In reading through the last year’s NBC article on Lipo-Tourism, when I realized that there is a difference between “lipo-tourism” and “lipotourism.”

The NBC article defines “lipo-tourism” as “foreign doctors who offer cut-rate surgery and Americans who are willing to go overseas to go under the knife.”

“Lipotourism”, however, is apperantly copywrited, and according to the website http://www.phudson.com/TOURISM/lipotourism.html , it is a term owned by Dr. Hudson in Alberquerque, NM.

Dr. Hudson’s website says it is the combination of vacation and surgery at the same time. In the link above, Dr. Hudson describes his tips for reasearching lipotourism. My favorite is “a good vacation spot is not always the same as a good place to have surgery.”

I have my own definition of this phenonmena - the plastic surgery journey. Because, god knows, it is not a vacation. And god also knows, there is very little tourist activity going on through these journeys.

We call it a journey because it is descriptive of both the inward, emotional journey and outward physical journey. Yes, we phisically arrive to a destination, but for those of us who go abroad for plastic surgery know, the journey by no means ends when we return home, as the recovery and learning to get used to the new us is also part of this journey.

Whatever you call it, I think it is unanomous, that one should research in detail, reveiw the risks, and understand that this may not be for everybody.