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.
2001: Interviewed in Modesto and accepted job with the McHenry Medical Group as trauma and general surgeon
2003: Started my surgery career in Modesto. I actually had my first job Modesto as a surgeon was with the Sutter-Gould Medical Group affiliated with Memorial Hospital. I worked there for a few weeks to help fill in for a surgeon who had to leave suddenly for his military duties.
2003: Started with the McHenry Medical Group as trauma and general surgeon
2006: Started Surgical Artistry with Dr. Tammy Wu, Plastic Surgeon. Went to obtain more education in Acupuncture. Plastic Surgery was our big focus for Surgical Artistry.
2006: Started practicing acupuncture and started doing Botox. I had a slow start. It seemed to be about 1-3 patients per week even for Botox and acupuncture. I continued doing General Surgery till about the year 2010. But starting in 2006, I started assisting in the world of pain pumps and stimulator spine implants which I still do today.
2014: Reached platinum plus level for Botox and Filler injections.
2015: Selected as one of the first surgeon injectors of Kybella – a injectable product to help dissolve the double chin.
2016: Reached Diamond level for Botox and Filler injections. At the time, this seemed to be the highest level there was for Botox purchased from Allergan in the USA.
2017: I was honored by being awarded the Top 25 most loved injectors in the USA by RealSelf.com. I got a featured advertisement in Glamour magazine.
2017: Reached the Top 500 level for Botox injections / Filler implantations. This was a level that I didn’t know existed till I got the award. It comes with certain benefits like a priority customer service telephone number.
2018: Started doing thread-lifting which I also call Suture-Lifting.
2018: Maintained Top 500 level for Botox injections (and other Allergan products). At this point, I realize that I started by seeing about 4 Botox patients per month in 2006 and now I have the privilege of seeing over 200 Botox patients per month.
I still have much more to improve regarding my skills, communication, and results. Thank you everyone for trusting me with your injections.
Acupuncture, Botox, Juvederm, vein annual growth for Calvin Lee, MD
I am very thankful and proud. In 2006, I reinvented myself from General/Trauma surgeon to Acupuncture/Cosmetic Surgeon. In the operating room, I have been assisting in Tummy Tucks, Face-Lifts & breast surgeries done by my wife, THE Plastic Surgeon for the past 10 yrs. This graph shows the growth of what I do OUTSIDE the operating room, in our SURGICAL ARTISTRY office: Acupuncture & Cosmetic Injections. I use hundreds of needles per day. I started my practice with only 58 office visits in 2006. Last year I exploded to 3371 visits with one of the highest retention rates of patients in the country according to Allergan. I am so grateful to my patients for trusting me. I am also so grateful to my supportive parents, Dr. Tammy Wu, her parents/brothers and to those who have directly helped me grow this new world for me:
We had a good time dressing up in scrubs and playing the violin at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, California 6/6/15.
I had an opportunity on Saturday to spend some time with two amazing brothers who have passion for violin and aspire to become surgeons. I heard about them through social media, and I wanted a chance to meet them. Doctors Medical Center and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce helped to set this up. We were able to give them a brief tour of the operating room areas, and we had a private concert in a large operating room which is used for storage and backup in case of disaster trauma. We played some violin for each other. I was especially intrigued that they wanted to become surgeons. I wanted to give them a friendly taste of surgery life. I especially enjoyed giving them a chance to try out our surgical outfits, and I think they enjoyed spending time in an operating room – in a non-threatening way. And I wanted to impart that performing surgery is much like performing musical instruments. Jorge and Sebastian have a great deal of potential. I am honored to be able to spend a few moments with them.
I also got to meet a very talented Modesto Bee writer. She says she normally writes crime stories, but in this case I think she’s wearing a different hat:
Getting interviewed by Modesto Bee’s Erin Tracy.
Below is the article from the Modesto Bee (text copied and texted), please visit the link below for the actual website which has a video and many other pictures. The pictures and videos in this blog are my own. But the article belongs to Erin Tracy and the Modesto Bee.
First, some of what I played that day on the violin:
Modesto Bee Article by Erin Tracy:
Operating room becomes concert hall for two Modesto boys
The operating table became a music stand, surgery lights transformed into stage lights, and forceps and scalpels were replaced with violins and bows for a special concert at Doctors Medical Center on Saturday.
Two Modesto boys – Jorge Mendoza, 12, and Sebastian Mendoza, 8 – had a booming business at the hospital last month during Lemonade Day, a nationwide program designed to educate children about business.
When violin-playing surgeon Dr. Calvin Lee learned the boys intended to use the lemonade stand’s profits for summer music camp and to save for a violin, he was intrigued.
When he was told Jorge also was interested in becoming a surgeon, he decided he had to meet the boys.
“I think playing the violin helps you become a better surgeon,” Lee said. “Because of the dexterity skills and the ability to break complex tasks down to a simple thing.”
He wasn’t able to make it to Lemonade Day, but with the help of hospital staff the doctor arranged for something even better: a concert in one of the operating rooms.
Jorge was dressed for the occasion in a sharp pinstriped suit, and Sebastian looked handsome in a blue plaid shirt.
Before entering the O.R., though, they covered up with green scrubs to match Dr. Lee. He taught them to tuck in the drawstring on the pants.
“Only the TV doctors let them hang out,” he said.
After a brief tour, the concert began in operating room 12.
Jorge and Sebastian first played a duet by Mozart, followed by a Beethoven solo by Jorge and Sebastian’s rendering of “Dragon Hunter” by Richard Meyer.
Then, Lee wowed the boys with Bach.
“As a trauma/general surgeon, Bach meant a lot to me,” he said. “When I hear the music of Bach, sometimes I feel like there’s somebody looking over me, guiding my hands.”
Lee worked as a surgeon at Doctors Medical Center from 2003 to 2006 but since has opened a plastic surgery practice, Surgical Artistry in Modesto, with his wife, Dr. Tammy Wu.
Wu was in the audience Saturday, along with the boys’ parents, Jorge Mendoza Sr. and Erika Mendoza, Modesto Councilwoman Jenny Kenoyer, Modesto Chamber of Commerce president Cecil Russell and hospital spokeswoman Tiffani Burns.
Jorge said he was initially a bit nervous about playing for Lee, “because I could tell he was going to be better than me and I’m so used to being really good since I only play at school.”
On Lemonade Day, he and Sebastian made a gross profit of $933.
After paying back the loan from their mother for overhead costs, the boys donated $125 to the Make a Wish Foundation. Sebastian bought a remote-controlled car, and Jorge used $190 to pay the balance owed for music camp after receiving a partial scholarship.
The remainder was put into savings accounts; Jorge is saving up to buy a violin, and Sebastian will use his to attend music camp with his brother in a few years when he’s old enough.
Same as what I wrote in my last blog. I believe that my Botox Artistry and Filler Artistry is enhanced by looking at nature. Studying the patterns, the colors, the geometry, and even the natural aging process of young plants to old plants. Here are pictures which I took on the last weekend in May 2015 around my home in Modesto, California.
Sunflowers and Bees
The sun plays a role in how we see our subjects. The shadows create an appearance of deeper depth. In my Modesto Dermal Filler practice, we use fillers to lesson some of the shadows and thus create an appearance of a smoother surface.
In this picture, the lighting comes from the back. The subject looks completely different. This is why I have an operating room light in my procedure room where I do most of my Botox and Filler work. The operating room light can be adjusted to come from above, from below, from behind and from the sides. I also like to be in the same room most of the time when I inject – this way I can get a feel of the fixed lighting and have control over a movable light.
A blurry background helps us take out distractions from our best features. This is what I like to achieve with Botox in my Modesto practice. I like to use Botox to help blur out the wrinkles which detract from beautiful features on or face – especially eyelashes and the eyes themselves. Botox works especially great around the sides of the eyes and between the eyes. So this picture to me is very much like performing a Botox treatment around the eyes. With fewer “distractions” the eyes really shine!
Beauty attracts company. Three bees on this beautiful sunflower.
And this is where I took the above photos. At first glance – it doesn’t seem beautiful. But it’s my job with Botox and Fillers to bring out the beauty that is already there. And that’s what I tried to do with the camera.
The next few pictures depict my study of young leaves of a sago palm
This picture shows the “older” but magnificent leaves of our Sago Palm
Beauty up-close is different from beauty from beyond
I have to look at a patient closely for one form of artistry but I have to keep in mind what a patients face looks like from a distance. This concept that I have to keep in my mind while injecting Botox and Fillers is represented by these two pictures which are near and further away:
The next two pictures show two different colored agapanthus blooms in different stages of bloom
Thank you for taking the time to visit my web page.
Out of a Bottle of Botox, comes a Bloom of Beauty.
I thought I needed to try to write something recent about myself at Surgical Artistry. This is what I came up with:
Botox, Juvederm, Voluma, Belotero injections – my goal is to provide cosmetic injections at the highest level. I value quality surgical level outcomes, patient safety, comfort & communication.
I am a Board Certified General Surgeon with a past trauma career who assists in plastic surgeries and spinal cord stimulator / spinal pain pump surgeries. I am also an Acupuncturist who injects Botox as an extension of Acupuncture. Many of my Botox point selections are related Acupuncture points for migraine headaches and wrinkle prevention. 40% of my clinical time is spent at work is spent on Acupuncture, and 50% of my time is spent with cosmetic injections for Botox, Fillers, and Veins, and 10% of my time is spent assisting in surgeries. In a clinic day, it is common for me to use 200 units of Botox, 4 syringes of dermal fillers, and see about 6 acupuncture patients.
Outside of my clinical time, I also spend a great deal of time as an administrator of Surgical Artistry – the combined medical office for myself and my wife, Dr. Tammy Wu, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. We have been surgeons in Modesto since 2003. My wife and I met while we were students at Brown University.
I am an author for MedicalSpaMD a resource for plastic surgeons, dermatologists, and aesthetic physicians. I’m also a member of the marketing department of the Cooperative of American Physicians based in Los Angeles. My hobbies include piano, violin, marathon running, being vegan, creating websites and social media.
I was asked to do a brief interview for a publicity event for Doctors Medical Center. I wrote down what I was saying (hopefully not too much mumbling):
I am Dr. Calvin Lee. I am a surgeon and I focus my practice on whole body acupuncture and cosmetic injections of Botox and fillers which complement our plastic surgery practice, Surgical Artistry, with my wife Dr. Tammy Wu.
Why do I love what I do?
Beauty and health for my patients is my goal. Beauty on the outside is health on the inside. My purpose is to provide educational advice and technical procedures at the highest level possible for my patients. In addition to feeling good about helping others, it is extremely satisfying for me to be a surgeon especially since I’ve always loved technical dexterity challenges. There is certainly an abundance of surgical skills used in facial filler implantation, Botox strategy, and acupuncture needle manipulations.
It is a privilege to be here in Modesto, California. It is a privilege to have the trust of patients. And it’s a privilege to wake up each morning with a purpose.
Graduated top of her class from Brown University in 1997
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, Dr. T. Tammy Wu graduated from medical school in 1997. That’s when she obtained her MD degree. After that she was accepted to plastic surgery training and fellowship all over the world including Stanford University. But she chose to continue her training at Southern Illinois University. She moved to Modesto, CA in 2003.
To answer to the question, Dr. T. Tammy Wu obtained her MD degree in 1997.
This was a question we received at our office today from a caller. We appreciate these interesting questions and I will attempt to post them for all to share.
