Going to the plastic surgeon for a consult this morning (no, I'm not getting a facelift), I found myself experiencing a doctor's office unlike any I'd ever been in before. First of all, I was surprised that the door was locked when I arrived at 8:15 for my 8:30 appointment. What doctor's office doesn't ask you to be there ahead of time to fill out paperwork?? Since it was about 10 degrees outside, I walked into the office next door, an MRI Imaging place. The receptionist was quite welcoming and alerted me to the fact that the folks in plastic next door wouldn't open until 8:30 on the dot. This office was warm and comfortable and offered coffee. I had to force myself to walk back out into the cold when 8:30 rolled around.
When I walked through the door into the spa... I mean doctor's office, I thought I had walked into a beauty salon. Well, I guess, in a way, I had. Glass showcases elegantly arranged featured different lotions and skin creams and the whole decor was elegant and fit for a queen. Or someone not exactly me. I only had about five minutes to observe my surroundings before I was called in to my appointment, but in that time, I was horrified by the video playing on a huge flat screen t.v., featuring the best way to get rid of the muffin top fat around your waist. It started with a woman wearing shorts and a jogbra in a doctor's office and the doctor (at least he was wearing a doctor's white coat) squeezing her fat between his fingers. This was bad enough, but then it went to a picture of all the little fat cells swarming around inside the fat. Fade to treatment, where she was sitting in a lovely reclining spa chair with a wide belt around her waist and some metal contraption pressing down on the flabby muffin top. At the same time it was lowering the temperature of the area - killing fat cells?? Not sure. The next scene showed how svelte her body was as she jogged off with her boyfriend (or maybe it was the doctor in his jogging shorts?) and on the screen it flashed "Get your swagger back."
Fortunately, I was called in to my appointment to find out the details of having a squamous cell cancer removed from my face. The nurses were all impeccably made up, and the doctor seemed like an ordinary guy, making gobs of bucks off of people like me who actually have something wrong, and others, who have been convinced by the culture that they have something wrong because they don't look a certain way. It was on my way out that I wondered why all of this is called "plastic" surgery. Is it because they are producing people who look like they've come out of a plastic mold? (I couldn't help thinking about Barbie dolls made of plastic.) Is it because back in the beginning of the specialty they were using real plastic as breast implants? Or, more likely, because what they do is so costly, most people have to pay for it using their plastic.
I am grateful for their expertise, but I am genuinely puzzled by their name. Please leave your own understanding of this specialty in the comments!
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