Kyle Baltrusch, MD - Plastic Surgeon in Portland, Oregon

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's 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. Welcome back to Meet the Doctor. My name is Eva Sheie, and my guest today is Kyle Baltrusch. He's a plastic surgeon in Portland, Oregon. Welcome to the podcast. 

Dr. Baltrusch (00:42):
Hi. Thank you for having me. 

Eva Sheie (00:44):
So you are in a group at Portland Plastic Surgery, and um, there's a couple interesting things about you that I know we definitely wanna cover today, but why don't we start with how did you end up in Portland and what was your journey to get to where you are right now? 

Dr. Baltrusch (01:03):
Yeah, um, so my background, I'm originally from a small farming community in North Central Montana. My family are our farmers. Um, they have an agribusiness and when I was 18, I ventured away. I went to Gonzaga University for undergrad, played tennis there, and ultimately ended up in Portland, Oregon for medical school where I went to O H S U. Through that process, I applied to residency and ended up staying at O H S U. So I did all 10 years of my training in Portland and ultimately kind of got to know the community and, uh, met the group that I'm currently in now. They were looking to expand and so it was a kind of a perfect fit and perfect situation, and I stayed in the community I've learned to love. 

Eva Sheie (01:51):
What do you like about being in a group? 

Dr. Baltrusch (01:54):
I like being in a smaller group. You know, we get along very well. I like that we, you know, cross cover. We all, um, have some overlap within the what we, our scopes are, I guess, and the procedures that we offer. And there's just a great camaraderie, um, within the practice, bouncing ideas off of each other, covering each other, and it's nice to kind of build your own practice within a larger entity. So I've really learned to enjoy working with the three other practitioners that I'm with. 

Eva Sheie (02:28):
I think being in solo practices, it's fine, but having people around you that you can talk to learn from on the same level, it's really valuable, which I don't think I really knew myself until I was all by myself. 

Dr. Baltrusch (02:43):
Certainly, I think the, you know, coming right out of residency into practice, I think it would be very overwhelming to start to solo practice and a business and, you know, those are some things that we're not taught in our training. And, um, so I think having this very well run established practice that was looking to take me on was a great opportunity. And so I've been able to kinda learn a lot from not just them professionally and medically, but also from a business, um, aspect as well. 

Eva Sheie (03:16):
So what kinds of patients do you mostly see in your day-to-day? 

Dr. Baltrusch (03:21):
Yeah, so the majority of my practice is breast and body, and within that the majority is breast. And so I don't do any facial reconstruction or facial cosmetic surgery, but mostly specialize in breast cancer reconstruction, anything cosmetic breast, so reductions, augmentations, breast lifts. And then I also do transgender top surgery, both male to female and female to male, um, as well as non-binary and gender queer patients. And, and then within the body, you know, massive weight loss patients, their body contouring and then cosmetic, anything, breast and body. 

Eva Sheie (04:03):
That sounds like you're able to help quite a lot of people in a broad range of areas. 

Dr. Baltrusch (04:08):
Yeah, I was very, um, excited that what the practice was looking for was aligned with what I was looking to do and working with the patient populations that I was hoping to work with within the communities. 

Eva Sheie (04:22):
Let's jump backwards for a second because you, you said in your introduction that you grew up in a small town in Montana. 

Dr. Baltrusch (04:30):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative> 

Eva Sheie (04:30):
And a lot of people who grew up in small towns don't leave and become plastic surgeons, <laugh>. That's actually kind of rare. And no one in your family was a doctor either. So, you know, over the time that I've been doing this podcast, I've started to see patterns and one of them is a lot of doctors, parents were doctors or their parents were in healthcare, but not yours. So can you go into how you decided that that's the path you wanted to go down? 

Dr. Baltrusch (05:00):
Yeah, so you're right. I have no physicians in my family. Um, they're all really not even college educated, but they were very adamant about that my sister and I pursuing a higher education, um, and going to college and being the first in the family to do so. And I, you know, I was always in love with art and kind of fashion growing up, and I fell in love with anatomy and the human body and always knew I wanted to work with my hands. And so I kind of married those worlds and found plastic surgery and my parents will talk about how I would say I wanted to be a plastic surgeon and I was gonna go to medical school as early as, um, being in middle, uh, middle school. And, you know, they always supported that journey for me and you know, if you, you know, get to know me, you know, I wasn't really cut out for farming. I think that that is a very, um, innate specialty in itself and it doesn't come easily to people, and it did not come easily to me. And I think my parents were more than happy to send me off to college rather than, um, try to take over the agribusiness. 

Eva Sheie (06:15):
I can think of some really obvious parallels, though. One being hard work 

Dr. Baltrusch (06:21):
Yeah. 

Eva Sheie (06:21):
And long schedules. That one is comes to my mind, but the other maybe a little less obvious would be delayed gratification. So you're planting something and waiting a long time to see the results. 

Dr. Baltrusch (06:34):
Certainly, yeah. No, you're, I think you're correct on both accounts. You know, growing up we had a lot of responsibilities from a young age, um, within the agribusiness. And so yeah, I did teach a hard work ethic and that you have to, you have to work hard to achieve the goals that you set for yourself. And, and then at the same time, yes, you never know what you're going to yield each year with a harvest and what you've done the years prior leading up to that. And so you have to be able to, um, go with those ebbs and flows and there's always ups and downs in that journey. And it's very similar with plastic surgery. You know, this is, many of my patients are on reconstructive journeys that I continue to see and work with them for, you know, multiple years. And I'm only a few years into my practice, but I, you know, I do love that I get to see my patients very frequently and get to be their biggest advocate through their reconstructive journeys. 

Eva Sheie (07:28):
It's a really important relationship in that context. What kind of farm was it? Fruit? 

Dr. Baltrusch (07:34):
No, so, uh, spring and winter wheat and then every, you know, once in a while we'd do like barley or alfalfa and it was also ranch, so we had Angus cattle as well. 

Eva Sheie (07:46):
That's so interesting. And then what does your sister do now? 

Dr. Baltrusch (07:51):
She lives down in Phoenix, um, and she's a massage therapist. 

Eva Sheie (07:55):
So you both went toward taking care of people? 

Dr. Baltrusch (07:58):
Yeah, yeah, certainly. And you know, my cousins that we grew up on the farm together, one is a pharmacist, one is also a physician primary care. And so, you know, our generation coming off of the farm, I think, you know, sought healthcare as maybe an opportunity to leave the farm in a sense. 

Eva Sheie (08:20):
That's fascinating that you all went in that direction. Portland is a really interesting town and I, I would expect that your patient base kind of reflects the different sorts of people that you find around Portland. And and you mentioned that a little bit earlier too. Is there anything you think that's different, maybe about Portland than other cities in terms of how people think about plastic surgery? 

Dr. Baltrusch (08:47):
You know, Portland I think is a very open-minded and progressive city, and so I think people feel comfortable seeking plastic surgery that they're not going to, I guess that it, it's not frowned upon in the city. And I would say compared to other places, plastic surgery seems to be more, for a lack of better definition, natural. So, you know, we're not doing, I would say extreme plastic surgery. You know, people have very realistic expectations with their reconstructive or cosmetic goals. And so while Portland is weird, people have very realistic expectations. 

Eva Sheie (09:31):
I definitely felt that, you know, I had the privilege of visiting you in the practice a couple of weeks ago, which is not ordinary for the show. I don't get to go to everybody's office before I have them on Meet the Doctor. But one thing that jumped out at me was just how ordinary everybody was. And I don't know what I was expecting, but I go to a lot of practices and I've recently been in New York City and I was in Beverly Hills and I felt at home in your office. And another thing that I loved was how everybody was obsessed with their shoes, with their Nikes, especially in particular. And, uh, I wanna ask you like if you have a, a shoe thing going on?

Dr. Baltrusch (10:15):
I don't necessarily have a shoe thing, but you know, living in Portland where Nike and Adidas are headquartered, and I'm also a runner. I run in Adidas, though I know there's a lot of Nikes in the office, and I actually just went for a run after my case this morning. But I love shoes. I would say that I probably wear like a little more avant guard shoe wear in the office, but you know, I'm not opposed to, you know, Nike's and they were kind of a gift from one of the other practitioners that Nike has made a healthcare shoe with. And so we all have them. 

Eva Sheie (10:53):
Oh, cool. <laugh>. What other shoe brands do you like? 

Dr. Baltrusch (10:59):
Oh gosh. I wear a lot of, uh, not really like loafer style, but they're very casual, but they're, uh, lon vaughn <laugh>, so they're like cow hide and leathers and canvas. So, you know, I, I try to be a little fashionable around the office. 

Eva Sheie (11:21):
Well, when you have to wear scrubs all the time, then you don't have a lot of places where you can be creative other than your feet or your head. 

Dr. Baltrusch (11:29):
True. Very true. 

Eva Sheie (11:32):
Yeah, I haven't seen anyone making designer scrubs, really. They're not quite there. 

Dr. Baltrusch (11:38):
<laugh> Not yet. 

Eva Sheie (11:39):
Wouldn't be practical. 

Dr. Baltrusch (11:40):
I, I haven't seen it go down the runways yet. No. But you know, in our office we all wear scribs or figs and they're very comfortable. 

Eva Sheie (11:48):
So did you also start running when you still lived in Montana? Is that something you've also done your whole life? 

Dr. Baltrusch (11:56):
Running was, I would say like an adjunct. I played a lot of sports growing up, focused on tennis, uh, which is what I played at Gonzaga. And I didn't really turn to running as something more, I mean, personally, competitively until I was in medical school. I think when I came to O H S U, I missed athletics, I missed having something to compete in, but I also needed an outlet and I found running as a very healthy outlet great for my mental health through my education at O H S U. And so I, you know, I just turned that into probably the, something I still carry with me today. Any chance I get. I love to get a run in and I was able to, you know, turn that into marathoning and I traveled while I was in medical school doing marathons. And so it wasn't until medical school that I really found that passion for running. 

Eva Sheie (12:56):
Do you have a marathon on deck or are you just running to run Right now? 

Dr. Baltrusch (12:59):
I'm just running to run. I find it like the best way to decompress, you know, after a case or at the end of the day, and just to release some stress and clear my mind. And so I don't have any like, races on the books, but you know, I would, I would like to get a marathon back on the calendar at some point. I don't think I've peaked yet. 

Eva Sheie (13:22):
Which marathons have you done? 

Dr. Baltrusch (13:24):
The first marathon I ever did was actually in Missoula, Montana, and then I've done Boston multiple times. New York, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, mostly the northwest. But I was able to back in the day through medical school, qualify and do the, some of the majors on the east coast. 

Eva Sheie (13:43):
It's fun stuff. I like watching marathons. 

Dr. Baltrusch (13:47):
Me too. Yeah, <laugh>, I mean, probably rather run it, but yeah, 

Eva Sheie (13:52):
No, I'd rather watch. I, when I lived in Houston, I lived on the race route and I used to go out and it's just my parents both ran marathons, so, I grew up watching them run. 

Dr. Baltrusch (14:03):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (14:03):
Maybe that's why I like watching and not doing.

Dr. Baltrusch (14:06):
Yeah. But that's a, I mean, it's a great energy, exciting, like those majors exciting, like New York and Boston where the really, the 26.2 miles is, you know, lined with cheer and spectators. It's certainly an adrenaline rush. 

Eva Sheie (14:19):
The whole time. Yeah, it's really fun. We've done a good job talking about what you don't do, I mean, <laugh>, what you don't do at work, what you do outside of the office. How do you think that the people on your team, either your colleagues or or the staff would describe you? 

Dr. Baltrusch (14:40):
Oh, good question. Well, I, I hope that they would describe me as kinda energetic, personable, charismatic, you know, certainly compassionate with my patients, you know, jovial, you know, I love to laugh and make fun and play jokes, and I think that's how they would describe me. Yeah, I'm pretty, you know, down to earth and personable and easy to get along with, so, yeah. 

Eva Sheie (15:08):
And then what about your patients? What do you think they say about you? Same stuff? 

Dr. Baltrusch (15:13):
Yeah. You know, I, I have my patients' best interests at heart. I'm very compassionate and honest with my patients, but I'm also personable. I want to, you know, be their friend just as much as their advocate and their plastic surgeon. And so I think that they feel very comfortable with me as their provider, and that's the feedback I've gotten from them, that always being there, being honest with them that it's made their journey less stressful. 

Eva Sheie (15:42):
So when you get on an airplane and you sit down and somebody sits down next to you and there's that inevitable, like, what do you do conversation. 

Dr. Baltrusch (15:52):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Eva Sheie (15:52):
What's your usual answer? 

Dr. Baltrusch (15:56):
Yeah, well, interestingly, I usually don't make it that far on an airplane. I am usually asleep within two minutes of takeoff, um, and, and being woken up at landing, which is a great blessing that I can do. But yes, if people do ask, you know what I do? I, I tell them I'm a physician. I think that's a general term, but you know, that's what I am, you know, at the heart of everything and you know, and then if they ask about subspecialty, then certainly, you know, I tell them that I'm a, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. 

Eva Sheie (16:29):
I would, I imagine this usually leads to strange conversations with people, and so what do they usually do? 

Dr. Baltrusch (16:38):
Yeah. I mean, and that's not just with strangers, that's with friends as well. You know, <laugh>, it, it usually leads into either what someone has had done or questions about  

Eva Sheie (16:49):
What do you think I should do?

Dr. Baltrusch (16:50):
What they want done. Yeah. And it almost, you know, kind of seems, can sometimes seem like a consultation almost. And I try not to offer any medical advice outside the professional setting. But yeah, it's usually either they want you to critique what they've had done or what they're thinking about getting done. 

Eva Sheie (17:10):
I heard this is called the curbside consult. 

Dr. Baltrusch (17:13):
Yeah, curbside, yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, 

Eva Sheie (17:16):
I think pretty much everyone on earth has like a list in their head of what they would do and the list might change. The thing on the top of the list might change depending on how you're feeling or what's going on. But you know, we all just wanna talk to you about our list. <laugh>. 

Dr. Baltrusch (17:33):
Yeah. You know, there's so much advancement within the field of plastic surgery and certainly when it comes to non-surgical procedures, so injectables, filler lasers, I get a lot of questions about that. Um, with, you know, med spas, so different lasers or, you know, microneedling, radio frequency and injectables, I would say a lot of people are interested or pursue those. And so that's where a lot of questions arise. But I do like to keep my conversations to the office in a professional setting. And so when I'm outside the office, I do, you know, like to focus more on my hobbies and things that I like to do. I don't always like talking shop. 

Eva Sheie (18:19):
Exactly. When someone comes to see you in the office, what can they expect from that? 

Dr. Baltrusch (18:27):
So one, being welcomed with a smile, you know, I'm happy to see and meet all my patients and learn about them and what their goals are for whatever brings them into the, the office. And, you know, I think that it's most important to inform the patient of, you know, all of their options, their alternatives, you know, the risks associated with all of these so that they're making the best decision for themselves, that they feel like they have autonomy in their decision. And so I think first and foremost, it's our job as physicians to give patients all of that information so that they're making a well-informed, um, decision. 

Eva Sheie (19:07):
How much time do you typically spend at, at consultation with people? 

Dr. Baltrusch (19:12):
Consultations I block at least an hour. If there's, you know, further discussion or questions, then certainly I may reschedule like a phone call with the patient or just have them come back in to, you know, re-discuss. So I'm happy to see patients as many times as they feel is necessary, um, if they have more questions or concerns. But the initial consultation is usually always scheduled for, um, an hour. 

Eva Sheie (19:36):
Does it ever feel like not enough time? 

Dr. Baltrusch (19:41):
Um, sometimes, um, it depends on the complexity I guess, of the case and, but oftentimes that everything can be accomplished within the hour. 

Eva Sheie (19:53):
So before we kind of wrap it up and talk about how someone can reach out to you if they're interested in coming to see you,  I wanna ask you if there's anything you want people to take away from listening to the podcast? 

Dr. Baltrusch (20:09):
You know, I want people to feel comfortable pursuing plastic surgery for, you know, whatever reason that is. I think that plastic surgery offers people to feel whole and comfortable in who they are and two, I want people to be able to look in the mirror and be happy with what they see. I think it builds self-esteem and self-confidence and that extends so far today. So I want people to feel comfortable taking that initiative and getting the information that they need, you know, just by coming to see a plastic surgeon myself or anyone in our practice or any other plastic surgeon, you know, I think it's important to get all the information. You're not committing to plastic surgery, but it's at least starting that journey. 

Eva Sheie (20:56):
You know, we can see quite a few of your before and after photos at Portland plastic surgery group.com. Is there anywhere else that you would like people to reach out to you or, or go to learn more about how you practice and to reach out to you? 

Dr. Baltrusch (21:13):
Yeah, I mean, the website is probably the best means. I don't actually carry a professional social media. I have a, I find it hard enough to keep a personal account, uh, with social media. And so, you know, as I build my practice, maybe I will have other avenues for getting in touch with me or scheduling, but the first few years have been kind of just establishing myself with the practice as well as getting my certification completed. And so I think now I am focusing on more of these elements. So, you know, I'll probably look into other accounts or avenues with seeing my work or getting in touch with me or asking questions outside of just the, uh, website portal. 

Eva Sheie (21:59):
You did mention that you were doing a case at the hospital today and I wanted to, to just ask you, you know, you, you see patients at the Portland Plastic Surgery Group office, but what are you doing at the hospital and who might run into you over there? 

Dr. Baltrusch (22:16):
Yeah, so I operate out of five facilities, which is two hospitals and three surgery centers, including our own at the office. And so it is kind of a case to case, but mostly at the hospitals. I am doing breast cancer reconstruction because I work very closely with a breast surgical group here at Legacy in St. Vincent. But also, you know, complex patients that have multiple co-morbidities or may require hospitalization. I'll prefer to take those patients to a hospital, otherwise I will work at like day surgery centers. 

Eva Sheie (22:50):
I know in larger cities, I don't know what it's like in Portland, but in larger cities there's like, um, there's usually an academic center for breast reconstruction where all of the care is sort of under one roof for a breast cancer patient including the reconstruction. Is it like that in Portland or is it a little more piecemeal? I'm not familiar with the landscape there. 

Dr. Baltrusch (23:15):
Yeah, I think, you know, initially I would've thought the former, you know, being at a large academic center where you have the surgical oncologist, the radiation oncologist, medical oncologist, plastic surgeon, but you know, being in private practice and having our office separate from an academic institution, we have privileges at the hospitals, um, where we operate out of. And so it works in a very similar fashion. They still have all of those specialists. They just may be under different roofs of one roof and they do see us all at different timeframes, but we are all very close in proximity. My office is very close to that of the surgical oncologist and so while they not, may not be able to walk within the same building to our clinics for post-ops or pre-ops or consultations, you know, we're not far. And so in a way the community is a little piecemeal, you know, there's only one larger academic center here in Portland, O H S U and they can't serve the greater community all on themselves. And so they do require more private practice plastic surgeon offices to have privileges and be able to serve their patients as well. 

Eva Sheie (24:25):
Thank you so much Dr. Baltrusch for being on the show today. We really enjoyed getting to know you. 

Dr. Baltrusch (24:31):
Of course. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. 

Eva Sheie (24:36):
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 Meet the Doctor podcast.com. Meet the Doctor is Made with Love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, t h e a x i s.io.