After Donda West death, California Senate approves new rule for elective surgery ~ Patty W. Kovacs

A new measure passed by the CA Senate recently requires that CA patients be given physical exams prior to any elective surgery and comes in response to the 2007 death of rapper Kanye West’s mother, who died of complications related to cosmetic surgery. The Senatorial majority vote on AB 2968 was an overwhelming 37 to 1.

Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) said the measure was in response to the 2007 death of Donda West, mother of the rap musician, of complications related to cosmetic surgery. The family believes that a physical exam would have uncovered coronary artery disease.

“Many of us are concerned about the quality of care extended to those who receive elective surgery,” Ridley-Thomas said.

These days, turning on the television it’s easy to see the impact cosmetic surgery has had on national TV. Mass media has been attributed with the surge in cosmetic surgery procedures in recent years. Some experts are concerned with the way cosmetic surgery is being presented in a 1-hour reality TV show which potentially minimalizes the dangers of cosmetic surgery.

Donda West, 58, died a year ago at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey a day after having cosmetic surgery. West was recuperating at home when she fell ill and died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Surgeon Jan Adams, host of Discovery Health Channel’s Plastic Surgery: Before & After, reported that he performed a tummy tuck and breast reduction on West.

Adams was not certified with the American Board of Plastic Surgery and had previously been ordered to pay settlements on malpractice suits. The Medical Board of California also reported Adams would be reviewed to (potentially) lose his license after two arrests in four years on alcohol-related offenses.

Adams performed a tummy tuck and breast reduction on West and said that her death was unforeseen. But another Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon said he had previously refused to perform a procedure on West until she had a medical clearance for a condition he feared could lead to a heart attack.

While the matters of this case are vital to the course of continuing safety for all elective procedures, the fact is patients must realize that plastic surgery is a serious matter and all information needs to be revealed to one’s surgeon. Nutritional supplements, medications, even occasional use of over-the-counter medications should be reported. General anesthesia is a major procedure and should never be considered too lightly. Many patients, so eager to have surgery, do not disclose their entire medical history. Many forget some of the medications or nutritional supplements they are taking. Many are embarrassed and care not to reveal all their medications, a potentially dangerous decision. Many are even unaware of ‘hidden’ physical conditions and prescreen pre-surgery exams can indeed help discover such conditions

Any patient choosing to undergo cosmetic surgery needs to understand both the benefits and the dangers of cosmetic surgery, but for many of the very young patients asking for plastic surgery procedures, it needs to be kept in mind that their depth of life experience may not allow them to understand fully the risks of long-term complications. Very young cosmetic surgery patients are sometimes easily impressionable and not fully matured. While the introduction of cosmetic surgery has provided many teens and young adults with beneficial results, being surrounded by flawless images in the media of digitally altered bodies creates a need for parents and surgeons to be extra cautious on young patients with unhealthy, unrealistic bodily images.

Considerations with how a young woman’s body will continue to grow and change are also important. Many young patients undergoing procedures are still growing and putting on even a little weight can affect the size of their breasts. Childbirth and nursing may be experiences ahead and need also be considered.

All patients need to determine if a procedure is right for them and if any potential dangers of a cosmetic surgery procedure outweigh the benefits. Patients must be evaluated to make sure they have a realistic expectation of what they can achieve through surgery.

Keep in mind that complications are actually extremely rare. But medical difficulties, even death, have indeed resulted from anesthesia complications, high levels of topical lidocaine, and injections of imitation fillers. In liposuction, embolism may occur. This happens when fat is loosened and enters the blood through blood vessels ruptured during the procedure. Pieces of fat get trapped in the blood vessels, gather in the lungs or travel to the brain. In addition, ultrasound probes can become so hot they cause burns. After breast augmentation, silicone implants may rupture or deflate—some in the first few months and some after a few years. The silicone gel may then migrate away from the breast and cause lumps to form in other areas of the torso and arms. Even non-surgical cosmetic procedures can be risky. In extremely rare cases, a toxin found in Botox called botulinum can spread to other parts of the body and paralyze or weaken the muscles used for breathing and swallowing.

Board Certified surgeons usually approach each medical case with the utmost respect and caution, and deaths to due to cosmetic surgery are extremely rare. Some attribute this low death rate to the good health of patients seeking elective surgeries, some to the cautions taken by well credentialed surgeons.

Most plastic surgery risks are risks of surgery in general. Some of these include:

• Infection at the site of surgery
• Excessive bleeding
• Hematomas (a collection of blood)
• Necrosis, or tissue death (smokers are at a higher risk)
• Hypothermia
• Numbness and tingling, sometimes permanent
• Seroma, or an accumulation of fluid beneath the wound
• Stroke

You can reduce your risk of complications from cosmetic surgery by seeking a board-certified plastic surgeon and talking to your surgeon about any risks involved with your particular procedure. Also, verify that your surgeon has the credentials to perform surgery in a hospital. If your doctor opts to perform surgery in a private office, make sure that facility is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) or the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF).

Patty Kovacs

http://www.wsRadio.com/HealthandBeautyRevolution/

A Pain Free, Instant Facelift

By

Lois W. Stern

If you’ve been wondering how you might look with a little nip and tuck, but are just not ready to go under the knife, here is a neat little site designed just for you. http://liftmagic.com/. This website is aimed at prospective plastic surgery patients who want an instant picture of how they would look if they tinkered a bit with what nature gave them.

Just load a digital photograph of your face on the site. Then select the areas of your face where you would like to see improvement. Want an eyebrow lift or enhancement to your hollowed out cheeks or nasolabial folds? Or perhaps lip augmentation, a nose reduction or chin implant is more to your liking. Once you have chosen the facial areas you would like to see improved, simply hit the ‘show me’ button and the image of a new, enhanced you will pop up on the screen. Lift Magic allows you to apply up to 14 different treatments to your picture. No calibrations or pixel editing are required. Simply choose the options, press a single button and you will see instant results.

Once complete, the program will scroll between your original photo and your enhanced image to highlight the differences. Lift Magic could help make it easier for you to decide whether you should have an aesthetic procedure – be it surgerical or an injected dermal filler. At the very least, it will provide you with some entertainment, even for the less serious contenders who are just a little curious.

The Lift Magic site is used by over 30,000 people each month. It should not be a surprise to any of us that about 85 per cent of those users are women.

Another bonus for users is that they can add Lift Magic to their Facebook profile page, and use it as an application to airbrush pictures of themselves.

If only surgery was that easy!

Lois W. Stern
Author of SEX, LIES AND COSMETIC SURGERY
www.sexliesandcosmeticsurgery.com

Read Fab40’s great review!
http://fabulously40.com/article/2541/SexLies-and-Cosmetic-Surgery-%E2%80%93-Things-You-ll-Never-Learn-From-Your-Plastic-Surgeon/

An Interview With Jameison Dale

By Lois W. Stern

Those of you who have read my earlier Eye on Beauty columns know that I think cosmetic surgery can be a wonderful gift for a woman to give herself – BUT only if she does it in moderation, for the right reasons with the right surgeon. In her forthcoming book, Chasing Beauty, (www.ChasingBeauty.com), Jameison Dale explores her experiences with cosmetic surgery gone bad, done for the wrong reasons with the wrong doctors. Here is our interview.

LWS: Jameison, you made so many wrong choices while selecting your surgeons. Could you talk about some of the missteps you made?

JD: I was naïve. My surgical decisions were always emotional, made with the gravity that I would give to choosing a new shampoo. I always believed that the ‘best case scenario’ would appear on my altered face. Instead, with almost each of my fifteen cosmetic procedures the opposite happened: a ‘worst case’ effect.
In short, I was immature and by default, impulsive. I wanted—-fifteen different times—-to believe in the magic implied in cosmetic surgical transformation. I am paraphrasing, but F. Scott Fitzgerald has written that repeating the same action but expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I agree.

LWS: What words of advice could you give to others about selecting a plastic surgeon so that perhaps they can benefit from your mistakes?

JD: Research, research, research! After determining that one’s choice of surgeon is board certified in Plastic Surgery (www.abms.org), go to the patients. Spend time on message boards and forums. Read the first-person accounts of the procedure of one’s choice. Weigh the risks against the positives. Expect the worst and go to the consultation prepared to discuss the probability of such. Listen to your gut.
Go for less-invasive options—-syringe or laser procedures—-before anything using a scalpel. If one desires cheek implants, for instance, test-drive the semi-same effect with injectibles such as Radiesse or Restylane. Finally, one should ask herself what she expects the surgery to do for her life; what will she get out of it?; and if the risk of ‘bad surgery’ is worth it.

LWS: Do you think some of those less invasive procedures would have accomplished your beauty goals?

JD: Writing this part inspires my greatest sense of regret. All that I had really ever ‘needed’ was to replace volume in my cheeks and smooth my under-eyes. This could have been accomplished with a few hundred dollars, with no downtime and no marital strain, instead of with a decade’s worth of deceit, major debt and facial disfigurement.

LWS: Is that why you wrote Chasing Beauty? Are you hoping you can save others from some of the anguish you experienced?

JD: My initial impetus for writing Chasing Beauty was indeed to warn women against the sense of simplicity with which the media—- the cosmetic surgical industry mouthpiece—seduces women. From there, my own personal background filled the narrow spaces in-between procedures. I wanted to examine why a girl or woman such as myself would go to such lengths as drastic, repeated cosmetic surgery to alter her appearance. My story hopefully will serve as insight into the vulnerability inherent in low female self worth, leaving one open to self-injury, and sometimes with more than a scalpel.

LWS: In your first chapter, I remember you saying: “I want good looks for their passive quality.” Can you explain what you mean by that?

JD: Possessing beauty doesn’t require any effort; easy life just flows toward it. I wanted to be idolized and sheltered for nothing more than falling the right way out of my mother, like true beauties are, even if I had to fake it by buying it.

LWS: It sounds to me like you had next to zero self-esteem and were trying to use surgery as a means to discover yourself. Can you tell me a little about your childhood? Do you think your life as a child impacted you in your path toward searching for beauty at any cost? If so, how?

JD: My parents were more into self-gratification than in nurturing their children, especially their pre-pubescent daughter. Neglected describes the condition that became the seed of my appearance obsession. While growing up it was assumed that my brothers and I were to find our own ways though life. Though I might have been passive, I was a studious but shy girl who didn’t catch the attention of any teachers who might have plucked me up and pointed me toward a college path. Nobody guided me toward a deeper goal than physical beauty; it never occurred to my parents to parent and to save their daughter from her voluptuous body by suggesting that she had a mind. They took the easy way out and did nothing.

In the meantime, I learned.

I learned that boys liked me. I went with it, and it hurt, because the kind of boys that liked me never knew me…just as my parents didn’t.

I learned that men seem to fall in love with faces and in lust with bodies.
An object of lust since puberty, I wanted love, especially from my aging but still female-ogling father. My abusive, selfish but beautiful mother had never loved me. My two brothers and I left her when I was eleven years old, validating my belief: they knew it, too.

LWS: I gather you had a very beautiful body. Did you find that an asset or an obstacle?

JD: Sexy made for poor self-worth. I had never done anything to acquire my 36D-bra cup or narrow waist and didn’t much understand the attention that I received for them. To me a good female body was generic—-“T and A” exist everywhere. The attention acted like love in the beginning but it felt like hate when it was satiated with its stolen from me petting, and later, sex. It was always bad sex, and not in a good way. It never mattered that I wouldn’t know how to love anyone back.

LWS: You spent a number of years as a stripper. What made you select that line of work? Was it satisfying for you? If so, how?

JD: I both loved and hated stripping. Stripping validated the sense that my body had commodifying power over men. I fantasized that I controlled them with my body, that I stole their dollars on the stage.
Though the primary cause of my low self-esteem from the start, I was used to being an object; finally I could make good money from it. I had found honesty, a place in which I belonged. I was a whore……at least in my mind, though I never had sex with any of those men. I let myself see the men as only money and not as people. Sleeping with them would have blurred the distinction for at least me (though it never did to the boys to whom I had always freely given my body). Plus, I could then finally afford to eat. Living alone with no resources, familial or social support makes a girl learn to love canned beans.

LWS: You had many different surgeries. It almost sounds that you went from bad to worse. Tell us about the worst experiences you had.

JD: The “worst” functions as the climax of my book, when I finally understood that my own neurosis had taken over me—-that I was taken over by cosmetic surgery.
I realized at that point—-and was told in as many words by one elite but sadistic-minded cosmetic surgeon—that I looked like a surgical freak.
After that, I felt worse than ugly. I felt weird, damaged. Disfigured. This belief almost literally killed me, a girl who entered into this surgical beauty chase believing that only female facial perfection would save her. I’d wished to be dead, and would likely have carried it out if not for the good timing involved in circumstances that distracted me away from my final, ultimate slice.

LWS: Eventually, you did find a qualified surgeon. How did you find him? How was he different from the other surgeons you had used?

JD: My last surgery was from a kind, talented and honest surgeon, Dr. Michael Yaremchuk, whom I write about in my book. He in turn wrote my foreword. We both warn readers to use caution lest they end up like I was when I came to his office.
My tardy good sense led me Dr. Yaremchuk. In desperation and as an alternate to suicide, I searched for somebody who could finally perform the sort of surgical ‘hocus-pocus’ for which I had searched into the beginning but didn’t find. Dr. Yaremchuk worked in the best hospital and taught at one of the best schools in the country. A specialty of his was in surgical repair. I saw his televised work on another unfortunate surgical victim who, under his hands, turned into a truly beautiful woman. I cried when I watched it. I knew her pain and now I could believe in a release from Hell.

LWS: What did he do for you and how did his surgery effect you, both physically and emotionally?

JD: Though Dr. Yaremchuk was not able to effect the same result on my face due to too much of me having already been cut away, leaving him with limited material, he undid much of what had surgically been poorly done to me. He let me feel normal again when walking down the street. I will never again look like I once did either before or during the surgeries, but who I am now is just fine.

LWS: Do you think anything good came out of all the heartache? Has your self-esteem improved?

JD: My ability to respect my true self has improved. Having felt handicapped by my worst appearance forced me to find something good about myself onto which to grasp for survival, once I had decided to live.
I’d learned for the first time to appreciate the simplicity of life—-the normalcy of it. Part of my problem was that I had thrived thrived on drama because drama was for special, glamorous people. It took becoming ugly to be still; to look and listen inward and to ask, Who am I?
It’s usual, something that once had scared the bejeezus out of me. To be plain had been to be nobody. I now realize that just To Be, without feeling like a monster, is a gift.
I am still looking and listening, but so far I have enjoyed my getting to know my mind and even my heart.

LWS: Aside from your writing, do you do any other work?

JD: I’m very fortunate to run a thriving in-home wellness business. My professional philosophy is toward improving other’s perspectives of their bodies while talking them down from the drive for physical perfection. I now coach for happiness through health and inner peace, knowing that it’s enough. It’s the only thing in life that endures.

LWS: Jameison, I understand that your husband stood by you throughout all of those surgeries and that you are still together today. What is the glue that has kept your marriage intact?

JD: JD: The glue is simply that, fortunately for me, my husband is a kind and patient (and simple) man. Though my desperation for beauty began as a child, I ironically didn’t begin to satisfy it until I was married. I had found myself a ‘nice guy,’ one who had looked me in the eye as I waited on him at the nightclub at which we’d met. He didn’t look at my breasts when he said please and thank you. He smiled. He had a day job. He seemed safe.
I married him to keep this nice guy on hold until I could trap him with my cosmetic surgical beauty. It has taken ten years for me to realize that he’s still here. He still looks me in the eye. He still smiles, mostly when I do. I am beginning to develop what he sees. I am beginning to develop a self. I garden. I have a day job. I walk my dog and jog. I read. I try to ignore the pretty parts of the media. I now focus on others’ peace and happiness as well as on my own.

LWS: Thank you for sharing from the heart. You’ve traveled such a difficult road, but gained in wisdom because of it. I wish you much future success and most of all, peace.

Lois W. Stern is the author of Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery

Read Fab40’s great review!
http://fabulously40.com/article/2541/SexLies-and-Cosmetic-Surgery-%E2%80%93-Things-You-ll-Never-Learn-From-Your-Plastic-Surgeon/

*Cosmetic Surgery From Both Sides Now
By
Lois W. Stern*

_“Body image, which is intimately linked to appearance, can
make a huge difference in the way we feel about ourselves.”_

As I interviewed women for my book on women and cosmetic surgery, their stories confirmed how deeply body image can be embedded into our psyche and how powerfully it impacts our lives. But when I read the results of the following Mayo Clinic study, this fact became indelibly stamped on my brain. In this study, the researchers tracked two hundred and fifty women who had had facelifts twenty years earlier and discovered that by statistical comparison, the facelift patients had lived ten years longer than the general female population. Does this study claim a cause-effect relationship between facelifts and longevity? Certainly not! But it does suggest that cosmetic surgery patients are often strongly dedicated to health and fitness, which can easily translate to living longer.

That said, the other day I received a beautiful e-mail message from a woman who had undergone multiple surgeries for all the wrong reasons. The results of her surgeries, both physically and psychologically, were nothing short of disaster! Her book, Chasing Beauty, is in pre-publication stages right now, but she agreed to let me interview her for Fabulously 40 in the near future. Unlike my personal experience and the experiences of most of the women I interviewed, this forthcoming interview will be an eye opener into the dark side to cosmetic surgery – cosmetic surgery undertaken for the wrong reasons and/or with the wrong doctors.

People addicted to plastic surgery – those with Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD - suffer with what mental health professional call a “broken mirror” syndrome. They believe they have severe flaws in their appearances, but no plastic surgeon can fix those flaws because they only exist in the mind of the individual. You may have read stories about Jocelyn Wildenstein, sometimes known as the Cat Woman, whose extreme case of BDD has propelled her into undergoing approximately 72 procedures.

She wanted her face to resemble the face of a lion, and and sadly achievwed her goal. Sader still is the fact that she actually found a surgeon willing to comply!

© 2008 by Lois W. Stern
Author of Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery
http//www.sexliesandcosmeticsurgery@optonline.net

Lois loves to hear from her readers and will actually respond.

Filler UP
Part II
By Patty Kovacs

Wrinkles are part of living a full life. They are our character lines, really, just as our mothers taught us. But the world is different now and we’re eager to have a more energetic, youthful appearance and a boost in our confidence as we gaze at our face in the mirror. On close examination, there are two kinds of wrinkles we see: fine surface lines and deeply set furrows, both of which differ in structure and origin and respond to different types of therapy. Fine surface wrinkles result from collagen breakdown due to aging and sun damage. Deeply set furrows are the build up of muscles beneath the skin’s surface over time – a result of repeated facial expressions similar to the way body structure muscle is built through exercise. But gravity gets to play its part so sagging occurs in facial muscles, too. And don’t forget, our facial bones actually shrink as we age, thus helping with sagging muscles as their ‘skeletal facial platform’ is not as strong and firm. Heredity can also be a factor of skin aging, while lifestyle and environment can be even bigger. For example, smokers usually develop lines around their lips caused by repeated puckering while inhaling. Athletes and outdoorsy types face repeated sun exposure. All of these aforementioned factors play a part to break down collagen and elastin and accelerate the rate at which the skin sags and wrinkles develop.

In comes a menu of fillers. Restylane is made of a biodegradable, genetically engineered version of hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring substance present in all living organisms and abundant in young skin. It’s a substance that markedly diminishes in fullness with the aging process, causing skin to cave in and produce wrinkles. Restylane is injected directly beneath the surface of the skin into the treatment area and the hyaluronic-based gel adds natural volume and lift resulting in smoother wrinkles and less prominent folds. A factor which distinguishes Restylane from other dermal fillers is the way in which it permeates the dermal tissue and naturally binds to water molecules. The modified water molecules assist in achieving and maintaining volume posing a natural appearance. Over a period of about six months, Restylane is gradually degraded by the body and dissolves without any residue or trace.

Most patients require only one Restylane injection to obtain optimal results. Occasionally, additional treatments may be required to achieve the patient’s desired outcome. During your consultation visit with the cosmetic surgeon, the number of required treatments should be addressed. And ask for before and after photos, references, etc. Remember there is an art to aesthetic medical procedures. Medical Board Certification is, in my opinion, vital also.

Restylane is safe and effective however, as with any cosmetic procedure or treatment, side effects such as redness, bruising, swelling, tenderness and moderate pain are possible. In instances where side effects are present, they do typically dissipate within a few days. But it’s not recommended to schedule an appointment for injections the day before a very important event. Give yourself a few days for the leveling out of the injectable filler. Patients should avoid using aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, St. John’s Wort, or high doses of Vitamin E supplements prior to treatment. These may increase bruising or bleeding at the injection site. And if you’re prone to cold sores, your doctor needs to know to discuss a possible medication to minimize recurrence. If you’re pregnant or under 18 (can you believe it’s been requested by under 18-ers?), hold off.

The cost of each Restylane treatment is around $275.00 to $445.00 depending on the amount of volume and the amount of area to be covered.

I’ve actually never had Restylane, and had a Botox injection only once, many years ago. I learned then the importance of a very qualified medical expert. Though he was a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, he was not experienced. I may change my mind now that the plethora of fillers is significantly improving. And they’re not going away so I’ll be addressing our filler choice du jour as women and men continue to support this growing trend. Look at some of our ‘political faces in the news’ and you’ll see their support for facial fillers, too.

Remember, true beauty begins on the inside and a beautiful face never goes out of style.

Patty W. Kovacs

*Filler Up
Part I

By Patty Kovacs

Why is Restylane declaring it’s the #1 dermal filler in the world?

Restylane is a dermal filler that replaces lost volume and restores youthful contours to the skin, smoothing away moderate to even severe facial wrinkles and folds such as our parenthesis, you know, those nasolabial folds form the nose to the corners of our mouth.

Hyaluronic acid is its superstar ingredient, making the 1.4 million people in the U.S. who received Restylane a smiling statistic for the dermal filler history books. It contains no animal proteins, thus no animal-based disease transmission risk or allergic reaction.

Lasting about 6 months, it varies from person to person. Good news is it does not require an allergy test and can be administered immediately – no waiting for test results! Talk about impulse buying. And just make a 6-month appointment for a follow-up and you’ll have yourself a good medical assessment of your body’s wrinkle disappearance longevity with Restylane.

Pain? Yeah, a slight ouch. But if you talk with your doc the site can be treated so the sting is reduced. What hurts more – the tiny sting of discomfort or seeing the sad lines that don’t match your youthful inner self?

*