My husband has an open surgical incision that is going to be closed (again!) on Monday. This time, the surgery is being performed by a plastic surgeon–whose main practice is cosmetic surgery. We’ve received a few pieces of mail from his office and the return address is a big logo with a stylized picture of a woman and the words “COSMETIC SURGERY” in a giant font.
I am stupidly bothered by this and have to fight a desire to explain to passersby that it’s a “legitimate surgery.”
I didn’t know I was this concerned about “what the neighbors might think.” So now I get to be embarrassed by my embarrassment.
I doubt they would think anything about it. Its not like they are a half an hour between houses reading postcards and trying on mail order shoes!
My ma used to get a kick out of getting free samples of embarassing things mailed to our houses. One day you’d get some Depends, another something for yeast infections, various catalogs for things we had no use for.
Maybe it’s not so much what other people think that’s troublesome. I definitely understand how “cosmetic surgery” feels like a less legitimate procedure than something performed by a regular surgeon. I had scar tissue removed from my hand when I was a teenager, and it was quite expensive. Some of my family acted like I was being vain for wanting it done, but I was a serious piano player at the time and the scar tissue would have interfered.
I tend to think of cosmetic surgery as something done for people who don’t like something about themselves, but then I try to remember that just because it’s on the exterior of your body doesn’t mean it isn’t serious. It’s hard to shake the superficial impression, though.
