It has been so lovely to welcome our Senior Nurse Marilou back after maternity leave, and have her sweet smiling face (and fabulous skills) back in clinic! Welcome back Marilou, you have been missed! If you get in quickly, you might even be able to get a booking with Marilou before the end of the year 😉
We had a fabulous Xmas celebration on Sunday for our team at the stunning Chuan Spa at The Cordis, followed by a delicious high tea. It was lovely for our well-deserving team to be pampered with spa treatments, and to hang out together in the pool and spa area, then get ready together for the high tea – and a reminder of the importance of refilling your cup with self-care, especially when our team spends so much time and effort looking after other people. I felt so proud looking around the room at our beautiful team and grateful that we have such delightful, engaged and caring people who so obviously love working together.
Adding to the celebration was the recognition of our skin team leader Lauren’s 10th anniversary with TFP on 3rd December. Lauren joined us when we were back in the second Vulcan Lane clinic, and has been instrumental in growing our skin team into the wonderfully trained clinicians that they are, giving such great advice and magnificent treatments to get your skin glowing and healthy. Healthy, glowing skin is the best complement to everything we do with cosmetic injectables, and the skin team are vital in helping us to get the best possible results for you. Ten years is a significant milestone, and we are delighted to celebrate it with Lauren. Thank you for your years of dedication and service!
We had our quarterly team training on 13th November, and I was fortunate to get a treatment this time, with some filler into my midface, mouth corners, chin area and lower lip to reduce the early ‘sag’ that has been creeping in, and make my face a little happier at rest. I’m delighted with the subtle but significant results!
It’s been a busy month for me personally, despite not yet being back seeing patients. My mum flew over from Mexico to have special family time with me and my brother Jamie, and his family, after dad’s passing last month. We were super lucky to get to celebrate mum’s birthday with her while she was here. Unfortunately, I was moving house (after 7 years in the same place), so the majority of mum’s ‘special time’ with me was packing boxes and cleaning! I also popped over to the Gold Coast for my dear friend Leila’s 40th, and to Adelaide for our Business Forum retreat with Entrepreneur’s Organisation, while mum went down to Ashburton to visit my brother and his family. After the business forum, I flew down to Ashburton, and Mum and I had a lovely day at the Methven Thermal Pools (in our matching bikinis 😹), then lunch with her cousin Mike and his wife Sue before a lovely special birthday dinner with Jamie and his family.
It was so lovely to catch up with my girlfriends in the Gold Coast, as we are all scattered around NZ and Australia these days, and most of the girls have family which makes it harder to get away. There were a couple of special surprises for Leila for her 40th – a stretch limo that turned up with our friends Trevor and Shav to take us to the brand new European-style beach club that her party was being held at, and the other was our friend Anna, who turned up from Bali halfway through the night! We had such a blast and it felt just like the old glam times when we used to all go out in Auckland together!
My next surgery is on 13th December – next Tuesday – where my plastic surgeon, Janek, will improve the shape of the reconstructed breast with some fat grafting, and I will finally get a ‘nipple’, through some pretty cool ‘skin origami’. In about 6 months’ time, once the ‘nipple’ has settled into shape, I’ll then get an areola tattoo, and hopefully, my journey with breast cancer will be complete. I’ll be recovering for about 2-4 weeks after this op, and heading down to Ashburton for Xmas with Jamie and his family. I’ll also be popping down to see them this weekend, before the surgery, for my nephew Lachie’s very important 10th birthday 🎉💝
Our training calendar for The Cosmedic Academy for cosmetic injectors is now up on the website, and if you are a cosmetic injector, you can also register for an informative session with the wonderful plastic surgeon, Rita Yang, speaking on ‘How to Respectfully Consult With The Gender Diverse Patient’ on 14th February 2023, 4-5.30 pm.
We’ve recognised gender diversity as an important area of learning for our team, and for our industry as a whole, so our whole team – clinical and non-clinical – will be attending Rita’s session. We’re extending an invitation to other cosmetic injectors to attend – to better understand gender diversity; the options that are currently available to those who wish to transition; what language is most appropriate and when; and to discuss how we (as injectors) might treat someone who is transitioning. We will hold the session at our Takapuna clinic but if interest exceeds its capacity we will move to a larger venue. A fee of $50 is required to attend. Register for this important and highly informative session here.
I know it’s been a pretty crazy year for a lot of people, so I wish you a very relaxing and calm holiday break, a wonderfully Merry Xmas, and every joy and success for 2023!
Love and hugs,
Dr Cat 😻💗
