The night my younger son was born I remember staring at him while I nursed him for the first time, mesmerized and soaking in all the tiny parts of him, all the things I had been imagining. We all do it: register, file and memorize the features of this new human. My baby had the smallest little divet in his nose, so slight that I think I was the only one who ever noticed it and only in certain light. He is eleven now, and it’s nearly impossible to detect.
I loved that divet. I’d stare at it when he nursed or slept in my arms and noticed it in pictures. I love the unique things, big or small, that make other faces interesting.
It seems so silly but thinking about his nose today suddenly helped coalesce all the little thought fragments that had been bouncing around my mind about my dive into ‘aesthetic’ treatment options in my practices. My goal for myself and my patients is not perfection, not plastic, not unrealistic expectations. A gentle, subtle refresh while minimizing risk.
In the beginning I had so many insecurities. Would it hurt my ‘image’ as an integrative physician? Would I be considered vain or greedy? Would my imperfect face deter people from seeking these services from me? Would friends, family, patients worry that I was scrutinizing their appearance? Was it really a slippery slope into startling, strange, frozen faces? The anxiety spiral was intense. And – is this practice vain or ‘unnatural’ or a vile surrender to external standards of youth and beauty?
Would it hurt my image as an integrative physician?... Would my imperfect face deter people from seeking these services from me?
Maybe. Maybe all the above is true to varying degrees. So next – how much do I care, and can I settle into it my own way?
When my medical school advisors told me not to take time off after graduation to be home with my babies because I would be an “undesirable” residency candidate… I decided to do it my own way and I found power and growth.
I am most successful in achieving what is truly best for me, my life, and my journey when I turn down the volume on the external noise and focus on what I feel, want, need, and believe. This approach has, once more, served me well as I’ve finally found the words to explain why I feel so excited about providing aesthetics in my clinic.
I’m doing it because I think it’s ok to want to look your best, to look refreshed, to look happy in your skin.
I’m doing it because my patients are already doing SO MUCH in so many ways to treat their body well and it doesn’t always show up on our face.
I’m doing it because not everyone feels comfortable in a medspa; because many people would like a more compassionate and thoughtful consideration of their unique health and circumstances and reasons for looking into aesthetic procedures.
I’m doing it because being an open minded doctor has served myself and my patients well. I’m a conventionally trained medical doctor AND an integrative medicine doctor. Straddling these two approaches has helped me tremendously in working to find the best approach to a variety of issues/problems/circumstances that have presented in my patients.
I'm doing it because absolutely every choice we make is a balance of cost/risk and benefit/reward. This includes what we eat, what we do, who we allow in our lives, what supplements or medications we take, and on and on. This includes the things we do to make ourselves feel beautiful. Wearing certain clothes, dying our hair, trials of skin products and make up…. And on and on. The factors that affect those balances are different for everyone. I know not everyone will agree with me on this and
Everything that meets my benefit to risk ratio and makes me feel amazing is a go! I choose to live and be happy now, more ready than ever to share pictures!
