Mon­day, 1/23/2012

As I entered the office on my first day at Ganchi Plas­tic Surgery,I was imme­di­ately greeted by Karen, who is in charge of finan­cial nego­ti­a­tions.  She took me on a tour of the office, show­ing me the patient rooms, wait­ing rooms, oper­at­ing rooms, and intro­duc­ing me to med­ical assis­tants Carly and Michelle.  I also met Leyla, who works with Karen han­dling the finan­cial side of the busi­ness.  Soon after­wards I met Dr. Ganchi ’87, who then pro­ceeded to tell me about the day.  Today was “Patient Day,” which meant I would be sit­ting in on all his meet­ings and con­sul­ta­tions with patients.  I saw a vari­ety of clients: some came back for check-ups after face lifts, while oth­ers were inter­ested in breast aug­men­ta­tion, breast lift, rhino­plasty, lipo­suc­tion, and labi­aplasty.  One of the things I was most curi­ous about in the field of plas­tic surgery was how plas­tic sur­geons are able to please their client but also do what’s best for them. Today, Dr. Ganchi taught me that he only con­ducted oper­a­tions that would allow the patient to see at least an 80% ben­e­fit.  This way he helped the client appre­ci­ate his/her nat­ural beauty, even though that meant he would not oper­ate on the patient.  One of the most impor­tant things I real­ized from my expe­ri­ence today is that great doc­tors have to both be able to help the patient and also effec­tively com­mu­ni­cate with them as well.  I noticed espe­cially that Dr. Ganchi spent a lot of time with the patients thor­oughly explain­ing pro­ce­dures and answer­ing ques­tions, which are activ­i­ties that other doc­tors might del­e­gate to nurses. I believe his clients appre­ci­ate the time he takes speak­ing to them, which is one of the rea­sons they trust Dr. Ganchi to make them look the best they can.  Every­one in the office was friendly and wel­com­ing, and I really enjoyed my expe­ri­ence today.  I not only learned a lot about plas­tic surgery, but also the busi­ness side to med­i­cine. I am extremely excited about “Surgery Day” tomorrow!

Tues­day, 1/24/2012

When I entered the office today, Dr. Ganchi had not arrived yet.  I was extremely eager for today because it was “Surgery Day,” which meant I got to watch Dr. Ganchi oper­ate on his patients.  Karen and Michelle gave me scrubs, a hair­net, and a mask to pre­pare me for the oper­at­ing room.  Today, I saw two broth­ers who had gyneco­mas­tia to have their mam­mary glands removed.  I met Dr. Lee, the anes­the­si­ol­o­gist, who showed me what med­ica­tions he was using to put the patients under.  Dr. Ganchi explained each step of the pro­ce­dure — first, he wiped the body with beta­dine to ster­il­ize the body.  Next, he made a small inci­sion, and then pro­ceeded to con­duct lipo­suc­tion to remove the fat around the mam­mary gland.  Then, with great dex­ter­ity, he removed the mam­mary gland using small tools.  After­wards, he removed the remain­ing fat.  Finally he put in dis­solv­able stitches in the are­ola so the scar would heal smoothly.  This pro­ce­dure was fas­ci­nat­ing. I asked Dr. Ganchi if this was sim­i­lar to breast reduc­tion surg­eries, and he taught me that they were not exactly sim­i­lar since breast surg­eries were usu­ally accom­pa­nied by an addi­tional breast lift pro­ce­dure.  Dr. Lee also showed me that it was impor­tant to not only be able to work with the machines mon­i­tor­ing the patients’ breath­ing and heart rate, but to also look at the patient and be able to pre­dict and respond to the changes before the machines reported it.  Another surgery I was able to observe today was an ear tuck pro­ce­dure.  Dr. Ganchi made a small inci­sion and put in small stitches in order to tighten up the skin below the ear, giv­ing the client a more youth­ful appear­ance.  After the surg­eries, Dr. Ganchi showed me pic­tures of past surg­eries he per­formed. Like the pro­ce­dures he had done ear­lier, he explained how he helped the patient.  Through his expla­na­tions, I gained a sense of what it’s like for a plas­tic sur­geon to work with sur­geons of other spe­cial­ties and the impor­tance of collaboration.

Priscella and Dr. Ganchi

Over­all, I really enjoyed my expe­ri­ence at Ganchi Plas­tic Surgery.  I would highly rec­om­mend this pro­gram– the days were well-organized and infor­ma­tive, and Dr. Ganchi and his staff were extremely will­ing to answer all my ques­tions and show me around the office.  I most appre­ci­ated the inter­ac­tive aspect of this Princetern­ship: I learned a lot about plas­tic surgery and oper­a­tions sim­ply by observ­ing them and ask­ing ques­tions.  I would like to thank the Princetern­ship pro­gram and Dr. Ganchi for giv­ing me this won­der­ful opportunity!