Friday Photo: Carpet of Yellow Strawberries
June 30th, 2011
Fraise de bois or woodland strawberries are ripe and you can smell the sweet fragrance while approaching the garden. I wish the tiny yellow berries weren’t so fragile, because they only last one day after picking. The plants multiply and spread every year, so they form a beautiful green carpet beneath my espalier apple tress.
Technology Innovations: Breast Enlargement
June 28th, 2011
As I mentioned last week, I attended the Technology Innovation in Plastic Surgery Conference in San Francisco. I believe that new techniques and technologies in field of cosmetic surgery will change dramatically in the next five years.
Some of these new innovations involve carefully harvested fat injections. A promising procedure involves using fat harvesting for breast enlargement. Liposuction fat is transferred from one area to anther after it has been specially processed. Augmenting the breast with the body’s own fat first became popular in the 1980’s. Initially, both ASPS and ASAPS urged caution. The current procedure has been perfected and gives patients another option when considering breast enlargement.
In the past, there were concerns whether fat injections may calcify, or harden, and interfere with traditional mammograms and breast cancer screenings. 

More recently, radiology literature suggest that new generations of digital mammography is more sophisticated and better able to distinguish troublesome cells.
Some noteworthy facts about this innovative procedure include needing only pinpoint marks at the injection sites, because no incisions are made in the breast. Patients are also free to discard implant rupture concerns and benefit from reduced risk of breast firmness or numbness. However, more than one procedure might be required to achieve the desired result and this new fullness may fluctuate with weight gain or loss.
This series continues.