Quarantennis
Much like surgery, tennis is an individual sport. A basic skill set, some rules, many unknowns, and strategy that at times hinges on tactical split-second decisions and executions. I partially paused both of these passions from March to May 2020. While necessity is the mother of invention, this wasn’t purely an invention of mine (it was inspired by back-ordered, overpriced, online devices.) For certain circumstances in reconstructive surgery, necessity requires us to do what we can with spare parts. Social…
NYBRA Zoom Series – Patient to Patient Caring Team
Last week I saw one of my patients in the office for follow-up. She had recovered well from her first stage of her breast reconstruction. I was planning her next stage and we spoke about her recovery experience. She was overflowing with gratitude for the help and support she received from one of my other patients. The two met through the Patient to Patient Caring Team. This is a program offered by Mollie Sugarman, who runs the Patient Empowerment Program…
The Long Term Benefits of Guided Imagery
One of the most difficult parts of a breast cancer diagnosis is the loss of control that comes with it. You’re plunged into a world full of unfamiliar terms and procedures, a world that demands action and choices. The reconstruction process can be extremely demanding both physically and emotionally. That’s why it’s so essential to ensure that you have the tools you need to work through it. Our practice encourages patients and their significant others to attend a pre-operative guided…
Guidelines for Breast Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic descended upon us with unprecedented speed. With it came rapid changes in information that affected how we handled cases hour-to-hour as we worked with the greater medical community to determine and develop new best practices. Individual medical societies began to release recommendations for breast surgery during the pandemic as early as March. This quickly altered treatment for some recently diagnosed breast cancer patients. Some patients previously scheduled for mastectomies were treated with lumpectomies, and surgical treatments were…
A Glimmer of Hope
After my recovery from COVID-19 this past March, I began volunteering at Huntington Hospital on their physician liaison service. With most hospitals on Long Island overwhelmed, hospital guidelines have not been allowing families to visit their loved ones. And critical care staff, focused on caring for the sick, don’t always have the time or the resources to communicate with worried families. This is where the physician liaison service was able to help. Each of us would round with the intensive…
NYBRA and Project Reconstructed at NY Fashion Week
This year, NYBRA and Project Reconstructed took the runway at New York Fashion Week. My patient, who underwent bilateral DIEP flaps with nerve restoration, and Dr. Ron Israeli’s patient, who had direct-to-implant reconstruction participated as models along with thirty women from across the country. This was a unique fashion show at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan. AnaOno, a post-mastectomy lingerie company partnered with #Cancerland in an event to raise funds for METAvivor. The fourth annual event of its kind…
Updates in Direct-to-Implant Reconstruction (CBS News)
It was a decade ago this month that I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Dr. Max Gomez for a CBS News segment on advances in breast reconstruction. Since then we have had multiple additional advances, including prepectoral implant and AlloDerm breast reconstruction. At that time, the direct-to-implant approach with the use of AlloDerm was a novel technique that revolutionized breast reconstruction. Today, using a dermal matrix in breast reconstruction has become routine. One of my patients who was…
Happy Thanksgiving from Tel Aviv
This week felt very much like a homecoming. It began with me operating with the first person that took the time to teach me how to stitch a patient. Jacob Frand, MD (with me in photo) was a young resident when I was a medical student. Now he is the Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Edith Wolfson Hospital on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Jacob and I reconnected some twenty years later at the Israel Society of Plastic…
Resensation and Axogen Host Educational Symposium
This weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a symposium hosted by Axogen and Resensation. I shared my experience with sensory restoration of the reconstructed breast with other national thought leaders. We engaged in roundtable discussions, shared insights on how to improve surgical procedures, assess outcomes, and improve upon them. We also exchanged tips and tricks on the technical aspects of nerve reconstruction in the setting on breast surgery. By performing guided cadaver dissections, I was able to teach…
A Celebration of Visual Art – Thoughts on Art and Medicine
My painting titled "Training the Next Generation" (seen in the photo) was just on exhibit at the 5th annual Zucker School of Medicine "Celebration of Visual Art." This year I was asked to speak at the art exhibit reception. I chose to share my thoughts on art and medicine: For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed expressing myself though visual arts. As a child, I could sit for hours, drawing. And when it wasn’t drawing, it was…