We are excited and delighted to introduce Tegan, our new skin therapist who has just started at Takapuna this month! Tegan is an experienced facialist with a passion for skin and especially needling. She has just completed her two weeks of onboarding and training with Lauren in ‘The Face Place’ systems. I was fortunate to have a lactic peel with Tegan (my first in many months!) and she has absolutely magic hands! We have been looking for the right person for a while now as we wanted a great fit. Thank you for your patience while we found the perfect person, we’re excited for you to come in and have a treatment with Tegan!
Towards the end of this month, we will have our lovely Marilou back from maternity leave! We can’t wait to see her back in clinic, and we know her regular patients will be super excited to be able to start seeing her again.
We have increased capacity in both skin and injectables, but it’s a busy time of year, so it’s important that you book your appointment now if you want to get in for the party season pre-Xmas! As usual, we will be closing off appointments for dermal fillers on the 17th of December, as a ‘just in case’ safety precaution to try and minimise the possibility of having to deal with any filler complications on Xmas Day or over the holiday break. I’m a bit superstitious that it’s Murphy’s Law – if a significant side effect is likely to happen, it will usually happen on the last day just before we go on holiday! So we are giving plenty of leeway to avoid this happening.
Over the pandemic and while we were in Level 2, we suspended the Green Fee for Sustainable Salons and decided to pay it on behalf of our patients, so we could continue with this important project. Now that all the restrictions have been lifted, you’ll notice that the $3 fee has been reintroduced for each appointment. This helps us to minimise our impact on the environment – using our famous biodegradable black gloves and recycling up to 80% of the waste that would otherwise go to landfill – with the proceeds of recycling going to support KiwiHarvest – helping to feed underprivileged people throughout NZ.
We had a good response in clinic to our Breast Cancer Awareness Month initiatives, with a fabulous ‘wear pink to work’ day and raising $1511 for breast cancer research. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed to this very worthy cause!
My dad passed peacefully on 9 October, with my brother and I both looking after him at home for the last few weeks before he died. He had been given a couple of days to live when I was writing my update for last month, and then held on for almost 2 weeks after stopping treatment before he finally passed! He had a wonderful ‘send off’ in Russell – with the car ferries doing double spins as they carried dad across the water for one final trip into Russell, and a powhiri back into his home where we sat with him and had visitors for the 3 days before his funeral. It was a very special ceremony, with locals lined up along the streets and on the front Veranda of The Duke, opposite where his boat Major Tom was always moored. I loved the beautiful surprise of the little yellow dinghy with the ‘Gone Fishing’ sign that the locals tied to his mooring for us to see on that walk back along the waterfront after the service. He was buried with an incredible view of the sea and Bay of Islands in the Russell Cemetery- a plot that he chose and paid for about 6 years ago! 😹
I spent the months before dad died and the two weeks after dealing with dad and then winding up his estate, on top of going through another cancer scare – which fortunately came back 2 weeks after my ultrasound as ‘not cancer’ 😅. In December I’ll be going for further corrective surgery to the breast reconstruction I had on 15 November last year – it’s incredible to think it’s been almost a year since that surgery! My mum arrives from Mexico on 5 November for 3 weeks to be with me and my brother after dad’s passing, and to celebrate her birthday on 23 November. At this stage, it’s unlikely I’ll be back seeing patients this year. We will revisit this early next year once I’ve recovered from my reconstructive surgery. Our medical team are all highly experienced and have done such a magnificent job looking after my patients for the last year, and I am so grateful to them.
Just after dad’s funeral, I popped quickly down to Wellington for WoW – the World of Wearable Arts – with my friends and colleagues from Entrepreneur’s Organisation (EO). The show was absolutely spectacular and worth going to if you get the chance. The choreography and the costumes were nothing of this world, and it really is a world-class act in New Zealand. I had had to shorten my trip from 4 days to one night just for WoW, so missed most of the planned activities, but managed to catch lunch at Bellamys – the famous restaurant within the parliament buildings – before getting ready for VIP tickets with dinner and show before WoW started. Another little perk (thanks to my friend Clarke) was my accommodation for the night… on learning that my hotel had cancelled my 4 nights and then told me they were full (despite knowing the reason I was cancelling was that my dad had just died) Clarke offered for me to stay at Premier House – which was a very cool and special experience! Clarke had been a pallbearer at dad’s funeral and did the reading of the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling that was part of the service. Before dad died, Clarke had also arranged a personal message from Jacinda to dad, thanking him for his many years of service to the Labour Party. When I played the video to dad, tears came to his eyes, it meant so much to him in his dying days.
Then our monthly EO Forum meeting this month was held at the Warbirds Association out at Ardmore. We got a tour of the incredible old planes, some of which you can pay the pilots to take you for a fly! We didn’t have time this time, but I’m definitely keen to get out there again and have a play. There was an old WW2 ambulance there as well, and I couldn’t resist getting a pic with it in my ‘wear pink to work day’ dress!
The energy that I have had over the last few months has been focused on training. We held another highly successful Profhilo Workshop this month, again with 10/10 rating from every attendee in their feedback. We are currently putting our calendar for training together for next year and will again be providing training in Hyalase, Profhilo, and Vampire Treatments, alongside planned training in treating Bell’s Palsy, and respectfully working with the gender fluid patient. If you are an injector interested in training, check our Training Academy Calender and plan for 2023.
My final training for the year will be an Allergan Fundamentals training of newbie injectors on 14 November. This is in my capacity as a trainer for Allergan, the company that makes BotoxⓇ and Juvederm. We are currently looking for a model for the training for cheeks, lips and chin. If you think you might be a good candidate you can sign up for our Model Register.
It’s hard to believe it’s only 54 days until Christmas, and it’s coming up fast! With Halloween out of the way, it’s officially party season, which means we’ll blink and it will be 2023. I want to say a massive thank you for all your support in such a personally crazy, intense year!
Sending you all love and hugs, stay safe and gorgeous this holiday season!
Dr Cat 😻💗🙏
