This Seattle Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon tells it like it is! There are a few procedures I do that come close toimmediate gratification but treatment of “cankles” is not one of them.
This week I saw a patient who wanted to have ankle liposuction ASAP so she could look really great for her upcoming highschool reunion at the end of August.
The good news: Ankle liposuction can help most patients with heavy ankles (a.k.a. cankles) and/or calves.
The bad news: Ankle and/or calf liposuction requires a long recovery period and patients need to wear heavy support hose for 3 to 6 months following the surgery. Because the ankles are so dependent (meaning they are way below the level of the heart), they hang onto post liposuction swelling longer than, say, the area under the chin or even the upper thighs. ( If you ever come across a doctor who wants to lipo your ankles who tells you otherwise, he/she is either ignorant and/or deceptive and you should run the other way.)
So my advice to this really, really lovely young woman:
Find a great pair of slimming summer slacks that almost touch the ground when she is wearing a fab pair of high heeled sandals.
Make the most of her lovely shoulders with a halter top.
Book her ankle liposuction for October.
Next summer she can show off her nice ankles with a photo on her Facebook page.
Thanks for reading!
Seattle Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder
Seattle Plastic Surgeon is shocked, shocked! at the size of these marshmallows.
As a plastic surgeon, I am often asked what I think is causing the obesity epidemic. I’m not an epidemiologist or an endocrinologist but I am a mom who shops for her family and I think I know the answer.
Last weekend, I was shopping for our Fourth of July celebration and the makings for S’Mores was on my list. The grocery store had a nice display of everything one needs for these tasty campfire treats including these gigantic marshmallows. I estimate they are four times the size of a “normal” marshmallow. Yikes! What is next? Graham crackers and chocolate bars the size of an ipad?
One of my sons thought these supersized marshmallows were great until he roasted one. Due to the decrease in surface area/size of these monsters, the inside does not get gooey enough unless the outside is over-roasted. This makes for an unsatisfactory S’More that is too thick to fit into even the largest mouth.
So we’re giving a thumbs down to the supersized marshmallows and hopefully to the expanding waistline. It’s easy for my growing, active kids to burn up the calories from all of our oversized food. But for those of us of a certain age, it would take 12 minutes on the rowing machine to burn off one of these sugar bombs.
Seattle Plastic Surgeon shares her dog toy wisdom.
My aussie/border collie/snapping turtle, Stella, just loves her Henrietta and Earl chew toys. Henrietta emits a high pitched squeal when chewed. Earl produces a realistic flatus-like sound. Stella, Henrietta and Earl make for some great hilarlity – for about 30 seconds.
Henrietta and Earl do, however, have some redeeming qualities in that they are very useful for obesity education.
Henrietta has a problem with external obestiy. Her excess fat is mostly external and distributed kind of all over – her hips, back, chest, upper thighs and tummy. This fat is unsightly but not much of a health issue.
Earl, on the other hand, has the dreaded internal belly fat. Earl, who has an inappropriately elevated level of self esteem, will say, “It’s muscle, not fat. Feel it, baby, it’s hard.” Well, it’s not muscle, Earl. It’s belly fat and it puts Earl at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, etc.
Henrietta’s fat is best addressed with weight loss but it can also be addressed with breast and body contouring surgery. Earl’s fat on the other hand can only be addressed with weight loss. Surgery cannot remove Earl’s internal fat although Stella is doing her best to chew it off.
Thanks for reading! Easily asmused Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder
Seattle Plastic Surgeon Reveals Some Very Shady Before and After Photos.
I get buried in advertisements for the newest, latest, greatest, you gotta have it, gizmos that are supposed to make my practice and my results and my life in general even better that they already are. Of course, these gizmos average about $100,000 and – this is what really fries me – they are rarely available for demo prior to purchase. This is sort of like buying a fancy new car without a test drive.
Another thing that fries me is some of the very, very misleading advertisements that many of the manufacturers try to pass off as real results. Here is an example. This is from an ad for a non-invasive fat removal system that uses energy that passes through the skin and is directed at the fat layer. Wow, what a difference until you look carefully. (Plastic surgeons are trained to look carefully.) In the photo on the right, Mr. Sixpack is pinching a fat roll that starts above his bellybutton and in the photo on the right, he’s pinching a fat roll that starts below his bellybutton. So obviously the more fat pinched, the thicker the roll. I can do this myself – big fat roll and little fat roll. I bet you can do it too!
Okay, and just one more thing that fries me, and then I’ll stop, at least until my next blog entry: Most of these new technologies are marketed heavily to non-plastic surgeons. The family practice doc or gynecologist or even (I’m not making this us) ophthalmologist who may want a little piece of the cosmetic surgery action may see this ad and go, “Wow, I must have one of these!” These docs are not experienced with liposuction or other body contouring and may not look at these photos as carefully as a real plastic surgeon. So these non-plastic surgeons buy one, it doesn’t work very well but they have to keep promoting it and using it and in some cases, giving patients a really raw deal because they have already dropped $100,000 on it and they can’t sell it because after a while, everyone knows it doesn’t work very well. So beware of non-plastic surgeons using the “latest technology”. They likely just don’t know any better.
Seattle Plastic Surgeon Comes Across a Very Interesting Article in a Canadian Journal
I was cleaning my desk this morning (that’s a few blog entries in itself) and stumbled upon an article I has saved from a 2006 issue of the Canadia Journal of Plastic Surgery. This article compared the sterility and cost of “sterile wound dressings” and more common absorbtive items such as panty lines, sanitary napkins and disposable (duh) diapers.
Not suprising was the cost difference with the common items being a fraction of the cost of “sterile wound dressings”. For example, one month supply of panty liners cost $2.43 vs. $16.50 for one month supply of sterile dressings. The surprising finding was that the common items were as sterile as the “sterile dressings”. A small percentage of all items tested grew various common bacteria when cultured.
I have been recommending panty lines or sanitary napkins as dressing to my patients ever since I first read this paper. They look at me kind of funny and are always a little shocked when I refer to this article. Maybe this is why Canadian health care is so much less costly that ours???
I spent New Year’s weekend with my family in a rustic ski hut. When we weren’t skiing or eating or sleeping (three of my very favorite activities) we worked a little on a gazillion piece communal puzzle. Finding that just right piece and having it fall into place is such a great feeling. It is sort of like the feeling I get when I sew up an injured patient like the one on the right. His injury looks like such a big gaping hole but actually, it’s just a puzzle. No pieces are missing; they are just out of position. Finding them and putting them back where they belong and putting in a few stitches to hold it all together can make me look and feel like a real wizard. This particular patient was one of my best emergency room cases because he was injured on the job – playing Santa!!! Ho, ho, ho. No coal for me that Christmas! Happy New Year!
@lisalynnsowder
