Mommy Makeover Journey

Dr. Javad Sajan 00:00 

Ever wonder what motivates people to get plastic surgery? Did they regret it? What can they learn from the stories of plastic surgery patients? We're here to explore those questions and get some answers today with my guest Paris Hall on the plastic surgeon podcast.

Dr. Javad Sajan 00:32

Hello, my friends. Welcome back and thanks to our listeners for the amazing feedback we have had so much fun so far, and look forward to more of your insights and suggestions. Please rate us and review us on Apple Podcast. To help us get you more content on the plastic surgeon podcast. We listened to real plastic surgery, stories of triumph and pain from real patients and providers to further understand their motivations or why they would risk their life under the knife. I'm Dr. Javad Sajan. And today my guest is the wonderful, fabulous, amazing Paris Hall. Hi Paris. We are here to talk to you about your journey, how we came to know each other, the procedure you underwent and how it affected you. So Paris, what procedure did you undergo?

Paris Hall 01:14

So I had a couple of procedures. I had the BBL with 360 LIBO and I also had the tummy tuck. How long ago was that? I had it back in September. So it's been about six months now. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 01:31

And as we go into that, tell us, where are you from?

Paris Hall 01:35

So I'm from Houston. I moved to Portland in December, 2017. So I'm an Oregonian now. Yeah. But I'm really a girl from Texas in my heart.

Dr. Javad Sajan 01:49

Yeah. That must be a big contrast from Houston, Oregon.

Paris Hall 01:52

Yeah. It's different, but I appreciate their differences, so yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 01:59

And your parents were they from Houston.

Paris Hall 02:01

So my mother is from New Orleans and my father is from California.

Dr. Javad Sajan 02:06

I see. And how did you end up in Houston in the middle of that?

Paris Hall 02:10

College? Yeah. So I moved for, well, my dad moved for work and then I moved with him. So, I mean, I was still a minor, so I had to move with my father. And then I ended up going to college out there.

Dr. Javad Sajan 02:23

Did you grow up mostly with your dad?

Paris Hall 02:25

Yeah, I did. Well, it was both of my parents but my dad was the one who was employed, so he got a job in Houston and I moved with him.

Dr. Javad Sajan 02:32

Got it. Got it. And was your mom with you in Houston? Oh, I guess so they were together.

Paris Hall 02:37

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, they were both together still, but I stay with him, because, the move was motivated by him.

Dr. Javad Sajan 02:43

Okay. What did he do?

Paris Hall 02:45

He was a medical biller.

Dr. Javad Sajan 02:46

Oh, wow, that's cool.

Paris Hall 02:48

Yeah, did that at home most of the time, but it was nice. Did you have siblings? I have one. She's a teenager actually. So we have quite an age gap. Yeah. My mom had her later in life.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:01

Are you close with her?

Paris Hall 03:03

Yes.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:03

That's cool.

Paris Hall 03:03

I love her.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:04

Is she in Houston right now?

Paris Hall 03:06

No, she's at my house in Oregon. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:09

Wow. What made that happen?

Paris Hall 03:12

My mother, my sister and I, we all lived together. We were living together while my dad was still living. My dad got sick with cancer and so he ended up passing away. So we all decided to stay together. That would be what's best for my mom. Yeah, no, it's totally a part of life.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:30

What kind of cancer he had?

Paris Hall 03:30

He had small cell lung cancer. It's aggressive. It's very aggressive. It's very hard to treat. But he end up, it was beautiful and I got to take care of my dad, which is what I always wanted to do. So that was really special that I was able to give him that before our time here and together.

Dr. Javad Sajan 03:53

Yeah. How old was he on that happen?

Paris Hall 03:54

58. Yeah. So he was a young guy still for I mean to pass away is still pretty young. But we made it through, so now my mom and my sister and I, we all stay together. Yeah. It's really special.

Dr. Javad Sajan 04:08

It is. It is. And you all get along pretty well.

Paris Hall 04:11

I mean, come on.

Paris Hall 04:15

We're girls. So it's, you know, the guy who was the mediator between the three is gone. So now we're having to learn how to communicate without him. So it's a lots of hormones in the house frequently, but you know, we make it through. We're good. We go to the nail salon and you know, everything's fine.

Dr. Javad Sajan 04:35

Exactly, yes, yes.

Paris Hall 04:37

We make up. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 04:39

And you went to college in Houston.

Paris Hall 04:41

I did.

Dr. Javad Sajan 04:42

And what was your degree in?

Paris Hall 04:42

Drafting and design, so I was more so in engineering. But when my dad got sick, I totally abandoned engineering and now I'm actively pursuing healthcare. So I'm pursuing my degree in nursing because I want to be a nurse practitioner.

Dr. Javad Sajan 04:59

Oh, that's cool.

Paris Hall 05:00

Yeah. Engineering just wasn't enough for me anymore. Making money wasn't enough. I needed to make a difference.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:07

That's awesome. You pursued your initial degree in design?

Paris Hall 05:11

Yes.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:11

Correct. Is that an engineering or engineering was a separate degree.

Paris Hall 05:15

So it's like a engineering subset. So basically the way that nurses work with doctors, I work with engineers. They tell me what they want, I created or did the design for it. And then they stamp it and then it gets produced.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:29

Oh, wow that's cool.

Paris Hall 05:30

Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:32

You did that in after Houston. Did you go straight to Oregon for your job?

Paris Hall 05:35

Yes. So Intel moved me out to Portland and so I was working with them for a couple of years and then my dad got sick and then I left.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:45

And what did you do for Intel?

Paris Hall 05:47

I was working in manufacturing manufacturing microprocessors, just I don't, it's a big long.

Dr. Javad Sajan 05:54

All right, got it. Got it. Got it.

Paris Hall 05:56

It's not interesting. But manufacturing, microprocessors is where we're going to leave it at.

Dr. Javad Sajan 06:03

And that happened for two years. And your dad got sick and you went back to Houston for that?

Paris Hall 06:06

No, we stayed here. I took care of him and then after he passed away it kind of changed me, changed my goals. I watching my dad go through those changes. It made me realize that there's more to life than just making a lot of money. I want my time here to be meaningful. I want to impact others. And I want my job to be something that supports that. So that's when I left to like, I totally abandoned it and went straight to healthcare.

Dr. Javad Sajan 06:40

So you felt your goals are more monetary cause you wanted to get out and make it on your own and make yourself

Paris Hall 06:46

Have a nice, I like my goals at the time when I was working in with Intel and in engineering, it was just to make as much money as I possibly can to have as many things as I possibly can. I want it to be, you know, that 20 something that we see now who has a lot of things and you know, a lot of money and you know, that was my goal at the time. And to support my parents. And that's still a goal to support my mother, but I want my life to mean more than just having a lot of things now or to have a lot of money stacked up. That's just not important to me because that's not going to mean anything when I'm no longer here. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 07:26

I don't think many people would really understand that the way you do.

Paris Hall 07:29

Yeah. It, unfortunately for me, it took something very dramatic to kind of wake me up to that. But I feel now that I'm living a more purpose driven life and I'm very satisfied and fulfilled, even though it came with a pay cut. I am very happy with making a difference every day with being nice to people. And what if I'm the only nice person they saw? You know, I just really think that's really special. And so I really take great joy. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 08:01

That's amazing. You know one of the reasons Paris, I love doing surgery overall. One of my life purposes has always been impacting people. Right? And one of the reasons I really love doing cases, right. A nice people like yourself and others is I get to change their life. You know, it's three to four hours of work for me on that table, but it's a lifetime of change for somebody else. And I personally couldn't think of any other way on how I could impact others doing what I do. Right? So I really understand that and connect to it. And when I came to Seattle to finish my training, I could have gone. My family does really well in Wisconsin. I could have gone there and help manage the family business and done probably three to four times better than what I do here. But for me, I didn't see purpose in it. Right. What was the point of just doing that? Working nine to five, make good money. Where's that? What's that going to get me.

Paris Hall 08:57

So true.

Dr. Javad Sajan 08:58

Couple zeroes, extra zeros, change anything.

Paris Hall 09:01

Right. So true.

Dr. Javad Sajan 09:02

I want you to meet people, change people positively and then be there for their journey. Right. And that's one of the reasons I did the podcast. I wanted to share those stories with others to impact people. I think a lot of people don't understand the value that you feel and fulfill me. You can feel when you impact someone. What do you think about that?

Paris Hall 09:22

I think, I just think it's really special and really powerful. There's so much division in our world now. And I think that when you impact someone in a positive way, it can be really special and it can show you that we all are connected in one way or another. Somebody might not share my journey or even your journey, but we're all human being. And I feel like it's just really meaningful to your journey individually when you're positive to someone else.

Dr. Javad Sajan 09:53

You know what I think about sometimes on here, what you think I asked myself, why do I like impacting people? And, I don't know if I have a great answer for that. What's your, do you have an answer for that?

Paris Hall 10:04

The only answer I can come up with and I've asked myself that too. I was like, cause I'm really careful about being like a negative energy. And so I'm like, is this like a secret negative about me? That because I want to be the special person to other people. And so I really examined it and I don't, the only thing that I can come up with is that I just, it's just in me. I want to be positive to others. I want to make a difference. I want my life here to have meaning. We're only here for a very small time if we think about the time of the universe. And I want that time that I am here to mean something to someone else as sort of a monument, like a sort of the only thing that's gonna live on after I'm gone.

Dr. Javad Sajan 10:52

Like your legacy.

Paris Hall 10:54

Yeah. That's the only thing I could come up with.

Dr. Javad Sajan 10:57

Yeah. People talk about living forever. I think one of the ways you can live forever, it's very having others live with your impact.

Paris Hall 11:07

Right. Exactly. Like, and I think where I got that from is I did not know how special my dad was to so many people until he passed away. Like I never went through like my dad's phone or through his conversations with other people, but all of the people who were texting him and all of the people whose lives he touched and all the people who remembered him and were really saddened by losing him because he was so special to them. Like it just really spoke to me and, and showed me that there's so much more to our experience as being human than just gain while we're here. So yeah,

Dr. Javad Sajan 11:52

I really that too. And so you, after you took care of your dad, or I guess, how were you supporting yourself when you were taking care of him?

Paris Hall 12:02

Savings, yeah, I had I made a decision that all of the time that I had left with my dad was going to be spent with my dad. I was not going to work. I was not doing anything else. I didn't care if I had to scale back on how I was living. I just wanted to spend that time with him. And so I used my savings. I was living heavily off of savings. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 12:29

And after that time went finished, did you go back to the workforce?

Paris Hall 12:35

I did, but not right away. After the time with my dad, actually after his passing away about a month or two later is when I had my surgery with you. And then I took more time off to still heal and recover because I couldn't be my best self for my patients. And for other people, if I was not hold on the inside. So I took about what six months off from just working and just to not only recover from surgery, but from the losing of my father, who was very important to me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 13:14

When you, so after you went through that, you decided what made you think that you wanted surgery?

Paris Hall 13:19

I thought about all the things that were holding me back from living my best life, my fullest life. One of those really was insecurity. It impacted my personal relationships. It impacted how I viewed myself. Every time I went to take a shower, it just impacted my internal dialogue well to myself every day. And so I just got sick of it. Like I got sick of making excuses for myself and like, why I shouldn't do it because I'm so used to taking care of others. I didn't feel comfortable with doing this for myself.

Dr. Javad Sajan 13:58

So, you know, when you say like internal dialogue and like, you seem to have a lot of insight in understanding your emotions, how did you get that?

Paris Hall 14:06

I think experience and wanting to understand from the time that I was a child, even until now, I've always been the why, the why person, you know, why is this like this? Why am I like this? Why are they doing that? And so even for the ways that I act and the things that I do, I'm always like, why do I think that way? Why am I, why do I feel this way? And I really examine it. I don't just passively think about it. I really try to understand and get to the root of something.

Dr. Javad Sajan 14:39

And when you were thinking about your insecurities, do you mind sharing, what were those?

Paris Hall 14:44

So I have two little boys. Surprisingly when I got pregnant with my first boy, I was a one. So going through nine months of pregnancy I really got stretched beyond my body's capacity at the time. My stomach turned black and it was very itchy. And so after I delivered him, I had a lot of saggy, very loose skin like if I kneeled forward, sorry, if I kneeled forward the skin would kind of droop. Like I was like, I had a bag or something in front of me. And I just would have tried to hide it under shirts or, you know, I would wear a really tight spaghetti strap to try to keep it compressed. And then when I had my second baby, I decided I didn't want to have any more children after that.

Paris Hall 15:40

But I still had the skin and I just would try to make excuses and, you know, I'll just wear my pants higher or I'll just wear my shirt. You know, I won't wear bikinis or I won't wear bathing suits at all. But I'll just have to deal with it. Yeah. So that was the biggest insecurity. And then I also didn't like my bud, had very deep hip dips on the side. I still have cellulite. That's just my body I've accepted that, but what I didn't like was the hip dips and that my, bud it seemed like rounder at certain parts and like kind of flat at other parts. It was a very interesting, but at the time, yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 16:27

When you started thinking about surgery, how did you start looking for providers?

Paris Hall 16:34

So I was looking in Portland.

Dr. Javad Sajan 16:39

And you live there?

Paris Hall 16:40

Correct.

Dr. Javad Sajan 16:40

So you came out of state for me?

Paris Hall 16:42

I did so I was looking in Portland and some doctors there tummy tucks, just weren't up to my, if I'm going to pay the money, like I want it to be exactly how I want it. Some of the tummy tucks just were not something that I would feel comfortable with wearing being naked, being seen with it. I didn't feel like it was worth the price to be still insecure about my stomach. And then if they did do a good tummy tuck, they didn't do a BBL or they couldn't do a BBL. That was up to my standards coming from the lens of someone who lived in Houston. I expected it to look a certain way to got one. Yeah. so I could never find the combination of the two until I looked for you and I saw you and I was like, Oh, wow, this is, I think the sky, like, I think he's the one, like, I think he can do it. But he's in Seattle. And so I had to have a conversation with my family.

Dr. Javad Sajan 17:42

And how did you run across my name?

Paris Hall 17:45

I was just Googling. I really, I don't, there was anything specific that led me to you. I can't think of anything specific. Other than me looking for plastic surgeons in, I started broadening my search from just Oregon to Washington and yours came up as like the best, the best doctor in Seattle or something like that. And so then I was like, okay. So let me see what is, what the pictures look like. Let me see what his work looks like. And then I started looking at your Instagram and I was like, okay, this one looks really good. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 18:20

So you told your family were thinking of going out of state. What did they say?

Paris Hall 18:25

My mom didn't say anything. She kinda just was like, Oh, you know, and she had that kind of wide-eyed sort of look. And then I told my boyfriend also, I was like, I think I want to do my surgery in Washington. And he was like, are you sure? Like, are you sure this is the one I'm like, yeah. I think this is really what I want to do. Until then they were supportive after they saw how serious I was. But at first it was kind of surprising cause it would be a drive and they didn't know how it was going to be being in pain, you know, and driving back and forth.

Dr. Javad Sajan 18:58

Did anybody tell you don't do it that, you know, you shouldn't do this kind of work?

Paris Hall 19:03

No, actually none of them discouraged me. All of them, all of the people that I told were supportive of me. And I think the reason being was that I pushed it off for so long and they knew that I was really unhappy with it, but I never tried to pursue doing something about it. I think to be honest, I think they were secretly set up with me being sad about it and wanted me to do something. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 19:32

What do you think your dad would've said.

Paris Hall 19:34

He would have wanted me to do it. He actually was sad that when he was living, he didn't have the money at the time for me to do it. So he would have wanted me to do it cause he tried to make it happen before, but it just didn't, it just didn't happen. He was the only person that I would really talk to privately about it like that. I just wish I could do something. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 20:00

Were you closer to your mom or your dad?

Paris Hall 20:04

That's tough because there are different. So my dad, I would say my dad because I'm more like him, the way that I think the way that I engage with other people, it's always kind of, I would say it's more like him, but I do have aspects of me that are aligned with my mother as well. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 20:25

And then you book the consult, right? That was pretty straightforward to do. And when you came from the consult, how did it go?

Paris Hall 20:35

I think it went really well. I was really informed afterwards. I was really happy with the price and everything that I was given and.

Dr. Javad Sajan 20:46

Was it more or less than what you saw in Portland.

Paris Hall 20:49

So for me to have all of the things that I had done, it was slightly less I would have only been able to get the BBL and the tummy tuck, but the light bulb, it would have just maybe been like my stomach, but it wouldn't have been 360 and I still wouldn't have had the look that I wanted to have after the surgery and it still would have been more. And so it was like, you know, I don't really like that.

Dr. Javad Sajan 21:14

Yeah. And two surgeries instead of one.

Paris Hall 21:17

They wouldn't have done it. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 21:18

I don't know anybody in the in-between here in Oregon that does this in one surgery. Tummy tuck, Bbl.

Paris Hall 21:25

Yeah. I didn't from my research, I wasn't able to find it. It was always presented as two surgeries and working and being a mother that was concerning because I'm going to have to take time off twice. I didn't like that either. But it was something that I was considering because I wanted it really badly at the time, but I'm glad I didn't have to go that route.

Dr. Javad Sajan 21:49

And when people have their consult we go through the anatomy, I'll typically draw what I'm going to do. We'll identify what areas you want to change. And then you get your quote. And after that you have the option of either booking right away or going home and thinking about, or doing whatever you want. When did you decide to book?

Paris Hall 22:07

So I called my mother. I didn't leave. I called her when I was in the lobby and I let her know the availability you had to do the surgery. And I asked her, you know, how do you feel about this? Cause she would be helping me with my boys and with taking care of me. And I was asking her, how do you feel about this? Does this work for you? And she was like, yeah, like let's do it. And so I booked the same day when I was here. I didn't want to leave. Cause I wanted that spot. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 22:37

Oh, cool. And then when you went home, he must've been excited.

Paris Hall 22:41

I was. And so it's so funny because when I went home, I still had some other drawing on me, like some of the markups where you did. And so I would stand in the mirror, cause this is when I still had a lot of the extra skin and I would stand in the mirror and I would like pull the two areas together to see what I would look like. And I was so excited to see how different I would look after surgery. So yeah, it was really nice.

Dr. Javad Sajan 23:08

And I don't think many people draw their excision. I always drw at the consult. Did you have consults before me?

Paris Hall 23:16

I did.

Dr. Javad Sajan 23:16

And did any of them Mark for you what they were going to do?

Paris Hall 23:19

No. He just kind of like did like an airline with his finger and he kind of told me what he was going to do. And another one of them kind of the same thing, one of them, I didn't even actually get to meet the doctor. I just kind of met the doctor's assistant. So, you know, that was kind of off putting for me at the time. I was like, I don't really know this guy. So yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 23:41

Did the marking has helped you understand better what we're going to do?

Dr. Javad Sajan 23:44

Absolutely. And because, like I said, I had a lot of extra skin so it was able to be pulled and tugged by me. So I was able to pull the areas together to see what my stomach would kind of look like with all of the extra skin gone. And I felt like that was really, really positive for me to get an idea of how much you can do and how, you know, how little you can do. And so that was really, really good for me to understand.

Dr. Javad Sajan 24:14

Did you do anything to prep for surgery day?

Paris Hall 24:18

I did. So I made sure that I stopped taking certain medications. I suffer from migraines and so I take a lot of Excedrin migraine, which has like aspirin and, you know, a bunch of other things in it. I had to stop taking that. And so in order to like, make my migraines less, I stopped drinking caffeine. I also stopped eating so much sodium in my foods to try to alleviate, try to alleviate some of the headaches. And then I also tried to make sure that I was like, I was walking more. I just want it to make sure my circulation, everything was really well. I probably went overboard, but this was my first time ever having surgery or ever going under the knife. So I wanted to try to do as much as I can for myself to be as healthy as possible.

Dr. Javad Sajan 25:14

Makes sense. Did you ever wonder why this guy, you know this guy, AKA me, is willing to do the surgery in one, but nobody else wants to do it in one surgery?

Paris Hall 25:23

I did. And I was like, I was scared actually. I was like, either he's really good or this is going to go really, really bad. I was like, I don't know, because everyone else is saying no, but he's saying yes. And I wanted a yes. And so I'm like, I don't know either I'm making a really good choice for myself or I'm making a really, really bad choice. And so I kind of went at it with, I'm just going to give it to God. That's how I did. I'm just going to give it to God. It's going to be okay.

Dr. Javad Sajan 25:54

Yeah. Yeah. And so what's the thought process is to share it with you. So when you do a BBL, you need fat to transfer to the buttock. And to do that, you got to liposuction. So most doctors will not liposuction the stomach when they're doing a tummy tuck. So they'll let that upper skin stay pretty thick. They'll just take our Katari or the hot knife and cut, lift the skin up, pull it down, sitch the muscles and then call it a day and then to let you heal, and then they'll come back and do the BBL or the other way they'll do it is a life where everything first leave you with more sagging skin. Do the BBL, let that heal, come back in three months, and then do the tummy tuck. So, and the reason they do that is this.

Dr. Javad Sajan 26:46

There's a, old-school what I call old school philosophy that he feel liposuction, the stomach and do a tummy tuck at the same time, and the skin will die and look at skin, death and necrosis. And that's, I believe that's the wrong philosophy there's newer literature, newer data, right? And I went Columbia and trained with a lot of the guys who believe this after my US training. All my training was in the US, but I went after to do more learning. And that's where they really pioneer a lot of procedures because they can push the antelopes there for various reasons I won't get into. And those guys there were doing liposuction with the tummy tuck and BBL. And I was like, how are you guys able to do this? Everyone here in the US says, if you do that, the skin's going to die.

Dr. Javad Sajan 27:33

It's going to be a nightmare. They're like, I just did it in my post-op. There's no skin death. So there are, what I learned is there is a way to do it. Now, when you liposuction at the same time, and I'll give my secrets away to all the plastics guys who listened to my stuff. But when you liposuction with the tummy tuck, you have to lipo, you can, lipo the whole stomach. I'll say it now, my patient's in front of me, for those that don't believe me,  is you have to lipo in a specific way, with specific tubes, in a specific pressure, at a specific plane. So when you're liposuctioning, if you care to know, there's a pressure on how much negative vacuum is sucking the fat out. And if you have that very high, like normal liposuction speed, and you lipo, the stomach skin will die, guaranteed, don't ask me, how am I now?

Dr. Javad Sajan 28:21

So basically you have to keep that pressure about half of normal. And that becomes a very long and arduous process, especially if you're a little bit older and not as strong. And you gotta move your hand four times more to get the same amount of fat. Cause you know, it's a too bigger back and forth. So that's one thing. So you've got to keep a little pressure. The other thing is when you liposuction, there's different layers of the tissue. So you can get those layers, but you got to start at a particular layer and then do it. And then how you raise the skin is very particular in how you transfer the fat. So learning all those things from the people who did it in Columbia, in other than reading and studying myself and then doing it myself helped me develop a way to do it.

Dr. Javad Sajan 29:07

So right now every week I'll do two to three tummy tuck, BBL, like minimum. It's really over the past three months, it's blown up. I'm shocked, literally. And I think the reason for that is I stream it live. So I'm like, okay, you know, you don't have to believe me. I'm not here to convince anyone, just watch it live. And then you decide, and patients are still coming back. Right? There's no, exactly. And so that's how I do it. And I've actually, my techniques always keep evolving, does a newer evolution I'm working on. But so that's how you can do it. So the other guys feel that skin will die and they're not wrong. If you do it, the old school way, the skin will die. But if you do it no more sophisticated, safer way, you can get the same thing done. It just takes a little bit more time and a little bit more effort. Does that make sense?

Paris Hall 29:54

Yeah, that makes absolute sense to me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 29:55

And I think one of the reasons you see evolution so slow in US plastic surgery is the people who train like the people who train me. They're all very old school. And probably you saw these new concepts, right? The most famous people are the old school people and the new people coming out. Just keep saying, well, those guys kept saying right. They don't want to try anything new. And the few new people in the country, there's probably five or six of them. And I put myself in the category who are bigger names, are the people who are willing to safely learn and push the envelope in the right patient. Right. For example, if I did the surgery that I did for you in somebody who was over 50 diabetic smoker, it would be a disaster and I wouldn't want to offer it to them. Right? So you got to know who you can do, what on and how you can do it. And that's the only way you can get out of the cycle of just people being stuck in a rut. And what happens is the old school guys. And there's nothing wrong with them, right? Who just keep repeating the same song and dance. They end up getting pushed out by new people like me, rather than they're wondering get jelly.

Paris Hall 31:01

It's so true, but I'm really grateful that you were willing to try it with me. I'm very pleased.

Dr. Javad Sajan 31:07

Thank you. Thank you. And the one thing I shared with you is it's something that I learned from other people. So I didn't come and start experimenting on my patients, right? Yeah. Actually, when I was in Columbia actually did surgeries there. So yeah. So that's how I learned some of the newer things, yeah, it was fun. And so, so from that you decided to book and then you prep the things you told us and then surgery day came. How were you feeling

Paris Hall 31:34

So scared? So, so scared. I've never gone under anesthesia before. So I was like, you know, what is this going to feel like, am I going to know what's going on? You know, I should not have been watching national geographic and all of those discovery shows, but I was doing that and Wikipedia was not my friend, but I was still looking. And so I was really, really nervous. But it went really well. Yeah, best sleep of my life.

Dr. Javad Sajan 32:07

And after surgery, did you stay local or did you go home?

Paris Hall 32:10

I stayed.

Dr. Javad Sajan 32:10

For how long?

Paris Hall 32:11

We stayed for three or four days because, I think my surgery was on a Friday.

Dr. Javad Sajan 32:19

So your post-op was Monday.

Paris Hall 32:20

So we stayed that whole time.

Dr. Javad Sajan 32:22

And then you came for the post-op. How was the pain?

Paris Hall 32:27

So the pain during the post-op, it wasn't really bad. I was, I had medication, so I was comfortable. I just had to be careful in how I moved and in what I did the most difficult thing was because the hotel's bed was high. So the most difficult thing was when you don't realize it, but when you're going from like a laying position to standing, there can be some pulling. So I had to be really careful and really use my partner and the Walker to get out of bed, to go to the restroom.

Dr. Javad Sajan 33:00

I see. And when you came for your first post-op, you saw things, how did it feel?

Paris Hall 33:06

To be honest, that time was a little Spacey for me. I don't remember feeling anything other than I remember. I still had like some, the binding was still there. I remember that I don't remember feeling any pain or anything. I know my stomach was tighter. It had to be tighter from just having a tummy tuck, but there wasn't any like sharp pains or any, anything like that. I was just really sore, just like really, really kind of sore. But the pain medication was really helping to deal with that. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 33:43

And after that you went home to Portland?

Paris Hall 33:45

Yes, I did. Later that day, I believe.

Dr. Javad Sajan 33:48

And your sister must've been excited to see you?

Paris Hall 33:51

She was.

Paris Hall 33:52

What were people asking you when you were recovering?

Paris Hall 33:54

No one asked me anything because nobody saw me. I just stayed in the house. My boys, they knew that mommy had just had surgery, but I was still in the house. None of my neighbors or seeing me or nobody, because I was still in my period of taking time off from things. So I was just really staying inside. Yeah.

Dr. Javad Sajan 34:14

As the recovery kept going, what was tough about the recovery?

Paris Hall 34:18

So the part that was really tough was that I did not know that I didn't like staying in the house so much and that I didn't like not being able to do a lot of things for myself in the beginning. I didn't know that that was going to kind of weigh on me emotionally. And I also didn't know that I, at one point was having a response to taking my pain medication. But you are the one who actually picked up on that before I even knew what was wrong with me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 34:49

So that was at your one month post-op yeah. I remember you came to clinic and you just seem down and I asked you, I'm like, cause I really try to be into my patients, right. The ones I do surgery for you, we're friends until you're fully healed usually for life. Right. and I said, parents, I think I asked you right. Point blank. Why are you sad?

Paris Hall 35:12

Yeah. You're like, what's wrong. You seem down what's going on? I was like, no, I'm fine. And then I called like later on like, Oh yeah, I'm really-

Dr. Javad Sajan 35:20

Yeah. And what did you feel was what did we arrive to that was causing the sadness.

Paris Hall 35:27

Pain medication. I was not used to, so by this point, my system was really clean. Right? I stopped taking caffeine. I don't do drugs. I don't smoke, I don't do anything. So the pain medication, I was having a response to it that was making me feel kind of down. And so we decided to stop doing the prescription and to just go with the Tylenol at that point. And that was totally fine. That was the absolute right choice for me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 35:52

And then you started feeling better.

Dr. Javad Sajan 35:54

Yeah, I started feeling like myself again. I didn't know that I was down in the dumps because of my pain medicine. I started to feel really weird. Like, I don't know. It was a really, really weird way of feeling. I can't really describe it, but it's interesting that you knew something was wrong with me before I knew, but I couldn't see it because I was in it.

Dr. Javad Sajan 36:15

Yeah, that's really, that's the best way to say it. You said you, it felt different not being able to do things for yourself and that weighed out of you. How did it weigh on you?

Paris Hall 36:26

So I'm really independent. I don't like asking people for things. Even if you look at how long I waited to do the surgery, I don't really like doing, having others do things for me, or like taking away money from my family or things like that to do something for myself. So it was weird having to call my mom and be like, Hey mom, could you get me some more water? Just don't want to have to do the work of getting up right now. Or I ran out of my nausea medicine. Could you run to the pharmacy and get it for me? That was challenging for me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 37:02

I see. And how have things gone now? How do you feel?

Paris Hall 37:07

I feel fantastic. I'm really so happy with my body. I'm really, I don't have that negative self-talk anymore. That's really powerful and really special. I'm really comfortable with how I look and clothing. It's kind of guided my decisions and, and how I eat and how I live now, because I don't want to mess up the work that you've done. So it's, I feel really, really great. My head space is really, really good.

Dr. Javad Sajan 37:36

That's awesome. And you started at a size one before any of your pregnancies. And then do you mind sharing with us how high or what your size was at, in the middle of before surgery?

Paris Hall 37:47

Yeah. So before surgery, I was an eight, I think I was an eight.

Dr. Javad Sajan 37:55

What are you know?

Paris Hall 37:55

Yeah. So right now I'm a four.

Dr. Javad Sajan 37:59

That's awesome.

Paris Hall 37:59

So I've lost quite a bit of weight since surgery, not because of you or anything, but just, like the lifestyle changes I've made also surgery played into it too, but it's impacted me mentally.

Dr. Javad Sajan 38:13

If other women are thinking about this and wondering, should I do this? What would you tell them?

Paris Hall 38:23

Do it? It's like, it will be so good for you if you're mentally struggling with your body and like how you feel about yourself, you have no idea how much that plays into your life. And if you make this choice, it's just going to move you in such a positive direction. You're the only you that you have. And so why not make your life a little bit better? I think it's a wonderful choice.

Dr. Javad Sajan 38:47

I agree. Everything you say is so deep and so much meaning if you could go and when you look at your story and if you could do something differently or if there's something that you wish you would have known before doing all this, what would that be?

Paris Hall 39:05

But I should do it sooner. I'm not being selfish and taking care of myself. And that it's okay to not have like perfect celebrity body or like perfect celebrity skin. That's just not my journey. That's not my path. But I can have the best version of myself. I just need to do a little bit of work to get there.

Dr. Javad Sajan 39:29

That's amazing. You know, the one thing I will tell you, Paris, none of those people have anything perfect. Cause because a lot of them come to me and I can tell you that you know, to be frank with you, you look better than 95% of them. But beyond that everything, the pictures and everything you see as Photoshop and airbrushing, you gotta remember that. For example, Kylie Jenner never shows her belly button. I'm not kidding. And if it ever shows, they always have a blurred.

Paris Hall 39:56

That's so interesting.

Dr. Javad Sajan 39:57

And I'm not going to say why, because I know the person who, so we'll leave that out of it.

Paris Hall 40:02

I have a nice belly button.

Dr. Javad Sajan 40:07

Thank you so much for being our guest today. Paris.

Paris Hall 40:09

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Javad Sajan 40:12

My pleasure. I've learned a lot. I know you're ideal will teach our listeners how and what to expect as they start their own cosmetic surgery journey. I appreciate your time and I'm honored to have you as my good patient confident. And I would say, friend.

Paris Hall 40:25

Oh, thank you, Dr. Sajan I'm glad I had you, and I'm glad I got to meet you and go on this journey with you.

Dr. Javad Sajan 40:30

Thank you. You know, the one thing I always share with people is if you don't, if you're in the process of getting something medical done and you want something, don't settle for an answer because it's convenient, right? I'm not saying that. I, you know, I do like to think I'm the best out there, but what I am, what I am saying is if you want something, whether it's a treatment for an illness or something aesthetic or a very elective search out there until you make sure, you know, the answer that you want is I would say search out there until, you know, you have an answer for the question that you're seeking. Sometimes the answer might not be what you like, but do you know, don't settle cause where people end up unhappy when they settle, right? Like sometimes I'll have patients want me to do procedures for them that I know that is not my cup of tea.

Dr. Javad Sajan 41:18

Right? Like when I first started, I was doing everything. Now I can tell you, most of my paid work is all bodywork, right? So sometimes I'll have patients have come for, you're asking for extreme facial work. And I do, I still do facial plastic, but I don't do as much. And I'll often refer them out and I don't mind doing that, but sometimes a doctor who's willing to quote, make it work. Isn't the best choice for people.

Paris Hall 41:42

Right. That's so true.

Dr. Javad Sajan 41:44

Thanks for listening to the plastic surgeon podcast and please rate and review us on Apple podcast to hear more great content. For my live surgeries on Snapchat and my adventures throughout the week, catch us on all social media at @realdrseattle. Bam what.