About This Episode
Listen in on the first Episode of Carpools & Cannulas: Modern Motherhood and Plastic Surgery with Dr. Katerina Gallus and Dr. Jennifer Greer. They talk about their collective 6 kids and all things plastic surgery.
Transcript
Dr. Gallus: Hi, everybody. This is Dr. Kat Gallus and I am on live for Instagram and ready to kick off an exciting conversation with my friend who is Dr. Jennifer Greer in Ohio. So, she is gonna be starting in just a minute, and we’re gonna talk about all things plastic surgery, and we’re planning to do this every couple weeks. We’re both moms of three, and as soon as she hops on, I’m gonna introduce her and we can talk about what’s new in plastic surgery.
I think, even this evening, we’re gonna talk a little bit about COVID and how that’s been impacting things, and then the vaccine. I am officially vaccinated. I got my…it’s a little blurry, but I got my second vaccine shot today. And so far, I feel pretty good, so good stuff. Let’s see. And then Dr. Greer should be joining in just a second. I will try to…There she is. We’ll see how her evening’s going and go from there. Go live. She’s three hours ahead. There you are. Hey! So good to see you.
Dr. Greer: Hi, good to see you too. You look all awake and alert and I’m like post-bedtime with the kids frazzled.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah, that’ll be me in three hours. I like fell asleep at nine last night, I was wiped.
Dr. Greer: I think that’s very reasonable. Yeah. How old are yours? Yours look a little bit older than mine, I think, right?
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. So, I have a nine-year-old, a 12-year-old. I don’t know why I have to think about it, and a 14-year-old. What about you?
Dr. Greer: Yeah, mine are almost seven, almost five, and almost two.
Dr. Gallus: Yep. So, same spread, but little bit notch down a little.
Dr. Greer: A little bit earlier on.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. And then, I have all girls. Do you have…
Dr. Greer: I have a boy and two girls.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, okay. All right.
Dr. Greer: The boy, girl, girl.
Dr. Gallus: Boy, girl, girl. Okay. So, is the boy…was it different to have the girls afterwards in terms of like destruction and wreckage or was he pretty chill?
Dr. Greer: Well, so you would think. He actually is very like unaware of where his body is in space and will be talking to me and just standing on my foot. But, our middle daughter is equally destructive in terms of like wreckage and just intense craziness. We were at Chick-fil-A one time, and these two little girls who clearly didn’t have a brother watched her tear around, like, and their eyes were like soft-serve.
Dr. Gallus: That’s funny. Yeah. Mine were more princess stressy, but…
Dr. Greer: Yeah. Mine do that too. And then, they throw on like the Batman Cape and it’s all good.
Dr. Gallus: That’s awesome. So, I was mentioning that we’re gonna start talking every couple weeks about things that are plastic surgery. We were talking earlier this week about what we should name this and we’ve been…
Dr. Greer: I know. We didn’t come up with anything really clever. Let me think. I came up with Plastics and Play Dates, but I don’t know.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. Carpools & cannulas. Somebody just asked a question about having five kids and having extra skin. Yeah. That’s definitely a tummy tuck candidate, which I do a lot of, and I know you do too.
Dr. Greer: I did saw someone today with post two kids. And I’m like, you know, I really need to get this done on myself first.
Dr. Gallus: Right. I know. But, so the big hang-up with having a tummy talk is what? Downtime.
Dr. Greer: It’s always the downtime. Although, I’ve been moving to a lot more drainless and doing nerve blocks. Are you doing that same kind of thing?
Dr. Gallus: I have not been doing that. But, that would be…you think the drainless gets people moving around faster, or?
Dr. Greer: I feel like it does just because those drains are so annoying and it’s hard to shower with them and they tug. Betsy Hall-Findlay and I think Melinda Haws, two other doctors that I know. I started using the STRATAFIX quilting suture, which really closed off the space, and anybody BMI under 30, I’ve been going drainless and they’re like up moving and then I do the tap blocks.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, that’s great.
Dr. Greer: Yeah. Those help tremendously.
Dr. Gallus: So, Ruby Bellamonte is asking if CoolSculpting will not work. It does not tighten skin. It’s equivalent for about a stick of butter each time in terms of melting fat. That’s what I tell my patients.
Dr. Greer: Although I believe they do have FDA approval for mild skin tightening under the chin. But if you’re to the point where you need a neck lift, it’s not gonna do the job.
Dr. Gallus: Right. So, with regards to tummy, you’re probably gonna need to have skin. There’s almost no way to get it around skin excision. So, actually one of the ideas we had for this in my office, they were trying to come up with some ideas was for naming this talk was, “Incision-Decisions.”
Dr. Greer: That’s good.
Dr. Gallus: It is true. There’s always a trade-off for an incision. And so, we talk about that, like, people want a certain outcome, but then are like, are there gonna be incisions? And generally, yes. When you do a tummy tuck, the trade-off is an incision, when you do a breast lift, the trade-off is an incision. It’s our job to make it as pleasing as possible, and you know, the nicest scar possible. But, yeah.
Dr. Greer: And we have a lot of tricks up our sleeves too, because we’re really good at placing them in places. Like, I’ve seen some tummy tuck scars, and I bet you have too that are just too high. And you know, then you’re trying, you can’t wear a two-piece bathing suit.
I did a revision on somebody just a couple months ago who had that issue, had a tummy tuck with someone else. So, we know where to hide them. We know how to manage them post-op, you know, we do the scar gel with silicone and then we’ve got access to lasers if we need to flatten them out and lighten them. So, it can make a huge difference who manages the scar.
Dr. Gallus: Yep. And I practice very similarly, do a scar gel and lasers postop, and it works really well to kind of get your collagen to line up like it’s supposed to on the thing. And then, I know my… Somebody’s asking to give a thumbs up for names you like, but yeah. So we’ll talk about that again in a minute, I guess. I spent way too much time trying to come up with a name for this little get-together.
Dr. Greer: Oh I know. I actually have my friend brainstorming, she’s like coming up with a list of everything she can think of with kids and then everything she can think of with plastic surgeons. Oh, she did come up with Makeover Mamas, which I thought was cool, but it sounded kind of like, it could be “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and we’re doing like lifestyle makeovers.
Dr. Gallus: Right, right. Yeah.
Dr. Greer: Instead Mommy Makeovers. But, yeah.
Dr. Gallus: And to Ruby Bellamonte, yeah, no problem on your answer. It takes on average 18 months of people thinking about plastic surgery before they even like go in for a consultation for major surgery. I feel like people will do Botox on the fly, but I really do a lot of research and consideration before you even kind of get in the door. Aesthetic Erin’s voting for “Incision Decision.”
Dr. Greer: The alliteration is nice.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. Have you gotten your vaccine yet?
Dr. Greer: I have Moderna first stage, and second one is next Wednesday. You had your second one today, right?
Dr. Gallus: Today. And I got Pfizer.
Dr. Greer: How are you feeling?
Dr. Gallus: Fine. I was super tired before I went to get my vaccine. And then I had a Diet Coke and now I’m good. So, maybe that’s the answer. Maybe you should take a Diet Coke with your vaccine and then it’ll be all good. So, yeah. So interestingly, I don’t know that there’s been any issues with the Pfizer vaccine making news, you know, news articles or any headlines rather, but Moderna, did you, I presume…
Dr. Greer: Yes. I saw…
Dr. Gallus: …you knew about that.
Dr. Greer: …that there have been a couple cases of swelling, and of course, I have filler on board, like my face was never without. So, I had lip filler before Moderna and I wondered if I was gonna puff up, but nothing.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. So, it sounds like, I think they had three cases reported, and both as members of our national societies, we got, you know, kind of updates and emails regarding all of that. And they were… Hi, Dr. Smita. They basically said that there were just three cases of people having some prolonged swelling after having the Moderna vaccine, the first dose with filler. And when we all saw that, we were like, “Oh no.” In our world…
Dr. Greer: I’m picturing our next society meeting and we’re all puffed up, but…
Dr. Greer: Right. It’s gonna be some big exposure of who has filler in their face. But I don’t think it has…it hasn’t really like been more of a concern. And I was a little upset because they don’t give you any… They gave us details about somebody had just had lip filler two days prior, and then the other people had had filler six months earlier. But I don’t think… They didn’t say what type of filler, you know, we don’t have the details on that. We’re not the FDA. We’re not privy to that information. So…
Dr. Greer: Everybody resolved pretty quickly with just oral steroids and oral antihistamines. Like, nobody had to have a filler dissolved and nobody had to have steroid injections or anything crazy. So, it was very self-limited, and definitely worth being protected against COVID.
Dr. Gallus: Right. Yes. It’s definitely worth it in the effort not to get COVID. And then in San Diego, they actually pulled a lot of Moderna vaccines because they were concerned about anaphylaxis. But again, I feel like they’re doing a really good job of monitoring everything and making sure that people are safely vaccinated. And so, the women in my office got vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine. And aside from whining, and I’m calling you out, Erin, about this, whining about their arm hurting, which no, I know that was real. They were fine and they’re due to get their second dose shortly too. So…
Dr. Greer: Yeah. We are still, we’re in phase 1A, so hospital workers are still getting it, but nobody’s really had anything worse than some aches and maybe some chills.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. Yeah. I’m hoping I don’t get aches or chills or I get a headache usually anyway, so. And then is your office gonna…they have to wait to get the vaccine or?
Dr. Greer: Yeah. So, doctor’s offices in my area can do it, but the way they phrase it, it was either officers who see COVID patients regularly or primary care. And we’re not really that. I’ve had two staff already have COVID recently, so they’re not too worried. And then another one of my staff is actually a part-time dental hygienist, so she was able to get it. So, almost all the full-time people are protected.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, that’s good. That’s good. Yeah. So, okay, well, I think we covered COVID pretty good. Let’s talk about what you wanna talk about next time.
Dr. Greer: What do think? Because we have very similar practices, I think, right? A lot of aesthetics, a lot of body sculpting, breast implants, breast surgery.
Dr. Gallus: My sister says we’re coordinated in our colors. We did not. Yeah.
Dr. Greer: No, we didn’t plan this.
Dr. Gallus: On Wednesdays, we wear burgundy.
Dr. Greer: Oh seriously? Oh yeah us. Actually, I have, like, I call it a capsule wardrobe, but it’s really called I only buy the same three colors. So, it’s either blue, pink, black, well, I guess white and gray, but those are all neutrals, so.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, that’s smart. Keeps it simple. And then you don’t have to worry about coordinating when you have to get up and get ready to go to work, right?
Dr. Greer: I can actually grab stuff in the dark and it usually matches okay.
Dr. Gallus: That’s pretty good. I still remember back when I was in the Navy, the interns took a picture of somebody who got dressed in the dark in their uniform and then showed up for work in their uniform and had red socks on with their khaki pants, because he pulled red socks. Yeah. That’s considered a uniform violation, but you know, what are you gonna do? You can go downstairs actually and buy uniform socks in the hospital, so.
Dr. Greer: Wow.
Dr. Gallus: Solve that problem. Yeah.
Dr. Greer: That is like a whole different side of life that I’ve not experienced. Thank you for serving. And you’ve been deployed. You’ve been to Afghanistan, right?
Dr. Gallus: Yes, I have. Yep.
Dr. Greer: I’ve seen those pictures of you on Facebook, in your uniform, looking all serious.
Dr. Gallus: Yes. Yeah. Trying to keep up my serious face. I sort of added a little pizzazz to Afghanistan, I guess, when I was there.
Dr. Greer: Afghanistan could use more pizzazz.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. I definitely could. I feel like I was telling somebody the other day, I can’t remember it was a patient because I like to talk if I’m doing a procedure under local, it’s nice to, you know, keep the conversation going, about how bad it smelled. Actually, I think it was my recent ER patient. How bad it smelled in Afghanistan and that, oh, because he was asking me about my deployment and asked me what people sent me or if they sent mail, and I was like, yeah, they sent me all kinds of scented stuff because it smelled so bad there. There’s no… Where I was, was just a little outpost.
So, it’s not actually, like there’s nothing there. There’s no sewer system, there’s no, it’s just like, there’s a pile of rocks and go set up like an encampment. And so, they burn all the trash. And so, it smells nasty when they burn the trash. So, I was like fully stocked with like Bath & Body Works and like anything, Uber Body Shop, anything Uber scented. But, after a while, the other guys, the surgeons in my group that I shared space with were like, “You smell like a cupcake at this point.” And you’re like…
Dr. Greer: Are you not supposed to layer scents there?
Dr. Gallus: It’s weird.
Dr. Gallus: They’re like, “We appreciate that it smells nice, but, like someone’s gonna just kidnap you at some point and think you’re a dessert.” And I was like, I don’t know. I just can’t take the smell of burning plastic and squirrels. So, don’t recommend burning your trash. Yeah. So, similar practices, I feel like we could have a couple different discussions and we can see what people, like, wanna hear about. But we could talk about breast implants, maybe different types of implants, kind of…
Dr. Greer: Those are always good. And I actually had a patient ask me today, like, you know, “Could I get sick from having this?” I’m like, breast implant illness is a good talk. Let’s discuss that. So, that’s always a good topic to cover. I know there’s a lot of interest in safety, especially breast implants.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. So, let’s plan on maybe talking, hashing that out in our next Wednesday chat, whatever we’re gonna call that. I think…
Dr. Greer: Yeah. You guys submit names. Like I’m gonna post this on my Instagram. I’m gonna ask for submissions. We’ll probably get something really great.
Dr. Gallus: Okay. Yeah. We’ll put it out to the public. I think that’s pretty good. Where are your kids at in terms of, are they all in bed right now or?
Dr. Greer: Okay, so closer. They’re all in my room. In my bed right now.
Dr. Gallus: So, we have even that similar.
Dr. Greer: Oh yeah. My husband is over yonder watching “Cobra Kai” and kind of half-listening to this. But the kids have all decided to sleep in our room. The baby’s crib is still in our room, and then there’s the five-year-old we’re like, “Hmm. Yeah, we’re gonna sleep in there too”. So, he and I trade off nights and he’ll sleep in the luxurious setting of our daughter’s bedroom tonight and I’ll sleep piled in the kids, and then tomorrow we’ll switch. It’ll be great.
Dr. Gallus: So, even the seven-year-old sleeps with you?
Dr. Greer: Yeah. He never was a snuggler. And like really, since the pandemic hit, I think with this, the schedule changed the last few months. He doesn’t even go to bed in his room anymore. Like they both just go to bed wherever.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. There’s no pretense. Yeah.
Dr. Greer: I looked at that 12-foot wide family bed, and I thought, that would fit. That would fit in our room.
Dr. Gallus: I don’t think my husband would go for that, but we have a California King, which my sister says is unnecessary, King is good enough. But you can see right behind me, I’m in my master bedroom. That couch actually pulls out to a Queen Sleeper. And so, my nine-year old still sleeps with me most of the time. Everybody has their own room, but and for the longest time, the oldest one slept in the couch and then sometimes they would do sleepovers in our room and it just, yeah. And the dog, I feel like really entered, the dog sometimes comes into, so.
Dr. Greer: My dog’s like, literally we have the same life. He’s right here. I had this great idea to have my contractor who did our renovation. We have like downward ceilings. So, there’s a new wall and a storage area behind the wall. And I’m like, you know, we could put a trundle bed on wheels and it could pull right out of the wall. I can just shove it back in during the day, it’d be amazing. Kids could [crosstalk 00:17:08].
Dr. Gallus: Yep. I know. We have so many other rooms in our house, but yeah. Everyone gravitates to where you are, which I guess is nice, right?
Dr. Greer: At some point, I assume they’ll all scatter and then I’ll miss them terribly, so I’m happy with the pile for now.
Dr. Gallus: All right. Well, that’s awesome. Well, so they’re all…do they go to sleep by themselves? Because I also have a little bit of a challenge there.
Dr. Greer: Yeah. We have some fights some nights. We do like bedtime routine and one of us will put the baby down because she’s still drinking a bottle, and then the big kids we read and then they mostly will go lay in our bed and we have found like audiobooks are really, really helpful.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, I’ve a friend who did that.
Dr. Greer: Yeah. One of ’em will come down and be like, I had a bad dream. Well, you weren’t asleep yet. Well, I can’t sleep. So then they sit up with us for a while.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. I had a bad dream. You actually never went to sleep.
Dr. Greer: Yeah.
Dr. Gallus: That doesn”t count. Yeah. I was telling my sister I’ve been somehow managed to…now instead of reading with my nine-year-old, I have to do a story, where I am the voice for one of her stuffed animals. And so, it’s much more challenging then.
Dr. Greer: That’s a high level of creativity to generate at that time of day.
Dr. Gallus: Oh, gosh. And she’ll be like one more squeaker story and I’m like, ugh, I gotta do the voice, I gotta come up with a plot line.
Dr. Greer: That’s usually when I’m tired like that, I’m like, “Do you guys wanna watch how to make a cake on videos Facebook lesson?” I’m like, “You wanna learn how to make ice cream cake?” Let’s do that.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah. Can we? Yeah, no. I’ve tried to pass that off. She’s like, no, no, no. I mean, this poor stuffed animal had all kinds of adventures, because I get desperate. Had box jumped fails. It’s just like reaching. So, yeah. So, nighttime is always a challenge, and so, I really appreciate you doing your east coast time.
Dr. Greer: Hey, I told you I’d stay up at least till 9:00 p.m. That’s all I promised.
Dr. Gallus: And you’re keeping to it. So, all right. Cool. Well, I think we will set up a time.
Dr. Greer: Yeah, in a couple of…
Dr. Gallus: Oh, Erin’s trying to become an adopted kid from my mom, who stopped by my office yesterday and then harassed Erin because she wasn’t dressed like me and Malia so, and not nicely. She was like, “And what’s Erin’s problem?” Exactly like that.
Dr. Greer: Ouch.
Dr. Gallus: I was like, no, she’s treating you like me. I’m so sorry.
Dr. Greer: Is that a sign? That’s a sign of love, right?
Dr. Gallus: It is. In my mom’s case, it totally is. Who’s not on Instagram, so, this will never hopefully get back to her. But, yeah. So, I think tomorrow we will talk about, I mean tomorrow. Oh my goodness. Two weeks from now, let’s talk about breast implant illness and breast implants.
Dr. Greer: Awesome. We will do it. And maybe, we could switch off probably who starts the live stream. So our followers see it.
Dr. Gallus: I will join you. I think that will be perfect.
Dr. Greer: Awesome. And I’ll still record the screen. Cool. So good to see you, Kat.
Dr. Gallus: Yeah, it’s good to see you. Have a good evening. Bye, everybody.
Dr. Greer: Talk to you soon.
About Dr. Katerina Gallus
As the Director of Restore SD Plastic Surgery, board certified female plastic surgeon Dr. Katerina Gallus has over 15 years of experience helping San Diego women enjoy head to toe rejuvenation with face, breast and body procedures. After a successful career as a Navy plastic surgeon, Dr. Gallus founded Restore SD Plastic Surgery with the intention of creating a welcoming space for anyone seeking cosmetic enhancement.
Restore SD Plastic Surgery offers popular facial rejuvenation procedures like facelift & neck lift, facial fat grafting, and eyelid lift; breast augmentation with implants, breast lifts or breast reduction; body contouring procedures such as tummy tuck, liposuction, mommy makeover, and Brazilian butt lift (BBL), as well as aesthetician services, BOTOX, injectable fillers, and laser treatments.
