This Seattle Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon has plastic surgery on the brain even when dropping her car off at the repair shop.
Early this morning, I dropped off my poor 20+ year old car off at Seattle’s wonderful Fat City. This place just loves German automobiles (as do I). 
They had not yet opened so I filled out the intake form with my concerns (sorta like my new patient intake form) and was asked to check a box if I wanted them to save any replaced parts for me.
This, of course, got me thinking about plastic surgery and what I do if when a patient requests that we save their “parts”.
Plastic surgery involves a lot of restoring, repairing, and refining but it also involves a lot of removing. Eyelid surgery removes skin and fat, face lift surgery removes a little skin and sometimes some fat, liposuction obviously involves removal of fat, breast reduction removes breast tissue and abdominoplasty removes abdominal skin and fat. These are but a few examples.
Some of the parts I remove go to pathology so they can be examined for disease. This is routine for breast tissue and for many skin lesions. But some of the parts are just discarded. And this may shock you, gentle reader, but all the stuff I remove from perfectly healthy and morally upright citizens is considered “hazardous waste”. The stuff I remove is disposed of in an OSHA compliant fashion. So ……… no, you cannot take your 4 liters of fat home in a jar to store in your refrigerator as a gentle reminder.
So you can’t take it with you but I am happy to take a photo of your parts if you want me to. Just ask! An 8 x 10 color glossy on your refrigerator door may work just fine.
Thanks for reading!
Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder, your easily amused plastic surgeon.
@lisalynnsowder
