Farewell, 2009!

One of the stunning emerald-furred trees dotting the trails at the Long Ridge Open Space.

It's funny how, the older I get, the faster time moves. Remember summers as a kid, when it seemed like the days were endless and vacation would never end? Now, it the year whooshes by straight-faced, without drama.

Well, there is always plenty of drama in the wondrous world of plastic surgery, right?

2009 was no exception - new techniques for breast enhancement, a competitor for Botox (welcome again, Dysport!), a resounding defeat for the cosmetic procedure tax. And small steps in my personal year of plastics - a little but big move for the office (all the way up the street to Palo Alto), a big anniversary for this partnership of two women trying to conquer the big bad boys' club of plastic surgery (couldn't do it without you, Dr. Weintraub!), and yes, another year of semi-devotion to this blog.

Thank you for putting up with my wordiness in 2009. I promise more exciting revelations as the days move swiftly in 2010. Happy new year!

Bo-tax goes down, and other news in the world of plastic surgery

Good news, the Bo-tax got defeated. It seemed like the entire "community" of cosmetic proceduralists temporarily put their differences aside and organized together to make it happen. Apparently even the NOW rallied against this crazy idea, since it unfairly targeted women.

In an interesting twist, the Senate decided to go after tanning salons instead - hefting a 10% use tax on consumers who aren't convinced by the "pale is beautiful" trend or the fact that UV exposure correlates to skin cancer. Seriously, does anyone tan anymore? I thought that unnatural bronzed look went out sometime in the late 80's/early 90's.

And finally, I caught this article through the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle. It doesn't tell you anything new, dear readers, but I must admit to a base fascination with plastic surgery horror stories with the tiniest little modicum of sadness and regret that I can't help everyone see the light about finding themselves a good (female!) plastic surgeon.

Another reason to celebrate being a woman: more wrinkles?

Personally, I thought the actual reference article in this piece discussing how women have the great luck of being prone to more and deeper wrinkles than men was just fine.

But come on, Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter for BusinessWeek, get it straight. When you lead off your article with "Dermatologists have discovered yet another gender inequity. . ." and proceed to quote the senior author, who is identified as a plastic surgeon in said article, it becomes clear that someone didn't do their homework.

For the last time, dermatologists are NOT the same as plastic surgeons.

Okay, I'll put the soapbox away again. Thanks for listening.

To be young and beautiful

A lookout sullied by low lying clouds two weeks ago at Fremont Older Preserve, part of the Open Space lands of the Peninsula.

This morning I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to Tracey Gunn's honors anatomy and physiology class at Santa Clara High School. I've been working with the HealthTrust of Santa Clara; part of their mission is to get high school students interested in careers in the health sciences.

I've done a handful of these little talks now, and the caliber of these students never fails to impress me. They are all so bright and beautiful, curious and clever.

In these talks, I skim over the nuts and bolts of how to become a doctor - all the classes, applications, tests, etc. These students aren't dummies - they're all college-bound (and right now, waiting anxiously for the legendary fat envelopes) - when I ask them how old you have to be to become a physician, they're pretty accurate. Usually they guess around 30, although today someone blurted out "80!" which is sometimes how old you feel at the end of the day...

I also talk a little bit about what it means to me to be a plastic surgeon, how it's not all boobs and Botox, and most importantly, why I love what I do. In this part of the talk, it gets more graphic and interactive - I put up pictures of tough cases I've confronted in my surgical career and challenge the students to "be the plastic surgeon". Their response is always impressive, perhaps revealing a few aspiring surgeons in the crowd.

So thanks again to Ms. Gunn and her students for graciously hosting me this morning. It was fun, and hopefully we all left with something more to think about.