thursday.

Sorry about the lack of OOTDs. My camera has been m.i.a. I think it's somewhere around the house.

Today was pretty great day. It was a full office day and I met a lot of really sweet people. I've spotted another male patient and a couple of minorities. It was interesting to see how darker skin reacts to scaring as apposed to lighter skin. So far, the men don't really come in for life altering, body changing surgeries like the women tend to do -- just a little here and there. I also saw my first breast cancer patient. Since I was unaware of everything a breast cancer patient has to go through, Dr. G filled me in on what chemotherapy had to do: remove the breast and insert a port. It's amazing how Dr. G can restore a breast from nothing. What she has to do is take muscle and skin from either the back or abdominals and place it over the remaining breast tissue. This will help the breast tissue expand. She then inserts a tissue expander which is like a hard refillable implant. This stretches the skin out to the size of the other breast and makes it big enough for an implant. Once the implant is in, the patient has the choice of getting a nipple reconstructed or not. The only negative side I can see to having a nipple reconstructed (from skin on darker parts of the body) is that the muscle controlling the nipple is gone. That makes the nipple always "pointy". This experience has really made me think about WHY I wanted to go into this field. I had always been interested in medicine. It's in my blood; but, why plastic surgery? I think Dr. G's nurse said it the best. (paraphrasing)" In all other medical professions, your patients are there because they NEED to be. In plastic surgery, your patients WANT to be there." I would get to make people feel better about themselves while getting to use my creativity and science skills. The giggles, tears of joy, and exclamations of astonishment as a patient removes the surgical garments are moving. My favorite types of  office visits are of patients who are about 6 mo to a year out of surgery. I get to see the before pictures and the completely healed results. It's so cool to see them side by side. Even if the person doesn't have the 'perfect' body, the drastic change from the before picture is enough to make anyone squeal with joy. Next up: full surgery day ^_^