Melonie’s Blog: The Consultation
October 6th, 2009
When I arrived for my consultation, I felt a bit nervous but was immediately put at ease by Becky at the front desk. She collected my information and it was just a few minutes before I met the nurse and other staff. They were all very friendly, upbeat and informative. When it was time for me to meet Dr. Bashioum, I actually felt relaxed, having already met his staff first. As part of my research, I had read his patient blogs and I could see now that they were accurate about the staff. So I thought, this is going to go just like the other patients had described. My time with him was professional and comfortable. He asked a few questions, gave me a lot of information and took a very quick look at my breasts. Nothing at all uncomfortable or embarrassing. I was most impressed with his utmost concern being for my health, peace of mind and well-being. That is when I really decided he was the right doctor for me.
After we were finished the consultation, I was instructed to try on different size implants with the help of the nurse, to determine my new size. She did not offer any opinion and I felt comfortable choosing the size I thought looked best for me. She told me I could come back and re-size anytime I wanted before surgery, if I chose to do so. That day I chose the 475 cc, but felt I may want to go a little larger. I came back a week later with my boyfriend to re-size. I then chose the 500 cc and asked my boyfriend if he thought it looked right on me. He felt it looked good but said that it was most important that I was comfortable. I felt that I would most likely need time to adjust to whatever size I chose, but I liked the look of the 500 cc. So as of now, this is where I am at. My surgery is scheduled in 2 ½ weeks and I am feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement.
The surgery will be filmed for the blog, so check back to see how I’m feeling the morning of my surgery and hear what final decision I make regarding implant size.
Too Much of a Good Thing – Two to Tango
October 2nd, 2009
Patients choose whether to have cosmetic surgery or not. It is purely an elective and usually non-essential surgery. Some patients end up having so many cosmetic surgery operations that their physical appearance becomes distorted, as I have discussed in prior blogs. Obviously the responsibility of having multiple cosmetic surgery procedures rests with the patient. However, without a surgeon or injectionist doing each treatment, excessive surgery would never occur. It takes two to tango, except of course when patients do surgery or injections on themselves.
I often see patients during consultations that have had multiple surgeries. Most often they have had their surgical procedures over a number of years and performed for specific physical sensitivities. Most results are natural in appearance and they are generally accepting of results, which may not always be perfect. In my opinion, these individuals are not obsessed with cosmetic surgery and I will consider them as patients.
There happen to be a few patients that present having had multiple surgeries on a single body part in quick succession, done by different surgeons. Some have so much scarring; it is impossible to make any further corrections. I advise these patients not to have more surgery. My professional ethics do not allow me to accept them as patients. Sadly this is not acceptable to everyone and unfortunately they will continue to seek out other physicians either locally or in other cities, until they find a surgeon to do what they want. Rest assured, you can most always find a surgeon to operate on you. Understand that surgeons make their living by operating, so when a surgeon recommends not having surgery, there must be a very good reason because they are losing income. Nonetheless it is difficult to disappoint a patient and turn them away. Fortunately, here in Minneapolis, most of my patients have reasonable expectations and seem to be conservative in their desire for unnecessary or repetitive cosmetic surgeries.
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