Salon.com > Elective Surgery

All the weight I didn’t lose

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone knows this trick: You hold the camera above your face, stretch your neck and shoot. I take my own picture this way. You see my heart-shaped face, my cutely assertive chin, and my dark brown eyes. Sometimes I peer insouciantly over the rims of my glasses. You don't see the double chin or the pudgy roundness of my face. You don't see my body, apart from the cleavage I occasionally throw in. Pictures make me thinner than I am, or will ever likely be. That angle slices away more pounds than my surgeons, and that's saying a lot.

I am the “after” side of surgery, having lost more than 250 pounds. No one gets this, at least not without an explanation, because I still weigh over 200 pounds, and the weight loss fable is supposed to end when you're thin, not when you're merely “an average fat American.” I still wonder if I should get more surgery. I have so many pieces of clothing that fit, but that I reject because they cling in one place wrong. That particular place is my right thigh and calf, which are obviously larger than the left. (I call it my freak leg.) Doctors have no real explanation, but the general theory is that a fall I suffered when I weighed 600 pounds actually broke off a chunk of fat in my calf. That place just above my knee seems swollen, and is the reason I can't wear skirts anywhere close to above the knee. If jeans stick to the freak leg, I toss them into the back of the closet and try another pair.

Nation’s first full face transplant performed in Boston

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:12:00 +0000

A Texas construction worker badly disfigured in a power line accident two years ago has received the nation's first full face transplant at a Boston hospital.

More than 30 doctors, nurses and other staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital led by plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac performed the 15-hour operation last week on 25-year-old Dallas Wiens of Fort Worth, Texas. He was listed in good condition at the hospital on Monday.

The electrical accident in November 2008 left Wiens (WEENS), blind and without lips, a nose or eyebrows. In Boston, doctors transplanted an entire new face, including a nose, lips, skin and muscles and nerves that animate the skin and give sensation. The donor's identity was not disclosed nor would the hospital say exactly when the surgery was done for privacy reasons.

Wiens will not resemble "either what he used to be or the donor," but something in between, said Pomahac (POE'-ma-hawk). "The tissues are really molded on a new person."

What we still don’t know about Lasik

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:01:00 +0000

How are your eyes?

That's all anyone ever wants to know these days: How my eyes are doing after my collision with Lasik almost three years ago. Are they still dry? Do they still hurt when exposed to sunlight? Is my vision still blurred? And what about glasses -- am I still wearing them?

The answer: Yes, yes, yes and yes. Emphatically, resoundingly, blindingly yes. My eyes sting. They burn. I look at neon signs and the colors bleed into a fluorescent Rorschach test. I have difficulty deciphering black lettering on white boards; I have personally helped elevate the stock of Allergan, which manufactures Refresh Plus, the drops that allegedly help dry eye.

Clearly, this is all very annoying, but at this point, I'm used to it. It's just one of the things I live with, like PMS and hangnails. And in the grand scheme of things, it's not so bad. According to Market Scope, LLC, an ophthalmic industry research firm, nearly 15 million procedures have been performed in the U.S. over the last decade, with a 95.4 percent patient satisfaction rate. Lasik is also a $1.6 billion industry -- which, as Michael Lewis points out in "The Big Short," was initially created to replace the revenue stream lost to declining cataract surgery reimbursement rates.

Plastic surgery’s wicked triumph

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Earlier this week a German porn star died from complications during a breast enlargement surgery, a reminder that while plastic surgery is controversial and much coveted, it is also deadly. The recession was supposed to put an end to the culture of "Nip/Tuck" and "Dr. 90210," but in her new book, "American Plastic: Boob Jobs, Credit Cards, and Our Quest for Perfection," Laurie Essig finds that the industry is stronger than ever and cosmetic surgery is becoming more and more a part of the average person's beauty regimen. Plastic surgery is not just for the rich and famous. Statistics show that people earning less than $60,000 a year make up a majority of cosmetic surgery patients. So while we balk at botched nose jobs and bad facelifts in gossip blogs, rolling our eyes at a show like "Bridalplasty" or Nicole Kidman's immobile forehead, many of us are also quietly making appointments for Botox and rhinoplasty.

Bearded lady no more

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:01:00 +0000

I'm making my way down the path that leads to the clinic's front door. I'm walking through a rock garden, past beds of flowers, little miniature waterfalls whose tinkling makes me want to pee. I feel like I'm walking down a hallway that keeps getting longer and longer. I've seen horror films like this: Just when you think you've reached the end, you find the end is out of reach.

Right before I decide it's a sign to go home, I see it: the front door. Damn. Two fewer steps in the fog and I could've given up, left, called from the office, sorry, couldn't find it, will call back to reschedule.

Or I could've just never rescheduled. I could've avoided the voice on the phone, that sweet down-to-earth tone that belongs to –

"Hi," the woman says. "I'm Jessica."

She's not what I'd expected: a pudgy Latina with braces, heavy eyebrows, a little roll of fat bulging beneath her shirt, which says Oil of Olay, spelled out in little faux rhinestones. The front lobby is comfortable. That sucks. I'd wanted it to feel sterile to the point of hostility. Leather couches and subtly lit mirrors, a smoke machine maybe. Instead it looks like the kind of place where you'd want to housesit. Warm, soft tones, an olive-colored rug on the floor, a glass-topped coffee table with copies of Rolling Stone and Harper's. A large, cushy-looking couch striped in olive and beige, tons of pillows, facing off against a flat-screen television set.

How a topless beach helped my self-esteem

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:43:00 +0000

A few years ago I had a breast reduction, and although the benefits of this surgery were innumerable (e-mail for details, ladies), I found myself going through a strange period of adjustment. For many years, my breasts had been the focus of men's attention; I could go out to bars with spinach in my teeth and still come away with a pocketful of phone numbers. Once my breasts were smaller, I hoped men would pay more attention to the full package: legs, abs, personality. But sometimes, I'd look down at my new, perfectly proportioned, size-B breasts and think: Did I make a mistake?

But these moments of neurosis were, thank God, short-lived. As it turned out, fate led me to the south of France and there, despite being surrounded by tan goddesses, I got back my flailing confidence.

No matter what the French say about their topless beaches -- C'est naturale! You Americans are just prudes who cannot accept zee human body! -- they are, essentially, one big gawk-fest. For les hommes. In the North, you might see entire families bathing naked: Maman with her overtaxed breasts sagging unabashedly on her stomach; Papa with his grey-pubed zizi shriveled in the cold. But the real spectacle, where only the babes go topless and the topless are all babes, is on the Riviera.

Vampire facelifts: Cosmetic surgery’s crazy new trend

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:07:00 +0000

If you haven't been sequestered from all popular culture for the last few years, you may have noticed that there's a bit of a vampire thing going on. This summer, thanks to the third installment of the "Twilight" saga and a new season of "True Blood," the vampire merchandising has reached a fever pitch. We have vampire pillows, vampire perfume, vampire sex toys, and now, the coup de grace: a vampire facelift. Even though the bloodsuckers themselves don't need to worry about wrinkles -- immortality and all -- their fans need a little touch-up now and then. So, voila, a procedure that sucks blood out of your body to re-inject it in your face.

Salon talked to Dr. Anthony Youn, a cosmetic surgeon who happens to be a favorite of the Rachel Ray show, to ask how the facelift works and whether it's a good idea.

So what exactly is a vampire facelift?

Butt augmentation: Dangers of a trendy new procedure

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:15:00 +0000

Yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that a Queens spa owner was being sued by a client who nearly died after a butt enhancement procedure. The customer, who went in to have fat harvested from her stomach and injected into her rump, developed abscesses and required emergency surgery to prevent a serious septic infection. It's not the first time butt augmentation procedures have been linked to serious complications, and even death. In February 2009, two Tampa women were treated for extensive kidney damage brought on by silicone injections in their buttocks. Last December, Solange Magnano, Miss Argentina 1994, died from a pulmonary embolism (a blockage to the artery of the lung) resulting from a botched buttock lift.

So, why all the horror stories about these butt-filling surgeries? Is butt augmentation a particularly risky procedure?

Breast implant trend deflates?

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:39:00 +0000

Pamela Anderson, take note: The age of enormous, fake breasts is over. At least, according to the London Times, which reports today that, thanks to the fashion pioneering of Victoria Beckham and a recent embrace of natural curves, the days of the boob boom are over. An assessment of the British plastic surgery market by research group Mintel predicts that breast augmentation and other cosmetic procedures are on a slow but sure decline. Writer Alice Olin vehemently approves the return to the real thing: "Sure, we all found it intriguing when Jordan and her pneumatically enhanced friends were able to simultaneously fall out of nightclubs and their dresses, " Olin writes, "[But] their skin-covered mounds summed up the more-is-more years…It was a beauty gimmick of Enron proportions." Besides, doesn't Disney's recent call for models with natural breasts only portend the end of the ridiculous double-D beauty standard?

Man boobs, plastic surgery’s new cash cow

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:03:00 +0000

While the good citizens of the United States have been distracted by dubious online plastic surgery consultations and Heidi Montag’s newly rearranged face, a new cosmetic surgery trend has been gathering steam across the Atlantic: male breast reduction. The BBC reports that for the second year running, breast reduction for men is the fastest growing field for cosmetic surgery in the United Kingdom, with the number of procedures increasing 80 percent from 2008 to 2009. And why this rush to the operating table for, ahem, large-chested dudes? According to one plastic surgeon, you can blame it on GQ: "Many men are feeling the pressure from men's magazines … in addition, they are just realizing that they can get something done about it."

Lasik’s blurry vision

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:02:00 +0000

The other day I got a prescription for eyeglasses. This is not newsworthy in itself except for one thing: More than two and a half years ago I had Lasik (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis), specifically so I could toss away the spectacles I wore for near-sightedness. I knew that eventually I would need reading glasses, but I would, I was assured, be able to see long-distance for a long time.

Problem is, I can't.

Not only is my vision blurred, but as I wrote in a 2008 article for the New York Times, I still see halos, and not the kinds with angels attached. It takes a good 10 minutes for my eyes to adjust to dimly lit rooms. My eyes are scratchy and as dry as the desert. Yes, before I got the surgery I signed an "informed consent" saying I understood all the possible side effects, but I certainly never knew that they might last indefinitely, and that they would be more than "annoying," as my doctor promised. But nearly three years later, they are still here. And while I could get an "enhancement" -- that's industry parlance for another surgery to correct errors -- frankly, the only thing I want near my eyes is mascara.

Under the knife, into debt

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Nowadays, plastic surgery is a lot like the American dream: Hard work, a willingness to go into substantial debt and forgoing things like health insurance are all it takes to obtain it! The New York Times reports today that "vanity medicine" has been democratized -- meaning, it's no longer "the province of the rich and celebrated who would pay cash or write a check up front." It has become "a coveted yet attainable luxury purchase" thanks to credit cards and financing companies, some of which specialize in plastic surgery loans, reports the Times.

Doctors report that strapped-for-cash patients are willing to go even beyond taking on hefty loans -- some opt out of health insurance to make financing their surgery easier. "I have some 23-year-old women who are getting breast implants who think they are young and healthy and don't need health insurance," said Dr. David P. Rapaport.