KATHI: Hi, my name’s Kathi. I came here after having two children wanting to get my stomach, my contour back in my stomach. And after doing a lot of work, exercise and Pilates, I thought I deserved to have my stomach look as best as it could. I came in the Plastic Surgery Center of Austin and the staff made me feel very welcome. And I went back and upon meeting Dr. Mosier he was very confident, made me feel very safe. And thought it would be, an abdominoplasty would be a good idea for me. On the day of surgery I was quite nervous. Dr. Mosier came in to the pre-op room and relaxed me before surgery. And after surgery, post-surgery, he was the first person I saw. And he woke me up and told me how well the surgery went. And he was very pleased.
And when I would call in, in my recovery process I would call into the office and the staff was very nice to me. And if I had a question for Dr. Mosier then he would call me back right away. I’m very pleased with the results. Everyone—it kind of changed my life a little bit. I, I was more confident in myself and it made me feel about ten year younger. And I didn’t always feel like a mother. I kind of felt, you know maybe like a 20 year old again or something. Coming to see Dr. Mosier was a great decision that I had made. And actually going through with the abdoninalplasty really changed my life. And instead of always feeling like a mother I actually, I feel a lot younger and have more confidence.
BILLIE: I was a bariatric patient. And after loosing over 80 pounds, well actually I met Dr. Holzman at one of our support group meetings. And I was so impressed with him taking his time to come talk to a group of people who’ve been through a lot, loosing weight and struggling through it, people just like me who had plodded all their life. Here’s this person standing there so knowledgeable and willing to spend his time and tell us what he can do for us.
He, he just explained everything to us. And I was thankful for that. and I told my husband, you know, 99when I’m to my point where I’m happy with me then I want to get fine-tuned. And I think he’s the man to go to. And he agreed. And I think my husband probably didn’t realize until that point how important that was to people who’ve made so much change in their life. And its doctors like Dr. Holzman who understand that. And thank God for people like him.
When I came to him, actually over a year later, he seemed like he remembered me. And I told my husband I had met you at the support group meeting. And I said what I’m here for today is I want you to give me an honest opinion what I need to do to get rid of all this excess skin and when we can do it. The thing was I only had like three months to get all this done and get back to my workplace by September first healed, ready to work full-time. And I had been working part time for several years, so this was a big thing to me. And he took on the challenge. And I’ve been happy with all of it. And I’m happy with people in here. They come in—you come in and they just know who you are. And they’re happy for you. It’s—I did the right thing. And I will forever be happy for him and his crew. They just are fantastic people.
DEBRA: I actually was recommended to Dr. Holzman by my gynecologist. I had a pretty traumatic experience with an appendectomy gone wrong when I was a kid. And so it left me without a navel. It left me with a lot of scar tissue around that area. And so I just sort of—that was when I was five, six years old—and I just sort of went through life with it. But I finally came in because as I was getting older it was beginning to interfere with my ability to buy clothes. And I couldn’t wear a two piece bathing suit. And it was just a pain. I had also lost quite a bit of weight and I was noticing that it wasn’t improving at all. So I came to see him, initially, for that. And while we were discussing the abdominalplasty that would basically reconstruct my stomach he—my breasts were very large at the time actually. And so he was actually like what do you want to do about your boob? So at first I was a little reluctant to do anything with that because, you know, everybody pays to have breasts. And so I was like why would you want to take mine away.
The experience at the office has actually been really great. The first time I came in to fill out the paperwork, of course, they didn’t know me. But any time I came in after that either prior to the surgery or afterwards, as soon as I would walk inside the door they knew who I was. They knew what time my appointment was. I didn’t have to check in, just sat down. They always called to verify the appointments. And they’ve always been really friendly and they; they were really good about answering all of my questions. ‘Cause I was kind of a pain after my surgery. Just I had a lot of questions. I hadn’t had surgery since I was a kid. And so any little thing that happened that I wasn’t sure of—that and my mother was with me. So anything that happened where she was like call the doctor I called him. And they were, they were great.
I would like to say that I am probably the breast reduction poster child. I come across people all the time who have large breasts and we just get to talking. Like I go get my hair done and my hairstylist is like oh you should talk to her; she had a breast reduction. As far as breast reduction is concerned I would say to anybody, if you have a hard time trying on dresses because no matter how big the size goes it stops at the middle of your back and you can’t get past it because your boobs are so big, or you have to wear three sports bras, like I did when I went for a run, it, it is an incredible experience the first time you go to try on dresses. Or like the first time I got on the treadmill and I ran with just one sports bra it was—I felt like I could run for days. It was such an amazing feeling. And then, I mean I’m not going to lie, trying on clothes is so much fun I end up going to the stores just to try stuff on. Okay, I spend a lot of money. But that’s not the point of going. It’s just it’s nice to feel normal; I guess is the best way of putting it. And not feeling, you know, like I’m going to fall over or my body’s, you know, ill shaped. So I say go for it.
JOHANNA: My name’s Johanna and I first came to Dr. Mosier because he was recommended to me by a girlfriend. And I had breast implants that I wasn’t happy with. And so Dr. Mosier removed them and replaced them. And I’m much happier with the second pair. And since then he has done liposuction for me and Botox and collagen and Restylane, pretty much everything—I’m kind of working through the procedures. And I’ve had a great experience with him and love my results. And everybody that has worked in his office that I have worked with have been great.
Dr. Mosier, his bedside manner is excellent. He’s professional, but at the same time he’s friendly. And he’s very honest. You know I come to him sometimes wanting a procedure and he says, you know, you’re really; you’re not ready for that. You don’t need that yet. Why don’t you wait? And that’s what I like about him most is his honesty and his professionalism combined with treating you like you’re a friend. I’ve recommended Dr. Mosier to several of my friends who have come to him and had procedures done. And they’re all happy with the results, best implants, liposuction, tummy tuck.
He definitely has great attention to detail. And like I said, he’s, he talks to you. He’s reasonable about the expectations, you know. And I think that, you know, I can’t speak for him, but I feel like he goes the direction of not outlandish, natural, pretty, classy. You know he doesn’t want you to walk out looking like a plastic Barbie doll over done or anything like that. With Dr. Mosier and his practice I’m very—I feel welcomed. I feel at ease. His staff have all been with him for a long time. They, they know you. They remember your name. Follow up is excellent for all the procedures I’ve had. You know he’s very thorough with his follow up. And I’ve been really happy.
DR. HOLZMAN: In recent years the popularity of bariatric surgery has increased significantly. Many patients are undergoing lap band procedures or gastric bypasses to loose significant amounts of weight. Fortunately for them, they generally have good results and loose a lot of weight. However, unfortunately, their body is left with significant deformities. They have a lot of excess skin around their abdomen, a lot of extra skin around their arms, their breasts are significantly droopy, and their thighs are also quite unacceptable to them. So as a result plastic surgery has followed in the footsteps. And now our techniques, which were generally a provide piecemeal to other patients, are provided to these patients. They get a total body transformation. It really completes how these patients change themselves to a new body. I’m able to do arm work, such as brephoplasties [phonetic], revision of their breast which include breast lifts, breast augmentations, and abdominalplasty.
The abdominalplasty has changed somewhat. We used to do a standard antierdonoplasty [phonetic]. Now many of the patients are having a circumphrensial and all the way around and having lower body lifts or they have outer thigh lifts and a complete revision of their body. Inner thigh lifts are also part of this armaterium [phonetic]. In general post-bariatrics patients are incredibly satisfied and really love the surgery and really do great. And once they tell all their friends those friends come in and see you and it’s incredibly satisfying for them and for me as their plastic surgeon.
DR. HOLZMAN: In recent years the utilization of plastic surgery by men has really increased. There are two main things that men want to get treated. And that is difficult fat areas around the flanks and enlarged breasts. Men can be very self conscious, won’t remove their shirts at the pool, and it’s because they’ve had abnormal breast development. This is called gynecomastia. Plastic surgery is particularly suited toward treating this problem. We can combine the technique of direct excision of some of the breast tissue combined with a liposuction technique to really contour and sculpt the male chest to return it to a form that’s really more natural. The patients like it, have a good result with it, and really it changes their lives. Men can run around the pool, go to the beach, and they’re not self conscious. And it’s a particularly satisfying procedure for me to provide them.
DR. HOLZMAN: VASAR LipoSelection is one of the techniques that we offer at the Plastic Surgery Center of Austin. While generally most patients do well with the standard two technique, there are some areas of the body which are a little more resistant to liposuction, the flank area, the upper abdomen, and the upper back can be particularly resistant. The advantage is that an ultrasonic wave of energy is used to break up those fibrous areas so you can do more liposuction, remove more fat, get a better contouring and a better result. And the patients appreciate that.
DR. HOLZMAN: Patients frequently ask me about the safety of liposuction. And I can tell you that liposuction is safe in the hands of a conservative surgeon. We do low volume liposuction here at our practice. This consists of doing less than 5,000 grams of aspirate. Although this amounts to about 10 or 11 pounds weight change, in general liposuction is not considered a weight changing operation. We do not do large volume operation. And that’s the procedure where patients have 15 and 20 or more pounds of fat removed. This involves blood loss requiring IV fluid, hospitalization risk. And we are conservative, safe surgeons and we do not do this.
DR. HOLZMAN: Liposuction is probably the most commonly asked for procedure and most commonly performed procedure at our practice. And it’s probably one of the most commonly performed procedures across the United States. Patients are now using this technique to treat stubborn areas of fat deposition that they can not eliminate through other means. I see a number of patients who are in really good shape, height and weight appropriate, exercise at the gym three times a week, but if you’re a guy they say you can’t get rid of the fat around their belly and on the sides. And the women can’t get rid of some of the fat on their upper thighs, on their belly, and on the flanks. And liposuction can help permanently eliminate those areas of fat deposits. The surgery is fairly safe, not that painful, and the recovery is fairly quick. And patients really get great results and they really are glad they did it.
DR. MOSIER: The typical patient who comes in for a tummy tuck or an abdominalplasty is a woman who has had one or two kids and has looseness in her abdominal wall and a little pooch in the lower portion of her belly. Now the way I take care of this is removing skin and fat from the lower portion of your belly, kind of from the belly button down to the public area. After removing the skin I tighten the muscles from the upper portion of your abdomen down to the pubic area. This gives you a flat, musculature. I then pull the skin down and then close things up in a nice, fine line with a scar that goes kind of from hip to hip. I also do a little liposuction out on the sides, which helps to contour that scar. Now the people that have tummy tucks take a little while to recuperate, maybe three weeks of recuperation. But I’m telling you the people that have this procedure, in the long run are very happy.
