Wow, the first month of the year went past in a blink! How is it February already?
I hope you’re enjoying the summer sun 🌞 (with your sun protection on of course) while it’s at its finest, and making the most of the long weekends with some well deserved down time.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so if you’re looking for something to impress your valentine – or you need to drop some good hints about what you’d like – one of our new TFP vouchers might be just the perfect gift! Our EmFace special of 6 treatments for the price of 4 is still running, so you might even show some self love and buy it for yourself as a Valentine’s gift! If you have questions or want to make an appointment, but don’t want to pick up the phone in the middle of a busy office, remember you can use our live web chat on our website during the day to connect with the team in real time!
Sadly, my summer was derailed a little with the news just before Xmas that a couple of lumps in and around my uterus needed to be removed. You might recall that in October 2021, at the same time as I had news of the breast cancer recurring, I had fibroid surgery – about 2 weeks before the mastectomy and reconstruction. At the time, a lump beside my left ovary was noted as unusual, but with everything else going on, we decided to just monitor it. In the middle of last year it looked like it had grown, but I was not emotionally ready to have more surgery, so after consultation with my gynae, in late November we did an MRI instead of a more invasive biopsy.
At 4pm on Friday 23 December, as I was stepping onto the plane to join my brother and his family for Xmas, the email came through with the results – the lump had grown another 2cm since July and was now 6cm, and they wanted to see me in the new year to discuss surgery. Needless to say there was a bit of anxiety about it over the holiday break!
When I saw my gynae in the new year we agreed to just remove the lumps, as I was struggling emotionally with the thought of losing my womb, despite it being the preferred medical recommendation. Her operating list was full for the next few weeks, so they very kindly managed to squeeze me in with a colleague, as I was booked to fly to Mexico to see my mum in February and cannot fly for 4 weeks after surgery.
When I saw the new surgeon, he pointed out on the scans that not only had the lump beside my left ovary grown, but there was another 5cm lump within the uterus that had changed, and that the surgery to remove the lumps only would be more technically difficult and have a longer recovery than a hysterectomy. So only a few days later, on the 23 January – when I was meant to be co-facilitating our full team training day – I underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy.
My biggest fear, after my tumultuous experience with the hormone blocker Tamoxifen, was losing my ovaries and being thrown into early menopause, so I feel grateful that they left them in place for me! It’s meant to be a 2-3 week recovery, but I managed to get off the painkillers within a week and am now slowly getting up and doing more normal activities – I’m really pleased with how I’m recovering! ❤️🩹
I delayed my flights to accomodate the post surgical downtime, and now fly to Mexico on 23 February for my mama to look after me. From Mexico I will fly to Monaco for AWMC, the largest and most prestigious conference in our industry, which I attend most years.
Before the conference, I’ve been invited to revisit the Juvederm Factory in Switzerland with a group of other Allergan Faculty members. This is always a great opportunity to see some of the new products and research which are coming through the pipeline over the next few years, so I feel very honoured and excited to be invited!
Our next training workshop is coming up, using PRP to improve skin, hair and scarring! Many of you know that Marjorie is a clinical superstar in this modality, and she has spent many years training our team, so we are excited to offer this training to the wider industry. Marjorie has been pouring her heart and soul into updating and developing content for our training academy, and I’m super excited about all the upgrades rolling out this year!
Our new clinic plans have finally come through council, so it’s looking more like April before we will be opening the new premises, but that leaves plenty of time for you to come and visit us in the old Britomart clinic before we close and transition it to closer to Commercial Bay.
As we move into the Chinese New Year of the Dragon 🐉 I wish you joy, abundance, health and a gorgeous result in your next treatment! Thank you for your loyalty and continued supoort!
With much love,
Dr Cat 😻🙏❤️🩹
