Radio Transcript

Mitch:                   105.1 The Buzz, Daria, Mitch and Ted Show. Daria's on vacation for a few days. Ted and I are here along with cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Michael Workman. He was not here last week. It was a scheduling snafu.

Ted:                       It was all Mitch's fault.

Mitch:                   It was all my fault.

Ted:                       Wasn't my fault.

Mitch:                   Your administrative folks there in your offices had it all worked out perfectly. We were going to have Dr. Robinson two weeks in a row, but then I wrote "No, no, no." It's supposed to be every other week. It's like I just threw a wrench in the whole darn thing.

We were talking in your absence, Daria was, about how she's contemplating a mommy makeover, and she was asking the question to listeners that have had mommy makeovers, that maybe she's missed the window of opportunity as far as her age. She thinks that she may be older than she should be for a mommy makeover. I was thinking, from what I've learned from you . . .

Ted:                       She's way old. She's, like, 40.

Mitch:                   She isn't even 40 yet, is she?

Ted:                       No, she's 40.

Mitch:                   She's 40. She's ideal, I would think, age-wise.

Dr. Workman:       She actually is ideal. Most of the mommy makeovers, it depends on when you're done being a mommy, basically, in terms of when we would start doing it. I see a couple women today that are in their 20s, they're done with their family. They've lost their figure in terms of their breasts.

Ted:                       Meaning you're not going to have any more children?

Dr. Workman:       Yeah, you're not going to have any more children.

Ted:                       You're not done with your family.

Mitch:                   You tell your kids, "I'm done."

Ted:                       "Once you've abandoned your children . . .

Mitch:                   I'm just done with you.

Ted:                       . . . visit Dr. Michael Workman."

Dr. Workman:       Anyway, as soon as you're sure that you're finished having children, but keeping the ones you have, then you go ahead and we can do it. I've seen women anywhere from probably early 20s up until 50, 60.

Mitch:                   Oh, wow.

Dr. Workman:       We have women that, "I've been putting my kids through college. Yadda, yadda, yadda. And now it's time for me." When we actually do the mommy makeover that maybe ideally we would have done 15 years later, it works fine.

Mitch:                   The body still responds well even if you're a little bit older?

Dr. Workman:       Absolutely. As long as you're still healthy, it's not a problem.

Ted:                       It would seem to me that being 40 is probably the most common time for something like that.

Mitch:                   I would think it's ideal.

Dr. Workman:       Most of them are probably done between 35 and 50.

Mitch:                   Let me ask you this. When you discuss tummy tucks, you use the analogy that it's like a corset?

Dr. Workman:       Yep.

Mitch:                   That we cinch you up and make it really tight?

Dr. Workman:       The muscles.

Mitch:                   So what happens down the road? I know occasionally folks get pregnant and they're not expecting to get pregnant. What if you've got them all tightened up and then they have a baby. Is there room for the baby? What happens?

Dr. Workman:       There is room for the baby.

Ted:                       And understand, Mitch has zero understanding of female anatomy.

Mitch:                   They have to carry the baby on their back while they're pregnant.

Dr. Workman:       No, it goes into their butt.

Mitch:                   Oh, their butt. A butt baby. All right.

Dr. Workman:       Bertha Butt, you know.

Mitch:                   Yeah, okay.

Dr. Workman:       We don't recommend that you get pregnant after having had the muscles tightened up, but the muscles will expand and you will actually be fine.

Ted:                       It basically undoes the work?

Dr. Workman:       It does undo the work. The key is to try and avoid getting too heavy. Don't gain 60 pounds. Don't gain any more weight than your pediatrician tells you to gain in terms of during pregnancy. That is what ruins the body, and nobody tells women this before they get pregnant. You gain all that weight and there are irreversible changes to your body in a lot of cases.

Mitch:                   Have you ever had an occasion where you'll do a tummy tuck on someone who's already had a tummy tuck? Can you go back in there and tighten it back up?

Dr. Workman:       We occasionally do that. It's rare. I think that oftentimes if a person does get pregnant after they've had a tummy tuck, we find that they don't want to ruin it, so oftentimes they don't get quite as heavy.

Mitch:                   Dr. Workman is a cosmetic surgeon. His main office is in Vancouver. He's the most experienced breast augmentation surgeon in Oregon and southwest Washington. He's done more breast augmentation surgeries than anybody else in this area, over 3,000, plus over 1,000 body contouring procedures such as your tummy tucks and liposuctions. Is it suctions or liposuctions or just liposuction? Basically, anything from the neck on down. His colleague, Dr. Robinson, is the neck on up. Neck on down is Dr. Workman's area of expertise. If you have a question about any of these areas, we'd love to hear from you at 888-733-5105.

Ted:                       And we should mention that we were just talking about a subject with supernatural events and things like that. We're going to get back to those calls. We recorded some and we'll play them when we're done here with the Doc. But right now we are just looking for those calls for the Doc.

Mitch:                   Nothing supernatural for Dr. Workman. Your calls and the Doc's response is coming up. 888-733-5105.

Mitch:                   Jason Mraz, "I Won't Give Up" on The Buzz with Daria, Mitch and Ted and Dr. Michael Workman. If you have a question concerning cosmetic surgery, we'd love to talk to you at 888-733-5105. Hi, Autumn.

Autumn:                I do. I have 34 GG's and I'm currently pregnant. I was wondering if there's anything after I'm done, anything but that anchor scar, to fix them without the anchor scar and maybe get reduction a little bit?

Dr. Workman:       It all depends upon how droopy they are. I think that sometimes we can get by doing a lollipop scar, i.e., the scar around the nipple and then a vertical one. We don't have to do that anchor scar, including the scar down in the fold. The problem is that when you think about it, you really have a lot of extra skin or will have a lot of extra skin, and the only way to get rid of the skin is to cut it out, and that involves scars.

Autumn:                Gotcha. I haven't changed bra sizes since I've been pregnant so I'm naturally just that big. The only way is to cut it out, then?

Dr. Workman:       Most likely.

Autumn:                All right. Thank you so much.

Dr. Workman:       I'm sorry.

Mitch:                   Good luck, Autumn. Thanks so much. Our guest is cosmetic surgeon Dr. Michael Workman. Hi there, who's this?

Kimberly:              This is Kimberly.

Mitch:                   Kimberly, go ahead with your question.

Kimberly:              I was just wondering how you feel about all of the new lipo-whatever, liposuction. They're not actually liposuction but some procedures that they say they can do in-office in one hour. Are those at all effective or is liposuction the only way to go?

Dr. Workman:       It's interesting that you say that. I saw a woman today who had had $8000 of laser liposuction done on her tummy. She said it had helped a small amount but we're going to go in and do a tummy tuck on her. I didn't think she'd had very good results at all. I think you've got to be careful with these other methods, in that number one, often they don't remove very much fat, especially if it's just going to be done over an hour or two. Or number two, the skin normally does not contract significantly. I think much more important than the method that's used is who's doing it. Is it somebody that has a lot of experience in knowing how much fat to remove, or is it someone that just went to a weekend course and bought a new machine.

Kimberly:              Right. Excellent.

Dr. Workman:       It's the carpenter not the hammer, I think I would say, so check out your surgeon well.

Mitch:                   Do your research. Thanks for your call. Hi, Elisha. What's your question for Dr. Workman?

Elisha:                   Hi, I have a question. I was born with a cleft lip and a cleft palate. I'll be 30 next month and I have not finished my procedure because they stopped doing the surgeries when I turned 18. What are the types of surgeries that you would do on a person like me?

Dr. Workman:       It depends on what your defect is. I think oftentimes we can repair the cleft in the lip and we can repair the hole in the palate. There are books written on the different procedures. There are a wide variety of procedures that can be done to correct these and to give you a more normal appearance.

Elisha:                   I was told when I had my first surgery when I was four months old that there was a specialist in town who just happened to oversee my first surgery and that we can't even tell. But I can tell in my palate that it needs repair.

Dr. Workman:       There's a craniofacial clinic, I believe, at the university, at Oregon Health Science University. I would call up there. Oftentimes they'll have a multi-disciplinary clinic where they'll have speech therapists and plastic surgeons and orthodontists look at everything for you. That's probably the best thing to do.

Elisha:                   That's who I went through until I was 18.

Dr. Workman:       You might re-visit them.

Mitch:                   Hi there. What's your question for Dr. Workman?

Kathy:                   I just turned 50 and my eyelids and my neck need some work. I just wanted to get a general idea of what that might run. Can he help me with that?

Dr. Workman:       Sure. It sounds like what you need is a blepharoplasty. Dr. Robinson does a lot of those. It depends, and I don't want to speak for anyone else, but it's probably somewhere between $2000 and $3500. For your neck, you probably need a facelift, believe it or not, to tighten that skin up. I think they are probably $5000 to $7000, I'm guessing, for most physicians.

Mitch:                   Is that something that a cosmetic surgeon that specializes on the face, like Dr. Robinson, would do all at once?

Dr. Workman:       Absolutely. Oftentimes you do the eyes and the face at the same time. It makes a lot of sense.

Mitch:                   Kathy, you can find him at DrLeeRobinson.com.

Kathy:                   Thank you.

Dr. Workman:       You're welcome.

Mitch:                   Thank you so much. Our guest is cosmetic surgeon Dr. Michael Workman. Kim, what's your question?

Kim:                      I am actually a former patient of Dr. Workman's, a quite happy one, and as a mommy makeover myself my question is, if I need to have the breast augmentation that he did updated, is it a good time to have a tummy tuck at the same time?

Dr. Workman:       It's interesting. I just saw someone today that we'd done a breast augmentation on, then she went ahead and got pregnant and her breasts have sagged a bit. So we're going to probably go back and do a lift on her, kind of tighten up the skin, and at the same time, we're going to go ahead and do a tummy tuck because she's finished having her children. So it makes a lot of sense, plus expensive. It just one recovery time to do those at the same time.

Kim:                      It is? I wasn't really sure because the breast augmentation is great. I was 37 at the time and now I'm 45, and it's like, "Okay, it's getting close to the time to have those looked at again," but I'm wanting a tummy tuck, too.

Dr. Workman:       We do that pretty frequently. Just give Kay a call and we'll take a look at you.

Kim:                      Okay. Sounds perfect. I just wanted to say to anybody listening that 35 to 45 is perfect to do something for yourself.

Mitch:                   Hooray. Very good.

Dr. Workman:       All right.

Mitch:                   Thanks so much.

Kim:                      All right. Bye.

Mitch:                   More questions? You want to check out his website or get in touch with Dr. Workman? You can find him online at DrMichaelWorkman.com. I see on your website, you probably know nothing about this, but right now there's a 15% off special if you complete your cosmetic before March 31st, 2012. I know you and Dr. Robinson never know what's on your website.

Dr. Workman:       Someone told me that we have a three for two special. I didn't know what that was about.

Mitch:                   Dr. Workman, we'll see you in a couple weeks.

Dr. Workman:       All right. Thanks much.

Mitch:                   Take care.

More from Dr. Workman on the Daria, Mitch, and Ted radio program