My life as Hawaii Plastic Surgeon and as man

Lifguard Va Beach

I have been in practice for many years as Plastic Surgeon in Hawaii, I think,  I lost count. As I become older I realize it has been a very interesting career for me. I am not like many Plastic Surgeons . I have been told I do not have a “Plastic Surgeons Personality” by a peer many years ago. I was taken back , at the time because I was not sure what he meant. I still till this day am unsure what it meant unless he meant high brow or snobby or maybe he meant eloquent with grace and class.

I am more down to earth easy to talk to I think than what the public perceives a plastic surgeon should be. Is this a weakness or a strength?  I think it has to do with ones upbringing and life experience. From high school surfer and life guard to soldier, to good college student to physician to surgeon then plastic surgeon was my path. I forgot to mention I was a bar tender, a short term as policeman and even a paramedic. That a lot of different experiences for one guy over the years and has led to some personality factors. Many plastic surgeons were genetically bred to be plastic surgeons since being an egg in their mothers wound. I on the other hand was not, I made my way through lower middle class with no educational history in my family, in fact I was the only who made it to college not to mention medical school etc.

So does that mean my blue collar roots made me what I am, a dash of various experiences , oh I forgot to mention carpenter when in high school for a few years we had our own after school and summer framing crew. I don’t know although I have tried to analyze that. Maybe that is why I do not have a plastic surgeons personality.

Plastic Surgeon Thinking

What I do have is the energy to pursue what I want till the very end. No silver spoon here only a strong persistence. That is how I completed medical school. We called it “a grind’ because you “grind” and persist your way through mountains of memorization. I have “grind” tendency meaning I usually never give up. This was required when I went through a tough microsurgery fellowship and would be in the operating room for 18 to 34 hours at times (with bathroom breaks and some food). We had a team so we would allow each other short if lucky an hour or two break while the rest of the team operated. Rewarding it was to perform microsurgery yet after a few years I found it tedious and somewhat boring. Cosmetic surgery was more of a challenge for me as it allowed expression artistically and the end result is not easy to define. So in Hawaii I have been a cosmetic plastic surgeon.

Laser Plastic Surgery

Many many years ago I started on the Big Island primarily doing hand surgery because of my microsurgery training. That ended for  reasons and I moved to Honolulu where I developed a large cosmetic surgery practice. Its been that way since. Its been good.  I have met a lot of people and very interesting people. Some I have described in my blog others I do not mention. Some I want to forget.

Where my life will end up I am not sure. Lately I have thought about many things.  I will be in cosmetic surgery practice for a while. Maybe I will be lucky and can retire early and walk the earth like a monk from place to place. It will all depend on what I want in the end, as mentioned  I am a grind. The only issue for me is if I decide that I want something or not. If its obtainable and that is the key to success if I want it of not its formula for failure. I could come to Hawaii from the east coast and it was obtainable and I did it. Yet other things are not so I gave up. I could not on the Big Island have a big cosmetic practice as the market was not there. I could only have a small cosmetic practice and perform some hand surgery so I gave up there.No matter how much I wanted a Big Island large cosmetic practice it was not possible so I moved.

Reality is however what you make it as well. When I first moved to Hawaii,  a neurosurgeon friend told me “you can have anything you want here this is paradise” I did not believe him. Yet I realize that you can have what you want if 1. if its obtainable 2. If you put our the effort and become a grind about it.

Well I wrote too much about me tonight. I promise i will write about others next post but this is my blog.

Doctor808