Kristopher Hamwi, MD - Plastic Surgeon in Sarasota, Florida

Eva Sheie (00:03):
The purpose of this podcast is simple. We want you to get to know your doctor before meeting them in person because you're making a life-changing decision, and time is scarce. The more you can learn about who your doctor is before you meet them, the better that first meeting will be. There is no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. I'm your host, Eva Sheie, and you're listening to Meet the Doctor. Hello and welcome back to Meet the Doctor. My guest today is a double board certified plastic surgeon from Sarasota, Florida, and his name is Christopher Hamwi. Welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Hamwi (00:38):
Yeah, thanks so much.

Eva Sheie (00:40):
It's so nice to meet you.

Dr. Hamwi (00:42):
Definitely. You as well.

Eva Sheie (00:43):
So curious, what is the patient base like in Sarasota, Florida? Who comes to see you?

Dr. Hamwi (00:51):
Well, that's interesting because I'll tell you, Sarasota is a lovely community. It maybe skews a little bit older, so 50, 60 year olds, a lot of people who are coming from other places. We have a lot of Midwesterners that have come down, especially since Covid. But then also we have a bunch of patients who fly in and they fly in from sort of all over the place.

Eva Sheie (01:10):
Do you have a map where you put the pins in and say where people came from?

Dr. Hamwi (01:14):
We do.

Eva Sheie (01:14):
You do?

Dr. Hamwi (01:14):
Yeah, that's right. Yep. Sort of a travel map.

Eva Sheie (01:17):
You'll have to send me a picture. We love those.

Dr. Hamwi (01:19):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (01:19):
Did you guys come up with that idea on your own, or did you see it somewhere?

Dr. Hamwi (01:24):
Yeah, someone in the office came up with that. It wasn't my idea. Yeah, and I think at this point we're missing. I think it's like the Dakotas and somewhere on the east coast, maybe Vermont or something like that.

Eva Sheie (01:37):
Yeah, you have Long Island, but not Vermont.

Dr. Hamwi (01:40):
You're right. Exactly. Yeah, and I mean, strangely enough, we've treated two people from Alaska, which it's harder to get to Florida from Alaska than it is Europe. So come on Vermont.

Eva Sheie (01:53):
But they like to go to warm places. I used to live in Seattle, and so people from Alaska were always on your flights. They're always traversing from Alaska to wherever, and they do like to go to warm places. They just have carve outs in their lives for Florida and Cabo usually.

Dr. Hamwi (02:10):
And Cabo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, we had a lovely patient from Hawaii one time who brought me macadamia nuts. So yeah, it's kind of fun when people from different places share their lives and communities with us too, because the United States is an enormous place, and there are different perspectives and things going on in the places that they live that are, it's kind of fun to get to know patients in that regard also.

Eva Sheie (02:41):
So does your procedure specialization, obviously we know you can do everything, but is there somewhat of a focus that is related to the ages of the people you see?

Dr. Hamwi (02:53):
It's pretty typical in plastic surgery that certain procedures go with certain patient populations. Breast augmentations tend to skew, younger. Facelifts tend to skew older. The one thing that we're seeing a little bit more is in the age of these GLP-1 agonists, the Wegovy and ozempic, right? Well, people are having tremendous success with those and losing a bunch of weight. And so some things that use to present a little bit later now, we see patients coming in at a little bit of a younger age. One of the things that we do that we're particularly well known for is a special brachioplasty, which is an arm lift. It's a unique operation that, in plastic surgery just isn't done a ton. Well, we do a ton of them, and it partly is because of the technique, but partly just because I think that with the weight loss, people are becoming more aware of some of these things at a younger age, to your question.

Eva Sheie (03:46):
Coincidentally, I just did a little very little amount of research on arm lift, and I learned two really interesting things. One was that 99% of arm lifts are done on women. And I was curious, is that because men their arms just don't do what ours do? Or do they just not care? Or what's the reason that men, I mean, that's a really unusual percentage.

Dr. Hamwi (04:10):
That is a really unusual percentage. And you know what? You're totally right. I don't know if I've ever done an arm lift on a man and we do a lot of arm lifts.

Eva Sheie (04:19):
Can they just work out their arms and make their muscles bigger to fill in the gaps more than we do? I don't know what the,

Dr. Hamwi (04:26):
Right, yeah, yeah. Well, and to some extent too, now that I think about it, the way that the arm holds volume, I do think that women hold volume in their arms slightly differently than men in the way that women hold volume differently in their thighs. And so one thing that we see specifically with arms is that there could be volume on the side of the arm that tends to make women feel a little bit wider. And they also particularly don't love that feeling like I'm a linebacker. I hear that a lot, my arms make me feel like a linebacker. Whereas perhaps men aren't storing the volume the same and maybe aren't as aware or concerned about that from the overall perspective.

Eva Sheie (05:14):
I also thought maybe men don't wear sleeveless as often as we do, and so they just aren't self-conscious about it because they're always wearing T-shirts or polos instead of, I mean, how many men wear tank tops in public? You're in Florida, so maybe more than other places, but

Dr. Hamwi (05:31):
That's actually pretty insightful. That may have something to do with it too.

Eva Sheie (05:36):
Could be. And then the other stat was that arm lift surgery is growing 20% year over year for the last three years.

Dr. Hamwi (05:45):
That's wild.

Eva Sheie (05:46):
So the procedure volume nationally has gone much faster than the usual growth. So that, I think it certainly speaks to the GLP-1 effect.

Dr. Hamwi (05:57):
That's got to be faster than just about everything else out there. Is there anything else that's rivaling that?

Eva Sheie (06:01):
Yeah, I think the usual growth is five to 8% if you look at across all the procedures. This is me having a good time with the ASPS procedure statistics report.

Dr. Hamwi (06:13):
Well, it seems like you're well suited for what you do then. This is how you enjoy your time. Me too.

Eva Sheie (06:19):
It's true. You're right. Yes, thank you for noticing that. Okay. So tell me more about the special kind of arm lift that you do.

Dr. Hamwi (06:26):
Well, so I guess what I've noticed after treating a lot of arms is that there's kind of two components when people are describing the things that bother them. There's a volume component, and then there's also a loose tissue component. And I think that when it comes to brachioplasties, doctors regularly focus on the obvious stuff, the part that hangs. But I think if you think about the arm in totality and you start thinking about that volume on the side of the arm, you really need to address that as well in order to get the best results. And we're starting to use liposuction more and more in our procedures and becoming a little bit more adventurous with it and realizing that it's safe and effective. And you'll see that in tummy tucks. Well, I think that that's also being done with brachioplasties or arm lifts as well.

(07:18):
If you use the liposuction to sculpt the arm, well, you get the added benefit of the volume reduction, the sculpting effect, and then the lift. And I think that that sort of can create a better overall result or a more complete result. And so that's the idea behind it. As far as the execution is concerned, one thing that I've found, at least in my hands, is that I'm able to be a little bit more precise and maybe nitpick a little bit more if I use what's called local or tumescent anesthesia. So you don't put the person to sleep, and then that allows you to evaluate in real time symmetry, geometry, tension, so that you can make adjustments based on how the tissue is draping.

Eva Sheie (08:10):
So you're doing an arm lift under local?

Dr. Hamwi (08:12):
Yeah. Yeah. I know it sounds crazy, right? It is amazingly well tolerated to the point where, I'm working and I'm telling stupid stories about my kids, and the patients we're like, we really get to know each other by the end of the procedure and the patients. I've got some videos online. You'd be shocked. Patients are sitting sit up and they walk on out like nothing happened.

Eva Sheie (08:38):
Did you have a lot of experience with Tumescence before you decided to do this with the arms? Yeah. You did?

Dr. Hamwi (08:44):
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, my origin story is I did most of my training on the east coast. I'm from Ohio originally, and I was recruited to Florida by a practice specifically because I did a awake liposuction. And so they sort of specialized in awake liposuction. It had its limitations because the problem with liposuction is that in its nature is a deflating procedure, right? You're taking volume out and you have excess skin that if you're like 20 or 30 years old, you've got great elasticity that'll snap back. But if you're not, then you need to accommodate for that. And there wasn't really, I mean, at that time, they really didn't have anything for that. We have a Renuvion, which is a skin tightening device, and it's a great product, but it can only go so far. So anyway, fast forward, you sort of recognize an area of improvement.

(09:43):
So we've got a great way to treat arms with liposuction, but we have the limitation of the excess skin, put 'em together, and I think you can create a better arm lift brachioplasty. And I'm not the first person to do this. There was a paper in ASPS several years ago where the guy was talking about the safety and efficacy of what he called circumferential liposuction plus arm lift. And I mean, I think that the initial concern was is that if you're doing circumferential liposuction, you may be de-vascularized the skin and you're going to have wound complications because you have a big incision. And what this guy demonstrated was that it was equivalent. There wasn't, it wasn't riskier, they weren't more complication prone because of it. So I think it's the evolution of the arm lift, and I think everyone will eventually get there. Just saying most things in plastic surgery, it just takes a little bit of time.

Eva Sheie (10:39):
Are you still doing awake lipo?

Dr. Hamwi (10:41):
I am. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you my perspective on awake procedures is that I love anesthesia. I think for many patients it's the right option. I think for certain procedures, awake procedures allow me a little bit more precision in terms of achieving good symmetry and better geometry. There was an analogy that I heard, and I love that asleep procedures are kind of like, do you remember when you took a picture on camera? I'm going to date myself here. And you had a roll of film and you turned in the film and you never quite knew what you got until you got the photos back, right?

Eva Sheie (11:23):
Yeah.

Dr. Hamwi (11:24):
Awake procedures are more like digital pictures, where you can do the procedure, the patient's awake, so you can rotate them or even stand them up and really evaluate your work before you're done. And so that's the digital camera where you take the photo and then everyone checks to make sure they're smiling. So if I'm doing a procedure and I rotate a patient or stand 'em up and I see, oh, look at that little thing, it's just a little bit different. I can deal with it in real time. So the chances of me having to do a revision or something like that or less, or my ability to really get what I want is better. So yeah, I still do most of my procedures asleep with anesthesia, but I do really having that tool in my toolbox for certain things like body contouring.

Eva Sheie (12:11):
Sure. So am I understanding tumescent correctly in that if you were awake and you were tumescing some part of someone's body, it actually is filled up with fluid during that time? So maybe is a dumb question, but how do you know what it looks like if it's full of tumescent fluid?

Dr. Hamwi (12:30):
Yeah, that's a great question. Alright, so tumescent anesthesia has also had an evolution, and there's ratios with how much fluid you put in versus how much volume you remove. Tumescent does imply something specific. It implies you putting in three times as much numbing medicine as volume you're removing. And we actually don't use tumescent technique, and I think that most surgeons have kind of moved away from tumescent, but we still use that nomenclature.

Eva Sheie (12:55):
Got it.

Dr. Hamwi (12:59):
But you hit the nail on the head. That is a thing. And I think it takes some experience to sort of see through that. And you also, you adjust your volume, so we're not actually using tumescent as it is defined.

Eva Sheie (13:13):
Wow, that was a good question.

Dr. Hamwi (13:16):
Yeah. Right. Are we over? Now are we done?

Eva Sheie (13:22):
When you are talking to patients about awake procedures, what do they usually worry about? What do they ask you?

Dr. Hamwi (13:31):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that innately everyone's worried about am I going to be able to tolerate this? Are you sure that it doesn't hurt? And rightfully, but yeah, I myself am shocked at how well patients do. And I think that you have to be in the right mindset. You have to be excited for it because you put someone in a paper bikini in a surgery room and they're going to be nervous. And if I pinch you when you're laying on the couch and you're like, Ooh, Dr. Hamwi that's annoying, but not a big deal. But I put you in a paper bikini and I pinch you, and suddenly you perceive that differently. So you have to come in and this has to be the thing for you. And some patients are like, yeah, well listen, that's just not for me. But if it is, the patients do amazingly well.

(14:24):
And I've also, my technique has evolved over the years. One of the things that I think has stuck with me for a long time is when I was in residency, they made us read these papers. There was a certain ones you had to read, you're an intern, and then certain ones you had to read a second year. When you're an intern, they made you read this paper about how to give the perfect injection, the perfect shot. And it was this list of you want to warm the solution, you want to use the smallest needle possible, you want to distract the patient, they're not allowed to look, you want to buffer the pH so that it's not acidic. But if you do all of these things, then you can have the perfect injection shot. And so that's stuck with me, and as I've designed this, I've kind of kept that.

(15:14):
So we do all those things. We add a little bicarb to our numbing solution so that it doesn't sting. We warm it so that it's about the same temperature as your body, so you don't sense it. We use the smallest cannula as we possibly can. My nurses have this tapping technique as a distraction. The patients don't see anything. Or like I say, we're talking and telling stories. And so patients get numbed up and they're like, wow, that was really easy. And that's the worst part. Then once the numbing medicine is in, they don't feel anything or they feel pressure and vibration.

Eva Sheie (15:52):
How else have you thought about the environment for the patient? Are there other things that you've done to make the experience as a whole really pleasant for people?

Dr. Hamwi (16:03):
Yeah. I mean, yes. And I'll tell you, I'm pretty, I don't know, patient experience centered. I think that that's an important part, especially for awake procedures. And so I have to give a lot of credit to my team for just being nice, kind individuals that want to create a good experience. So I think that comes not only from the staff, when you say environment, that can be a lot of different things. But the patients to, they choose the music they want to listen to. And yeah, I guess I'm kind of a friendly guy and the staff are kind of friendly people, and we sort just launch into, I feel like it's a first date. It's kind of like, yeah, tell me what do you like to do and tell me about yourself. And I actually really enjoy that aspect of the awake patient experience because everybody's got something exciting, exciting in their life or something about them that's exciting. And you spend a little time with them and you tease it out and you'll learn about people and they learn about you.

Eva Sheie (17:09):
See, now you understand why I like podcasting.

Dr. Hamwi (17:12):
Yes, yes. It's the podcast of surgery. They're the of podcast.

Eva Sheie (17:16):
They are. They're kind of the same thing. If you like people, if you don't like your patients to be awake, maybe not. I don't know.

Dr. Hamwi (17:25):
No, yeah, right on.

Eva Sheie (17:26):
Not everybody does. So I'm starting to sense a pattern here that you're a little bit of an innovator. You see things and want to do them better and aren't just following what everybody else does. Is that accurate?

Dr. Hamwi (17:41):
Yeah, I think that I'm constantly looking for ways to improve things. And it's not only surgically. I mean, I think that there are opportunities both preoperatively, operatively and postoperatively. And that's been kind of cool too, because as technology has advanced, they've come out with some pretty interesting things to aid in healing. One thing that I'm using right now that I find really interesting is, have you heard of the PICO negative pressure dressing?

Eva Sheie (18:13):
I have not.

Dr. Hamwi (18:15):
Are you familiar with what a wound vac is?

Eva Sheie (18:17):
Actually, yes, I do know what that is.

Dr. Hamwi (18:20):
Yeah. Great. Well, for your listeners, I'll just kind of describe it, but the wound vac was they were actually these two very intelligent doctors out of North Carolina who did a bunch of research that showed us that if you apply negative pressure or suction to healing tissue, it actually heals faster. And it does some things like increased circulation and kind of pull the edges of the wound together. So you have these big, nasty diabetic ulcers that never healed, you put a wound vac on it and suddenly it would grow like magic. And so they actually won a Nobel Prize for it because it totally revolutionized wound care. Well, they started putting wound vacs over incisions that were closed, so no longer big open, nasty wounds, but things that were closed, but they were concerned that it was going to open up. Maybe the patient was diabetic or the tissue had been irradiated. It was predisposed of having problems. And they found that when you put the wound vac over top of this closed incision, not only was it not open up as much as they thought, but it actually healing prettier than they thought. So the aesthetic people got their hands on this, and they came up with an aesthetic version that you can put over incisions. So because I have a lot of patients that fly in from other places, I don't want to send them home and them to have a problem at home.

Eva Sheie (19:39):
Right.

Dr. Hamwi (19:39):
So I started putting these things on the incisions so I could sleep better at night because I knew that I was helping to do everything that we could to minimize risks and complications. And I've just found that my wound openings and infections and stuff like that is really, really low. And the incisions, they're prettier than I expect. So that's one of these things that as technology advances, we're getting some neat kind of adjuncts. So to your question, yeah, I like finding those things and being able to add them to give the patient a better outcome, a better experience.

Eva Sheie (20:24):
Do you keep a running list of things you'd want to investigate, test, try with your patients?

Dr. Hamwi (20:30):
Right. Oh my gosh, I wish. If I could have another life, you know? And I will tell you, I mean, you've been in the plastic surgery world for a while, it sounds like. Plastic surgery is a great environment, is a great field for innovation, and not just, I mean cosmetics, but I mean, I think the field of plastic surgery is about pushing the limits and doing things that are little outside of the box.

Eva Sheie (20:59):
I think many plastic surgeons are entrepreneurial by nature. They're attracted to the specialty, cuz they don't want to work for somebody else, a large group of them. I can't think of another specialty that is all out there working in a category where you're just dependent entirely on yourself and not depending on insurance or a hospital or referrals unless you have to. But I think the spirit of the plastic surgeons is just really exciting.

Dr. Hamwi (21:37):
Yeah, I'd agree.

Eva Sheie (21:39):
You're a solo practice, right? Do you have another doctor with you? No.

Dr. Hamwi (21:43):
No, no. I guess again, my story is I was recruited to Tampa. I was part of a group there, and then Covid hit. My wife is from about an hour south of Tampa. And at the time when we moved to Tampa, that was great. It was like we moved from DC to Tampa, and that was close enough. But then she got pregnant, COVID hit, and she really wanted to be close in Sarasota where she's from. And it seemed like that, well, if we're going to do it, now is the time. So

Eva Sheie (22:17):
Right. So you have a Covid baby?

Dr. Hamwi (22:19):
We have a Covid baby.

Eva Sheie (22:21):
So do I. I do too? How old is your Covid baby now?

Dr. Hamwi (22:25):
Four.

Eva Sheie (22:26):
Yeah, mine too.

Dr. Hamwi (22:27):
Yeah. Oh, what a great age, right?

Eva Sheie (22:31):
Yeah. And I'm glad they'll never remember what that period of time was like. We will, but they won't.

Dr. Hamwi (22:39):
Right.

Eva Sheie (22:40):
Yeah. Is there anything else that you specialize in? You've kind of talked about arms and awake procedures. What else are you known for?

Dr. Hamwi (22:50):
Well, gosh, I'll tell you. Faces are a thing that I really like. I did some extra training in facial aesthetics. I'll tell you, I think there's some cool things going on with faces right now. The deep plane stuff, the deep plane faces, the deep plane necks. I think the up vectors as opposed to the back vectors was something that my mentors in Manhattan really advocated. And I mean, I think that there's some people doing some really cool stuff out there right now. And you were talking about innovators. I think that there's an opportunity right now to do some really cool face stuff. What I really like about faces is it sort of has an opportunity to make someone feel and look significantly younger. And I think that perhaps that speaks to me is that idea of trying to make someone feel as good as they do on the inside.

(23:50):
I mean, alright, so I'm in my forties and I am closer to 60 than I am to 20, but I still feel younger than that. And I think as I talk to people who are older than me, they sort of describe something similar, which is, yeah, age is just a number. And I think you never sort of look in the mirror or you think to yourself, gosh, am I really that old? And being able to, I think affect that is something that draws me to plastic surgery. And so I like face stuff for that reason.

Eva Sheie (24:28):
Did you always know you were going to be a doctor, or did it just sort of hit you upside the head one day? That's what I'm going to do,

Dr. Hamwi (24:35):
Right? Yeah, that's an interesting story. So I'm from a pseudo medical family, and my grandfather was a somewhat well-known endocrinologist. And so there was an equation named, there's a Hamwi equation. It's essentially the original ideal body weight equation. And there's a part of the Ohio State Medical Library that's like the Hamwi wing of the medical library. And so he had actually died before I was born, so I never knew him, but I sort of grew up with this, there was sort of the lore of the great George Hamwi. And so I kind of grew up thinking doctors were kind of cool people. In medicine, I had always been sort of attracted to plastic surgery. Again, not so much for the surgical aspect, but almost more of this wellness kind of component. And when I went into medical school, I didn't have a super strong plastic surgery component, and I got a little distracted or very interested in bigger surgeries like trauma transplant.

(25:41):
And I chose my residency, my original one, looking for a program that was particularly strong in that. And that's what took me to Washington DC. And while I was doing sort of a mid residency fellowship in Boston, I was sort of re-exposed to plastic surgery. And I came back from that thinking, I think I've made a terrible mistake. I'm supposed to be a plastic surgeon. And so I finished a general surgery and then did a whole nother residency in plastic surgery. And then after that, I also knew that I really wanted to be technically very good at specifically aesthetic procedures. And so then I went and I did additional fellowship after that. So it took me a while, but I'm doing what I love.

Eva Sheie (26:35):
Where was that aesthetic fellowship?

Dr. Hamwi (26:38):
It was in Manhattan. It was at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, which, yeah, kind of a funny story. There were sort of these three programs that I figured were worth an extra year of my life. And if I got into more than one of them, I drug my wife all over the country. And I said, all right, if I get into more than one of these, I'll let you pick which one. And that was actually the first place I got into. And my wife said, that's the one I want. I want to live in Manhattan. And so that's how that ended up.

Eva Sheie (27:09):
That's fun. I love that you let her choose.

Dr. Hamwi (27:11):
Yeah, right. Well, she's an Ohio, I'm sorry, a Florida girl, and I drug her back to Indiana and here and there. And so she'd been so supportive, like, oh yeah, my wife is the love of my life. She's absolutely a doll. And yeah, I would do anything for her. So yeah, that was an easy one though. Oh, you want to live in Manhattan?

Eva Sheie (27:33):
Oh, right. Oh no. How did you meet your wife?

Dr. Hamwi (27:37):
She's a nurse. So she was working in the ICU in the burn unit, and I was on my burn rotation and not necessarily the most romantic environment, but yeah.

Eva Sheie (27:56):
And now you have one or more than one kid? Just one.

Dr. Hamwi (27:59):
I have three.

Eva Sheie (27:59):
You have three now?

Dr. Hamwi (28:01):
Yep. The youngest is four, but then I've got a 12-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a 4-year-old. Yeah, being a dad is awesome. I had two daddy daughter dances this weekend.

Eva Sheie (28:11):
Two?

Dr. Hamwi (28:11):
Two.

Eva Sheie (28:13):
Do you have three girls?

Dr. Hamwi (28:15):
Well, two girls, one boy.

Eva Sheie (28:16):
Okay.

Dr. Hamwi (28:17):
But yeah, we had one on Friday and then one on Saturday.

Eva Sheie (28:21):
Well, you're Mr. Popular.

Dr. Hamwi (28:23):
Yeah. It's funny enough, you get to the dance and the girls just run off and they just want to be with their friends, but

Eva Sheie (28:30):
That's true. They just want you to take 'em there, then they're done.

Dr. Hamwi (28:34):
Right. Yeah. I'll say my second dance, my daughter who got me on Saturday, she got a better showing because I got to practice all my moves on Friday. That was kind of like the warm up.

Eva Sheie (28:48):
That's really cute. Okay. Is there anything you want people to know about you? If they've made it this far into our episode, is there anything we haven't covered that you'd want them to know?

Dr. Hamwi (29:01):
Yeah, that I want them to know? No, I think I'm here to serve. I'm here to help patients. And I would say that when patients come in for consults, this isn't about me, it's about them. So in some situations, I may have something for them that I do particularly well or that I can really be that person, but in certain situations, there may be someone better. And that's what the conversation is more about is like, alright, I've put a lot of time into learning and honing my craft, and even if I can't be the person that is right for you, at least I probably know something that can help get you to wherever that is. Or maybe even just hear you out in a way that makes you feel heard. Surgery isn't for everybody, nor should it be. And so that's an interesting conversation too.

Eva Sheie (30:05):
And you do more than surgery in your practice, right?

Dr. Hamwi (30:08):
We do, yeah. We have a med spa and yeah, like you say, or I guess like I say, maybe surgery isn't the answer. And now that we're in this interesting age of these GLP-1 agonists, yeah, maybe nothing I do is necessary. Maybe just go talk to your primary care provider. And actually, I love that we have those as a tool because a lot of when someone comes in, it's not uncommon that we say, Hey, listen, your problem isn't surgical. We have these other powerful tools for you.

Eva Sheie (30:46):
It's a great time for aesthetics. And I agree with you completely. That was sort of the one thing that was always missing was a better way to lose weight, but a way to understand that people who were overweight were having a really, really hard time, not because of their own willpower, but because of other factors too. You can have all the willpower in the world if your body's fighting you and working against you.

Dr. Hamwi (31:15):
Yeah. Well, I would just say, I mean, it's also a really challenging problem that we didn't have a lot of options. If someone came in and they're like, Hey, listen, I feel like I'm doing everything and I'm not seeing any progress, and be like, well, I don't know.

Eva Sheie (31:31):
Yeah. Go to the gym more and eat less. Well, there's lots of us that would tell you we did that, and it still was taking too long.

Dr. Hamwi (31:40):
Right. I mean, the other thing is there's in many cases a direct correlation between BMI and complications after surgery. And so I think that it used to be you would maybe accept the risk of doing an operation and maybe the BMI that you didn't want because the patient was stuck. And now we can say, well, no. Well, let's just make this a journey. Go, let's do it safe. Let's do it right. So anyway, yeah, it is, it's kind of cool in its infancy, so there's a lot to be seen and how that ends up being used in the future too.

Eva Sheie (32:25):
If someone's listening and they want to reach out, find out more about you or schedule a consultation, where would you like them to go?

Dr. Hamwi (32:32):
Well, we've got a pretty easy web domain. It's Floridaplasticsurgery.com.

Eva Sheie (32:35):
That is easy.

Dr. Hamwi (32:38):
Yeah, it's all spelled out. F-L-O-R-I-D-A plastic surgery.com. And on there we've got phone numbers. And I'll tell you, we do a lot of virtual consultations. We were sort of doing it before Covid and now, and then Covid made that a very normal thing. But for a lot of people, especially if you live out of state, that's just a way more convenient way to do it. And even if you do live right down the corner, people still do it because it's just easier to fit into their schedule.

Eva Sheie (33:07):
Thank you so much, Dr. Hamwi. It was such a true pleasure to get to know you today.

Dr. Hamwi (33:12):
Yeah, yeah, you too. And this was fun. And yeah, you do a good job. This was fun for me too.

Eva Sheie (33:19):
Thank you. If you are considering making an appointment or are on your way to meet this doctor, be sure to let them know you heard them on the Meet the Doctor podcast. Check the show notes for links, including the doctor's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you a doctor or do you know a doctor who'd like to be on the Meet the Doctor podcast? Book your free recording session at MeettheDoctorpodcast.com. Meet the Doctor is made with love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.