NIP TUCK

posted Monday, 5 December 2005

Ok, so I had some misguided perception that all plastic surgeons would be young... fairly attractive... and funny.... no such luck.

As you know, I *love* my breast surgeon, Dr Dultz. She is kind of like my college track coach, ShaSha (if he told me to run 100 miles, I would have done it... because I knew that if he recommended it, it would make me better), except she's ridding my body of cancer and he just made my body jump farther.

Anyways... Dr Dultz gave me a list of 6 or 7 plastic surgeons that she recommended. Of course... not one of them accepts my insurance. In fact, there are only 3 surgeons in central jersey who do accept my insurance - one in Trenton, one in Princeton & one in New Brunswick. Dr Dultz told me she had "heard of" the guy in Princeton, but didn't really recommend one way or the other.

So I went to meet with him (since out-of-network coverage would only be 50% and this type of surgery runs at least $20k per breast - wowsa!). Dr W was kind of like that other dr on nip-tuck... the one with the curly hair... but add 50 pounds, 20 years and visibly waxy ears. Not that I judge a dr based on his appearance... it's just one of those things where you have one picture in your mind and the person inevitably looks nothing like that picture. Turns out Dr W played ultimate frisbee at Duke many moons ago... so I thought "great! I will have an instant connection with him"

Not really. He was very informative. Basically, there are two kinds of reconstruction currently used:

After the reconstruction, they often do a nipple reconstruction (still not sure how they do that) and then they tattoo on the nipple to make it look real. Huh - never thought that I would get a tattoo... mom's not going to like that ;)

Dr W told me that I probably don't have enough body fat to do the tram flap, which is fine with me - I don't think I would have really considered it. He also said that if I reconstruct with implants, provided that I don't want to upgrade to a "voluptuous C-cup", that I wouldn't need the expanders... they could just put the implants in at the beginning.

However, he did say that I couldn't drive for 3 weeks after the surgery and couldn't lift my arms over my head or exercise (other than walking) for 3 months after the surgery. That sounds crazy. I can see why they don't want me playing frisbee, but no stationary bike... no running... for 3 months? That seems a bit excessive.

Over all, Dr W wasn't horrible... but it wasn't that instant comfort level that I felt with Dr Dultz or Dr Cairoli. I made an appt with the Dr up in New Brunswick for next week. He is the chief of the plastic surgery department at Robert Wood (RWJ)... decent credentials... he has rights at Princeton Medical Center (where Dr Dultz works), but according to the receptionist, he only does reconstruction at RWJ. Ugh. It's much better to do this all in one shot... maybe if I beg? Well, it's worth the second opinion, even if I don't go with him for the surgery... it may make it more clear whether or not I should go with Dr W. What a pain! I can't imagine being so discontent with my own body that I would pursue this voluntarily... just for looks...