During these interesting times of Covid Closures due to Coronavirus, we have some opportunities to grow our hobbies and improve our self care, I’ve asked our team to give some insight into what they have been doing as we wait to open up for Botox, Acupuncture, plastic surgery, and more. Recently I had asked the team to provide a listing of what makes them happy.
Vanessa wrote:
1) My hobbies are reading, bike-riding, hiking, word puzzles, watching television shows and movies that interest me and trying different foods. Future hobbies might include volunteering for places I feel passionate about maybe even embroidery…wow…I sound a lot older than I am.
2) Self-Care includes being vigilant with my skincare routine including masking more often. It also includes bike-riding, jogging and my Ballet Beautiful DVD.If I had more time, I’d love to take ballet classes again or even a jazz class…aging myself yet again.
Elena wrote:
My hobbies include
1.) sewing normally a lot of different things but right now all my time goes to masks.
2.) creating custom items to gift or sell
3.) trying new learn new ways to cook and explore more ingredients and dishes
4.) making delicious coffee to enjoy
Self care activities
1.) making OBAGI routine a priority in the morning and evening
2.) drinking a lot of water
3.) taking Danika and Abby (our dog) on walks
4.) taking Danika on bike rides with her new seat that attaches to my bike
Today, I had decided that I have had enough of this COVID craziness bringing us down, so I asked my Surgical Artistry team to come up with a list of things that make them happy.
Omg, came back to 40 texts, lol! Sorry- I had to go for a drive and get out. Things that I am doing during shut down to keep me sane and that make me happy-
1- Deep, intellectual conversations with my almost 14 year old daughter 2- Waking up at my normal time to keep my internal clock going 3- Decaf Irish Tea with Coconut Creamer in the morning 4- Making my plant based smoothies so I don’t turn into a buffalo during isolation 5- Staying busy and being productive with work so I feel like I’m earning my pay! 6- Gardening and cultivating my Japanese Maples– I have 6 seedlings that are thriving! 7- Baking cakes 8- Playing with my puppies and my kitty 9- meditation 10- singing 11- walks around my beautiful neighborhood 12- movies!!! 13- having time for self reflection and how I can be even better all around 14- video chats with my best friends and with my co-workers 15- Loud music whenever the heck I want! 16-Taking long lunches and eating whatever I want!!!
There’s much more but it’ll be too long, lol.
I miss you all
Shauna’s List:
During this crazy time, these are a few things that I wake up thankful for each day:
1. Spending way more time with my kiddo.
2. Archie, my pug.
3. Running and/or walking everyday with my daughter and pup.
4. Gardening.
5. Reading.
6. Spending more time in the kitchen.
7. Zoom-for allowing me to keep in touch with and able to see the faces of my friends and family. I grew up with my dad in the Navy. We didn’t have this technology when he was away. It could be 6 months before we saw him.
8. Music.
9. Knowing that I have some amazing friends that are out there doing incredible things. Nurses, grocery store employees, firefighters, and a VERY special seamstress who is donating her time and efforts to make masks for “the essentials”.
10. Getting caught up on my “to-do” list.
11. Having “me” time. I usually work 6 days a week, 60+ hours. So this has been crucial and not taken for granted.
1) Pad Tai makes me happy and I learned to make it!!! Lol 2) Lots of date nights with the Hubby 3) exercising 4) swimming 5) chocolate ?? 6) being a mother to two great daughters. 7) being able to come into work although very little 8) my kitties that always make me smile 9) my family, Dr. Wu and Lee and all my friends being safe through Covid -19. 10) Goal to eat healthy and God willing stay well and wishing everyone the same.
Just a few I have many things to add.
Mark’s List:
These are a few of my COVID-19 friendly activities: 1. Spending time with my wife 2. Playing videogames 3. Reading 4. Relaxing walks in the moonlight 5. Watching Netflix 6. Video chatting with friends 7. Suprising friends/coworkers by showing up on the video wearing a mask or costume 8. Taking a bath 9. Drinking a cup of warm tea or coffee 10. Playing music for my wife and cats
Franchesca’s List of things that make her happy:
My family and friends being in good health
Being able to spend so much time with my son and fur babies
Working out, that’s my sanity!
Seeing how complete strangers are coming together to help each other out!
Enjoying a nice cup of coffee in my jammies
Having time to catch up on house chores
My phone, that way I can facetime with family and friends
Last but not least, knowing that we will all get through this !!
What makes Vanessa Happy:
What makes me happy:
1. My friends and family are well! 2. Practicing gratitude…my family has so much to be grateful for! 3. Having time to exercise daily! 4. Being able to help my son with homeschooling until his Summer break! 5. Having more time to get my homework completed! 6. Having time to complete much needed Spring cleaning! 7. Amazon Prime! 8. Streaming services! 9. Technology such as Zoom that allowed me to continue to work with patients and see friends and family. 10. Smart phones and social media to keep us connected and informed and able to have food delivered, play games together etc. 11. Last but certainly not least, seeing the HELPERS. Seeing on the news and/or social media the humanitarians that give their time and money to those in need. I think that one actually makes me the happiest. 12. Watching to see how people and companies get creative and adjust in order to do the best we can during this time. It’s all a great opportunity for learning!
-wake up early to see the sunrise -sunny days -riding my bike -working out with my son -cooking -spending time with family -reading a good book -playing board and card games-listen to music -gardening
Elena’s List:
Things that make me happy
My handsome husband and beautiful Danika
My family is healthy
Coffee
Danika’s innocence. It makes the tough times so much easier. She’s the light in all of this darkness
Danika sleeping through the night
Danika hugs
Having the time to ride my bike and exercise more
Self care
Coffee
Technology that allows us to stay in touch with friends and loved ones while sheltering in place
Seeing all of the GOOD in the people and world coming out in the most trying times.
Helping others
My husband coming home from a long day’s work
Being able to spend so much quality time with Danika right. Is
Did I say coffee?
Learning new ways to save money
FaceTime
Connection
Foooooooodddd
Dr. Tammy Wu wrote:
1. Meditation
2. Running
3. Being able to accomplish my to-do list as planned
4. Having happy patients,
🦰happy and healthy staff
5. Discovering and baking new delicious vegan gluten free treats
6. Living in a peaceful world
7. Being around courteous and respectful people
8. Waking up healthy every morning
I (Dr. Lee wrote)
1. Going on dates with Mr. Bear. 2. Going for a run. 3. Stretching. 4. Making goals 5. Accomplishing goals 6. Getting my blood pressure down. 7. Eating carbs. 8. Eating potato chips (well that’s a carb too). 9. Doing 20,000 steps a day 10. Watching Amazon prime (I don’t have Netflix anymore). 11. Cooking vegan. 12. Doing IG and FB
I thought I’d share what I wrote today. I think today is somewhat of a landmark day as we continue to flatten the curve for this Coronavirus infection. Maybe we’re at that mystical peak? But then again, how many peaks are we going to have? So this may be the peak of the initial phase where we are staying at home.
We are bending the curve as based on initial forecasts that I’ve done with my graphs. Today is our 27th day of social distancing in California. I started counting 3/19/20 as our first day when California’s Governor, Gavin Newsome issued a stay at home mandate. So it’s almost a month! Today California passed the 25,000th case of COVID-19 as captured by testing. Using original projections, I had predicted reaching 25,000 cases on 4/9/20, but we didn’t hit that number till 4/14/20 – 5 days later! So that’s a flatter curve! LA county surpassed th 10,000 mark. Santa Clara county didn’t seem to update their numbers for today. Stanislaus county which is my county where Modesto resides reports 163 cases with 4 deaths, and a total of 2703 tests done. Today registers 17 tests done in the past 24 hours. I would have personally liked to have seen more tests done, but there are just so many constraints – it’s easy to wish for more tests and hard to implement. USA has now broken in to the 600,000’s of cases diagnosed of COVID-19, and New York, my birth state reports over 200,000 cases for the first time today. I wonder when we’re going to get re-opened again, and I do like the public wearing of masks idea even when we re-open and get back to work for those that have been staying at home. Does anyone have any ideas on when we should re-open.
This second picture (above) with the graph shows 4 trendlines for California. Each one is a polynomial distribution of the 2nd order based on data from the 1st week, then data of information added for each successive week. Each week shows a “flatter” curve for my forecasts which I did in a 2003 version of Excel. This was proof to myself that we are flattening the curve for California. You can sort of think of each line as 4 weeks separated from each other, recalculated as new data comes in.
How do we know if we hit a peak?
We would know if we looked at the changes each day – meaning we looked at the new cases discovered each day of COVID-19. Perhaps we hit the peak soon and the numbers start to come down. It would be nice to say that perhaps tomorrow we hit 1500 new cases of Coronavirus infection and then after that the numbers of new cases start to come down and down, until we reopen…
And finally below this text, I rarely post this, but it’s time to do it. This is the death chart. These are family members, friends – not just statistics, so it’s hard to post So below is the total cumulative number of deaths from COVID for USA, California, New York and various other places. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, patients, and colleagues.
Obagi Hydrate is excellent for dry skin by Franchesca
Obagi Hydrate delivers long lasting moisture. It contains innovative Hydromanil which has been clinically proven to improve the moisture content of the skin. Hydromanil, a moisturizer naturally derived from tara seed.
Immediate moisturization reduces water loss and holds water on the surface of the you skin.
What I’d like to say about Obagi Hydrate is that it is the one moisturizer that I can confidently say does not break me out. Personally, I use it when I’m feeling dry or dehydrated due to tretinoin and or any other similar products. I also use it when I want to pause or relieve the peeling that I go when I use tretinoin w/Blender on a regular basis. Although I don’t use it daily, it’s always in my skincare “toolbox” and it’s been so very reliable for at least a decade for me.
While looking up information about Hydrate and Hydrate Luxe I found some information about one of the active ingredients. From the Obagi website it states: “Hydromanil is an ingredient derived from the tara seed and it is known to be an innovative and potent moisturizer, which is why we made it a key ingredient in both our Obagi Hydrate and Obagi Hydrate Luxe moisturizers. This ultra-advanced moisturizing ingredient captures and retains water and assimilates it into the skin in an immediate and natural way to enhance your skin’s appearance and texture.” This led me to look up information about the tara seed and the tara gum that is made from the seed. There was another site stating that “Tara Gum is naturally derived from the seed endosperm of the Tara tree (Caesalpinia Spinosa), which grows in the Peruvian Andes. It is extracted using only a mechanical process without the use of any solvents. Its viscosity in cold water is similar to that of Guar Gum. Tara Gum fully hydrates after heating, resulting in at least 30% increase in viscosity when compared to a cold solution.
Tara Gum is rich in Vitamin C, B, and complex sugars, and it is reputed for its ability to prevent dehydration while protecting skin’s moisture barrier. Tara Gum is often used as a natural thickener in the manufacturing of cosmetics and skin care products. It can also be used in formulations for makeup removers for a gentle and refreshing cleanse that softens the skin.”
I hope this information is helpful and useful for your Obagi blog.
Let’s focus on things that can make us happy. I asked our staff to make a list and here’s some of the things that my Surgical Artistry staff wrote. Surgical Artistry Staff listing of what makes them happy. Maybe you’ll find something on this list that will make you happy during this time!
For information as to when Dr. Tammy Wu and Dr. Calvin Lee open again, please see our websites:
Our office has been on pause since Governor Gavin Newsom strongly recommended that we stay at home starting the evening of 3/19/20 due to growing COVID. Links to his COVID stay home executive order. We immediately shut down that evening and didn’t come to work 3/20/20 which marked are first day of not working. We did see some urgent post op patients that day since they had their elective plastic surgeries the day before, but we had our entire staff stay at home.
We are not sure when we are going to open up again and we decided to team up with Obagi Medical to provide many Obagi products shipped to your door. Since I don’t have my staff working with me, I’m having just a small window of opportunity for patients to email me their request. Basically – it’s actually simple, just send me an email with your telephone number:
Send an email to us (Dr. Calvin Lee and Dr. Tammy Wu) at modesto.obagi@gmail.com 3/20-3/23/20
Include your name and telephone number and perhaps include what you might want from the Obagi list of products.
Get 20% off, and free delivery
Wait for our phone call on Tuesday to answer questions and firm up the details.
Wait for your product to arrive at your doorstep
If you have the Obagi Premier Points app on your phone, take a picture of the packaging slip and send it to obagi (I’ll give you details), and they will give you double points.
11063 Botox procedures that I’ve logged since 2011 (I’ve been injecting since 2008)
So a possible estimate might be over 12,000 procedures. I consider a procedure as a separate injection, I don’t count Botox touch ups (Botox refinements) as a separate procedure.
1462 Botox injections since moving into our new building
We moved to a new building which we built ourselves. It is across the street from the Kaiser Hospital in Modesto on Dale Road. We moved in March 2019. It gives us a lot more space to work. I have three different rooms where I can inject Botox, and I have a separate room to store the Botox safely and efficiently so that all the Botox is centralized. It’s our new Surgical Artistry building.
Allergan Brilliant Distinctions
I use the Allergan Brilliant Distinctions provider portal to create reports. I’ve been injecting since 2008, but my data just goes back to 2011. So I am missing the data before 2011 – so I’m missing about 3 year’s worth of Botox Data. I’ve grown a lot with my Botox injections since I started writing about my Botox Statistics. Here is a page of my old Botox statistics in 2015
Sometimes I’m asked about my favorite lip augmentation technique.
I have about 15 different techniques I like to use for injecting lips with filler such as Juvederm. Thus I have 15 favorites which I like to combine! These include retrograde, anterograde, perpendicular injections (lip tenting), serial puncture, fanning (chicken feet), cannula, vermillion border emphasis, wet dry border emphasis, middle 2/3’s of the lips, parallel lip injections, keyhole preservation, lip tubercle preservation, starting laterally, starting medially, and our 4 hands lip technique. There is also something called the Russian Technique for lips but I’m not quite sure what that is – perhaps it is more of a white roll/vermillion border emphasis technique.
I like to have a vision in my mind for me to achieve and to maintain safety at all times. There are so many variations on what I like to do, but what I keep in mind in choosing which method I use is:
physics of elasticity, viscosity, rheology, vectors.
goals we have (shape, amount, symmetry, proportion)
One could also combine lip filler with Botox, but that’s for another topic. Thanks for reading my Lip technique blog.
About me: I am Dr. Calvin Lee, MD, former trauma surgeon. I have been injecting lips since around 2008. I use Allergan products: Juvederm volbella, and ultra most often for lip plumping. I also sometimes use Restylane for lips and also for tear troughs. I actually think that tear troughs and lips are some of the hardest filler procedures to do. The two procedures are quite opposite in the technique we would choose to do. I am located in Modesto, CA. Our address is 4754 Dale Road, Modesto, CA 95356. We moved in March, 2019. Hope you can visit us and give us a call at 209-551-1888.
