I have gone back and forth about plastic surgery since I turned 45. Its good if you can afford it. Its bad because its unnatural. Its good if it makes you feel better. Its bad if you have to peel your skin off your face and staple it to your scalp to make yourself feel better. When I could afford it I elected to go for injectables like Botox and Restylane, which sounds like a ride in a Cadillac. Now that I cant afford a facelift and the injectables have been absorbed, I am 100 percent organic, no plastic.
I thought I was over my obsession with weighing the merits of plastic surgery. But that was before Dr. Frank Ryan died while tweeting. I was as stunned as anyone by his death; but mostly because I didnt know who he was and that plastic surgeons were so essential to the world.
Dr. Ryans most famous patient was Heidi Montag, who is currently famous because her soon-to-be ex is hawking a sex tape of her. But formerly she was famous for having 10 plastic surgeries in one day performed by Dr. Frank Ryan. Before that, she was famous for the MTV reality series The Hills, but she must not have felt very beautiful, even though Im sure she had to be in order to be on MTV. Heidi is 23, by the way, but her body has the experience of a 60-year-old.
Last week Heidi Montag said "I am devastated to hear the news of Dr. Frank Ryan's death. He was the most amazing person I have ever known. He was an angel and changed my life. "He was the most brilliant talented surgeon who will ever exist, she added. Dr. Frank Ryan changed the world."This week she said, that she is in both physical and mental pain from her G-cup breast implants and she is afraid that her nose is going to fall off. "Im obsessed with fitness," Heidi said. "But its impossible to work out with these boobs. Its heartbreaking. I cant live an everyday life."Montag is reportedly shopping for a new plastic surgeon in South America to fix the fabulous Dr. Ryans work. But is more plastic surgery the answer? Anything can happen during surgery. A dear friends granddaughter was deprived of oxygen during a rhinoplasty and is now blind and in a wheelchair in a nursing home in her 20s. I dont want to take that kind of chance for sheer vanity. I look like who I am, which is not so bad. If only Heidi Montag had realized that. I hope for both of us that with age comes wisdom. And that also means not tweeting while driving.Bio note: Judy Kirkwoods work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic books, as well as in inflight magazines from Deltas Sky to Uniteds Hemispheres.
