Nip This Tuck That

I had the privilege of doing a Tummy Tuck on a lovely woman this morning.  You know the story, she’s had a couple of kids and the pregnacies stretched her abdominal muscles like crazy.  Years later and she’s sick and tired of the pouch over her stomach and the loose skin.  Not a problem.  An incision is made down near the pubic area that goes from one hip to the other in the shape of a happy face.  The tissue is elevated all the way up to the ribcage.  The loose muscles are tightened (by the way the muscles look like a baloon that has been blown up too many times and stays stretched and thinned out even when deflated) and the extra skin (sometimes as much as 10-12 inches..or more) is removed and the whole thing is sewn closed.  No, the belly button is not cut but remnains intact as we cut around it…stretch the skin over it and then make a new whole in the skin for it to reappear.  It a fairly large surgery as plastic & cosmetic procedures go with an unbelievable amount of stitches….has to be hundreds.  Almost all of which are dissolvable.  She’ll feel sore for a couple of days and will have to take it easy for several weeks but her stomach will be flat enough to bounch quarters off of it when it’s all done and healed.  Nothing else was going to give her that flat of an abdomen! 

Spoke with a production company, here in town, that wants to do a reality show on my entire family….from Ashton recording her original songs and singing the National Anthem at the Staples center… since the age of 14 (over the last 3 years)…to Evan who’s on “Unfabulous” and looking forward to going to the “Kids Choice Awards” this year with the Cast of the show…to Robyn who manages the kids career and runs the office for me….still finds time to give Restylane, Botox and Collagen to many patients in my practice.  I don’t think people would believe that we have so many projects going at the same time. 

On top of everything else, I was contacted by a business consortium asking me to set up and oversee a plastic & cosmetic surgery clinic in the Middle East…I replied “I’m flattered but just don’t have the time.”  I mean really, how much can one person do.  I have my upcoming book, my TV appearances, possibly my own show, my skin care company Francis R Beverly Hills(R) and a full time practice as well as teaching the USC resident surgeons.  That should be enough for any 2 people!

Dr. Francis R Palmer, III