   questions for anybody that might be thinking about  maybe i need to go to columbia to get some surgery   the who who world health organization uh their  ratings columbia's health care system as a whole   is ranked 22nd in the world that's pretty good  guys and to give you a comparison that same chart   ranks the united states 37th in the world columbia  has a very modern very good health care system   and nine of the hospitals in colombia are  in the top 20 latin american hospitals   the hospital we're going to is the second best  hospital in columbia our doctors are legit doctors   with tons of experience and we have researched  the heck out of them so i hope that answers all   of those questions now we got to get back to  what this video is about where are we going to   get this done it was a tough decision guys um the  doctor being the most important all the way down   to where can we live because there's a lot of  rehab that goes with this so we came up with a   scale we rated a bunch of different categories at  a one to ten and we just added up the numbers and   we let the numbers pick where we were going to go  so what we're going to do in this video is we're   going to take you through those categories and  tell you which city went out medellin or cali and   at the end you're gonna know where we're gonna be  living for the next two and a half to three months we're about to get into the meat of  this guys but i wanted to let you know   that kurt has been incredibly supportive and this  has 100 percent been my decision this is a big   thing that i need to deal with so you're going to  hear me talk about these categories quite a bit   and then kurt will chime in with his thoughts  but he was very supportive in letting me make   this decision so thank you it's a big deal  you're welcome i view my role really in this   is uh just to make sure that we're considering or  snow is considering all the things this is a big   life decision for us she's already kind of gone  through some of the things that we've decisions   we did made to have it here in colombia and i just  wanted to make sure that we were considering all   the things that she could feel good knowing that  we made the best decisions in the end yeah so the   first and most important category was the doctor  the actual doctor that's going to do the surgery   so uh this was a tie guys we liked both doctors  for different reasons the doctor in medellin   i found through a medical tourism website made  an appointment through a liaison and then met   with him for the first time at our consultation  he put on a very good presentation he answered   all of our questions he was patient with us  and he stuck to his guns on me having to meet   the weight loss goal for a safe bmi body fat  index he was very very strict on that now the   doctor in nicaragua i mean the doctor in cali  was recommended to us by a doctor i liked a ton   last spring back in nicaragua and i have emailed  with this guy several times directly with the   doctor and i thought going into this that that  would for sure be the doctor i liked the most   and i did i loved this doctor we had a very good  compatible personality he was very kind but in   all honesty he was a little bit more lackadaisical  well when snow got out of the visit she definitely   really warmed the guys and we just kind of went  uh warm to the doctor in cali and we kind of went   back to some of the key important things and to  be honest with you the doctor in medellin had   answered a lot of questions actually pulled out  the hardware that was going to go in snow's knee   when we asked for alternatives he showed us some  alternatives i thought the doctor in medellin was   a little more thorough and a little kind of born  by the book yeah but i think snow had a little   early bias based on the recommendation for them  needless to say i thought both doctor doctors   were good for different reasons and i don't  think we could have made it wrong she could   have made a wrong choice as it relates to that so  the doctor it's a tie all right the next category   on the list is the hospital itself where the  the surgery and and stuff is going to take place   so in all honesty when we first went to the  medellin hospital and we were in the waiting   area in the consultation area the hospital feels  a little dated the windows were open and that   bothered her i didn't even notice but to me a  hospital should be closed and air conditioned   but then i had to take a step back and realize i  was just in a waiting area a consultation area it   isn't where the surgeries take place and then on  the cali side it was a very modern very hospitally   feeling hospital not as modern as that facility in  nicaragua but it was still pretty nice yeah it was   very nice but it was very congested it was very  congested and busy couldn't find parking around   taxis were crazy it's chaos yeah and  the reality is we're gonna have to visit   uh that hospital several times uh for the  surgery so then then we got the good news   that in medellin that hospital that was feeling a  little bit dated to me and was giving me a little   bit of worry not a lot because it's raided a great  hospital but a few years ago they opened a sister   hospital just outside of town that is incredibly  modern and it's when you look at the rankings it's   all tied into one hospital they do transplants  there major heart surgery it is a legit   modern hospital so when i found out that it  would have been kind of been closer to a tie   but that gave this one to medellin they're  both internationally very well known hospitals   and uh so again something she couldn't go wrong  next category physical therapy all right full   knee replacement comes with two to three months  of full on rehabilitation major physical therapy   if you want it to turn out right we will be  renting an apartment i cannot live in the van   while i'm recovering from this so what we wanted  to do is our plan was do the first week or so   with the hospital facility so you can do the  x-rays make sure everything's taken right   and then have a physical therapist come to our  apartment and have private physical therapy   in cali the doctor's like oh sure we could  probably make that happen and i think we probably   could have but there was nothing concrete we  weren't able to find someone to go ahead and talk   to about it and in medellin at first they said  no they said we don't have people that do that   so i did some research so i found a physical  therapist in medellin that will come to your   apartment and do private therapy and he will go to  your first few visits with you at the hospital so   there's a smooth transition and it's incredibly  affordable so that gives physical therapy to   medellin yeah when you think about logistics  about going into the hospital getting out of   in and out of cabs or whatever kind of public  transportation that was and that's been that was   a big concern of mine and so having it having  somebody a physical therapist who can actually   come to the apartment i think is a huge huge  plus yeah yeah all right the next one the price   uh one thing i didn't address at the beginning of  this is if i was to do this in the united states   even with decent health insurance at my age there  is a high chance that insurance would deny it   and we would be paying out right for it and you're  looking at 45 to 50 000 as a reasonable cost for   that back in the united states so hold on to your  hats because this is going to freak y'all out a   little bit because even though we have insurance  here international insurance and we don't know if   it's going to cover it or not we won't know  until afterwards when we submit the claim   but medellin comes in at the surgery in the  hospital about forty five hundred dollars yes four   thousand five hundred dollars for surgery doctors  anesthesia lab work two nights in the hospital   everything including the physical therapy  right now physical therapy because we're   hiring the private guy okay the physical therapy  would be around six hundred dollars and pre-op   stuff we don't have a quote for that but i'm just  thinking that's going to be around 250 dollars so   what do we got 52 5300 medellin cali  a little bit more pricey i'm not sure   why i don't know if the hospital  costs or more or how that works   but for the surgery the hospital anesthesia and  all of that comes in around six thousand dollars   we do not have a price for physical therapy we're  unable to get a commitment on that and i put in   the same two hundred and fifty dollars so fifty  two to fifty three hundred dollars in medellin   sixty two to sixty three hundred dollars in  cali medellin wins this one because it's cheaper   i think you're starting to see a  trend but we have more categories   the next one is these hospitals down here in  colombia the major hospitals have international   offices that are designed to assist people like us  people that come in to columbia to have procedures   now initially right off the bat i was working  with a lady in medellin great communication   it started with emails it went to whatsapp she  attended the first appointment with us walked us   through the process helped me pay for that filled  out all the paperwork translated when we needed to   right there with you the whole time and she's  nice she's very sweet her name is stephanie   it's really important for communication  with something like this because uh   the language barrier it's just huge now in cali  since i was having direct communication with the   doctor we were not in touch with the international  office before the doctor's visit and didn't even   know one existed but while we were at the doctor's  office he connected us with the international   office and they kind of took over on getting us  the the quotes and trying to help us find some   living arrangements and stuff like that they  were very helpful but there was three or four   different ladies we had to work with and it was  all done by email and it just seemed a little more   like i was a number instead of a name they did a  great job but the doctor did speak fluent english   so in terms of being any communication issues on  that end there were none yeah the doctor spoke   fluent english it was difficult to pay  though because the the lady you paid   in the office no english and stuff like  that but both hospitals offer the service   but i already had a personal connection with  stephanie and medellin she did a fantastic job   and this one goes to medellin right so the next  three categories kind of all clumped together   and it's the living experience but the first  one is neighborhoods that we felt like we would   want to live in for two and a half to three  months and in cali we found two neighborhoods   um they were very far apart one's antigua it's  close to the downtown area it is about 20 to 25   minutes from the hospital nice little neighborhood  some modern restaurants and shopping and stuff   the other one is called ciudad de jardin which  is kind of a suburb of cali it is 35 minutes from   the hospital but what we liked about that is the  environment was nice and the apartments also have   parking lots that our van would be able to  stay in so those are the two neighborhoods   we found in cali in medellin we actually when  we were there before street camped one night   in a neighborhood called loralis and  we like this neighborhood it has a good   feel to it it's safe a lot of apartment choices so  we kind of zeroed in on that one in medellin and   actually felt more comfortable there so medellin  wins the neighborhood category you want to touch   base on the cost the cost so medellin is a bit  more expensive the range of apartments we were   looking at and you can get a much cheaper and  much more expensive but our for our style of   apartment we're looking for a two-bedroom  two-bath secure facility we have in medellin   a thousand to thirteen hundred dollars a month  in cali 800 to eleven hundred dollars a month so   medellin is a little bit more pricey but seems to  come with a few more benefits uh the next one the   apartment choices medellin is a heavy tourism  expat type of city and airbnb is big there   so that's what we use as we travel around and we  need a place so it was super easy there but do you   want to tell them about our struggles in cali yeah  i mean i i we talked to a real estate agent and   uh airbnb is just not big in cali it's not  something that widely used and so there was   just dispersed different search engines and we  quite honestly had a hard time even finding places   where there was a lot of options in medellin and  then the next part of the whole living experience   is the vibe of the city and uh there was a clear  winner on this one it was a personal choice but   yeah i mean uh again cali was just a  different city the climate was definitely   warmer maybe not hot and humid but warm warm  definitely and i didn't feel like there was   as many green spaces and just as much i don't  know medellin just had a really nice vibe to it   um active people really some pretty parks and  some rivers and some nice areas it just and   that climate was definitely cooler so medellin  just had a better vibe from our perspective now   you know opinions vary but we really liked many  yeah yeah all right so next category both cities   have good shopping facilities grocery stores close  to the neighborhoods it was pretty close to a   tie on this one but we gave it to medellin just  because we're going to be there for an extended   amount of time and there may be a few comfort  things we could get a little easier in medellin   than in california well we actually did shopping  in medellin i had to get a new pair of shoes and   so we did a little more functional stuff we found  cali certainly had all this stuff we just didn't   have quite the experience there yeah so that  one was pretty close but public transportation   medellin is an internationally award-winning  city when it comes to their public transportation   it has a metro system that is state-of-the-art  with cable cars that go to all parts of the   city a train that runs down the middle a rental  bikes taxis ubers a very comfortable walking city   and um cali has taxis ubers and a  pretty hectic bus situation so no   trains like medellin has and so this one again  went to medellin yeah and i think you know our   opinions are kind of based on our limited view  we were there in each of the cities for a few   days and so you know if you're from one of these  cities and our our observations weren't accurate   we apologize for that um this is just kind of  what we saw and what we used to make the decision   so yeah all right so the next one which is super  important because it is our home is van security   and i'm gonna let kurt handle this one because  he's in charge of that yeah so you know it's   not only security but there's also some things  that i want to do on the van if you guys know   our shower pumps down and also i'd like to do just  a other little general maintenance and so having   places that are both secure and able to do that we  looked at all of them there were some parkaderas   and some other places and medellin looked like  it just had some more options both close to the   office and even a bit out of the city so again i'm  sure cali has some places but we actually located   some places in medellin that we felt pretty  comfortable so medellin wins another category   so the next two items are kind of one but we  rated them as two or i rated them as two because   kurt didn't even know i was putting this into the  system because he did not want this to be a factor   in our decision at all but i wanted to take  a look at it once everything else was already   categoried out and that is things to do in the  city we're gonna be here for two and a half to   three months i'm gonna be in physical therapy  anywhere from three to five days a week this guy   right here is going to go out of his mind crazy  so i wanted to make sure we were somewhere that   he had stuff to do now cali has some cool parks a  few nice little hikes on the outskirts of town but   medellin is loaded with cool interesting history  and culture and neighborhoods you can visit and   one of the things i'm super excited about is  it's one of the top 10 cities in the world to see   christmas lights um but there's a lot of one day  trips around there's hikes there's a lot of stuff   kirk can do and that is not factored in heavily  into the plan but it is and that's good for me   it's good for kurt and it's good for you guys  because he's going to be able to shoot this and   show you and still you'll be following our journey  but you'll still be seeing cool stuff in columbia   yeah now for what it's worth i told snow and i  truly believe this i could find all kinds of cool   interesting stuff to get into in either city i  found both cities were pretty awesome um but i am   super excited to explore magazine and i'm super  excited to show you guys a different perspective   we've shown you van life for the last few years  this is an opportunity for us to show you really   what it might be like if you're an expat or  digital nomad or something like that and you   consider medellin as a possible place to  spend some extended time or even move to   and so we're definitely going to be able to show  you a little different different angle yeah and   we're going to be immersed in the culture and  the food maybe i'll even learn to speak spanish   better because that's going to be necessary  i don't have to do that i'm focused on rehab   all right guys medellin it is we are leaving  cali we are northbound headed back to medellin   if you remember it was a very long hectic drive  but on this trip back up we've got some time   because i still need to lose nine more pounds  and there's some really cool stuff along the way   we're going back up through the coffee triangle  the andes mountain i'm just telling you guys   there is some cool stuff coming before we  get this surgery so we'll see you guys in a   few days from our next destination which is  supposed to be a really cool place to camp   so with that thanks guys cheers cheers if you like  this video be sure to subscribe to our channel   and hit that notification bell so you guys know  when we put out new videos and don't forget you   can always follow us over on instagram to see  what's going on in between videos cheers guys

2021-11-22 02:17

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