As a surgeon, I have many a time wondered - but have never seriously dwelt on it - at the myriad of possibilities of a new outlook as a consequence of aesthetic intervention.  But that is for the patient to deal with.  I have done the surgical part of the bargain!  My patient showed me a photo of herself taken some years back.  She did not look bad at all.  She gave justice to the French cut that was so much in vogue in the 80's.  Then she exclaimed, "I just wanted to have some resemblance to how I used to look."  I realized then that she simply wanted to retrieve some of the beauty that had been hers before but had been snatched away by the rigors of aging and reproductive obligations.  It was evident that she was no stranger to beauty; she had known it and had basked in it.  She was comfortable with it and now confronted her new aesthetically enhanced self with a positive attitude.

 

I took another bite of the cake and another sip of coffee.  I glanced at the window and in contrast, I thought of two other patients who had come to see me for follow-up consultation the other day.  They have both attained beauty where before there was seemingly not so evident.   The first patient I have given the code-name Bulgari for she looks like she's just popped out of a glossy fashion magazine!   

I assume that she is what most women would want to be - fashionable, highly-educated and successful.  I operated on her eyes and nose.  Lately though, she has started complaining that now everybody says she's pretty!  The compliments make her uneasy.   "What is my real worth without the operations?”, she asked.  Knowing her to be a level-headed individual and not at all given to histrionics, I was taken aback by her comment.    I could only do my best to reassure her.  My second patient I have dubbed, Movie Star.  He used to be a person that one would not particularly notice; for instance, like the guy who takes your order at the fast food counter or the one giving you a service at the gasoline station.     But after a nose job coupled with a chin enhancement surgery he has metamorphosed into somebody that you could not fail to miss even on a crowded street!   The operation has emphasized his well-defined eyes, enhanced his nasal profile, and given him a sharp jaw angle.  He now looks like a movie star and constantly receives compliments.  I know he has a string of girlfriends.  However, he disclosed that now certain men are after him.  Somehow he felt incredibly confused!  In one clinic follow-up, he blurted out to me, "I would not have to be dealing with this issue if I had not had the surgery!"

 

A good combination of the dessert and coffee is soothing; the taste is subtle, neither abrupt nor drastic.  Unlike certain changes in life that are so acute and precipitous that they bring about stress because one is not necessarily accustomed to dealing with what is instantly new; one is not afforded the time to gracefully adjust to one's new situation.  Now and again one hears tragic stories of Lotto winners who are overwhelmed by their unanticipated wealth.     The sudden death of a beloved could rock  one to the core.    A brusque change in one's routine, an urgent alteration in one's habitual personal balance could be quite unsettling.  Perhaps it is the same with newly achieved beauty!  One may have a hand to prepare for the change; nonetheless, no one can really foresee in detail the circumstances that would beset the new life.    The subjective realities would have to be simply crossed when one reaches the bridge, so to speak.  There is no exact blueprint to guide one through. 

 

Indeed, the knife is beyond skin deep.  The plastic surgeon can fathom its consequences only through a limited perspective.  For the patient the journey is up close and personal; the aftermath can be positive or negative.  New beauty can make or break him or her!