My Medical Tourist Deal and my future plans

When I was a child, I had a few very negative experiences at the dentist.  Those experiences left me with a deep fear, and really I just stopped going to the dentist.

Well, not going to the dentist is not a good thing to do, and as you would expect, after years of not seeing a dentist, I had developed a number of dental problems.

I would go through times when I had severe toothaches, but I was scared to go to the dentist, so I avoided it at all costs, even severe pain.

Back about 10 years ago or so, I forget exactly which year it was, I was in so much pain that I had to go see the dentist.  I really did not know which dentist to go to, because I was already living in the Philippines by then, and had not seen a dentist here.  My wife and kids had been seeing a dentist here named Lourdes Lebosada.  Since I had no reason not to use her, I went to her office to have her take a look at my tooth that was painful.

As I recall, Lourdes told me that I needed a lot of dental work done, and I told her that I was aware of that, but that I had a real fear of going to the dentist.  She did not push, she let it rest at that, and she took care of the problem that was causing me pain that day.

After a few days, I was thinking that my visit to the dentist had not been bad, in fact, it had actually been quite good.  No real pain, nice dentist, comfortable and friendly.  I thought that maybe I should try to get over the fear and go have all of my dental needs taken care of.  It took me a few weeks to work up the courage, but I did go back.  But instead of just going back to get the dental work done, I went back with a plan to try to do some business with Lourdes.

I already had a very popular website about Life in the Philippines.  I had literally thousands of visitors each and every day.  I also had a large following of both local people and foreign people on social media sites.  I decided I would like to offer Lourdes a barter deal (they call it an X deal here) where she would do my dental work to get me up to date and then take care of my ongoing dental needs, and in exchange I would provide her with her own website and I would advertise her services on my website.  I also would promote her locally on social media.  At first, I am not sure how Lourdes felt about this type of deal.  She told me to come back when her husband would be there, and he would evaluate the deal and help her decide.

A few days later I went back and met with Sonny, Lourdes’ husband.  He seemed to think the deal looked OK, and Lourdes agreed to do it.

I had all of my dental needs brought up to date, and then ongoing care when needed.  To make a long story short, it was fantastic.  I no longer feared to go to the dentist, Lourdes was very gentle and took very good care of me.  On the other hand, Lourdes was very happy with the extra business she was getting from my promotion of her services.  A lot of people from around the world started going to see her for dental care, people that were readers of my website.

This was a true win-win deal.  We both felt like we got way more than the other person got.  Sometimes I feel guilty that I have taken advantage of Lourdes.  She feels the same.  That is what happens when both people feel they got a fantastic deal.

Over the years, Lourdes and I have become very close friends.  I really feel of Lourdes like she is a sister.  She is always there for me whatever I need, and I try to be there for her too.  Over the past year when I have experienced some severe medical problems – with my eyes and then with my heart – Lourdes has been there to guide me through the system.  Being in the medical field, she has a lot of contacts in other specialties, and she was a tremendous help to me.

Now, the two of us are planning to take our deal as a pattern and expand it.  We want to start doing medical tourist, bringing in local doctors of all specialties, and get business for them, and for us too!  It is my goal to get this project off the ground in 2017, and I am sure Lourdes will be happy with that too!

So, as you can see, if you make the right kind of business deal, it really can be a big winner for each person involved!