Ep. 68 | Shawn Vandemark, MD, Plastic Surgery

Transcript

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When people hear the term plastic surgery, they often think of cosmetic procedures. But the specialty is much broader than people realize.

Welcome to what brings you in today, a podcast from SGMC Health. I'm Kara Hope Rockwell and I'm Erica Bennett. And today we're joined by Sean Vandemark, MD, a board certified plastic surgeon at SGMC Health. So, Doctor Vandemark what brings you in today? I'm here to talk about the plastic and reconstructive surgery and hopefully shed some light on the procedures that we do here at SGMC.

Perfect. So let's get to know you a little bit. You've been here for a while, but here for 20 years. Yes, yes, 20 years this year. So been here for a long time. All right, well, let's take it back even further than that. Like, what was your schooling? Kind of. What led you into plastic surgery? So I grew up in Ohio on a farm.

I worked on the farm. I worked for a vet's office while in high school, and I did a lot of surgery with them, and that just kind of let me down the possible surgery path. And also, I went to a college fair, and they had a program, started program to get into med school right out of high school.

And that that's like a good idea and it being a very good choice for me. So that's how I ended up in, in medicine. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I actually wanted to be a plastic surgeon at one point in my life. And I remember googling my senior in high school, and I'm like, how do you go about being a plastic surgeon?

And it was like 100 years of schooling afterwards. And then I was like, okay, I'll go something else. Yes. It didn't see you for like actually going through with that because that's a lot. Yes it was. So where did you go to school and how did that. So I went to, med school in Ohio, in northeastern Ohio's College of Medicine.

And then from there I did all my training up in Detroit. So I did my general surgery residency in Detroit at Saint John's, and then went to Wayne State University in Detroit proper and did my plastics fellowship. Okay, so how many total years? So six of undergrad and med school and then seven of trainings about 13 total years after after high school.

And then how did you get here to Valdosta? We were looking just to move out of the Detroit area, and we were looking for jobs, and they were offering a position for plastic or need for plastic surgeon and a psychiatrist. My wife, psychiatrist, and one kind of get away from the cold weather a little bit. And we ended up here and it's been great ever since.

Wow, that. Well, yeah. So you didn't know anybody from about before. You just know. That's amazing. No. We just so people that just, like, relocate to our whole news. Yeah. Everybody asked that I mean it, I grew up on a farm at town similar size to Valdosta. So it wasn't that big of a of an adjustment. You know, people didn't move to the South.

Felt like home. So yeah, it's been great. There are so many different paths you can take in surgery. But what led you to plastic surgery specifically? So I had no desire to do plastic surgery when I came into general surgery until during your surgery, I didn't say you do a lot of rotations, and I got to rotate through with the plastic surgeons that I worked with, and I had some I had some very good mentors in plastic surgery that just showed me the breadth of it, and not just the cosmetic part, but also the, the other, other, reconstructive and other options that you do in plastic surgery.

00:03:07:11 - 00:03:28:04
Unknown
And they were very fun to work with, and they just got me interested in that kind of what led me to apply and get my fellowship. How much time do you spend? In like more of a clinic setting or more, I guess, scheduled surgeries versus like on call type coming in to help with the cases. So, I mean, we we do.

00:03:28:06 - 00:03:44:03
Unknown
Yeah. So my I have one clinic day a week. So where I see patients, new patients and post patients all day, they have a practitioner that helps me out. But and I operate four days a week. So we're we're very busy with scheduled schedule cases. We do come in on call. But what we do, some of the trauma, that kind of stuff.

00:03:44:03 - 00:04:04:07
Unknown
But our schedule, luckily, is not quite as busy as some of the general orthopedic surgery kind of stuff. So when people hear the words plastic surgery. What do you think is the biggest misconception they have about your specialty? Everybody thinks of the cosmetic realm where that that is a big part of plastic surgery, but actually smaller than all the reconstructive stuff.

00:04:04:08 - 00:04:29:05
Unknown
Because we do the reconstruction of soft tissues, we do wound care, we do facial trauma, fractures, hand surgery, breast reconstruction. You know, skin cancers and reconstruction after after, you know, cancer removals, congenital reconstruction, like cleft lip cleft palettes, all the, you know, the kids are born with syndromes, with craniofacial malformations. That's all under the plastic surgery realm.

00:04:29:10 - 00:04:49:22
Unknown
That's pretty cool. So what would you how do you describe the difference between cosmetic surgery and then reconstructive surgery. So I a good way to look at it is like reconstructive surgery is taking something that's broken and fixing it where cosmetic surgery is taking some of that, that's fine. But improving it, that's kind of the best way to easiest way to kind of describe and look at that.

00:04:50:00 - 00:05:14:20
Unknown
What are some of the most common reasons that a patient would be referred to see you. So referrals from other physicians besides coming in for cosmetic stuff, you know, I see a lot of referrals for breast reconstruction, a lot of skin cancer removals and or reconstructing after most procedures from skin cancer, from the dermatologists. I see a lot of wound care, like paraplegic patients and that kind of stuff for the wounds that they develop.

00:05:14:20 - 00:05:35:12
Unknown
And for reconstruction there. We get a lot of referrals for body recon touring. Now after weight loss surgery, I'm seeing a lot more of patients for that to kind of stuff. It's going to move out. Yeah. For after people losing losing the way. So that's been a there's been a big uptick in that since the weight loss medication.

00:05:35:12 - 00:05:56:05
Unknown
So we're seeing a lot of people coming in for, for the multitude of body contouring after after weight loss surgery. Never would have thought about that. Yeah. What do you think? Plastic surgery. Reconstructive surgery. What kind of impact can that have on a patient's life? Well, not only making them feel better about themselves, but getting back to a normal life.

00:05:56:09 - 00:06:15:11
Unknown
You know, like women after breast cancer, you know, giving them them, you know, just a becoming more normal and feeling whole again. You know, some of the more best people after the body losing all that way, they go through all that weight loss and all the all the demands and losing all that weight. And then they have all that skin and it still impedes their lives.

00:06:15:11 - 00:06:37:20
Unknown
So giving them feel better about themselves, but also remove the skin. They can exercise better. They can they can fit their clothing better. They don't have the skin problems. So just, you know, kind of trying to restore their life to a more normal. Yeah. Normal. Normalcy? Yeah. Is there a particular type of procedure or patient journey that you find especially rewarding?

00:06:37:22 - 00:06:57:13
Unknown
I think some of the body contouring stuff, I do it just, you know, they've they've worked hard to to lose all that weight. And now you can help them look a lot better and feel a lot better and have a more, you know, and have all the problems that come along with that. How do you make people feel comfortable, like when they come to you?

00:06:57:13 - 00:07:17:18
Unknown
Because I'm sure, like that's a nerve wracking thing to have to come to someone and talk about. And everybody always thinks they're the worst. They come in. I know they always think to their they're the worst patient you've ever seen in their embarrassing. And you know, I do see a lot of like younger women for like breast reductions that come in that are and so I think just talking to him like a normal person try to make them laugh.

00:07:17:18 - 00:07:32:18
Unknown
Just comfortable. This is I've seen this a million times. You're not the worst. Just try to put them at ease. And me and my staff try to do that just to have a normal conversation. We're, you know, no different from them. It's just. Just to make them feel comfortable and, and, you know, build their trust and that we're going to take care of them.

00:07:32:19 - 00:07:54:05
Unknown
Yeah. Because I wonder how long, like, is typical for a patient to contemplate cosmetic surgery before or plastic surgery, whichever one surgery before they actually take the steps to get the courage up to call and make the appointment and go take a lot of them. Take them take. I think they take a lot a lot of thought process and that kind of stuff.

00:07:54:06 - 00:08:10:04
Unknown
You know, most of them have been thinking about it for quite a while, you know, or being losing the weight or building up to that to when they, they, they, they need that surgery. And then I imagine the common thing afterwards is I wish I would have done this dinner. It could. I hear that a lot from the women especially.

00:08:10:04 - 00:08:27:03
Unknown
I see a lot of breast reduction women that have the chronic neck and back pain. And I hear that from a lot of them saying, I wish I had done this 10 or 15 years ago. They were just scared or nervous to have it done. And most of those patients have good results, but also their back and neck, and they feel a lot better, and they really wish they would have done that a lot sooner.

00:08:27:03 - 00:08:39:17
Unknown
So I hear that a lot from them. Yeah. Are there any trends in plastic surgery that you think people misunderstand, or maybe have unrealistic expectations about?

00:08:39:18 - 00:08:59:05
Unknown
One. Yeah, I think the one unrealistic expectation a lot of people have is they think you're going to come in one surgery and it's going to be done, you know, and whether that's breast reconstruction, whether it's by contouring, whether like a lot of times we can do a lot at once, but there's always going to be fine tuning and it's going to be it's a process.

00:08:59:05 - 00:09:15:01
Unknown
So for a lot of that stuff, you're going to be with me for a while and it could be more than one surgery to get the results that we want, you know? So it's not always just a one step and and you're done kind of thing. Do you ever watch that series box? I was just thinking about yes, I have seen I've seen a few episodes of it.

00:09:15:03 - 00:09:34:00
Unknown
What do you think about that? Most of the stuff is typical complications that you see in plastic surgery. Yeah. I mean, we all see we all see complications. We all have complications. But a lot of is just it's the normal stuff that you would see after after that people have from surgery, which some of those cases were just walk.

00:09:34:01 - 00:09:53:09
Unknown
I mean, they might not have actually gotten botched. They just had crazy things that they wanted to do. And some of them have have had complications, but they're normal. They're nothing outrage, their normal complications or things that you can see happen ten, 15 years down the line as things change and settle that kind of stuff. So, yeah. What's that?

00:09:53:11 - 00:10:20:08
Unknown
Anything that's like advanced particularly, you know, more than in something else that just like kind of stands out procedure wise. I think some of the breast reconstruction, we have better, implants. We also have better tissue that we wrap these expanders in to help create a better pocket and, you know, long term complications and, and just make it more natural.

00:10:20:08 - 00:10:43:08
Unknown
Appearing breast. Yeah, probably definitely going to continue to have advanced in there. I mean, with so many people nowadays, like having to go breast cancer being identified and or even choosing to have surgery if they have the gene, I guess. Yes, you can get. Yeah we do. And some of those are a younger woman having their breast prophylactic removed and then obviously want reconstruction because they're in their 20s or 30s you know.

00:10:43:09 - 00:11:04:10
Unknown
So they're young women. What advice would you give somebody who's considering a cosmetic or reconstructive procedure? I would say due to research on the surgeon, you're going to never be afraid to get a second opinion. I always tell my patients, if they talk about that, I tell them, you're not going to offend me in any way if you want a second opinion.

00:11:04:14 - 00:11:30:23
Unknown
If you don't, I encourage that sometimes, you know? So, and also just try to have realistic expectations, you know, people that come with a photo of somebody else. I work like that, that those are usually unrealistic expectations because everybody's so different on how they look. And try not to compare yourself before after with other people because again, everybody's bodies are so different and unique and your results aren't going to be the same as other people.

00:11:31:03 - 00:11:48:03
Unknown
Yeah, I know your daughter participated in our volunteering program this past summer. She did? Yeah. Did she shadow you in the O.R.? Yeah, I had her, I had her, yeah, she saw me, and I had her, you know, assist a couple of times, so she seemed to. She seemed to. I think she liked it. Did she want to go into surgery?

00:11:48:05 - 00:12:01:19
Unknown
I don't know if she wants to do that. Yeah. I mean, she shouldn't have a good time. She liked it, but I'm not. I'm not sure where she. I think she wants to do better. I'm not sure where she wants to. Still pretty cool to go into it. Yeah, but what how long are your surgeries do they typically take?

00:12:01:20 - 00:12:21:06
Unknown
And most of them 1 to 2 to three hours. Like first single surgery, you know, if like, or breast reduction or tummy tuck. You know, it takes me a couple hours, but, I mean, some of the best reconstructions can take, you know, 4 to 6 hours or more, but most of them are around a couple hours. Now, if you're combining things, sometimes we'll do, you know, the breast surgery and tummy tuck, other things.

00:12:21:06 - 00:12:43:13
Unknown
Then it can be, you know, 4 or 5 or six hours kind of thing. Curious. Looking back on your career, what would you say has been the most rewarding part? I think just being able to help people and have and earn their trust allow me to, you know, improve their lives. Who do you lean on the most? In your field?

00:12:43:13 - 00:13:06:23
Unknown
Like, as for a support system like it, what profession? I guess, like, I mean, I like surgical techs. I'm thinking of like, oh, you today? Definitely the my my nurse and my nurse practitioner, for the office stuff are very key to allow us to because I, I saw the new patients I do the operations manager sees a lot of the post-op.

00:13:06:23 - 00:13:22:01
Unknown
So she's very integral in, in trying to, you know, and taking care of those patients. And my nurse has been with me for 20 years also. And and she's very good. And also the people in the O.R. that helped me out a lot. I have a very good team that my my scrub text and nursing that helped me out.

00:13:22:01 - 00:13:42:04
Unknown
So cool. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's all the questions that we had for you. I feel like I've learned something today. Yeah? Yeah. Good. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you guys. Yeah. No problem. All right. We'll see you next time. You can learn more and subscribe at sgmc.org/podcast.