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GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com | 55 old baby in the office with me because I was still nursing and I didn't have any patients. My mom and I made muffins and went door-to-door to different offices and said this is what I do if you might need my services. I brought my picture book. I knew from my previous job that the general surgeons with breast cancer need you to be accessible. ey need you to be convenient because they've got to coordinate two doctors' schedules. What challenges did you face as a woman in the male-dominated medical field? My year for general surgery there were nine residents and six were female. It was a fluke. ey literally pulled us aside and said this is off the books. Do not get pregnant. Unfortunately, because how intense general surgery is, only one of those women truly finished. Two of us left a year early because it's such an intense, good ol' boy, abusive program. You were just yelled at and brow beaten on a daily basis. You were on call 24-hours, off call 24-hours. It was constant. It was just physically and mentally abusive. How did you meet your husband, Bill? We met at a dance club the week before I started my residency. I told him I was a doctor in the beginning. Had I not been trying to be the club kid, I wouldn't have met anybody. He was actually an electrician when I met him. Bill is a stay-at-home dad but he also works for you. How do you balance your relationship? My husband is very supportive. He was in the middle of earning his master's degree when we had our first daughter, and he just decided he didn't want anyone else raising the girls. He also helps with marketing at the office. I don't ever have to worry about if I'm going to be home late. He's a great stay- at-home dad. How do you build a strong relationship with your patients? I spend a lot of time talking with them before I even look at them. We start off with, what are you here for? I need to know what bothers you more than anything, and then we'll go from there, which I think is worth the surgery to help you. I spend most of my time learning how to say no because saying yes is easy. Sometimes there are medical conditions that would warrant me to say no to the patient, or their tissue isn't very good. I think what they're asking for is exactly what they should be asking for, then I'll tell them that's completely appropriate. is is what this surgery was designed for. We hear a lot of misconceptions about beauty, especially in society today. How do you set realistic expectations about plastic surgery? I try to tone down those misconceptions of perfect beauty. If you really want the perfect skin, your damage may have been done 20 years ago. Stay healthy, keep your muscles toned — there are so many different ideas of what healthy is. As we get older, if we want to get down to our college weight, we're probably going to be losing too much weight and going to look gaunt in your face. I tend to go for smaller breasts rather than larger breasts. I think lifted and smaller looks better, especially as we age. I'm not anti-implants. If you've got enough tissue to just make them a perky B, and you're okay with a perky B, and it doesn't have to be a C implant. It'll look a lot prettier than an implant, which is just going to weigh you down. I love fat graphing. Take some fat where you don't want it and put it right in the cleavage. How do you define success at the end of the day? A family that doesn't get mad at me for getting home late all the time. My kids who love me and are still happy to be around me most of the time. If your patients are happy, that's all that matters. Even one unhappy patient, you lose sleep, or if your patient is having problems, infections or complications. Until I've seen the patient and they're okay and getting better, I'm on edge. What is one piece of advice you would give new medical students? Find one thing in common with every patient: male or female, it doesn't matter. I swim and dive with some of my patients. I met one when we were halfway through a reconstruction and she finally told me she was a sculptor too. She brought in her artwork for me to see. How do you find balance in your day? I have a really great supporting staff that can block me off for an hour so I can go to my daughters' school events. I try to get my work done as quickly as I can so when I walk in the door, the kids are going to be glued to me. I work out after they go to sleep. I'll get up extra early to come into the office and get some work done. How do you plan to use your new leadership positions to help other women physicians? Mostly I try not to distinguish it as being female. I just want to be a good plastic surgeon, not just a good female plastic surgeon. It's like we fought so hard to be equal. If we keep fighting to be separate, it's a little backwards. I'm pretty much one of the guys in surgery. I try to make sure my colleagues realize it's really important that you are female but don't rub it in their faces. ey can't miss it! I've got pink hair and I occasionally wear high heels and makeup. Girls can have fun. I use being female as kind of a secret weapon because you still have to be one of the guys in this kind of community. D Alissa Shulman interview continued om page 53

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